4 ms·

Speaking from experience (working at Google), the answer is simple: you feed them. I have breakfast, lunch and dinner here. Frankly, cooking annoys me and goin

by cletus 16y ago

Speaking from experience (working at Google), the answer is simple: you feed them. I have breakfast, lunch and dinner here. Frankly, cooking annoys me and going out and buying food involves making decisions more often than not I just don't care about. My fridge at home only has Coke Zero in it and I think I've forgotten how to buy groceries.

jonknee 16y ago
What do you do on the weekends?
- jah 16y ago
  Work
- paganel 16y ago
  > What do you do on the weekends? Also, what does his/her spouse think about it?
- cletus 16y ago
  Well I live in New York (Manhattan actually) so buying groceries and cooking for myself would be a challenge, even if I were interested (which I'm not). Small apartments, small kitchens, etc. So even if I wasn't supplied with food I'd be sorely tempted just to eat out all the time (whether that be dining or take out). So on weekends I eat cereal for breakfast and do something for lunch and dinner depending on what I'm doing anyway. More often than not, lunch lately has been wandering down to the West Village for a slice of two of pizza. Dinner can be something as simple as soup from Whole Foods (they make great soup), take out, going out for dinner or whatever. As far as I'm concerned there are two things you never do for yourself in Manhattan: cooking and laundry.
  - dragons 16y ago
    Will google do your laundry? Just curious :)
    - jonknee 16y ago
      Dry cleaning is a pretty regular perk offered at Google offices, so yes Google will do your laundry.
      - dragons 16y ago
        Do engineers need their t-shirts and jeans dry cleaned? ;)
maayank 16y ago
Microserfs seems relevant... I know this is what the OP asked, but remember there is more to life than work work work (not to mention, to someone else's business) http://www.amazon.com/Microserfs-Novel-P-S-Douglas-Coupland/dp/0061624268/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1300137290&sr=8-1 http://www.amazon.com/Microserfs-Novel-P-S-Douglas-Coupland/...
dragons 16y ago
Does feeding your staff actually make them work longer, or just spend more hours at the office eating? If you stay at the office longer because you're eating there, how many extra hours per day would you say you're at work because of that? How about people with spouses or kids - don't they just want to eat their meals with their families? What about people who just prefer their own cooking? I can see this strategy backfiring for some, who might think "enough already, I don't want your food, I just want to go home."
- Stormbringer 16y ago
  Don't underestimate the social aspect of programming. The vast majority of geeks have no audience that will bask in their genius other than other geeks. If you do something absolutely brilliant who are you going to tell? Your boss? Odds are he won't appreciate your genius. Your mom? Odds are she won't appreciate it either. Your other relatives? Your friends? Some random person you run into at the bus shelter or train station? Geeks crave appreciation, because pretty much everything we do is invisible. Even the UI is widely acknowledged as only the tip of the iceberg, and for the most part nothing really interesting happens there(1). There is a deeply primitive aspect to geek culture, the sitting around the campfire swapping war stories element. And if you weren't there man, you just don't understand... (1) Even good UI design and usability/accessibility is mostly mechanical. "Honey I'm home! What did you do today at work dear? I left aligned all the labels on exactly the same pixel column! That's nice dear." Shoving alt labels on your UI elements and picking a boring (but readable) font ain't glamorous.
chollida1 16y ago
That only works for so long, When your kids get up at 6 and go to day care at 8 you want spend that time with them so you get into work at 9, after breakfast. When your kids go to bed at 7 you want to spend time with them before that so you head home at 5:30 and miss diner. Being feed lunch is nice though:)

by cletus 16y ago

jonknee 16y ago

What do you do on the weekends?

jah 16y ago
Work
paganel 16y ago
> What do you do on the weekends? Also, what does his/her spouse think about it?
cletus 16y ago
Well I live in New York (Manhattan actually) so buying groceries and cooking for myself would be a challenge, even if I were interested (which I'm not). Small apartments, small kitchens, etc. So even if I wasn't supplied with food I'd be sorely tempted just to eat out all the time (whether that be dining or take out). So on weekends I eat cereal for breakfast and do something for lunch and dinner depending on what I'm doing anyway. More often than not, lunch lately has been wandering down to the West Village for a slice of two of pizza. Dinner can be something as simple as soup from Whole Foods (they make great soup), take out, going out for dinner or whatever. As far as I'm concerned there are two things you never do for yourself in Manhattan: cooking and laundry.
- dragons 16y ago
  Will google do your laundry? Just curious :)
  - jonknee 16y ago
    Dry cleaning is a pretty regular perk offered at Google offices, so yes Google will do your laundry.
    - dragons 16y ago
      Do engineers need their t-shirts and jeans dry cleaned? ;)

maayank 16y ago

Microserfs seems relevant... I know this is what the OP asked, but remember there is more to life than work work work (not to mention, to someone else's business) http://www.amazon.com/Microserfs-Novel-P-S-Douglas-Coupland/dp/0061624268/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1300137290&sr=8-1 http://www.amazon.com/Microserfs-Novel-P-S-Douglas-Coupland/...

dragons 16y ago

Does feeding your staff actually make them work longer, or just spend more hours at the office eating? If you stay at the office longer because you're eating there, how many extra hours per day would you say you're at work because of that? How about people with spouses or kids - don't they just want to eat their meals with their families? What about people who just prefer their own cooking? I can see this strategy backfiring for some, who might think "enough already, I don't want your food, I just want to go home."

Stormbringer 16y ago
Don't underestimate the social aspect of programming. The vast majority of geeks have no audience that will bask in their genius other than other geeks. If you do something absolutely brilliant who are you going to tell? Your boss? Odds are he won't appreciate your genius. Your mom? Odds are she won't appreciate it either. Your other relatives? Your friends? Some random person you run into at the bus shelter or train station? Geeks crave appreciation, because pretty much everything we do is invisible. Even the UI is widely acknowledged as only the tip of the iceberg, and for the most part nothing really interesting happens there(1). There is a deeply primitive aspect to geek culture, the sitting around the campfire swapping war stories element. And if you weren't there man, you just don't understand... (1) Even good UI design and usability/accessibility is mostly mechanical. "Honey I'm home! What did you do today at work dear? I left aligned all the labels on exactly the same pixel column! That's nice dear." Shoving alt labels on your UI elements and picking a boring (but readable) font ain't glamorous.

chollida1 16y ago

That only works for so long, When your kids get up at 6 and go to day care at 8 you want spend that time with them so you get into work at 9, after breakfast. When your kids go to bed at 7 you want to spend time with them before that so you head home at 5:30 and miss diner. Being feed lunch is nice though:)