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I've always paid for our day care. But this is a bad idea because googlers would be more comfortable and spend more time working if day care were right there at

I've always paid for our day care. But this is a bad idea because googlers would be more comfortable and spend more time working if day care were right there at work. Near work or near home are the two most convenient places. I'm told Mountain View is a cluster fuck for day care. Of course they are missing a bigger opportunity in improving education here. Like universities, google should be experimenting with different kinds of education. They could make a big difference.

gaius 18y ago
google should be experimenting with different kinds of education Not quite true; Google is legally obligated to act in the best interests of its shareholders, and only that. That's true for any public company, and the board can go to jail if they aren't seen to be doing that. With great riches comes great responsibility...
- ivankirigin 18y ago
  It's a huge business opportunity.
  - gaius 18y ago
    If Google entered the education business its shareholders would (rightly) wonder what its competitive advantage in that market would be, and whether the margins (return on capital) would be more or less than its existing businesses. Seriously, what could Google bring to the table here?
    - gojomo 18y ago
      Given the Google preferred-voting structure, shareholders should know they're going to be subject to a lot of the owner-manager's whims in trying new projects and markets. Like their for-profit philanthropy subsidiary, Google.org. Or even in-sourced daycare project itself, rather than contracting it out to established providers.
    - ivankirigin 18y ago
      Education has followed an industrial/factory model for many decades, with few exceptions. The founds of Google went through one of the exceptions: Montessori. We need to update education, and a tech company is the right place to start. A simple example: build a natural language query system to allow a child to get any question answered immediately. May as well call it 411-GOOG 2.0 These issues are very much related to how google makes money today.

gaius 18y ago

google should be experimenting with different kinds of education Not quite true; Google is legally obligated to act in the best interests of its shareholders, and only that. That's true for any public company, and the board can go to jail if they aren't seen to be doing that. With great riches comes great responsibility...

ivankirigin 18y ago
It's a huge business opportunity.
- gaius 18y ago
  If Google entered the education business its shareholders would (rightly) wonder what its competitive advantage in that market would be, and whether the margins (return on capital) would be more or less than its existing businesses. Seriously, what could Google bring to the table here?
  - gojomo 18y ago
    Given the Google preferred-voting structure, shareholders should know they're going to be subject to a lot of the owner-manager's whims in trying new projects and markets. Like their for-profit philanthropy subsidiary, Google.org. Or even in-sourced daycare project itself, rather than contracting it out to established providers.
  - ivankirigin 18y ago
    Education has followed an industrial/factory model for many decades, with few exceptions. The founds of Google went through one of the exceptions: Montessori. We need to update education, and a tech company is the right place to start. A simple example: build a natural language query system to allow a child to get any question answered immediately. May as well call it 411-GOOG 2.0 These issues are very much related to how google makes money today.