4 ms·

I wish programs like this were in place when I was a child. Imagine going to Google when it was still a few guys in a small office. It would be a life changing

I wish programs like this were in place when I was a child. Imagine going to Google when it was still a few guys in a small office. It would be a life changing event.

slapshot 15y ago
But would you have known the significance at the time? Google at 10 employees consisted of a handful of scraggly guys* typing on a computer all day, and a couple other scraggly guys talking on the phone all day to get deals done (hosting contracts, funding, etc). There's nothing that looks interesting or unique about an early-stage startup--it's just people in an office. Compare that to a zoo that has plenty of room for kids to run and scream and see things they've never seen before. I'm not saying it's useless to take kids to startup offices -- it socializes the value of entrepreneurship -- but it's not quite the same experience as seeing the size of an african elephant for the first time, or looking a gorllia in the eye. * I use "guys" in a gender-neutral sense here; I don't know what the gender ratio was at Google at 10 employees.
- hugh3 15y ago
  but it's not quite the same experience as seeing the size of an african elephant for the first time, or looking a gorllia in the eye. In fairness, most parents have probably taken their kids to the zoo dozens of times before they even get to school age. I know I will, when I have kids, because... hey, zoos are awesome!
  - akat 15y ago
    Look ma, a JAVA developer!
hugh3 15y ago
The average case isn't google, though, it's... well, some company which winds up going under or if really lucky maybe getting acquired and either way vanishes off the radar. And heck, even if you had, would it be that life-changing? It'd be a moderately interesting cocktail party anecdote at best. And I say that as someone who is interested in this kind of stuff. For everyone else it'd probably be a fairly boring cocktail party anecdote. Visiting a couple of guys in a small office really isn't that intrinsically exciting.

I wish programs like this were in place when I was a child. Imagine going to Google when it was still a few guys in a small office. It would be a life changing event.

slapshot 15y ago

But would you have known the significance at the time? Google at 10 employees consisted of a handful of scraggly guys* typing on a computer all day, and a couple other scraggly guys talking on the phone all day to get deals done (hosting contracts, funding, etc). There's nothing that looks interesting or unique about an early-stage startup--it's just people in an office. Compare that to a zoo that has plenty of room for kids to run and scream and see things they've never seen before. I'm not saying it's useless to take kids to startup offices -- it socializes the value of entrepreneurship -- but it's not quite the same experience as seeing the size of an african elephant for the first time, or looking a gorllia in the eye. * I use "guys" in a gender-neutral sense here; I don't know what the gender ratio was at Google at 10 employees.

hugh3 15y ago
but it's not quite the same experience as seeing the size of an african elephant for the first time, or looking a gorllia in the eye. In fairness, most parents have probably taken their kids to the zoo dozens of times before they even get to school age. I know I will, when I have kids, because... hey, zoos are awesome!
- akat 15y ago
  Look ma, a JAVA developer!

hugh3 15y ago

The average case isn't google, though, it's... well, some company which winds up going under or if really lucky maybe getting acquired and either way vanishes off the radar. And heck, even if you had, would it be that life-changing? It'd be a moderately interesting cocktail party anecdote at best. And I say that as someone who is interested in this kind of stuff. For everyone else it'd probably be a fairly boring cocktail party anecdote. Visiting a couple of guys in a small office really isn't that intrinsically exciting.