3 ms·

Mildly related anecdote: At one job, we had an expensive office built out as our company grew. The CEO and CTO came in from out of town to do the ribbon cutti

by bbarn 3y ago

Mildly related anecdote: At one job, we had an expensive office built out as our company grew. The CEO and CTO came in from out of town to do the ribbon cutting so to speak and welcome us to our new office. I was there as a manager doing setup before we moved the main workforce into the new office, and the CTO came through the kitchen to talk to me, and smashed his face right into a glass wall. Broke his nose and had to fly home eventually. The day before the team moved in, I convinced the CEO rather easily to put the company logo decalled on that wall.

giantrobot 3y ago
When Apple Park first started migrating teams a number of people walked into the glass doors in the hallways. They pretty quickly put up little markers on the glass. It was still a stupid design not built for humans.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- whycome 3y ago
  People adapt and become less human... There must be a weird sort of anxiety to walk around and be extra cautious that reality can suddenly turn into a glass wall.
  - zo1 3y ago
    I once ran into a glass door in my house a few years back. For months after that, I had anxiety and "flashback" like replays of the event when walking anywhere near that door/area in my house. That one incident affected the functioning of my brain for a really long time, it was quite jarring.
    - tomcam 3y ago
      I mowed into a ground nest of hornets at my house a few months ago. Took me over a month to get back in the saddle. I "felt" the stings every time I walked near that patch.
    - jamiek88 3y ago
      Same happened to my dog in a hotel patio. She wouldn’t trust that the door was open probably due to a past event (older rescue). After a few days she trusted me when I called her through and finally believed the door was open. Then of course she saw a bird went to run through and this time it was fucking shut. Never voluntarily went through glass doors again. Can’t blame her. Rest in peace Lucy you were a gem of a dog. (Dog people have that one dog they seem to click with and she was mine. I’ve been the guardian of many dogs. She was a gross old pug filled with cancer and heart worms and love.)
      - bradknowles 3y ago
        I had a similar problem with my dog, when I was a kid. From that day forward, whenever I opened the door to let her in or out, I had to prove to her that the door was really open, usually by putting my arm through the space, or whatever. She was the best dog, ever. Despite her -- not irrational -- fear of glass and screen doors.
        jamiek88 3y ago
        Yeah exactly! It as so annoying because I fully respected her decision too, I’d be skeptical in her shoes! We don’t deserve dogs but I’m glad we’ve got ‘em!
- Animats 3y ago
  Did Apple use low-iron glass, as they do at the retail outlets? That eliminates the greenish tint in thick glass and is harder to see.
  - giantrobot 3y ago
    The glass was very transparent/untinted so I'd guess they did. Inside the atriums between sections don't have any tint from the glass or at least it's not noticeable. When my group first moved in the glass was ridiculously hard to see between the sections. It was made more confusing because the doorways had four panes of glass but only the center two panes were doors. It was easy early on to think the outermost lanes were also doors. IIRC (it's been a few years) one of the walkway runs didn't require badge access in the first few days so people could walk full speed into the doors without diverting to the badge reader on the wall. I'm sure all of Apple Park looked amazing in AutoCAD fly-thrus or whatever but the experience in the building was kind of shitty. Some aspects were improvements over the building over off Infinite Loop but then a lot of aspects were hilariously form over function.
    - tomcam 3y ago
      I'm guessing temperature control would be rough there most of the year, when it's sunny? Also what were the other issues you had with the building?
      - giantrobot 3y ago
        In terms of temperature it could get uncomfortable in the hallways and open seating areas if it was really hot outside. The shared office spaces could get stuffy and a bit oppressive if you had a lot of people or equipment in them. A couple Mac Pros running CI jobs could make a room very uncomfortable. Depending on where you were in the building you might get blinding sunlight in the afternoon. One of the bigger problems with the building was the size, no pun intended. Despite its size space was always at a premium. Instead of nice private offices most people work in shitty bull pen "offices". Even normal offices have giant glass walls so you feel like you're in a menagerie and they're shared to boot. Of course management got single offices. If the stupid design didn't waste so much space trying to get "natural" light (supplemented by shitty low-flow electric lighting) everyone could have had real offices. The site itself is also gigantic meaning everything was a long walk away. Getting a nice walk in is great but if you parked in the south parking structure it was a ten-ish minute walk to your car. Then another couple minutes to get to the street. It made running an errand in the middle of the day of eating off-site untenable. When it hot, smokey, or raining the walks to the parking structure really sucked.
dieselgate 3y ago
Wow this is real, I remember decades ago when my brother was young he ran into a glass door similarly. This is usually why new window decals take so long to be removed on construction sites - or taped with an X

by bbarn 3y ago

giantrobot 3y ago

When Apple Park first started migrating teams a number of people walked into the glass doors in the hallways. They pretty quickly put up little markers on the glass. It was still a stupid design not built for humans.

deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
whycome 3y ago
People adapt and become less human... There must be a weird sort of anxiety to walk around and be extra cautious that reality can suddenly turn into a glass wall.
- zo1 3y ago
  I once ran into a glass door in my house a few years back. For months after that, I had anxiety and "flashback" like replays of the event when walking anywhere near that door/area in my house. That one incident affected the functioning of my brain for a really long time, it was quite jarring.
  - tomcam 3y ago
    I mowed into a ground nest of hornets at my house a few months ago. Took me over a month to get back in the saddle. I "felt" the stings every time I walked near that patch.
  - jamiek88 3y ago
    Same happened to my dog in a hotel patio. She wouldn’t trust that the door was open probably due to a past event (older rescue). After a few days she trusted me when I called her through and finally believed the door was open. Then of course she saw a bird went to run through and this time it was fucking shut. Never voluntarily went through glass doors again. Can’t blame her. Rest in peace Lucy you were a gem of a dog. (Dog people have that one dog they seem to click with and she was mine. I’ve been the guardian of many dogs. She was a gross old pug filled with cancer and heart worms and love.)
    - bradknowles 3y ago
      I had a similar problem with my dog, when I was a kid. From that day forward, whenever I opened the door to let her in or out, I had to prove to her that the door was really open, usually by putting my arm through the space, or whatever. She was the best dog, ever. Despite her -- not irrational -- fear of glass and screen doors.
      - jamiek88 3y ago
        Yeah exactly! It as so annoying because I fully respected her decision too, I’d be skeptical in her shoes! We don’t deserve dogs but I’m glad we’ve got ‘em!
Animats 3y ago
Did Apple use low-iron glass, as they do at the retail outlets? That eliminates the greenish tint in thick glass and is harder to see.
- giantrobot 3y ago
  The glass was very transparent/untinted so I'd guess they did. Inside the atriums between sections don't have any tint from the glass or at least it's not noticeable. When my group first moved in the glass was ridiculously hard to see between the sections. It was made more confusing because the doorways had four panes of glass but only the center two panes were doors. It was easy early on to think the outermost lanes were also doors. IIRC (it's been a few years) one of the walkway runs didn't require badge access in the first few days so people could walk full speed into the doors without diverting to the badge reader on the wall. I'm sure all of Apple Park looked amazing in AutoCAD fly-thrus or whatever but the experience in the building was kind of shitty. Some aspects were improvements over the building over off Infinite Loop but then a lot of aspects were hilariously form over function.
  - tomcam 3y ago
    I'm guessing temperature control would be rough there most of the year, when it's sunny? Also what were the other issues you had with the building?
    - giantrobot 3y ago
      In terms of temperature it could get uncomfortable in the hallways and open seating areas if it was really hot outside. The shared office spaces could get stuffy and a bit oppressive if you had a lot of people or equipment in them. A couple Mac Pros running CI jobs could make a room very uncomfortable. Depending on where you were in the building you might get blinding sunlight in the afternoon. One of the bigger problems with the building was the size, no pun intended. Despite its size space was always at a premium. Instead of nice private offices most people work in shitty bull pen "offices". Even normal offices have giant glass walls so you feel like you're in a menagerie and they're shared to boot. Of course management got single offices. If the stupid design didn't waste so much space trying to get "natural" light (supplemented by shitty low-flow electric lighting) everyone could have had real offices. The site itself is also gigantic meaning everything was a long walk away. Getting a nice walk in is great but if you parked in the south parking structure it was a ten-ish minute walk to your car. Then another couple minutes to get to the street. It made running an errand in the middle of the day of eating off-site untenable. When it hot, smokey, or raining the walks to the parking structure really sucked.

dieselgate 3y ago

Wow this is real, I remember decades ago when my brother was young he ran into a glass door similarly. This is usually why new window decals take so long to be removed on construction sites - or taped with an X