

Developer paradise?  - muriithi
http://blogs.tedneward.com/2008/04/03/Developer+Paradise.aspx

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projectileboy
Well... To respond to Ted's rant, the obvious difference between Google and
those late-90's companies is that the latter burned through an enormous pile
of VC cash without producing much profit. I agree with Ted that the fish-tank-
pod-thingies seem a bit much, but...

Look at it this way - in 2007, Google generated a 4.2 billion $US profit with
roughly 16,000 employees. In that same period, Wells Fargo generated just
north of 8 billion $US profit with roughly 159,000 employees. And Wells Fargo
is a pretty healthy company. So I'd say that those 16,000 employees at Google
are some pretty valuable people, and if massage pods in front of fish tanks is
what it takes to keep those people, then more power to 'em. Doing the math,
I'm guessing that what they spent on that office space is less than the
payroll for 65,000 Wells Fargo employees.

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alyx
The article makes a good point. While everybody enjoys being treated well,
perhaps it's possible to overdo it?

I mean really, are slides and firemen poles a necessity? The answer is NO,
unless ... you want your engineers to never leave.

No matter how you sugar coat it, work is still work. Having neat perks at work
is nice but in my opinion it shouldn't turn into a kindergarten playground.

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edw519
"Check out this video. No, go on, watch it. The rest of this won't make much
sense until you do."

Sorry, ain't gonna happen. This may be the most interesting piece ever
presented, but I won't find out.

If I'm at a client site, no sound card, no headphones (I want to hear their
people), and I don't want to clog their pipes.

If I'm in my office, I never watch video on-line; it's too easy to get side-
tracked and lose hours.

OP should put "(video)" in post.

Am I the only one who feels this way?

~~~
LogicHoleFlaw
I feel the same way. It's no-headphones, no-soundcards for me as well. That's
just the way I roll. A (video) tag would help me avoid topics I can't really
contribute to.

