Thirteen Months of Working, Eating, and Sleeping at the Googleplex • Hacker News Board

Re: Thirteen Months of Working, Eating, and Sleeping at the Googleplex

#31

Post by s73v3r » Wed, Aug 05, 2015, 10:12 PM UTC

ogreveins wrote: post #21

The rationale behind it makes perfect sense. Do you really want to give someone $2-3000 per month or $24-36k a year just to have a box around you? Especially if you don't own much stuff? How much do you actually need besides your computer, phone, clothes and toiletries? Gym for bathroom and free public wifi for internet aside from your phone and you're set. The rental and housing market is disgusting. I wouldn't cons…

" Do you really want to give someone $2-3000 per month or $24-36k a year just to have a box around you? "

Yes. I want to leave the office. I want to have my own space, where I can do my own thing. I want to have a place where I can cook my own meals, and raise my plants. Possibly a pet.

Re: Thirteen Months of Working, Eating, and Sleeping at the Googleplex

#32

Post by seansmccullough » Wed, Aug 05, 2015, 10:12 PM UTC

ogreveins wrote: post #21

The rationale behind it makes perfect sense. Do you really want to give someone $2-3000 per month or $24-36k a year just to have a box around you? Especially if you don't own much stuff? How much do you actually need besides your computer, phone, clothes and toiletries? Gym for bathroom and free public wifi for internet aside from your phone and you're set. The rental and housing market is disgusting. I wouldn't cons…

I agree, especially if you're not home a lot, it's not worth it.

Re: Thirteen Months of Working, Eating, and Sleeping at the Googleplex

#33

Post by nosuchthing » Wed, Aug 05, 2015, 10:15 PM UTC

ogreveins wrote: post #21

The rationale behind it makes perfect sense. Do you really want to give someone $2-3000 per month or $24-36k a year just to have a box around you? Especially if you don't own much stuff? How much do you actually need besides your computer, phone, clothes and toiletries? Gym for bathroom and free public wifi for internet aside from your phone and you're set. The rental and housing market is disgusting. I wouldn't cons…

Imagine an affordable mobile home for college students, or developing nations, or even just Americans who are priced out of the area where they work..

http://www.designboom.com/design/cornelius-comanns-bufalino/

Re: Thirteen Months of Working, Eating, and Sleeping at the Googleplex

#34

Post by Chinjut » Wed, Aug 05, 2015, 10:23 PM UTC

seansmccullough wrote: post #32

ogreveins wrote: post #21

The rationale behind it makes perfect sense. Do you really want to give someone $2-3000 per month or $24-36k a year just to have a box around you? Especially if you don't own much stuff? How much do you actually need besides your computer, phone, clothes and toiletries? Gym for bathroom and free public wifi for internet aside from your phone and you're set. The rental and housing market is disgusting. I wouldn't cons…

I agree, especially if you're not home a lot, it's not worth it.

Also not worth it: spending so much time at work that you're not home a lot.

Re: Thirteen Months of Working, Eating, and Sleeping at the Googleplex

#35

Post by tjohns » Wed, Aug 05, 2015, 10:23 PM UTC

pbiggar wrote: post #19

astrange wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Regular California apartments don't have air conditioning anyway.

AFAIK it's only in SF they don't. Everywhere else in California is properly hot.

Living in Los Angeles as a college student for five years, none of my apartments had air conditioning. Sure, some houses had it... but even in LA it's a bit of a luxury.

Same goes for the homes of everyone I knew in Lake Tahoe, where I grew up. The climate's similar to the bay during the summer, but it's still (partially) in California. ;)

Re: Thirteen Months of Working, Eating, and Sleeping at the Googleplex

#36

Post by brianobush » Wed, Aug 05, 2015, 10:37 PM UTC

jrockway wrote: post #14

brianobush wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, I agree maybe for one night, but repeatedly?

Some people are interested in their work, especially at Google. I do things every night until I fall asleep, though not usually work.

Agreed, I do as well. After a point though, it becomes inefficient to bang at a problem repeatedly.

Re: Thirteen Months of Working, Eating, and Sleeping at the Googleplex

#37

Post by catbird » Wed, Aug 05, 2015, 10:38 PM UTC

nosuchthing wrote: post #33

ogreveins wrote: post #21

The rationale behind it makes perfect sense. Do you really want to give someone $2-3000 per month or $24-36k a year just to have a box around you? Especially if you don't own much stuff? How much do you actually need besides your computer, phone, clothes and toiletries? Gym for bathroom and free public wifi for internet aside from your phone and you're set. The rental and housing market is disgusting. I wouldn't cons…

Imagine an affordable mobile home for college students, or developing nations, or even just Americans who are priced out of the area where they work.. http://www.designboom.com/design/cornelius-comanns-bufalino/

That's so strange. If you're going to park your tiny home somewhere, why not make it the size of a regular car, like the VW Westfalia camper van?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volkswagen_Westfalia_Campers

Re: Thirteen Months of Working, Eating, and Sleeping at the Googleplex

#38

Post by bbcbasic » Wed, Aug 05, 2015, 10:39 PM UTC

ogreveins wrote: post #21

The rationale behind it makes perfect sense. Do you really want to give someone $2-3000 per month or $24-36k a year just to have a box around you? Especially if you don't own much stuff? How much do you actually need besides your computer, phone, clothes and toiletries? Gym for bathroom and free public wifi for internet aside from your phone and you're set. The rental and housing market is disgusting. I wouldn't cons…

> The rental and housing market is disgusting. I wouldn't consider it except for my wife.

There you go. It is not in our nature to optimize for efficient use of money. There are other desires that will outwit this including the desire to reproduce, the desire to fit in socially, the desire for space and boundaries, the desire for inertia.

I used to think about living in a camper van to 'protest' against ridiculous house prices and paying rent. I never quite wanted to do it, and mainly because of what other people would say. Of course some people have the guts to be daring and different :-)

Re: Thirteen Months of Working, Eating, and Sleeping at the Googleplex

#39

Post by bbcbasic » Wed, Aug 05, 2015, 10:40 PM UTC

ggambetta wrote: post #10

Dorian-Marie wrote: post #9

So he got food, water, shower and toilets from Google's office. He only used his van as a sleeping place. He should definitely do an AMA: What about Internet access? What about the cold? Sleeping bags? Isolation inside the van? What about the hot? Air conditioning?

Internet access? At Google HQ? Being an employee? ...no clue :(

What about the NSFW stuff? I guess you could hook up a wifi access point and tunnel your connection through to a VPN.

Re: Thirteen Months of Working, Eating, and Sleeping at the Googleplex

#40

Post by jlarocco » Wed, Aug 05, 2015, 10:43 PM UTC

ogreveins wrote: post #21

The rationale behind it makes perfect sense. Do you really want to give someone $2-3000 per month or $24-36k a year just to have a box around you? Especially if you don't own much stuff? How much do you actually need besides your computer, phone, clothes and toiletries? Gym for bathroom and free public wifi for internet aside from your phone and you're set. The rental and housing market is disgusting. I wouldn't cons…

What doesn't make sense to me about that line of thinking is why even keep working? Why not work for a year, save money, and then live in your van wherever just doing whatever?

If you could save $75k of the $135k salary, you could go a very long time living in a van in somewhere like South Dakota.