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

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

#81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sounds like a certain CEO http://www.businessinsider.com/tony-hsiehs-home-in-a-trailer...

It would be nice if someone set up something like that in SV, although I suspect the land would be too expensive.

There's 3 or 4 trailer parks in Mountain View, one of which is basically next door to Google.

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

#82
Right out of undergrad school I worked for a large software company (not Google) and I could have pictured myself doing this. Usually around 7-8pm I'd start exploring options for what to do that night and if nobody wanted to go out anywhere I knew I'd only be going home to use the computer. It made more sense to just stay at work. I'd be more likely to work on something I thought was fun though at least.

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

#83
post #35
post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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. ;)

[deleted]

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

#84
post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It would be nice if someone set up something like that in SV, although I suspect the land would be too expensive.

There's 3 or 4 trailer parks in Mountain View, one of which is basically next door to Google.

Do many/any google employees live in them? It would seem to be a cost-effective solution to living in SV, and removes (or at least significantly reduces) the commute at the same time.

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

#85
post #3

That article was overwhelmingly depressing. Living in a van is a better life then remote work?

No, but one can't always get the remote work.

I've been approached to help with some bay area startups, but the mere thought of having to sit in a car and spend a bunch of hours in the Valley? So not appealing right now. I've done the sleep at work thing randomly over the years, never again.

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

#86

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…

Only on HN! Doesn't this beg the question: Why would you suffer such an unreasonably irrational wife?

Not sure that this deserves to be down voted. If the only reason for not continuing this lifestyle is his wife, doesn't that imply that his wife is being irrational?

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

#87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

In fact, there's so much NSFW stuff floating around the web that I had to sign a form when I joined Google that said I won't sue Google for being exposed to porn during work.

Nobody cares if you click a link to porn site. In many cases, it might even be a part of your work. ("Dang, porn again, this query shouldn't show porn!")

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

#88
While these people sound cool, I notice that hn treats then like heroes while it treats people who violate zoning laws at scale as villains.

To assuming considering doing this I would say please please don't. If a dozen people did it the company would crack down and amend it's policies.

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

#89

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…

Where would you host dinner parties?

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

#90
post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I would hazard that someone who is happy enough in their job to live at work (let's face it, no one who is proposing this is working at Taco Bell) doesn't have being able to leave their job as their #1 priority. I'm sure it's somewhere up there, but I see this as more of a compatible lifestyle choice than a suffer-in-the-short-term-then-cash-out scheme.

I hadn't thought of that, and it makes sense, thought I don't quite understand it.
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