Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

A Look Inside Apple’s New Campus

wired.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

91–100 of 440 posts

Re: A Look Inside Apple’s New Campus

#91

Post by deegles »

MattRogish wrote: post #63
timc3 wrote: post #19

I am wondering why I find it kind of odd that it doesn't have a childcare center.

I was talking with a friend about this, that works at a big SV company that is known for high comp. Why don't they have a child care facility? Surely they can afford it! His response was - paraphrasing - "What happens if someone quits, or is fired? In SV/SF, waits for child care facilities can easily take 6-12 months. If someone is terminated from our company, the last thing we want for them to do is have a crisis ab…

If all companies had childcare that wouldn't be an issue...

Re: A Look Inside Apple’s New Campus

#92

Post by yazan94 »

justinator wrote: post #75
MattRogish wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was talking with a friend about this, that works at a big SV company that is known for high comp. Why don't they have a child care facility? Surely they can afford it! His response was - paraphrasing - "What happens if someone quits, or is fired? In SV/SF, waits for child care facilities can easily take 6-12 months. If someone is terminated from our company, the last thing we want for them to do is have a crisis ab…

In the case of firing, are they unable to take care of the child themselves at home? I understand that on-site childcare wouldn't work for everyone, but it could work for some, and be a benefit to them. Other companies DO provide it. There's a on-site cafeteria, correct? Do they worry how people will get lunch if they quit/fired? Reservations in SV/SF can easily take 6-12 months. /s

> In the case of firing, are they unable to take care of the child themselves at home?

Yes, they are unable because that would hinder them from getting another job.

> I understand that on-site childcare wouldn't work for everyone, but it could work for some, and be a benefit to them. > Other companies DO provide it.

Whats the difference between a daycare at your work or at a separate daycare building?

Re: A Look Inside Apple’s New Campus

#93

Post by jshevek »

asimpletune wrote: post #81
ensiferum wrote: post #77

All nice and fancy. Probably great for the upper level management. They can take a stroll in the park between golf games. For the grunt workers it's still just another cubicle hell where you crunch away some crappy code or TPS reports.

Honestly, how can you say that? There is absolutely nothing but love put into this building. Jobs spent his last years on earth dedicated to it, to every single last detail, because he wanted a home for apple, a real home. It's easy to be cynical, but I think it's hard and therefore admirable to rise above that tendency when something truly beautiful and genuine comes along. Now I don't blame you for feeling that way…

Easy to be cynical, hard to admire? No. It's easy to be a fanboy, hard to take an honest look at how this is just a prettier beehive for the drones.

Re: A Look Inside Apple’s New Campus

#94

Post by jonknee »

mxfh wrote: post #67
matsemann wrote: post #36

I'd wish they were a bit more futuristic than having 9000 parking spaces. Why not offer buses from where their employees live or other means of transportation? It's easy to say that most people drive, but that's only because everyone always make that the most convenient mode of transportation. With some effort something else could be even more convenient.

Apple is building 11,000 parking spaces not because it wants to but because Cupertino, the suburban city where the new headquarters is located, demands it. Cupertino has a requirement for every building. http://www.economist.com/news/briefing/21720269-dont-let-peo... https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14067658

Requirements are made to be made exceptions for and Apple had $5b of leverage. They probably just wanted the parking.

Re: A Look Inside Apple’s New Campus

#95

Post by mc32 »

matsemann wrote: post #36

I'd wish they were a bit more futuristic than having 9000 parking spaces. Why not offer buses from where their employees live or other means of transportation? It's easy to say that most people drive, but that's only because everyone always make that the most convenient mode of transportation. With some effort something else could be even more convenient.

It's a bit of damned if they don't and damned if they do. FB, GOOG get flack for their shuttle busses plus if you get there later in the day parking in MTV is dicey.

At least if you wanna drive, you can, if you wanna ride the bike, no one's stopping you.

Re: A Look Inside Apple’s New Campus

#96

Post by clarkmoody »

TheOtherHobbes wrote: post #68
tuna-piano wrote: post #21

Beautiful building. I wonder though - for those who read the article and have worked in both suburban environments and urban ones - would you rather work in the amazing Apple spaceship in the suburbs, or a normal office building in a city-center? For me, I think I'd still prefer a short commute and the density of stuff that comes with being downtown.

I'd rather work from home, and have done for decades. I'm not convinced it's a beautiful building. It's a very careful building, trying to be a temple and - IMO - failing. What's missing? Randomness. Playfulness. Quirkiness. Fun. Colour. Warmth. Individuality. Art. At Pixar, everyone was encouraged to personalise their work space in a creative way. I can't imagine that happening here, because it would be a mortal wou…

Reminds me of the working environment in GATTACA

Re: A Look Inside Apple’s New Campus

#97

Post by devopsproject »

fredley wrote: post #12
strgrd wrote: post #4

> For workers who want to take the café’s pizza back to their pods, Apple created (and patented) a container that lets air and moisture escape so the crust won’t get soggy. Am I correct in saying that this is just a standard to-go box with holes in the bottom?

Seriously, why patent something like this? Why not just give an improved pizza box design to everybody?

you are talking about a company that tried to argue a "tap" is a "zero length swipe"

Re: A Look Inside Apple’s New Campus

#98

Post by asimpletune »

jonknee wrote: post #90
asimpletune wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honestly, how can you say that? There is absolutely nothing but love put into this building. Jobs spent his last years on earth dedicated to it, to every single last detail, because he wanted a home for apple, a real home. It's easy to be cynical, but I think it's hard and therefore admirable to rise above that tendency when something truly beautiful and genuine comes along. Now I don't blame you for feeling that way…

It's still a car focused suburban office park with an open office floor plan... No amount of love is going to change the fundamentals.

I definitely agree with your car comment, and to that point would temper that statement by cautioning not to throw the baby out with the bath water. Cars are, presently, an unavoidable fact of life. This is a shame, but all else considered it's the best possible outcome with the present circumstances. Things will improve however, one day.

About the open office plan, I don't think that's the case at all. I don't know if we know enough about it to say, but I think enough is known to say it has a prototypical open office floor plan. Maybe if one were to be overly technical and argue that it is technically "open" then I would have no choice but to agree, however that's not really a common sense way of looking at things. It looks like the pods resemble something more akin to how whales organize. Plus I can't believe they'd spend so much time designing the hardware without giving the software some thought, if my analogy makes sense.

Re: A Look Inside Apple’s New Campus

#100

Post by jonknee »

eddieroger wrote: post #35
strictnein wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is rather odd.

Is it? The large corporation I work for doesn't have an onsite childcare center. Instead we offer discounts for child care elsewhere, near the office, but not in. For a company as private and secretive as Apple, why even expose themselves to the risk of having people walking around a campus that they don't need to be if they can meet the need elsewhere, offsite?

> For a company as private and secretive as Apple, why even expose themselves to the risk of having people walking around a campus that they don't need to be if they can meet the need elsewhere, offsite?

Yes, those toddlers would probably stumble on Jony Ive's secret development studio! In reality the campus also has "a visitors center with an Apple Store and cafe open to the public". That means full sized adults walking around!

https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2017/02/apple-park-opens-to-e...

Post reply on HN