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Abandoned Motorola Headquarters (2020)

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Re: Abandoned Motorola Headquarters (2020)

#191

Post by sgt101 »

bitwize wrote: post #133
laurent92 wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“Ritual statistical magic” is even more genius: Future civilizations will look down on us for believing that statistics were part of science, not not seeing the hand of the cleric in making them up, just like we look down on middle ages for believing anything monks pretended to translate from the Bible, which in fact they made up.

Perhaps they will regard our current obsession with machine learning as a sort of Tower of Babel built out of made-up statistics. Or a castle in the sky.

Or as their ancestors?

Re: Abandoned Motorola Headquarters (2020)

#193

Post by alangibson »

jacquesm wrote: post #61
ipv6ipv4 wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

HR wall slogans are cringey when still drying on the wall. They are even cringier in a ruin.

The most cringey one to me is the Philips one "Let's make things better". Funny enough their slide down into relative obscurity started right after introducing that slogan. Up to that point they were one of the powerhouses of technology. Today they are still active in Medical, TVs and light, a faint shadow of what they used to be.

They're not remotely obscure in the medical field. By the numbers, Philips has been a medical devices company for a long time.

They have been slowly getting out of the consumer business for a long time. They just recently spun off their remaining consumer appliances business after having spun off lighting some years ago.

Re: Abandoned Motorola Headquarters (2020)

#195

Post by nlehuen »

LeonM wrote: post #126
jacquesm wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The most cringey one to me is the Philips one "Let's make things better". Funny enough their slide down into relative obscurity started right after introducing that slogan. Up to that point they were one of the powerhouses of technology. Today they are still active in Medical, TVs and light, a faint shadow of what they used to be.

After 2004, they ditched that slogan and started using "Sense and Simplicity" as their new slogan. I remember after that their consumer electronics got really, really bad. Basically all their products were just... not finished. The firmware on most of their devices was just terribly buggy, and features advertised on the box where sometimes not even available. I remember having an MP3 player where selecting the FM rad…

Philips in the Netherlands and Thomson in France went the same way (https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomson_(marque)) - after being major manufacturers of consumer products, they are now licensing their consumer brand to third party manufacturers.

Basically they are banking on their previous glories and advertising.

Sometimes you can spot the exact same product from a noname manufacturer, it's just missing the right sticker.

Re: Abandoned Motorola Headquarters (2020)

#196

Post by caoilte »

elzbardico wrote: post #154
caoilte wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's just as easy to imagine this being most of San Jose because of drought. Or this being every corporate HQ because of the collapse of Western Capitalism in the face of global warming. I'm sure life will go on though.

Most likely global capitalism will thrive in the face of global warming. Creative destruction. All the infrastructure to be rebuilt, the huge projects, warlike government expenditures, replacing the worlds fleet of vehicles, expanding the grid multiple times. It will be absolutely Faustian… People were taking too much time between new cars

This is fair. I wonder if that will require a new generation of corporation, though. And the current generation of corporate HQs don't look nearly defensible enough. Something more like the Tyrell Corporation Ziggurat will be needed.

Re: Abandoned Motorola Headquarters (2020)

#197

Post by yholio »

ipv6ipv4 wrote: post #26
jameshart wrote: post #17

I love the tone of this, it’s like the musings of an explorer who discovered a jungle city abandoned by a mysterious civilization. “there were old wall slogans inside that must have been added to motivate and inspire the employees” … “ the tall building had several brick structures on the lower main level. He suspected that those structures probably had plants and ferns in them so that important business clients and…

HR wall slogans are cringey when still drying on the wall. They are even cringier in a ruin.

In case anyone is wondering, the "propaganda slogans" on the walls are the Motorola "common values":

We are innovative. We constantly create ingenious solutions to the real challenges of today, tomorrow and beyond.

We are passionate. We meet every challenge with energy and determination, always pursuing ever-higher standards.

We are driven. We keep it simple by focusing on what matters most so we can seize opportunities with speed and confidence.

We are accountable. We stand behind the work we do, the contributions we make and the high business standards we maintain.

We are partners. We succeed together because we respect all individuals and value contributions from colleagues and customers alike.

Re: Abandoned Motorola Headquarters (2020)

#198

Post by robinsoh »

ijidak wrote: post #112
jameshart wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Gives you another perspective on the hieroglyphs on walls in ancient Egypt though if you imagine them being put there by enthusiastic religious branding consultants, and inducing just as much eye rolling from the citizens of the day…

Lololol. I've never thought about it that way. But it's true. Citizens of those ancient Egyptian cities probably did roll their eyes at some of the wall hieroglyphs. Especially because the pharaohs exaggerated their victories. And the priests probably made up ridiculous stories of what their gods "did" and "accomplished" Some citizens were probably just as incredulous as we are today.

> Especially because the pharaohs exaggerated their victories.

Ramses II exaggerated even his defeats, that is, he claimed that as his victories. For example the famous wall relief of Ramses II slaying the Hittites at the Battle of Kadesh. https://www.memphis.edu/hypostyle/tour_hall/ramesses_ii_scen...

In reality it was a terrible defeat and it allowed the Hittites to limit Egypt sphere of influence to no further West than Canaan.

Re: Abandoned Motorola Headquarters (2020)

#199

Post by lttlrck »

LeonM wrote: post #126
jacquesm wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The most cringey one to me is the Philips one "Let's make things better". Funny enough their slide down into relative obscurity started right after introducing that slogan. Up to that point they were one of the powerhouses of technology. Today they are still active in Medical, TVs and light, a faint shadow of what they used to be.

After 2004, they ditched that slogan and started using "Sense and Simplicity" as their new slogan. I remember after that their consumer electronics got really, really bad. Basically all their products were just... not finished. The firmware on most of their devices was just terribly buggy, and features advertised on the box where sometimes not even available. I remember having an MP3 player where selecting the FM rad…

That was about the time, IIRC, that they went on a mission to make everything as simple to use as a Senseo coffee machine.

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

Re: Abandoned Motorola Headquarters (2020)

#200

Post by pfdietz »

caoilte wrote: post #97
xattt wrote: post #12

I’ve been thinking in 50 or 100 years from now, will this be the case for the Apple Starship campus? I’m sure Motorola seemed indomitable at the time of its construction.

It's just as easy to imagine this being most of San Jose because of drought. Or this being every corporate HQ because of the collapse of Western Capitalism in the face of global warming. I'm sure life will go on though.

> It's just as easy to imagine this being most of San Jose because of drought.

The non-agricultural, non-forestry parts of the California economy can do just fine on desalinated seawater.

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