free lunch

i was hoping to get this post up while tripp's rant on googe was still on the front page…

i had lunch at google last thursday.

a friend of mine from hp labs, let go in the great layoff of summer 2005, took a senior researcher position at google. i keep in touch with a number of these ex-hp guys through xbox live, we have a weekly game that's been around for about 2 years now. sometimes we even meet in person! a bunch of them came down for e3 last year and we had pizza in westwood. then, when i arrived up here, we set up another pizza dinner in cupertino. this crew is an interesting mix with a wide range of age, origin, politics, faith and personality. but we can all agree that we enjoy shooting at each other via the rainbow 6 games and talking trash in between. thus i now have an odd little local social group that is spread across some of the premier technology companies around here. and when "mr degauss" asked if i'd like to visit google for lunch i knew i couldn't turn that down.

the campus is about 5 minutes from my house in mountain view. no joke. i merely had to cross to the east side of the 101 freeway and there, around the bend, was the google complex, easily identified by the colored cones. blue, red, yellow, green… of course. the buildings the headquarters occupies used to belong to sgi, may they finally rest in peace soon. the valet parking lot, free naturally, was full and the attendant directed me to park underground. instead, i picked up my friend and we made an ad hoc parking spot at the first stretch of empty curb we found.

as we walked in, mr degauss commented that the swarms of cars and people were part of a hiring surge. how they expected to fit any more employees inside, neither of us could figure. my theory is that google is attempting to hire all competent technologists as a strategy, the purpose is to vacuum the available developers in the bay area until competitors asphyxiate from the lack of human resources. regardless of whether that's accurate, i was instantly overwhelmed by a greater population density than i could ever feel comfortable in.

there was no real physical security that i could see. we just walked right into the main quad. though my cynical instincts caused me to believe that there must be some kind of surveillance. at the main building, degauss printed out a visitor's pass for me which required that i sign the standard nda. at least i assume it was standard as it was far too long for me to read while standing there. i was ready to eat anyway and hunger trumps privacy.

it was closer to 1 by the time that we got the main cafeteria and the whole place was ridiculously crowded. while i would have enjoyed a leisurely stroll through just to check out the broad offerings, i really just wanted to get some food and get out of there. i'm not claustrophobic, but i have low tolerance for lines. i like to have some space to myself. so when i found some indian food, served under a sign declaring "namaste", i grabbed a tray.

did i mention lunch at google is always free? well it is. make of that what you will. they also have a large number of vegetarian and vegan plates, the sort of thing that engenders my respect. that day they had a couple differenct okra dishes and some black rice at the station i visited. pretty decent. but as soon as i got my food, my friend led me out of the public dining space and into the main building where we occupied a small table above the entrance stairway. much better.

i got to ask degauss a number of questions about his google experience so far. the anecdotes were a mixed bag. not sure how much i can say that would be interesting to most readers. a lot of the stories just confirmed what tech journalists and investors have been spouting about for the last couple years. the really surprising part might be just how de-centralized the whole management structure is. there are a number of mechanisms that are in place that seem very "hive". he also confirmed my worst fear: that google does not understand design. while they have a number of fantastic engineers and researchers, there is a frightening lack of concern for aesthetics, ergonomics and usability. although as we ate lunch, a colleague of degauss' came by and announced that the research group had hired an anthropologist. they seemed excited and relieved.

after lunch, degauss showed me the coffee and his office. his office was small and shared with one other researcher, which is apparently a stroke of luck considering how packed the rest of the place is. more importantly, there are these little beverage/snack clusters that he calls "7/11s". they have an absurd selection of drinks. far too many coffee choices for my comfort. it was clear to me then that no one there really appreciated coffee, they just bought every machine until all the counter space was filled. as if variety was going to increase the chances of making a great cuppa. not so. it just led me to a frustrating decision to go with the crappy automatic machine.

and there it is: in writing this i've figured out the metaphor for google's dilemma. the plethora of coffee machines are a model of their business and research approach. rather than find/design 3 coffee machines that serve really excellent brew customized for the 3 most common consumers/users, they try to acquire/index them all. let the customer choose the content they prefer, helped by an invisible ranking mechanism or maybe just the path of least resistance. the entire experience is lackluster. a lot of work in a cluttered environment for a pitiful return.

so that's what i walked away with. google impresses in terms of scale rather than style. the exact opposite of say apple.

i make no predictions for the future however. google employs a large number of smart people. maybe they'll get lucky.