In February – I took a trip to Mountain View as a ‘3rd Rounder’ for their recruitment process. Although I didn’t get the position, it was certainly interesting to see the Internet Giant up close (and to a limited extent – to view its day to day operations from within). In preparation for my interview, I spent reams of time studying the Google topology which – to a certain extent is disclosed here, here, here – you get the idea.
**They specifically ask that I do not share any questions/secret stuff — and will certainly uphold that**
PRIMER
1. The Bay of Sf. looks like this…
2. The trails surrounding the Bay tend to look like this…
Oddly the Googleplex, is located in a mystery part of the valley along its northern ridge. The next city over is Cupertino, Redwood City and Palo Alto so literally you have Google, Apple, Yahoo, Oracle, CompanyX, right beside eachother. To understand more about the valley, please rewind to Fairchild Semiconductor | HP | and in my opinion one would be remiss to not trace the origins of the R&D industrial complex for ARPA / NASA / PARC / Bell Labs / Stanford. What Brian Eno calls ‘Scenius’.
All of this is easily available for online readers. And while you would suspect something astonishing (like the T-Rex dinosaur or Spaceship One) at the G-pex, what the mind and spirit are not prepared for is the Eng-Core aesthetic of Function First. That is what this post is about. Function first, means unpainted walls, a healthy dose of 80’s smoked glass windows and self-driving cars. It is all three: shocking, unpretentious as well as refreshing. Community-college furnished buildings with amazing things just lying around.. that is pervasive vibe across the campus from what I could tell.
*For what it’s worth. I have heard NASA research buildings are much the same way.
Here are some pics:
3. Main Dinosaur Area – Around Building 40,41,42,43. This is where the apex predatory action happens.
4. Cafe Slice, is a good spot to chill out when I was nervous. There is volleyball court and Tesla charging stations nearby. The volleyball court and the dinosaur seem not to disturb eachother.
5. The rest of mountain view can look like this. This is proof:
6. With an oasis from suburbia in the form of downtown Palo Alto / Stanford area, which looks like this:
Palo Alto = Good place imho.
7. But back to the Googleplex. Here are some more campus pics.
8. I had to take a Selfie.
9. It sits on a nice crop of land jutting into the Bay. Following the Dutch model, there are painted bikes used/abused/loved/abandoned just about everywhere sprinkled over this landscape.
Had a great time taking a peek and seeing everything. Thanks.
-AT