Super tuesday and thoughts on Google.

The time is now to get out in vote. It has been decades since a primary race has been so hotly contested on both sides of the aisle. I encourage you to go out and vote your heart and your head. I heard someone on NPR this morning who said he refused to vote because the United States was financially doomed anyway. It worries me that people are giving up on a country that is still very strong economically. There will always be rough times, but in the end only a strong spirit and a willingness to become involved will bring us through.

I spent a large chunk of time writing about business culture and values this morning for my project management class. For this project we picked a company to study and I chose Google. Having known a little bit about the unique Google culture going into the project I desired to learn more. What I discovered was a culture designed to magnify creativity and keep Google’s number one asset, their employees content and productive. Google offers 3 meals a day at their cafeteria for free, “play rooms” with pianos, video games, pool tables, ping-pong tables, on-site gym, computer and small electronic device repair, street hockey twice a week, a casual dress code and a shocking lack or cubicles. These are just a few examples of how Google tries to make their offices a welcoming place for their employees. I began to wonder why more businesses don’t have a creative and comfortable work space like this, the idea of making work a more comfortable place then home is a very new a scary idea. I think most businesses are afraid of such a lax environment and have the idea that their employees may become complacent. For most companies this concept just does not work. Could you imagine showing up at your bank and working with a bank teller in flip-flops and Bermuda shorts? I think the major problem is seeing people in casual wear makes a company come off as less professional. But, perhaps it is time for our perceptions to change in this regard. Maybe business would be better conducted if we weren’t all stuffed into monkey suits?

For a excellent photo essay by Time magazine follow this link.

Insomnia

A couple of nights ago I watched my all time favorite movie, fight club, down the street at the Kettner’s condo. There is this great scene where “Jack” is visiting the doctor complaining of insomnia and ways to ease his nightly struggle. The doctor suggests he visit the testicular cancer survivors group at a local church, “to see real men in pain”. He discovers that being with others who are suffering more then him allows him to sleep like a baby. He quickly becomes addicted to these so called “survivor groups” faking various conditions all in the name of a good nights sleep. Along the way he runs into another “faker”, Marla, who imitates the lie he is living. From there things fall apart and he is no longer able to sleep. What isn’t clear in the movie is the point at which Tyler Durden comes to full fruition in Jack’s head, though I assume this is the point. For those who don’t know Tyler Durden is a ultra-masculine alternate personality that Jack “dreams” up to do all the things that he wishes he could do himself but is not manly enough to handle. What most people don’t understand about fight club is that it is more then just a brutal movie about men destroying each other with their fists. Rather it is a movie about generation X, specifically men from generation X. Men who had no “great war” to fight in, no way to prove themselves as men, men looking for a way to define themselves by something other then what marketing execs believe they should be. I bring this up because I worry about my generation, “generation why?”. We have a “great war” but a war that no one believes in, a war that most men of my generation only watch in news bites from the sidelines. Are the men of “gen why?” doomed much like those of “gen X”? We are constantly being bombarded by advertisers telling us what we should own, what we should wear, drive, be, eat, etc. This is something that the men of “the greatest generation” would never let fly. Men of the greatest generation smoked cigars, drank, didn’t take crap, built things with their hands, fixed things around the house, mowed the lawn, hand shoveled the drive-way, fixed their own car, etc. I think you get the picture. In my generation we want things handed to us, problems fixed for us, and no responsibility. What happened to manliness? When did it die? We are taught to fear our surroundings rather then master them. We have this culture that has had all the hardship gutted from it. Our heroes are overpaid athletes, celebrities with no morals and corrupt politicians. We believe everything the loudest voice throws at us. Since when did we become a bunch of scared sheep? Perhaps we just need something to believe in.

Well, I am going to lie down and try to fight my insomnia.