Developer paradise?

Well... To respond to Ted's rant, the obvious difference between Google and those late-90's companies is that the latter burned through an enormous pile of VC cash without producing much profit. I agree with Ted that the fish-tank-pod-thingies seem a bit much, but...

Look at it this way - in 2007, Google generated a 4.2 billion $US profit with roughly 16,000 employees. In that same period, Wells Fargo generated just north of 8 billion $US profit with roughly 159,000 employees. And Wells Fargo is a pretty healthy company. So I'd say that those 16,000 employees at Google are some pretty valuable people, and if massage pods in front of fish tanks is what it takes to keep those people, then more power to 'em. Doing the math, I'm guessing that what they spent on that office space is less than the payroll for 65,000 Wells Fargo employees.

The article makes a good point. While everybody enjoys being treated well, perhaps it's possible to overdo it?

I mean really, are slides and firemen poles a necessity? The answer is NO, unless ... you want your engineers to never leave.

No matter how you sugar coat it, work is still work. Having neat perks at work is nice but in my opinion it shouldn't turn into a kindergarten playground.

"Check out this video. No, go on, watch it. The rest of this won't make much sense until you do."

Sorry, ain't gonna happen. This may be the most interesting piece ever presented, but I won't find out.

If I'm at a client site, no sound card, no headphones (I want to hear their people), and I don't want to clog their pipes.

If I'm in my office, I never watch video on-line; it's too easy to get side-tracked and lose hours.

OP should put "(video)" in post.

Am I the only one who feels this way?