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Comment by habosa | Hacker News Reader

I work at Google in MTV and this is very exciting to me. I think the higher-ups at this company have the vision to pull this off, I hope I stay engaged here long enough to see it.

The real concern (which Google can't fully solve) is housing. If you add 10k or 20k more employees in these beautiful new offices, where do they all live? I guess Google could build apartments too but that's not ideal, I don't want to live at work.

I currently commute to MTV from SF. I have a shitty apartment, i pay 2x as much as it's worth in any other city, and I commute 1.5hrs each way on a clogged highway. I hope it's doesn't get much worse.

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For what it's worth, MTV doesn't mean Mountain View to anybody who doesn't live or work in Mountain View.

To everybody else it means MTV, making the things you say very confusing.

I was only confused for a second then I got it from the context of his comment.

That was one of the biggest culture-shocks for me when I arrived in the Bay Area. Everyone was like "So you'll be working in MTV?", a bunch of the local mailing lists were prefixed "mtv-", all the conference rooms were labeled "MTV-43-2-...", and I was like "What's this MTV....ohhhh, Mountain View". It's sorta like "The City" clearly means San Francisco to anyone living in the Bay Area, while it means New York City to anyone living in the Northeast.

Well, if enough people say it, it'll catch on. I'd bet that Google is rapidly becoming more important to most people than Music Television anyway.

For what it’s worth, I live on the east coast, am not particularly keyed in to the Silicon Valley world like most HN readers, and knew (assumed) immediately that MTV = Mountain View based on the context of the article and the comment. I think it’s pretty obvious given the overall context here.

For what it's worth, I live in Sunnyvale just next to Mountain View and I have never seen or heard this abbreviation used. I thought "I work at Google in MTV" described some internal Google department, and it wasn't until I saw "commute to MTV from SF" that it clicked.

I've lived in Santa Clara for 3 years and I've never seen Mountain View referred to as MTV.

Agree. Lived in Mountain View (mtnv?) for a few years. Never saw the MTV acronym. Maybe it's a google thing?

it's also the abbreviation used on the coaches going from San Francisco to "MTV"

Some common abbreviations (i've seen) used for Silicon Valley / Bay Area cities:

MP - Menlo Park (Facebook) PA - Palo Alto MTV - Mountain View (Google) SJ - San Jose SF - San Francisco

MPK is also a common abbreviation for Menlo Park.

Agreed, MV makes more sense than MTV

> I guess Google could build apartments too but that's not ideal, I don't want to live at work.

The cool thing about Google building housing is, it benefits you even if you don't want to live at work. Plenty of people (myself likely included) would enjoy living close to work in a lively apartment building surrounded by like-minded people. But if you're not one of them, you still win, by virtue of not having to compete with these people for housing elsewhere.

Interestingly, a long commute is one of the most highly correlated factors with regards to people's happiness: http://www.economist.com/blogs/gulliver/2011/06/perils-commu...

You may be happier living at work than you realize, (yes, I joke, but not as much as you'd think).

So you're saying if Google really wants happy employees they should open more offices in downtown SF? :)

yes, obviously, & i'm surprised they haven't

Actually, they want to maximize their return on investment. A cost-effective happy employee.

Yes. That would be the greenest thing possible.

Unfortunately, the higher ups really like a short commute from their suburban homes.

At least Amazon and Twitter are urban.

In the hardcore-communist days of China the setup was usually: factory on one side, block of flats for workers on the other, school and hospital adjacent. The kids played in the courtyard.

Actually not that bad of a setup...

That's how a lot of industrial towns in the early US looked.

For the first few months the commute made me miserable. I was just in a bad mood after every 90minute bus ride. And when there would be an accident or god water from the sky (see: rain) the commute could easily go over 2h each way.

Recently I have found ways to keep my commute negativity way down. I started going into work earlier when the traffic is lighter And much more predictable. I leave at 6:50 and I'm in by 8:00. And I started using the time on the bus as time to read, which has been great. Having 3h a day to just read books means I am tearing through my 'books to read one day' list. Sometimes I even look forward to the bus ride, it's personal time for me.

They could build housing then immediately sell those home by means of a loan to a non-profit created for this purpose. Who then pays off Google via rents.

Only issue is for legal reasons anyone could live there Google employee or not. However that is a good thing in the sense that if you lost your job your housing remains.

> I guess Google could build apartments too but that's not ideal, I don't want to live at work.

In the industrial revolution, it wasn't uncommon for major industrialists to build "model villages" [1] to house workers. The best examples include Bournville (Cadbury's chocolate), Saltaire (wool) and Port Sunlight (Lever Bros soap etc).

They were attractive places to live, compared with Victorian slums. You got a healthier, happier workforce living within walking distance of their jobs. Sir Titus Salt's Saltaire is now a World Heritage Site.

There's no reason why Google couldn't do the same, at least for a proportion of its workers. It looks as those Facebook will....

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Model_village

Google has tried to build housing in Mountain View multiple times but their plans have been rejected:

http://www.mv-voice.com/print/story/2012/07/13/google-housin...

In general, it's much easier to build office space than housing. Cities like it because it generates revenue but they don't have to provide additional support services such as schools, police officers, etc.

This changed with the last election. Three pro-housing candidates were elected to the Mountain View city council.

I work from home and it's pretty nice never having to commute. I miss other people though. If Google built nice apartments or condos and rented them at discounted prices to employees, you could wake up and get dressed, take some little robotic electric vehicle to the nearest cafe, get a free breakfast, and then pop into work. To me this sounds amazing, because it's like working from home but with other humans to interact with.

I never went to University, but took my daughter for her interview at a large UK institution this week. I watched the students wander from lectures to the gym and coffee shop then to halls of residence all within strolling distance. Made me think this was the way I'd love to live.

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