My girlfriend is a doctor, and I can confirm that doctors will do just about anything for free food. Mainly this means sitting through a 2-hour spiel about new drug X.<p>Although sometimes the food is better, oftentimes I'd much rather have decent pizza than the mass-produced crap they serve.<p>(And she's a No Free Luncher, so we don't do these anymore, and she doesn't eat the free food in the hospital that everyone else does. Somehow, everyone is the one that isn't affected by the advertising.<p>Maybe Microsoft should start sending reps around to software shops with free lunch? I bet it'd be an effective strategy.)
In case you're wondering whether the condescension exuded by this title is for real, check out the first paragraph:<p><i>Need more productivity from your software development staff? Need 'em to put in more hours to get a project done on time? Buy 'em a pizza and hand out t-shirts. It's an age-old and effective method to get programmers and techies to willingly (sometimes enthusiastically) give up a weekend. But why do they come so cheap?</i><p>What a great summary of everything that's wrong with this moribund, soulless industry.