Google is a lot like a federal agency. They get a pile of resources first, then each sub-group figures out how to squander it in ways that make themselves, their work, and their budgets seem necessary and important. The result is they review each other, design processes for process review, monitor compliance, create regulations for other teams, try to find excuses to add more people and budget to their groups, have more and longer meetings, "develop software" by filling in blanks in some proprietary, automated process admin screen spread across three expensive monitors, go to an important Google Tech Talk related to cool technology they won't be allowed to use unless they leave Google, dish political dirt afterwards while noshing on free culinary resources, hurry back to the desk to continue an intense email debate about whether Go really needs exceptions, ride a Segway to the neighboring building for some important dry-cleaning-pick-upping, and, off to face the rush hour traffic on 101 after another brutal day of <i>inventing the future</i>.<p>Unlike government, they don't take their money by force, so it's fine with me. They just won a corporate mega-lottery, that's all, and now they're finding fun ways to spend it, so they hire all the talent they can afford and try to get them to think of things to do (like government) instead of the usual non-lottery-winner approach of hiring only what they already desperately need.