Free Food

I'm visiting the home office in Mountain View this week. Earlier today I passed a tech talk area that had leftover food from an earlier reception. It was sitting unmolested as people walked by. It struck me that every other place I've worked, leftovers and free food were highly prized. When we had outside visitors in for lunch, people would hover outside the kitchen area waiting for the leftovers to come back. The same thing happened with grad students waiting for the weekly faculty lunch to end. We'd swoop in and finish everything off.

Now I have a free lunch provided every day and a decent selection of snacks next to the espresso machine. We even have tea and desserts on afternoon a week. No one cares about leftovers, because free food is available all the time.