> financially-motivated ones (primarily concerned with prestige, nice car, nice house, meals @ the French Laundry)
This is completely non-scientific, but I work close to (or you could even say, in an enclave of) the Google campus and the immediate thing I notice is the relative scarcity of "fancy" cars compared to companies that pay similarly or even less. Lots of Priuses, Honda Civics (many of them older), much less BMW and Mercedes; the only expensive cars tend to be innovative sport coupes like Nissan Z or Lotus Elise.
If these statistics are actually representative (and not my selection bias), then this is worthy of respect and says a lot about the company DNA.
This is completely non-scientific, but I work close to (or you could even say, in an enclave of) the Google campus and the immediate thing I notice is the relative scarcity of "fancy" cars compared to companies that pay similarly or even less. Lots of Priuses, Honda Civics (many of them older), much less BMW and Mercedes; the only expensive cars tend to be innovative sport coupes like Nissan Z or Lotus Elise.
If these statistics are actually representative (and not my selection bias), then this is worthy of respect and says a lot about the company DNA.