BucketsMcGaughey

Bear in mind that the whole purpose of these conditions is to make you want to work non-stop.

See, Google understand the nerd mindset. Nerds like to have interesting problems to think about. You keep their minds stimulated in a manner which is enjoyable to them and they will happily work round the clock.

The problem is that life gets in the way of such marathon bouts of concentration. There are bills to pay, food to prepare, clothes to wash, etc. So companies like Google take care of all that stuff for you, leaving you with nothing to worry about but your work.

They're not doing it out of the kindness of their hearts.

$500k won't last you very long at all. Staff costs alone will burn through that in a matter of a few months, and there's all manner of setup costs and overheads on top of that.

The people that made Scary Movie seemed to think that what the world really needed was a parody of a parody.

Lync on OSX was the most embarrassingly awful pile of shit I've had the misfortune to use in a good decade. Are you going to try harder this time?

It's never too late. It stays competitive right up until you're pensionable. I did an event last week with about 17,000 people in it and there was essentially no difference between the winning time for twentysomethings and fiftysomethings.