My visit at AOL / My lunch at Symantec

How do you call an empty office with empty areas, big empty everything in the heart of the Silicon Valley? American On Line. Here I am again, embarking on an hour 1/2 drive to visit AOL offices. Well offices for sure, plenty, on demand, a la carte but empty. Why so much waste are you asking? I hardly saw anyone. Yes my host! A delightful executive who, did not mind not being surrounded by anyone. Now AOL here in California is only 120 people, the rest is in Virgina. AOL bought Netscape in 1998 and got rid of all the unnecessary people but kept the space. And you should see the space, as big as an airport. Now you have to pay me a lot of money to spend a day there: imagine the silence. Some poor souls clicking on the computer. A lobby empty of life. Every employee has a cubicle: why don't they give each person a whole floor? Isn't it what the space is for? So it will feel like you own the company? The nicest part of the offices were the designers' corner. Well they are designers so they design all around and it looked neat. One of them was doing his stretching in the middle of the hallway. Well when there is nobody around, you can do your stretching I guess. You are not going to disturb anyone are you? A few ping pong table, area for coffee, tea, all left abandoned. Like it is the end of the world. So we crossed the street for lunch... so we could see people.