Why is it that whenever someone is trying to show just how laid-back the atmosphere in the Googleplex is, that they emphasize on these stupid lava lamps? Since when is the lava lamp the one and only beacon of laid-backness? What is so damn laid-back about a bottle-shaped container filled with wax and oil? Come on!
Check out this photo in a TIME pictorial from inside the Googleplex. The caption reads:
Desktop gizmos and lava lamps express Google’s laid-back ethos.
Hell, even if lava lamp really means laid-back, I can’t for the life of me spot a single lava lamp in that picture! Why are the mentioning that, when it’s not even there? Anyone?


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I, um, don’t think that the place shown in the picture from the Googleplex is even in the remotest sense laid-back. And I don’t see a lava lamp in it either.
However, as for the soothing effects of the lava lamp, I own one (an orange Mathmos Astro), and I love it and it’s brilliant, and you wouldn’t believe just what it does to the atmosphere of a room.
So here’s an idea for a birthday present for you, Richie!!
Great, I knew it’d come down to someone calling me “Richie”.