google and the 20%

a few people have commented on google’s apparent policy of letting employees spend 20% of their working hours on their own projects. this article from reuters casts it in a slightly more interesting light: For 20 percent of your time, if you’re working at Google, you can do what you think is the best thing to do. i wonder how many decide that doing their regular job is the best thing for them to do.

this sounds similar to nick denton’s 80% company, if you decide that the best thing for you to do with that other 20% is get away from work. (yes, the article is in a bizarre format. c’est la vie.)