The Google Philosophy

  1. Work on things that matter
  2. Affect everyone in the world
  3. Solve problems with algorithms if possible
  4. Hire bright people and give them lots of freedom
  5. Don’t be afraid to try new things

Google also requires that its engineers spend 20 percent of their time working on personal technology projects unrelated to their primary projects.

from Chad Dickerson’s column "CTO Connection" from Infoworld, February 23, 2004

Wow!  No wonder Google does such a great job.