Use 20% of your work time for something else than your work

This has always been a rule at Google. And I’m 100% sure that’s why they succeed: Because of all the crazy ideas people get when they don’t have to accomplish anything.

And when I read this article at CNet I was totally convinced Google does the right thing.

There are advantages to the deliberate management structure that Microsoft has put in place, he [Steve Ballmer] said, adding that he isn’t sure anyone has proven “that a random collection of people doing their own thing” has created value. Among Google’s perks, the company is widely known for letting its engineers devote 20 percent of their work time to pet projects.

As in the past, he characterized Google as a one-trick pony, playing down the company’s efforts beyond search.

“They do a lot of cute things,” Ballmer said, to huge laughs from the business students.

Very strange that a person running one of the world’s biggest companies is so narrowminded.