[TheAdamAndChe]

the few Googlers I talked to were there only for the money. Their view of the company was actually quite negative.

This is true for most people working for large multinational corporations. Good things can still be developed without passion.

[jethro_tell]

Seems like this is probably true for the vast majority of people. I don't know why we circle jerk on passion and it's not very healthy. Sure I love to write code and most days I don't hate my job, but if I didn't need the money I'd rather write code for myself or open source projects, or do other things.

There's nothing wrong with that, and when I'm at work, I do my best to do a good job and make reliable, maintainable systems. Those two things aren't in conflict.