[lgkk]

I have walked those halls and let me tell you it feels spooky in a good way to know a lot of groundbreaking work was done there.

During the time I was on campus it was mostly empty. There were old computers still inside some rooms. I felt like I had been transported to the 80s or 90s in one hall and some halls even more decades in the past.

Really grand. I can’t imagine what it was like in its heyday.

[tomcam]

I’m not a nostalgic person, but for some reason I wish irrationally that that Murray Hill building could be preserved as is. I read so much about of it in the history of computing, and just like (from the pictures) the building interior itself so much I just feel like I missed out on some thing not to have been there myself.

I was lucky enough to work at Microsoft in building 2, one of 8 matching buildings from the mid-80s, and it absolutely felt special at the time. In my imagination, it had some of the same vibe as Bell Labs did in its heyday. I was on the Visual Studio team, and great things were happening. I knew it. I also knew that team was special.

No one else in Visual Studio seemed that interested – they were just too busy and I think maybe too young to get it.

Buildings 1-8 were demolished few years ago, but I had been gone from the company for decades by that time. I did grieve a bit.

[ioblomov]

The whole complex (immortalized as Lumon HQ in Severance) is landmarked so presumably it can’t be messed with too much. Even apart from the historical significance, it’s a masterpiece of mid-century design. Its architect, Eero Saarinen, also did the St. Louis Arch and, my personal favorite, the TWA terminal at JFK, which reopened as a hotel in 2019. If you’re ever stuck on a layover there, do check it out!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TWA_Hotel

[vdnkh]

Bell Labs in Holmdel (ala Severance HQ) is now "Bell Works", a combination of offices, restaurants, stores, and community space, including the public library. It's free to get in and you don't need to spend money to use the amenities. Walking around is pretty pleasant, the architecture is stunning and they did a good job of keeping the soul of the space. It's a bit of a rarity in suburban NJ.

[BaculumMeumEst]

Man, I forgot about that show. I hope season 2 is good and doesn’t get too silly.

[vsrinivas]

FYI, Lumon HQ / the Eeron Saarinen masterpiece is Holmdel Bell Labs; this article is about the Murray Hill building.

[miniatureape]

The building in that show is the Holmdel location. Murray Hill is a different campus.

[tomcam]

Thanks for the reminder. I agree, that appears to be a massive triumph of preservation.

[hanniabu]

That's probably why their old officers are left in tact

[dimator]

It's interesting how much we associate a place with the fulfillment (career) we had there. I always smile fondly when I pass by the buildings I worked in years ago, in the valley.

It's a strange thought that the building I spent so many hours, days, years in is now just a thing seen out of the passenger window as I drive by, for maybe 2 seconds.

[tomcam]

In my particular case, the best jobs I had also happened to be at places where I could think hard, then go take a walk outside and enjoy the fresh air. Building two at Microsoft was nestled in a sort of mini forest, and taking a jog around that area in the winter was a pleasure almost to good to put into words.

[dleink]

Any recommendations for books on the history of computing from that period?

[tomcam]

Maybe “Fire in the Valley“? I learned to program in the mid-1980s and learned about the culture from dozens of magazines that were published contemporaneously. I didn’t live in Silicon Valley and thought I had pretty much missed the boat so I spent thousands a year in early 1990s dollars to keep up. Then I got to move to Redmond, Washington and actually live it. Working with people I had literally read about was every bit as good as I hoped.

[NegativeLatency]

Not Microsoft but an enjoyable account from that time: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Soul_of_a_New_Machine

[hnthrowaway0328]

Read it twice and really envy these guys! Nowadays there is far less such work and they almost all requre doctors.

[tomcam]

Agreed, that is a good portrait of what it was like

[fuzztester]

that was a good one, although they had a really intense time.

"pinball"

[jtbetz22]

Brian Kernighan's "Unix: A History and a Memoir" is an excellent read on the computer systems achievements of the labs through the eyes of someone who was at the center of it all.

[NegativeLatency]

Byte magazine is also a really interesting read: https://archive.org/details/BYTE-MAGAZINE-COMPLETE

[fuzztester]

hackers: heroes of the computer revolution

by Steven Levy.

I think he also wrote some of the other well known books, maybe including fire in the valley. need to check.

He is a journalist, so the book is sure to be embellished to sound good, but a cool read nonetheless, IMO.

[steven]

No, I didn't write Fire in the Valley, but did write some other books. I appreciate that you felt Hackers was a cool read. But whether you believe me or not, the default for real journalists is NOT embellishing, but doing reporting to get to the nearest thing to truth. Not all writers do that (some "nonfiction" authors are frank about making up dialogue, and even moving the timeline) but to me and the vast majority of my peers, nonfiction means just that.

[tomcam]

Dead to rights. Much of the dialogue sounds like Steven Levy.

[hnthrowaway0328]

Ah, is it possible to share stories from early MSFT days?

[tomcam]

I’m not a nostalgic person, but for some reason I wish irrationally that that Murray Hill building could be preserved as is. I read so much about of it in the history of computing, and just like (from the pictures) the building interior itself so much I just feel like I missed out on some thing not to have been there myself.

I was lucky enough to work at Microsoft in building 2, one of 8 matching buildings from the mid-80s, and it absolutely felt special at the time. In my imagination, it had some of the same vibe as Bell Labs did in its heyday. I was on the Visual Studio team, and great things were happening. I knew it. I also knew that team was special.

No one else in Visual Studio seemed that interested – they were just too busy and I think maybe too young to get it.

Buildings 1-8 were demolished few years ago, but I had been gone from the company for decades by that time. I did grieve a bit.

[polishdude20]

I wonder where can you find those types of places currently?

Places developing the next mRNA vaccines for cancer?

Places developing AI?

Electric cars?

[lgkk]

NASA.

I know a few people who wanted to get away from the FANG hype grind and went to NASA.

They tell me they’re doing actual engineering for engineerings sake. Which sounds great.

Salary obviously not comparable to FANG 400k plus but the satisfaction and pride is well worth the sacrifice to them.

Me and most of my friends are “super American” like I’m an immigrant who wears USA hats and t shirts. I would love to work at NASA once I have established a little place for myself here. I would be so proud to contribute to this country and its success in space and research.

[tomcam]

I think that if you have a PhD in the right field and enough hip publications that many of the FAANG companies still have research teams like that operating in a diminished capacity. It appears to me that many of these positions have been replaced by administrators who are more interested in hiring to a specific set of demographics.

[coliveira]

Have you ever seen something fundamental coming from FAANG? No, and you won't, because what they're doing (even when very technical) is purely for the improvement of their business. Things like AI are coming from smaller groups such as OpenAI, even when backed by big companies like Microsoft.

[pm90]

What are you talking about? All of the basic research around transformers originated at Google.

[nextos]

Perhaps Altos Labs (aging). Perhaps also Isomorphic Labs (protein design) will also become such a place. Both are still quite new.

Microsoft Research is also pivoting into this area.

mRNA designs are still a bit primitive. Moderna and BioNTech resemble corporations, rather than skunkworks.

[foobarian]

I was there for a short time. A cool feature was they had a company hardware store on premises selling all sorts of weird stuff, that you could pay for with your badge and get it deducted from your pay if memory serves. I still have a screwdriver I got there.

[fuzztester]

>I have walked those halls and let me tell you it feels spooky in a good way to know a lot of groundbreaking work was done there.

>Really grand. I can’t imagine what it was like in its heyday.

You may have seen this already, but sharing it for others:

Here is one image from that time, which I had seen sometime earlier:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ken_Thompson_(sitting)_...