Big retailers aren’t the place to go to for really interesting stuff.  Instead, try visiting some antique stores or small shops, where you might find that sort of thing a piece at a time.  But – stay with me here – if “interesting” stuff is usually found in small places, what chance does a gigantic corporation have of keeping that trait as part of its culture?

Well, Robert Weisman investigated that question as it applies to Google (so substitute “quirky” for “interesting”), and he seems to have found that the odds – despite Google’s best wishes – are pretty slim.

Indeed, one of the stars of Weisman’s article was Charles O’Reilly, a Stanford professor, and O’Reilly appeared to feel that Google’s reign of fun is doomed.  “You have to wonder, when a company’s adding people as fast as Google, how they’re going to control it,” he said.

O’Reilly then continued, “We’ve seen this movie before. . . .  At this growth rate, how long will it take before Google owns the whole world?  Well, that won’t happen.  So at some point they’ll have to slow down.”

That’s undoubtedly true, and Weisman reports that some Googlers are already holding meetings about how to keep up the “fun and innovation.”  Still, Google’s put on a pretty fair balancing act so far.  If the company can keep it up, I think everybody will be too busy eating free food and petting their dogs to complain.