Morning Mix

Life ‘inside the box': A Google engineer’s home in a truck at company headquarters

By Yanan Wang October 21 at 3:43 AM



The truck-turned-home in question. (Brandon S./Thoughts from Inside the Box)

The benefits of working for Google are no secret to most. A tech workers’ mecca, the search engine giant’s Mountain View, Ca., headquarters is complete with bounteous gourmet offerings and vintage arcade games, in-house hair stylists and a dinosaur fossil.

On the vast expanse that is the corporate campus’s parking lot, a recently-hired young engineer has discovered an additional perk: affordable housing. ... Twenty-three-year-old Brandon S. (he has not disclosed his last name) first encountered the grim reality of Bay Area housing prices when he interned for Google in the summer of 2014. While he opted for the cheapest corporate housing option he could find, he realized he was still spending nearly $100 a night on an apartment he barely used.
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After realizing that he wanted “something more personal” than a van, Brandon opted for a 16? box truck with 128 square feet of room inside — the largest bedroom he’s ever lived in, he noted.

The young software engineer has documented his journey in a blog called “Thoughts from Inside the Box.” In an email to The Washington Post, Brandon called the site “pretty much a source of truth as far as my life is concerned.” With posts detailing a crusade against roving insects, the travails of being parked beside a construction crew and his attempts to keep his lifestyle a secret from colleagues, the blog offers a whimsical look at a truly unorthodox choice.