The story of the ‘secret’ room at Pixar, frequented by Steve Jobs

The story of the ‘secret’ room at Pixar, frequented by Steve Jobs(thenextweb.com)

147 points by adahm 14 years ago | 22 comments

jwr 14 years ago |

This is a story from TheNextWeb. Isn't that the same outfit that has been recently exposed for Plagiarism: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3972651 while their CEO defended their behavior?

The story made it to the top of HN and earned an insane number of upvotes.

Is our memory really that short? Do we trust this story? Do we even want to read it?

TazeTSchnitzel 14 years ago | |

Well, here it is from the horse's mouth itself (Pixar): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VMrk_wyWM1w

brokentone 14 years ago | |

Alternate sources:

Video from the Monster's Inc bonus DVD: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHPZMIAhpqs&t=44s

And here is a more recent NYT video with a peek at the space (3:39) http://vimeo.com/19789693

abcd_f 14 years ago | |

> Do we trust this story?

Trust is not an issue. The issue is that every upvote is an implicit endorsement. One either was indeed despised with their sleazy behavior last week, or it was a just a good old fun of crowd lynching and me-too outrage.

far33d 14 years ago |

As I remember it, the love lounge and the lucky 7 are different rooms. When Animation moved to another part of the building and Andrew got a new office, he built lucky 7 and the love lounge stayed intact.

I sat in the office next to the love lounge for over a year. Great way to see all the celebrities visiting the studio.

ryguytilidie 14 years ago |

I'm always surprised I've never heard anything about the similar room at Facebook's old California ave. hq. There was a secret door in the basement to a small "situation room" type place.

pemulis 14 years ago | |

Do you know if anybody has pictures? That sounds interesting.

k-mcgrady 14 years ago | | |

I remember seeing a photo of it once when they were about to launch a new product. I can't seem to find it but I think Robert Scoble took it so try his Flickr account.

Edit: Here is the photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/scobleizer/5179450270/

Scoble calls it the War Room but I presume it's the same place. More here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/scobleizer/tags/facebook/

ryguytilidie 14 years ago | | |

I wish. The story with me was that I had already quit to go to another startup. I knew there was a rumor about a secret room so I decided to go look for it. I found it and it was pretty awesome. Maybe 10 Aeron chairs around a glass and metal table with 3-4 50" LED-TVs on the wall. Wish I had taken a picture but I was already pretty nervous I was somewhere I wasn't supposed to be.

untog 14 years ago |

Call me cynical, but I wonder if this would have the same number of points if Steve Jobs not namechecked in the title. I imagine a bunch of startups knocking holes in their walls first thing tomorrow morning.

nopassrecover 14 years ago | |

Namedropping Pixar was probably sufficient

astrodust 14 years ago | |

Panic Software already blogged about theirs and it's just as awesome: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ldandersen/3272600774/

joshu 14 years ago |

I HAVE BEEN IN THIS ROOM. WHOO!

owyn 14 years ago | |

I have too! It's kind of the worst kept secret... Personally I'd be sort of annoyed at people wandering through my office all the time to show it off when I wasn't there, it's a great example of the creativity of the people who work there. Lots of the cubes are decorated to the extreme...

ayuvar 14 years ago |

Every building should have a secret room or two. There must be square miles worth of "wasted" interior room just like this in your average city.

Find it before the urbex/hobos do!

joezydeco 14 years ago | |

Not to be a party pooper, but firefighters hate these things, especially when people build them into their houses for kids. They get skipped over when searching for people in a burning building.

splatzone 14 years ago |

This is really cool, but is it legal to do something like this in an office space? Just thinking about health and safety, accessibility etc. Would love to be enlightened.

God I'm such a bore.

riffic 14 years ago |

DreamWorks Animation also has a Secret Room, in the Lakeside building on their Glendale campus.

jcatena 14 years ago |

I wonder whether this inspired the low access tunnel in Being John Malkovich?

knes 14 years ago |

Slow new day?