I was gonna say! Working at Bell Labs is a LOT more prestigious (and less humiliating) than working for Google, an advertising company.
It's like the old joke from Mad Magazine:
The Beatles? Weren't they Paul McCartney's backup band before Wings?
In fairness, was Bell Labs, part of (or funded by) AT&T, a phone monopoly, any less corporate than Google's home for genius engineers?
In fairness, was Bell Labs, part of (or funded by) AT&T, a phone monopoly, any less corporate than Google's home for genius engineers?