"Oddly enough, I can't find any mention of the 20% time benefit listed on the current Google jobs page, but it's an integral part of Google's culture." I don't find this odd at all. They're downplaying it, and I wouldn't be surprised if they're phasing it out entirely. All the Google people I know barely have time for it any more. They call it "120% time" -- what you do after you work a full week, if you want to stay late. I don't know of anyone who's spent a full day a week on a personal project, even once, in the past 5 years. While we were watching, Google became a Big Company, with all the good and bad that comes with that. Due to mergers and splits, "HP" today isn't the same company as "HP" in 1939, but I'd be surprised if either HP or Agilent still had something similar. I think 10%/15%/20%/hack time is very important for new ideas, but it seems that the ingredients you identify as crucial for its success are fundamentally incompatible with Big Company culture.