My favorite observation of his was that in Germany, he would arrive at work, go to his cubicle, work until 4pm, and then go and get beers with his coworkers until 7pm, when they would go home to their partners.

In SV, he would come in, we would socialize, he would work, we'd have lunch and drink a beer, do some work, take a break for some beer, so some work, and then have a beer at work before heading home at 7pm to our partners.

We'd get the same amount of work done, and the same amount of socializing, but it would all be done at work.

He never understood why we would want to do that, and not just work all day and then leave to socialize.