Hi there. I was a Noogler in 2005 or so, but it sounds like things haven't changed much, at least on that side.<p>Regarding the stuff you're not supposed to talk about, there are three stages:<p>1. Amazement at how it all works; wanting to go run and tell all your friends.<p>2. Fear that talking about Google's advantages would undermine the company (or your position in it)<p>3. Recognition that nobody would believe you anyway.<p>By the time you've reached (3) you've come to believe that Google is years ahead of anyone else; you've transferred all loyalties to the company; you accept the idea that you're in an elite of humanity.<p>The reality is that while Googlers are very smart, and sometimes not even narrow, a lot of their intellectual qualities are not innate. Mostly it's due to a very severe work ethic and having had the leisure and wealth to pursue a field with single-minded focus since they were in their early teens. And much of this is mere bravado, or habitual oneupmanship learned from Ivy-league American schools. Don't be intimidated, and try not to abandon all your own intellectual standards in favor of Google's.