Remembering GitHub's Office

GitHub's San Francisco headquarters, with its replica Oval Office, symbolized a tech culture now ending as the company closes its offices, but tech's core values remain worth applying to major social problems. GitHub, acquired by Microsoft in 2018, announced in February that it would lay off 10 percent of its employees and shut all offices when leases expired. The 55,000-square-foot office opened in 2013, and its Oval Office rug reading "In Meritocracy We Trust" was replaced after staff debated the word. Tech's best qualities, such as challenging institutional roadblocks, could address housing, public health, and education.