Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

What to Do When Laptops and Silence Take Over Your Cafe?

nytimes.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

131–140 of 315 posts

Re: What to Do When Laptops and Silence Take Over Your Cafe?

#131

Post by ratsimihah »

taneq wrote: post #2

How common is it for people to do actual, regular, serious work at coffee shops and the like? I've tried a couple of times and I always feel like such a pretentious wanker when I pull out a laptop and start working on stuff, like I'm somehow broadcasting "oh look at me, I work remotely, aren't I special?"

If you're feeling self-conscious, it's in your head though, isn't it? I feel like it's not that hard to just sit there and do your work, minding your own business.

Sure, it personally makes me feel anti-social, but when I do hang out with people at coffe shops and see someone else work, I do know how they feel and won't judge.

And yea, I've done some pretty good "work" at coffee shops, where I didn't have the distraction of super high bandwidth and playing games at home. And as others have pointed out, being around people is fun, even when you're not interacting with them, though that doesn't relate to your point.

Re: What to Do When Laptops and Silence Take Over Your Cafe?

#132

Post by pferde »

craigds wrote: post #101

When I work from cafés I try to spend at least a few € every two hours, and avoid places that are overly busy (I don't like noise, but also if there's spare seats then I'm not costing anyone customers by sitting in one all day). Feels like common sense really - don't be an asshole.

Sadly, the always useful "don't be a douche" rule of thumb is something that very few people internalize lately.

Re: What to Do When Laptops and Silence Take Over Your Cafe?

#133

Post by keypress »

xxs wrote: post #42
keypress wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Local coworking haunt (UK) is about £20 per day or more. That equates to about 10 coffees. Or 6 coffees, 1 soup and 1 cake. Which starts to make the cafe more appealing.

If a cafe is making 20 pounds a day per table before VAT, rent and any other expense/tax, they will be out of business.

Agree. We ran a cafe (in the UK South-East) (or rather me being the kitchen hand...), started out enthusiastically with the aim to please and make and serve nice food and drink, then the realisation kicked in that selling beer and quicker table turnaround was more profitable. We still sank. (Small premises mind.)

Re: What to Do When Laptops and Silence Take Over Your Cafe?

#134

Post by eeZah7Ux »

archagon wrote: post #91
therealmarv wrote: post #14

No power plugs (I think most effective) & time limited Wifi. A cafe is not a coworking space although when beeing in USA or more specifically in SF I have the feeling people think it's the same.

Plenty of cafes in SF and the Bay Area actively encourage laptop use. (Rows of outlets, large tables, not a peep from the staff.) In practice, most people seem to leave within an hour, so it's kind of a moot point.

moot? Using and charging your laptop and phone for one hour can be very practical.

Re: What to Do When Laptops and Silence Take Over Your Cafe?

#135

Post by tonyedgecombe »

chrisseaton wrote: post #125
tonyedgecombe wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've walked past cafes that have no seats available because they are full of people with laptops, they have lost my business because they don't enforce any rules.

I don’t get it. Those people shouldn’t sit at the tables... because you want to be sitting at the tables instead?

Traffic, would you rather have four customers using a table in an hour or just one?

Re: What to Do When Laptops and Silence Take Over Your Cafe?

#136

Post by hux_ »

dazc wrote: post #107
hux_ wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That and find a good library. Libraries are designed for people to focus. Cafes are not.

I guess your not in the UK? Libraries here are not quiet places anymore. Wi-fi often sucks too.

You are not trying hard enough. I was at Trinity College Library, Dublin a few months back. There are few spaces that are more peaceful and inspiring to work in than that one.

You have to understand that cafés like churches or pubs or the town square have traditionally been designed as the "The Third Space" in people's lives behind home and work. It were community building happen. It's designed for that, not for work. Howard Schultz founder of Starbucks tried to bring this to the US where he felt people were loosing touch with those community spaces but still had/felt a need for them. It has been very successful for his company to tap into that need. But on the flip side lot of misguided notions have developed in peoples(cafe owners/patrons) heads about what that third space is for or why they need it.

Re: What to Do When Laptops and Silence Take Over Your Cafe?

#137

Post by wjh_ »

There's a place I often visit in Shoreditch called Ziferblat[0], and I think that they have something of a solution to this (they have other places too).

Essentially, you are charged for your time and everything else is free. Presently I think it's about 7p per minute for the first hour, and then 4p a minute afterwards - there's also a cap.

While in there, coffee, snacks, etc, are all "free".

Perhaps this sort of model could work? Obviously if you're not willing to kick out all the remote workers. I guess this turns it into more of a coworking space though.

[0]: http://www.ziferblat.co.uk/

Re: What to Do When Laptops and Silence Take Over Your Cafe?

#138

Post by golergka »

Anticafes. I was lucky enough to visit one of the first one (the whole idea originated in Moscow), and it's a wonderful cost-effective answer to the traditional idea of a cafe: just charge visitors for time on a fixed scale and provide all the snacks, beverages and entertainment for free.

Re: What to Do When Laptops and Silence Take Over Your Cafe?

#139

Post by lloeki »

wjh_ wrote: post #137

There's a place I often visit in Shoreditch called Ziferblat[0], and I think that they have something of a solution to this (they have other places too). Essentially, you are charged for your time and everything else is free. Presently I think it's about 7p per minute for the first hour, and then 4p a minute afterwards - there's also a cap. While in there, coffee, snacks, etc, are all "free". Perhaps this sort of mod…

A similar place has opened over here. Billed by the hour or day.

https://www.anticafe.eu/strasbourg

Re: What to Do When Laptops and Silence Take Over Your Cafe?

#140

Post by chrisseaton »

tonyedgecombe wrote: post #135
chrisseaton wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t get it. Those people shouldn’t sit at the tables... because you want to be sitting at the tables instead?

Traffic, would you rather have four customers using a table in an hour or just one?

I think you're just assuming a lot - about how many coffees they'll buy and how profitable these people are.

But we don't even have to guess. Big businesses that are very careful about monitoring things like this, such as Starbucks, actively encourage laptops (with tons of power, wifi, rows of single-person desk tables) so maybe your intuition about what is profitable is just wrong? I mean you've thought about it for ten minutes and were already coming into the situation annoyed because you want to sit down and someone else was there, and Starbucks are running this business full time with I would guess people dedicated to thinking about this kind of thing.

I'm more inclined to believe their reasoning on it.

Post reply on HN