301–310 of 315 posts
They also have a game cafe where you pay $5 an hour to sit and play board games. I’ve never seen anyone whip out their laptop instead but that would be a pretty cheap coworking option.
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free wifi to freeloaders who aren't students though?
Sure. My university has unsecured 100+ Mbps up/down and free access to libraries during the workday. Other universities I know of (USA) are the same.
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Reality is nobody cares about you in the (semi-)public. Unless you of cause go really crazy. Determine your actions based on the imaginary judgement of completely random strangers is going to serverely limit the way you live your life.
> Reality is nobody cares about you in the (semi-)public. Unless you of cause go really crazy. A few people have been saying that. But, how can you possibly know? It sounds like a platitude one tells themselves in order to not feel self-conscious, rather than an actual discernable fact.
I don't work in coffee shops - or drink coffee for that matter - but I do take long lunches at times at restaurants just to just take a break during the middle of the day and take my iPad and go through my RSS aggregator. There is something relaxing about the combination of being around other people and still not having to interact with them. I don't get it either. It's the same way about going to the gym. On one han…
> RSS aggregator Why do you still choose to use them today?
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> RSS aggregator Why do you still choose to use them today?
It's a nice way to aggregate content creators who have good, but sparse or irregular posts - i.e. where it wouldn't be useful to pull every single one of them to see if there's anything new, you just have a single "inbox" for that, curated down so that it's not too much to read everything.
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?"
> 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?" This though can be turned around easily: that the one feeling that way is self-centered and believes unknown people in a cafe care about what he "broadcasts" when he uses his laptop. What makes he believe…
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Or just set a purchase minimum. Must buy $x worth of stuff for every few hours you spend there. Seems fair. Cafes aren't your free all-day office offering complimentary wifi for the price of a $2 coffee, they're businesses trying to make money to pay their rent.
Maybe you could have a wifi system that disconnects after a set time period. Buy something and your code gets renewed.
I work in cafes a lot and have my own code of conduct: - Don't work in a place that's really busy. If it becomes busy, I'll wrap up and move somewhere else. - Buy something at least every 2 hours. If I've had too many coffees, then decaf at least, or a pastry. Spend around $5 each time. - Tip! (Where appropriate). I like to add $1 for each purchase. - Get to know the employees. Learn their names and greet them.
Buying something every 2 hours seems excessive and expensive. I agree about the tipping well part.
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I don't think it's the silence the owners really care about, it's more that people aren't paying and they hog the seats all day for the price of a $2 coffee.
Charge them, or install some kind of time limiting then. Cafes here either charge at least $5 for a coffee (note that wage in Taiwan is about half than the US), or would ask you to leave if you stay for 2 hours (they will tell you first, of course). If this is what the owner really cares about, I feel the article is solving the wrong problem.
True, but then again the hallmark of NYTimes aspirational twee writing is to harp on some wannabe hipster psuedo-retro twee bs - "Cafes are too silent!! People aren't interacting in social old fashioned ways! Nobody makes 3-week brine horseradish pickles anymore except for this one Fort Point Hassid who only works on the 8th Tuesday of the Month!!!" while simultaneously ignoring the common sense factors (Cafe owners are losing $$ because people use their cafes as free office space, and horseradish pickles be gross).
Weird how HN is very libertarian and supportive of the idea business owners should be able to set rules in their business... until it interferes with them parking for 5 hours with a 3 dollar Americano.