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

How Restaurants Got So Loud

theatlantic.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

161–170 of 319 posts

Re: How Restaurants Got So Loud

#161

Post by naravara »

matthewheath wrote: post #38
probably_wrong wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree with cars being the problem. I only thought about that when I learned that laws were drafted to force electric cars to make noise - for a brief couple of seconds I realised how different the world would be if all cars were silent... and then I got my hopes crushed. I truly cannot picture what life would be like without car noise and light pollution.

In the UK at least, there's a good reason behind the law. Electric cars are required to make noise so that visually impaired people know a car is approaching.

They already make plenty of road noise just from the friction of the tires. If visually impaired people can't hear it, then it's likely because of all the OTHER sources of noise pollution around them.

Re: How Restaurants Got So Loud

#162

Post by thom »

eponeponepon wrote: post #104
JohnBooty wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah that's kind of the problem with this entire discussion. People are discussing entirely different sorts of libraries.

Well, no. People are trying to draw a functional distinction between two types of libraries that isn't really there. First, old-fashioned academic libraries existed; later, public lending libraries existed, but only because various people noticed that the existence of academic libraries was a good thing thing that should be more widely accessible to people outside academia and/or religious institutions. At no point h…

Except for now.

Re: How Restaurants Got So Loud

#163

Post by Spivak »

err4nt wrote: post #133
jlokier wrote: post #108

There's an ice cream and bagel place in town. In the late evening it's consistently packed with people on their laptops or reading books. One day I noticed the music was much louder than usual, and asked the staff to turn it down. I figured it was a mistake because it was normally much quieter. They told me this was the new company policy. To set the music uncomfortably loud to make people leave, after finishing thei…

It's funny how obvious some people make it that they don't want business. I don't really care about power plugs or wifi when I visit a café (my battery running out is a great motivator + natural time limit, I can tether to my phone for internet) but I always pay close attention to how a new café is outfitted. Some cafés that genuinely want your business make plugs available to the customers, some will even go as far…

I think this is a very uncharitable view of the situation. Some coffee shops don't want to pivot into coworking spaces and that's okay. Personally I think it's a match made in heaven since a day pass at a nice coworking space is around $10 which is like two drinks but I get that some businesses would prefer to just sell coffee.

Re: How Restaurants Got So Loud

#164

Post by naravara »

mcv wrote: post #96

There's a really nice restaurant in our neighbourhood, with amazing food, and you need to reserve a couple days in advance. But whenever we go there, it's ridiculously noisy. They went for a bare stone industrial look, and that clearly doesn't dampen any sound, so you end up hearing everybody in the restaurant all at once. But we are also to blame; when we bought our house, we removed some walls to let more light in,…

>We've got a neighbour who works in a sound studio and advised us on some sound absorbing panels, but they don't really fit in our interior

Can't you just mount them on a wall or ceiling?

Otherwise you can do lots of good by just putting down rugs or hanging woven artwork. Plants work too

Re: How Restaurants Got So Loud

#165

Post by apacheCamel »

erikpukinskis wrote: post #146
apacheCamel wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel like this is a very negative way to view the situation. Libraries should totally be "fun". It should be "fun" to go and find a book that you enjoy or just spend time reading in an area dedicated to the love of books. It shouldn't be a place to just drop the kids off and leave, but it should be a place kids want to go. Reading can be fun and I almost feel like it is a "trendy thing" of my generation (Millennial…

Where have you seen the reading hate trend?

I should have made it more clear that it was in my own personal experience. Many of the kids from my highschool or even as late as the people I am still in contact with from college. Many are astonished I own a bookshelf full of books and actually read from it. I am pretty sure there is no real relation here, but I would like to compare it to how the same set of people feel about math. They have an assumption that it is boring and not fun so they actively avoid it.

Re: How Restaurants Got So Loud

#166

Post by leetcrew »

School-Cotton wrote: post #81
mikewhy wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, it's important to the restaurant to know if your meal is okay while there's still a chance to do something about it. It's also a chance to ask for anything else without a restaurant of people flagging down the wait staff.

Somehow other cultures (IME: China, many parts of Europe, Korea) do fine with people being expected to flag down wait staff when they want to talk to them.

interrupt and polling based models each have their own pros and cons. neither is inherently better than the other.

Re: How Restaurants Got So Loud

#167

Post by paulsutter »

rhacker wrote: post #147
jtreminio wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honest question, have you considered it might be on purpose so you are not using Starbucks as your personal office?

It seems a bit strange that they encourage laptop usage at Starbucks then if they don't want people to use it as an office. The have laptop plug in ports at special bars and tables all over the place.

Likely they want to be a reliable stop for business travelers, but they don’t want you parking at a table for 8 hours everyday.

Re: How Restaurants Got So Loud

#168

Post by keithpeter »

amluto wrote: post #138
err4nt wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's funny how obvious some people make it that they don't want business. I don't really care about power plugs or wifi when I visit a café (my battery running out is a great motivator + natural time limit, I can tether to my phone for internet) but I always pay close attention to how a new café is outfitted. Some cafés that genuinely want your business make plugs available to the customers, some will even go as far…

In Palo Alto, there’s a cafe (more or less) call Hana House that has three big sections. One of those sections is very comfy, quiet, has proper acoustic design, lots of outlets, and, gasp charges for time. It’s actually a fairly nice model. If you want to work in someone’s commercial space, paying for it is entirely reasonable.

Strikes me as a sensible business model if you can actually cover the recurring costs by getting enough people in. UK version...

https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2014/jan/08/pay-per-minut...

London: https://london.ziferblat.net/

Manchester: https://www.ziferblat.co.uk/

8p/min = £4.80 per hour. Bearing in mind I'd pay £5 for coffee and a cake in many places that seems reasonable.

UK: many public access spaces have places to sit and public wifi (e.g. central reference library, University buildings, some City Council buildings &c)

Re: How Restaurants Got So Loud

#169

Post by jlokier »

err4nt wrote: post #133
jlokier wrote: post #108

There's an ice cream and bagel place in town. In the late evening it's consistently packed with people on their laptops or reading books. One day I noticed the music was much louder than usual, and asked the staff to turn it down. I figured it was a mistake because it was normally much quieter. They told me this was the new company policy. To set the music uncomfortably loud to make people leave, after finishing thei…

It's funny how obvious some people make it that they don't want business. I don't really care about power plugs or wifi when I visit a café (my battery running out is a great motivator + natural time limit, I can tether to my phone for internet) but I always pay close attention to how a new café is outfitted. Some cafés that genuinely want your business make plugs available to the customers, some will even go as far…

Some places are more explicit. There's a "no laptops" café movement now.

One where I live has a "no laptops at mealtimes" sign. If you get out a laptop, they ask you to leave. If you come during a quiet period, get out a laptop, and are still using it when reaches a mealtime, they ask you to put it away.

To be fair they do really good food, it's always packed at mealtimes, and they explain their policy is because they want to make a place where people appreciate food and conversation.

I like them and wouldn't want them to shut down.

Another place doesn't have a sign. I sat down and ordered a proper meal. Then I got my laptop out. I needed to work for the next couple of hours. Table space wasn't a problem, and it wasn't an especially posh place.

After I'd been working for 20 minutes, a waiter came over to tell me I'd have to put the laptop away. After a rather awkward conversation we agreed I could cancel my already ordered (and presumably partly cooked) meal, because I'd have to go and find another restaurant.

I won't mind so much if that one is replaced.

Re: How Restaurants Got So Loud

#170

Post by Kurtz79 »

err4nt wrote: post #133
jlokier wrote: post #108

There's an ice cream and bagel place in town. In the late evening it's consistently packed with people on their laptops or reading books. One day I noticed the music was much louder than usual, and asked the staff to turn it down. I figured it was a mistake because it was normally much quieter. They told me this was the new company policy. To set the music uncomfortably loud to make people leave, after finishing thei…

It's funny how obvious some people make it that they don't want business. I don't really care about power plugs or wifi when I visit a café (my battery running out is a great motivator + natural time limit, I can tether to my phone for internet) but I always pay close attention to how a new café is outfitted. Some cafés that genuinely want your business make plugs available to the customers, some will even go as far…

If by "business" you mean buying a coffee in exchange of several hours of free internet, electricity and real estate, then it is sort of understandable why many places don't encourage this kind of "business".

Some places do, and you have all the reasons in the world to favor these places as they match your needs, but it seems kind of silly expecting that every place should cater to every type of customer.

Post reply on HN