No. Its like trying to work in the middle of a prison cafeteria.
Ask HN: Do you enjoy working in a coworking space?
11–20 of 162 posts
Re: Ask HN: Do you enjoy working in a coworking space?
#12I dislike coworking spaces. For a solo developer, they offer a lot of distraction. You're stuck in one place which defeats the purpose of getting out of the house for inspiration. For a team, it becomes very hard to create company culture. It feels like you're an empire without a fortress. I'd rent an apartment over a coworking any day for the team. What I now tend to prefer are other cafes frequented by other design…
>> These clubs offer a lot of stimulus for freelancers and you're surrounded by people of various different fields, which sparks interesting discussions.
Could you elaborate on how cafes frequented by other designers and developers, or even private member clubs, differ from coworking spaces? I'm ignorant and am unclear how coworking spaces would not also offer a lot of stimulus for freelancers and not let you be surrounded by people of various different fields, which sparks interesting discussions.
It seems like the distractions are the same, just in one locale, the distractions are attractive, while in the other locale, the distractions are not attractive, and I'm not clear why this would be the case.
Re: Ask HN: Do you enjoy working in a coworking space?
#13I don't really enjoy working anywhere.
Re: Ask HN: Do you enjoy working in a coworking space?
#14Earlier quoted context omitted.
As a cafe customer however it's irritating that you're taking up space for someone who'd like to sit down and drink their coffee. Or to put it another way: you're saving yourself money but (potentially) at the expense of the cafe owner who loses walk-in customers b/c his place is filled with barely-paying squatters.
I often use a cafe which is focused on playing tabletop games etc. Food/drink is extremely overpriced but with the understanding that you're really buying time and they just have a "don't be a dick" rule that you really ought to be buying something ~once/hr
> buying something ~once/hr
what do you buy? 8 lattes or 8 pastries a day, every day, doesn't sound healthy...
Re: Ask HN: Do you enjoy working in a coworking space?
#15No. It sucks but I make do with headphones.
WeWork is the noisiest fuckig shit show in existence.
Re: Ask HN: Do you enjoy working in a coworking space?
#16I tend to prefer cafes over co-working spaces, because I get about the same value (maybe even better coffee!), but at a much lower price.
As a cafe customer however it's irritating that you're taking up space for someone who'd like to sit down and drink their coffee. Or to put it another way: you're saving yourself money but (potentially) at the expense of the cafe owner who loses walk-in customers b/c his place is filled with barely-paying squatters.
Naturally this will devolve into an argument over an apples-to-oranges comparison.
Some cafés are usually busy, and there is social pressure to not be taking up space for other paying customers.
Some cafés are not very busy, and having some remote workers inside will at least make it look like a functioning business, attracting other paying customers.
It’s up to the remote worker to use some discretion in assessing the situation of the café they’re frequenting.
Re: Ask HN: Do you enjoy working in a coworking space?
#17I tend to prefer cafes over co-working spaces, because I get about the same value (maybe even better coffee!), but at a much lower price.
As a cafe customer however it's irritating that you're taking up space for someone who'd like to sit down and drink their coffee. Or to put it another way: you're saving yourself money but (potentially) at the expense of the cafe owner who loses walk-in customers b/c his place is filled with barely-paying squatters.
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Re: Ask HN: Do you enjoy working in a coworking space?
#18This is in response to ordinaryperson's comment but I wanted to write it as a top level answer. Working from cafes can be awesome but make sure you're not a leech. My "decent cafe' customer checklist" is the following:
- Take the smallest available space (usually a table for 2 but they'll take the chair away for another table). - Buy at least 1 coffee (even the cheapest they have, espressos are usually ~2 euros) every 2 hours. - Buy lunch if possible. - Tip or write good reviews whenever you can. - Befriend workers/owner. - If they ask you to leave just leave, it's within their rights to do so.
Where I live the average price of a coworking space is 200 eur/month (hot desk). That's 10 eur/day (working days only). If you stay in the same cafe for 4-5 hours (which often is more than enough) you'll probably spend less (unless you always take a MochaPumpkinSpiceChristmasEasterChocolateCherryMatchaLatte).
It's really not that hard to be a decent customer. The only places I don't apply the checklist to are big chains (Starbucks, Costa, etc.). But they won't mind. I worked from countless cafes and never had a single complaint.
Once I worked in the same cafe for 2 months straight. After a couple of weeks the owner would literally invite me to stay as long as I wanted without even worrying about ordering anything. Regular customers really are an asset to a small business.
Plus another customer has no way of knowing how long someone was in the cafe' and he/she should be annoyed with all customers, not just the ones who have a laptop open.
--
TL;DR: be a decent customer and nobody will get mad at you for bootstrapping your startup from a cafe'.
Re: Ask HN: Do you enjoy working in a coworking space?
#19I dislike coworking spaces. For a solo developer, they offer a lot of distraction. You're stuck in one place which defeats the purpose of getting out of the house for inspiration. For a team, it becomes very hard to create company culture. It feels like you're an empire without a fortress. I'd rent an apartment over a coworking any day for the team. What I now tend to prefer are other cafes frequented by other design…
>> These clubs offer a lot of stimulus for freelancers and you're surrounded by people of various different fields, which sparks interesting discussions. Could you elaborate on how cafes frequented by other designers and developers, or even private member clubs, differ from coworking spaces? I'm ignorant and am unclear how coworking spaces would not also offer a lot of stimulus for freelancers and not let you be surr…
Because coworking spaces are full of employees of other companies, while working cafes are usually solo people working in super focussed fashion. There's no foosball table. No startup kool-aid. It's the same with private members clubs. Usually it is the founders, investors, lawyers, reasonably successful people in whatever field they work in. The networking opportunity is immense, and it's usually a better atmosphere.
I'm sure a coworking space could maybe screen their candidates and employ a deep work culture. But so far they are focussed on free coffee, big TVs with Playstations, beer on tap and ping pong tables.
Re: Ask HN: Do you enjoy working in a coworking space?
#20I tend to prefer cafes over co-working spaces, because I get about the same value (maybe even better coffee!), but at a much lower price.
I like to go to a coffee from time to time and somedays work alone at home or so, but one of the things I like on coworking spaces is that you can usually have a desk with a monitor, keyboard, mouse, etc. not being limited to work on your notebook's screen/keyboard.
Another nice issue is that you also usually can use meeting rooms for video-conferences or even receive a client/partner.
A minus from coworking spaces is that your subject to its own environment, sometimes you have to much noise and so on... for instance, the place were I use to stay is excellent but they have the radio on all day, what sometimes annoys me!
Summing up, I like to have a desk on a cowork which I use most of the days but also being able to work sometimes alone at home or on a coffee and even on a client's office, together with the client/team.