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Newest coworking space costs just $2.25 an hour, because it is a parking spot

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Re: Newest coworking space costs just $2.25 an hour, because it is a parking spot

#42
post #21

That makes me wonder what else you could repurpose as an office in places where offices are disproportionally expensive. What about a climate-controlled storage unit? A quick Googling tells me you can get a small (but large enough for a desk) climate controlled storage unit in San Fran for about $100-150/month. That's vastly cheaper than a co-working space. I know you can get storage units with power, they're pretty…

But is that legal?

Probably about as legal as setting up office in a street-side parking space...

Re: Newest coworking space costs just $2.25 an hour, because it is a parking spot

#43
In a similar vein I'm working on an idea to monetize cemetery plots and crypts in and around San Francisco. They're quiet workplaces with scenic views (lots of flowers and greenery), often centrally located and many are close to coffee shops. With a little cabling/wiring and some temporary structures they would make ideal workplaces.

Re: Newest coworking space costs just $2.25 an hour, because it is a parking spot

#44
post #9

Welcome to Silicon Valley: where everyone has somehow bamboozled themselves into believing that working in a cramped parking space is more valuable than buying office real estate in LITERALLY any other state... Remember kids: you don’t HAVE to live in California.

One could argue that this is the reason for why it's expensive, to limit the amount of people that can be there. The invisible hand at play.

Re: Newest coworking space costs just $2.25 an hour, because it is a parking spot

#45
post #9

Welcome to Silicon Valley: where everyone has somehow bamboozled themselves into believing that working in a cramped parking space is more valuable than buying office real estate in LITERALLY any other state... Remember kids: you don’t HAVE to live in California.

The irony is that all the companies and startups work on internet companies which could happen anywhere with internet access. It's not like there is a gold mine under San Francisco streets that requires on site mining. And before you say "the people are the gold mine", those people could be interacted with remotely quite easily.

I don't understand the push for remote work.

I have been a part of remote teams for over 11 years of my career (16 yrs). I have worked from home more days than I can count. It has enough drawbacks that I'd avoid it at any given opportunity. Here are a few reasons:

- You are not part of the hallway conversations / decision changes / fly by meetings / face-memory / kitchen run ins and every other benefit of having people together. When your level is senior enough, these are very much a deciding factor in whether your last 6 months of work is going to be thrown out or kept relevant.

- Video conferencing is terrible. If you notice a pattern, the conversation is DOMINATED by the side with most power. I have seen very senior engineers (including myself I suppose) have trouble corralling a meeting / participating in a discussion that's going back and forth animatedly when there are other senior folk in one room. When you are junior, there is a high possibility your chances to speak are just perfunctory because almost all relevant points have been made already.

- Yes I have heard and tried the notions of ensuring meeting etiquette. I have also been part of these meetings where there is someone (or everyone) trying to police how the meeting is run (let everyone speak, juniors go first, go in a circle ...). Those have been considerably less productive to put it mildly. (Remember - I am the one who is remote).

- There are always mic-hogs who don't make a ton of points - most of the efficient places weed these out real quick. In a different rant - I hate optimizing for the bad actors that penalize the good actors heavily. Anyway - in this case you are left with few folks with real talking points not being able to convey the whole nuance.

- Essentially this leads to you doing extra work in ensuring at least some folks on the other side are on the same page before the meeting to ensure your points are considered.

So yes - in short remote is bad IMO. Video conferencing pretty much doesn't work since it doesn't capture the full presence and energy of folks. This is going to sound metaphysical, but my real presence is a million times better representation of the full me than my text/video :). It may work when everyone is remote with an individual screen - the usual situations I am in is where there are 2 or 3 conference rooms with people.

Re: Newest coworking space costs just $2.25 an hour, because it is a parking spot

#46

Has anybody tried to create something like AirBnB for co-working/office spaces? There must be people willing to rent out a spare bedroom they never use, etc. All you really need to provide is a desk and internet.

I always wondered that. I worked at a few places where we ended up with too much space.... seemed wasteful.

You'll want to maybe be a bit careful about who you rent to, but still seems like that would be useful.

Personally I'd be more interested in renting out a small space from a larger company or even campus than one space out of numerous rental spaces where I've got no idea what is going on each day.

Re: Newest coworking space costs just $2.25 an hour, because it is a parking spot

#47
This is a fantastic demonstration of how poorly we manage our streets. There is no doubt in my mind that in the future we will look back at how we currently treat parking and wonder "What took so long?"

I wonder if anyone has ever calculated the amount of actual acreage taken up by street parking in San Francisco. Undoubtedly it's a huge amount that you would consider extremely valuable in a place like San Francisco. Yet we're letting people dump their single passenger vehicles in public and it's no big deal.

Re: Newest coworking space costs just $2.25 an hour, because it is a parking spot

#48

In a similar vein I'm working on an idea to monetize cemetery plots and crypts in and around San Francisco. They're quiet workplaces with scenic views (lots of flowers and greenery), often centrally located and many are close to coffee shops. With a little cabling/wiring and some temporary structures they would make ideal workplaces.

[deleted]

Re: Newest coworking space costs just $2.25 an hour, because it is a parking spot

#49
post #25
post #9

Welcome to Silicon Valley: where everyone has somehow bamboozled themselves into believing that working in a cramped parking space is more valuable than buying office real estate in LITERALLY any other state... Remember kids: you don’t HAVE to live in California.

The other side of the coin is that a lot of very talented people congregate in places like Silicon Valley, so you rule out the potential of hiring/working for/working with them.

There are a lot of very talented people in places like Seattle and Boston, too, and yet the VCs and companies out in SF/SV are stuck in their little bubble.

Re: Newest coworking space costs just $2.25 an hour, because it is a parking spot

#50
post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Met a guy in DC that actually lived inside a warehouse storage unit. He had installed lights, walls for multiple bedrooms, a kitchen/bar, and a lot of cool art. I'm awful at estimating distances but I'd guess the main room was about 800sqft and the bedrooms/bathrooms were divided from another 400sqft. With a little love, any place can become a home.

I haven't ever seem a storage unit with plumbing before...

Water tanks filled from outside and a composting toilet maybe?
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