WeWork isn’t a tech company; it’s a soap opera • Hacker News Board

Re: WeWork isn’t a tech company; it’s a soap opera

#171

Post by freehunter » Thu, Aug 15, 2019, 9:17 PM UTC

kasey_junk wrote: post #170

freehunter wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I live in the Midwest. There are two locations in Detroit, 12 centered in downtown Chicago, and one in Columbus. That's it for the entire Midwest.

They have Indianapolis, Minneapolis, St. Louis & Kansas City locations as well.

St Louis and Indianapolis are listed on their website as "coming soon". That still leaves Madison and Milwaukee WI, Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo, and Lansing MI, Cincinnati, Akron, Cleveland, and Toledo OH, Louisville KY, Springfield IL, South Bend IN, I could keep going.

All of those cities each have multiple co-working spaces so the market is there.

Re: WeWork isn’t a tech company; it’s a soap opera

#172

Post by treve » Thu, Aug 15, 2019, 9:27 PM UTC

tedivm wrote: post #7

For the number of engineers they have you'd think they'd have figured out how to build a decent wifi network with some actual security in it. Instead every WeWork has the same password for the wifi (literally a variant on `P@ssw0rd`) and it is super easy to spy on other people's connections. The hilarious thing is they actually built a secure wifi network for their staff, so they clearly recognize the need. They also…

You need some password to have encryption at all. This is just a better alternative to open networks with captive portals.

I think it's perfectly fine to expect some risk connecting to someone else's network. At least they didn't make it an open network. If you're a person that wouldn't connect to the internet in a cafe without a VPN, you shouldn't either at a WeWork.

Re: WeWork isn’t a tech company; it’s a soap opera

#173

Post by jngreenlee » Thu, Aug 15, 2019, 9:28 PM UTC

freehunter wrote: post #115

roland35 wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It seems like their isn't much benefit to brand loyalty here - I would imagine it is easy to simply do a google search for a short term work place in a new city if you need a change of scenery from the coffee shop!

I think it would be amazing to see a co-working brand have locations absolutely everywhere, like 24 hour gyms. One price gets you into any of them and they're all the same. It would help with customer retention because they've already paid $300/mo to get in, so if they move or travel they're not paying someone else. They're sticking with you. I'm surprised WeWork locations are so few and far between, while Snap Fitne…

You're almost describing Regus Not 100%, but close.

Re: WeWork isn’t a tech company; it’s a soap opera

#174

Post by dankohn1 » Thu, Aug 15, 2019, 9:30 PM UTC

geofft wrote: post #150

bspammer wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Application layer security doesn't just mean VPNs. What websites are you connecting to with sensitive information that don't use HTTPS with HSTS preload nowadays?

Here's one from just yesterday: the password reset form for sched.com, which the Linux Foundation uses for schedules, is HTTP. I had to follow this link to upload my slides for a talk I'm giving at a LF conference next week. Yes, the ideal, which we should all be actively working towards, is HTTPS. That doesn't mean that the world is already there.

Note that Let's Encrypt, which is making universal https possible, is also part of the Linux Foundation.

I was going to complain to sched.com for you, but I can't replicate the problem:

https://ossna19.sched.com/password-reset is the default and http://ossna19.sched.com/password-reset redirects to it.

(I work for the Linux Foundation.)

Re: WeWork isn’t a tech company; it’s a soap opera

#175

Post by pgroves » Thu, Aug 15, 2019, 9:31 PM UTC

SamWhited wrote: post #86

jdhawk wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or they should create a network (like Free ATMs) and allow roaming to a limited extent.

I always liked this idea and wish the https://www.atlantacoworking.club/ or similar clubs, collectives, or co-ops would do something similar (instead of it being run by any individual coworking space).

Deskpass.com lets you drop into any coworking space in their network. It looks like they are up to 11 cities. You pay a subscription and then the coworking spaces get a flat fee for the day when you actually show up to their space.

Re: WeWork isn’t a tech company; it’s a soap opera

#176

Post by johannes1234321 » Thu, Aug 15, 2019, 9:32 PM UTC

hinkley wrote: post #162

rhinoceraptor wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Gyms have many more members than capacity. They would have to dramatically raise the price if people actually used their memberships. OTOH co-working spaces likely have much higher utilization since pretty much everyone goes to work.

Not only that, for the people who do show, they are expected to be there less than 1/5th as long as a WeWork member would show up. So now you're well above an order of magnitude difference in occupancy rates.

The 1/5th as long isn't as relevant as the peak - I guess gyms have a peak in the evening after working hours. Duringnthe peaknit doesn't matter if people stay half an hour or four hours ...

Re: WeWork isn’t a tech company; it’s a soap opera

#177

Post by draw_down » Thu, Aug 15, 2019, 9:34 PM UTC

vanadium wrote: post #130

ZainRiz wrote: post #101

@patio11 is a huge fans of their business model: "I think this and remote work are the best bull case for WeWork. In 2025, every Fortune 500 company will have 10k+ remote workers, and every purchasing department will approve a reimbursement for WeWork with no questions asked." https://twitter.com/patio11/status/1161796809741627392

> "[...] every purchasing department will approve a reimbursement for WeWork with no questions asked." I think this is just a smidge over-optimistic, considering what I know of finance teams at companies I've worked at, past and present. Here in Midwest population centers, remote work is starting to become more widely adopted from a "work from home" perspective. The moment there's an expense report attached to pay fo…

Yeah, discussions of remote work almost always overlook this. Companies are absolutely going to use it to offload office costs onto employees. Working from home already does that.

Re: WeWork isn’t a tech company; it’s a soap opera

#178

Post by fs111 » Thu, Aug 15, 2019, 9:38 PM UTC

tictoc wrote: post #83

UncleMeat wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wifi is largely insecure anyway. You should largely assume that the network is malicious no matter what and just rely on application layer security.

What VPNs should one be using? Should I create my own because what's the guarantee of a vpn actually being trustworthy?

https://github.com/trailofbits/algo is pretty good for self hosted

Re: WeWork isn’t a tech company; it’s a soap opera

#179

Post by jmhnilbog » Thu, Aug 15, 2019, 9:42 PM UTC

freehunter wrote: post #115

roland35 wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It seems like their isn't much benefit to brand loyalty here - I would imagine it is easy to simply do a google search for a short term work place in a new city if you need a change of scenery from the coffee shop!

I think it would be amazing to see a co-working brand have locations absolutely everywhere, like 24 hour gyms. One price gets you into any of them and they're all the same. It would help with customer retention because they've already paid $300/mo to get in, so if they move or travel they're not paying someone else. They're sticking with you. I'm surprised WeWork locations are so few and far between, while Snap Fitne…

If only everything could be homogenous everywhere, so the very few people who have the opportunity to work wherever they like could avoid momentary inconveniences!

Re: WeWork isn’t a tech company; it’s a soap opera

#180

Post by SamWhited » Thu, Aug 15, 2019, 9:44 PM UTC

inflatableDodo wrote: post #167

SamWhited wrote: post #66

This is the place where literally every one has the wifi password "P@ssw0rd" (or something similar, I forget) and instead of just connecting an HDMI cable to your laptop in the conference rooms you have to download some spyware that only works on Windows and Mac (despite the fact that their primary client is tech companies, many of whom use Linux or other OS's). Also never try printing, that just doesn't work, and th…

>that's what coffee shops are for. I know someone who seems to do nearly everything from coffee shops. He maps out a variety in each city, so he knows which are suitable to host potentially noisy meetings (he usually imposes on Starbucks for that), which are good coworking spaces, and which are really nice ones he can hide in and get stuff done by himself. He then spends all day wandering between them.

I used to do this as well and it was pretty great. If I worked remote again I'd probably start a co-op with a few friends or other businesses so that we could collectively rent an office (or just use one of the local coworking spaces if it was just me). When I travel though, I'd go right back to the coffee shops.