Off topic: Watching the picture, do people realy code in their tablet (ipad, etc)?
A Café for the Freelance Nation
11–20 of 32 posts
Re: A Café for the Freelance Nation
#12I can't understand the appeal working in coffee shops has to some freelancers. I can see how an hour, maybe two could break up the day but when you have free coffee and excellent wifi you're already paying for at home why would you pay to work in a crowded, noisy public space?
I understand that you don't personally find this appealing, but I suggest that you are likely in a minority:
1. Background noise is said to be good for creative-type work: http://www.prevention.com/health/brain-games/how-noise-makes...
2. Breaking up your day into chunks and physically moving around are both potentially great for productivity. Joel Runyon recently dubbed this 'workstation popcorn': http://impossiblehq.com/workstation-popcorn
Re: A Café for the Freelance Nation
#13My take on this: While it's an interesting concept, and I'd love to see discussion on it, $3.50 an hour is a bit higher than what I'd be willing to pay for using wifi in most American cities, unless the coffee is really good and comes with the best damn selection of creamers, sweeteners, and frills around. Now from what I understand, in some cities it actually is tough to find wifi because the inflated property costs…
In addition to the restaurant/cafe culture, the quality and quantity of space provided by the local library systems is another factor. I sometimes work in coffee shops in Copenhagen when I don't want to be in the office, but compared to other places I've lived, I find myself more often working in libraries. They have free wifi, don't care how long you stay, have power plugs, have access to various paywalled databases, and some even have cafes if you want to grab a coffee. And there are a lot of them, something like 20 libraries within 5 km of my house (counting municipal and university ones), so they don't really fill up, with the possible exception of exam weeks.
Re: A Café for the Freelance Nation
#14I can't understand the appeal working in coffee shops has to some freelancers. I can see how an hour, maybe two could break up the day but when you have free coffee and excellent wifi you're already paying for at home why would you pay to work in a crowded, noisy public space?
Same here. You're stuck with a small keyboard and screen, and your posture probably isn't ergonomic. The horrible wifi and fighting over power outlets just tops things off for me.
Re: A Café for the Freelance Nation
#15Off topic: Watching the picture, do people realy code in their tablet (ipad, etc)?
I had a friend who tried [0] before, but switched back to a macbook after a few months.
[0]: http://yieldthought.com/post/12239282034/swapped-my-macbook-...
Re: A Café for the Freelance Nation
#16I can't understand the appeal working in coffee shops has to some freelancers. I can see how an hour, maybe two could break up the day but when you have free coffee and excellent wifi you're already paying for at home why would you pay to work in a crowded, noisy public space?
I understand that you don't personally find this appealing, but I suggest that you are likely in a minority: 1. Background noise is said to be good for creative-type work: http://www.prevention.com/health/brain-games/how-noise-makes... 2. Breaking up your day into chunks and physically moving around are both potentially great for productivity. Joel Runyon recently dubbed this 'workstation popcorn': http://impossibleh…
Not to mention, in similar places like these, meeting people (for business and/or flirting), and well, having some exersize just by walking there.
And after you dragged yourself there, you have more guilt if you don't work, compared to being at home.
Re: A Café for the Freelance Nation
#17I can't understand the appeal working in coffee shops has to some freelancers. I can see how an hour, maybe two could break up the day but when you have free coffee and excellent wifi you're already paying for at home why would you pay to work in a crowded, noisy public space?
I understand that you don't personally find this appealing, but I suggest that you are likely in a minority: 1. Background noise is said to be good for creative-type work: http://www.prevention.com/health/brain-games/how-noise-makes... 2. Breaking up your day into chunks and physically moving around are both potentially great for productivity. Joel Runyon recently dubbed this 'workstation popcorn': http://impossibleh…
Neither of which actually require going to a coffee shop. It's the human interaction that most people find appealing.
Re: A Café for the Freelance Nation
#18I can't understand the appeal working in coffee shops has to some freelancers. I can see how an hour, maybe two could break up the day but when you have free coffee and excellent wifi you're already paying for at home why would you pay to work in a crowded, noisy public space?
Same here. You're stuck with a small keyboard and screen, and your posture probably isn't ergonomic. The horrible wifi and fighting over power outlets just tops things off for me.
>You're stuck with a small keyboard and screen, and your posture probably isn't ergonomic
So, just like at home for most people.
>The horrible wifi
That's a bonus. Less of a chance to turn your work-day into a youtube-cats-marathon.
>fighting over power outlets
That just does not happen, not in the kind of environment the article describes, which is built for this sort of thing.
Re: A Café for the Freelance Nation
#19Earlier quoted context omitted.
Same here. You're stuck with a small keyboard and screen, and your posture probably isn't ergonomic. The horrible wifi and fighting over power outlets just tops things off for me.
> You're stuck with a small keyboard and screen, and your posture probably isn't ergonomic So, just like at home for most people. > The horrible wifi That's a bonus. Less of a chance to turn your work-day into a youtube-cats-marathon. > fighting over power outlets That just does not happen, not in the kind of environment the article describes, which is built for this sort of thing.
While the plural of anecdote is not data most of the programmers I know have at least 1 large screen at home to connect their laptop to (and at least half have a set up like mine which is a fast desktop connected to three screens).
The "average" hardware profile does seems to vary across the type of programming done/age of the programmer and industry they are in (it would be an interesting survey).
Re: A Café for the Freelance Nation
#20Earlier quoted context omitted.
Same here. You're stuck with a small keyboard and screen, and your posture probably isn't ergonomic. The horrible wifi and fighting over power outlets just tops things off for me.
> You're stuck with a small keyboard and screen, and your posture probably isn't ergonomic So, just like at home for most people. > The horrible wifi That's a bonus. Less of a chance to turn your work-day into a youtube-cats-marathon. > fighting over power outlets That just does not happen, not in the kind of environment the article describes, which is built for this sort of thing.
> So, just like at home for most people.
That's easily fixed at home by buying an external monitor and keyboard/mouse (not a big expense, especially when you're no longer paying for transportation and coffee).
> That's a bonus. Less of a chance to turn your work-day into a youtube-cats-marathon.
There are much better technical solutions for this than using horrible wifi. There are lots of software options out there for blocking distracting sites.
> That just does not happen, not in the kind of environment the article describes, which is built for this sort of thing.
I'm not talking about the environment this article describes. I'm talking about the standard coffee shops all across America that people are currently working out of.