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Silicon Valley thinks it invented roommates. They call it 'co-living'

theguardian.com

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Re: Silicon Valley thinks it invented roommates. They call it 'co-living'

#21

Post by cm2187 »

chrisseaton wrote: post #14
cm2187 wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But that's called serviced apartments, not a new concept. Just serviced studios in that case.

No a mess is not really like serviced apartments. It's more like one big communal house. Most of the areas except bedrooms and bathrooms are communal and you would normally eat together with staff waiting on. It isn't a new idea but most techies probably have not experienced that kind of lifestyle, so will be new to them. I'd love to live in a living space like a mess if I wasn't married. I've always thought that a m…

True, though modern luxury apartment blocks increasingly have communal areas (swimming pool, gym, cinema, lounge).

Re: Silicon Valley thinks it invented roommates. They call it 'co-living'

#22

Post by brandelune »

lotsofpulp wrote: post #16
humanrebar wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> So basically this becomes viable with... Well, some startups think they can make it viable. Either they can or can't, but making fun of them for reinventing "buses" isn't going to help. Likely any company in this space is looking to as many users as possible while breaking even, banking on self-driving tech developing in the meantime. When the vans drive themselves, the economics will change drastically.

When your biggest expense is employees, it's obvious that you're not going to get anywhere without increasing revenue or decreasing # of employees.

Decreasing employees, or reducing wages, or renouncing labor regulations that ensure people make a living, etc.

Re: Silicon Valley thinks it invented roommates. They call it 'co-living'

#23

Post by seanmcdirmid »

I recently read an article in the Chinese press about the new innovations of the shared eceonomy being made. One innovation was a bunch of “shared” washing machines that could be used by anyone as long as they paid a small fee. In other countries, this would have been called a laundromat, but apparently they never existed in china.

Re: Silicon Valley thinks it invented roommates. They call it 'co-living'

#24

Post by snowAbstraction »

dtech wrote: post #7
humanrebar wrote: post #4

> By “convenient” they mean anonymous people on minimum wage clean up after you. Hey, let's not stigmatize the upper middle class actually hiring people to do worthwhile work. That's how jobs, small businesses, and economic growth happen. > As was quickly pointed out by numerous people this is basically a “bus”. Just, you know, without the poor people. Likewise, this is a good idea. People sharing rides in smaller bu…

> Public bus systems should really be exploring a smaller vehicle model more I asked someone from my local bus service once. Their answer was that it's not economically viable for the public bus service, as the only major saving was fuel cost and the extra services don't provide enough revenue to offset the employee cost (otherwise they could service it with the large normal busses). So basically this becomes viable…

Two comments:

1. Something between taxis and buses could theoretically be viable.

2. Many cities already have rush hour fees on public transportation (or equivalently discounts for off-peak passes) so some price differentiation in bus lines seems possible.

Re: Silicon Valley thinks it invented roommates. They call it 'co-living'

#25

Post by brandelune »

chrisseaton wrote: post #8

I think the author is being deliberately uncharitable. I think what these co-living spaces are proposing is more similar to an officers' mess, if people here have experienced that, than roommates, in that it's sort of like a private permanent hotel with private rooms, dining areas, kitchens, libraries, and staff waiting on you. As a young person it's a really fantastic way to live, very efficient, and it fosters comm…

Student dorms. While we're at it, let's rethink the whole social mess we're in with nuclear families. Vastly inefficient, totally anti-social. We need more communities.

Re: Silicon Valley thinks it invented roommates. They call it 'co-living'

#26

Post by est »

seanmcdirmid wrote: post #23

I recently read an article in the Chinese press about the new innovations of the shared eceonomy being made. One innovation was a bunch of “shared” washing machines that could be used by anyone as long as they paid a small fee. In other countries, this would have been called a laundromat, but apparently they never existed in china.

Alternatively some startups call themselves "O2O sharing books"

It's called a library.

Re: Silicon Valley thinks it invented roommates. They call it 'co-living'

#27

Post by arethuza »

chrisseaton wrote: post #14
cm2187 wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But that's called serviced apartments, not a new concept. Just serviced studios in that case.

No a mess is not really like serviced apartments. It's more like one big communal house. Most of the areas except bedrooms and bathrooms are communal and you would normally eat together with staff waiting on. It isn't a new idea but most techies probably have not experienced that kind of lifestyle, so will be new to them. I'd love to live in a living space like a mess if I wasn't married. I've always thought that a m…

Might even become the collective noun - "a mess of politicians" ;-)

Re: Silicon Valley thinks it invented roommates. They call it 'co-living'

#28

Post by saas_co_de »

humanrebar wrote: post #4

> By “convenient” they mean anonymous people on minimum wage clean up after you. Hey, let's not stigmatize the upper middle class actually hiring people to do worthwhile work. That's how jobs, small businesses, and economic growth happen. > As was quickly pointed out by numerous people this is basically a “bus”. Just, you know, without the poor people. Likewise, this is a good idea. People sharing rides in smaller bu…

The interesting thing is that public transit systems are extremely inefficient.

TriMet (Portland, OR) which has a modern mixed bus/light-rail system gets only 20% of expenses from fairs (http://trimet.org/budget/pdf/2018-adopted-budget.pdf)

That is with charging $5/day capped at $100/month, so if fares were to cover the entire cost, the cost would be $500/month.

So, public transit provides a bare bones, horribly uncomfortable, and inconvenient transit experience, at a cost that is only slightly lower than a car.

And public transit systems are too inefficient to operate outside of high traffic hours at all.

If someone in tech can figure out how to offer a shared transit system that people will actually pay for without being forced to that would be a major innovation. No public transit system has ever done it.

Re: Silicon Valley thinks it invented roommates. They call it 'co-living'

#29

Post by chrisseaton »

brandelune wrote: post #25
chrisseaton wrote: post #8

I think the author is being deliberately uncharitable. I think what these co-living spaces are proposing is more similar to an officers' mess, if people here have experienced that, than roommates, in that it's sort of like a private permanent hotel with private rooms, dining areas, kitchens, libraries, and staff waiting on you. As a young person it's a really fantastic way to live, very efficient, and it fosters comm…

Student dorms. While we're at it, let's rethink the whole social mess we're in with nuclear families. Vastly inefficient, totally anti-social. We need more communities.

Yes, a bit like a very high end student dorm (like an Oxford or Cambridge college).

Re: Silicon Valley thinks it invented roommates. They call it 'co-living'

#30

Post by Cthulhu_ »

lotsofpulp wrote: post #16
humanrebar wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> So basically this becomes viable with... Well, some startups think they can make it viable. Either they can or can't, but making fun of them for reinventing "buses" isn't going to help. Likely any company in this space is looking to as many users as possible while breaking even, banking on self-driving tech developing in the meantime. When the vans drive themselves, the economics will change drastically.

When your biggest expense is employees, it's obvious that you're not going to get anywhere without increasing revenue or decreasing # of employees.

That's when you don't hire employees but entrepreneurs, you know, gig economy so you only need to pay them for however much rides they manage to get instead of a living wage like old fashioned bus drivers get.
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