I... I don't get the appeal of working in a cafe. Isn't it better to work from home if remote ?
Show HN: I built a website to find nearby cafes to work remotely from
221–230 of 233 posts
Re: Show HN: I built a website to find nearby cafes to work remotely from
#222A small foreword: I'm not criticize author work but the concept of nomadic work. I have nothing against nomadic life. I have much against working in public place with the screen visible, the keyboard visible, often connected on crappy WiFi sometimes even proxyed networks, ... Working on a desktop means that screen and keyboard must be in a controlled and reasonably private environment, a personal boat is ok, a tent c…
People should absolutely be aware of what they're working on in a space where someone can see their screen. The "Hostile bid for Twitter" preso should almost certainly not be being worked on in a Starbucks. But a ton of us work on stuff day to day that is not remotely highly sensitive.
A small question: how many time you do not lock your screen in the office while going to the bathroom, to eat something, ... ? How many time while doing casual things you need to switch an instant to something else, quickly entering credentials etc?
Now you are in a café, you'll unlikely left a laptop on the table, but you might have an impromptu need to just look at something, perhaps not even entering credentials per se, but still showing something, even by accidents. MANY information have leaked that way. Many innocuous information per se led to discovering of something else valuable to attackers.
You can be perfectly aware 99% of the time, there is still a 1%. Not only: what's work for you? Recently I see a trend, a cohort of people who start working much in time terms and produce far less in substantial terms, they seem to have lost smartness, like what I've seen in SK/Japan where they toxic work culture create an incredible level of inefficiency masked as commitment and hard work, the hard part is the only true ones, the outcome is bad. In the western sauce is even worse: people start to be less and less effective without caring. Managers start to organize toward inefficiency and less smart behaviors encouraging them.
Work is a serious thing and should be done seriously witch does not means at all being available 24/7/365 for 99% of jobs, but being effective, concentrated, with all you need in hands, for a defined timeframe. Such timeframe can be fixed or flexible following targets, current needs etc. But nothing more and nothing less than that. Stereotypical laptop/craphone nomadic smart worker is the antithesis of that. Is the elogium of people who prefer living in a fiction snapping fingers and shrugging "ops, I spilled my drink" with the same involvement of "ops, I've just crushed a plain onto an NPP"... Pushing such model is obviously harmful. Is the tentative of creating a legion of stereotypical Ford model workers all easy to source and substitute, all cheap, all unable to see the big picture, all living on their sofa or in the metaverse (see virtual revolution movie from few years ago [1], for instance) such model gives the maximum easiness to the ruling class but also the worst overall outcome, the result is something that can't last longer and just live disasters behind for generations.
If we really want to progress, to work less, with less fatigue, with more free time we need the exact opposite.
Re: Show HN: I built a website to find nearby cafes to work remotely from
#223This is pretty cool. Unfortunately it's not valuable yet without other people populating it with data. Is there any way you can automatically get a first batch of data into it? Maybe scrape coffee shops from Google Maps and add them as not verified or something like that.
Yes, the backend fetched places from Google whenever there are none listed on Workmode. Had to turn it off because Hackernews slowed down the system OOPS
Makes sense. You should backfill even when there are results. It would be a shame for the first review coming in to become the only listing.
Re: Show HN: I built a website to find nearby cafes to work remotely from
#224I love the idea! A couple of thoughts: 1. I'll never use social login 2. When you're on a city, it's not clear how to add a place (do you have to be logged in?)
Thank you! You're right, I'll add a username password login method soon No you don't have to be logged in. You can check into a place by clicking the button in the bottom right corner. This starts a speed test and review form. The results will be shared with other people. However, you can add places without checking in when you are logged in.
Thanks! I'll check it back out in a couple of months.
Re: Show HN: I built a website to find nearby cafes to work remotely from
#225Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is going to depend a lot on location. Coffee chains are able to support this sort of behavior because the many customers that drop $4 in one minute on their morning commute, are subsidizing the few customers that pay $4 for six hours of seating and wifi. Assuming you open your cafe on a viable commuter path, you can take advantage of this subsidy and your economics can work out. You can improve your economics ev…
> only 1-2 customer-accessible wall sockets, Before I got an M1 laptop, this was a real issue for me. Now, it really doesn't matter. My battery will easily last the entire time I am in the cafe without really thinking about it.
M1: it's not just WWII tank, but an invasion machine against the cafe and its hapless operators and patrons.
Mouhaha!
Re: Show HN: I built a website to find nearby cafes to work remotely from
#226This is cool. Reminds me.. I have always liked the idea of opening a cafe (who hasn't !?) but I'd struggle with the modern behaviour of peeps sitting for hours taking up a plug + wifi in exchange for ~£$4. Hugely uneconomical for independents. Good-faith customers aware of the economic burden of their behaviour are a VERY rare breed.. So I quite like (/ethically hate) the idea of creating scarcities in order to influ…
Isn't it fair for restaurants to ask you to clear the table if you haven't ordered anything for a while and they need the space for new customers? Why shouldn't cafés do they same?
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Re: Show HN: I built a website to find nearby cafes to work remotely from
#227Re: Show HN: I built a website to find nearby cafes to work remotely from
#228This is cool. Reminds me.. I have always liked the idea of opening a cafe (who hasn't !?) but I'd struggle with the modern behaviour of peeps sitting for hours taking up a plug + wifi in exchange for ~£$4. Hugely uneconomical for independents. Good-faith customers aware of the economic burden of their behaviour are a VERY rare breed.. So I quite like (/ethically hate) the idea of creating scarcities in order to influ…
I'm thinking instead of cafe maybe a place that one can rent a small, dark and quiet room at relatively flat price. Say any coffee for the first hour and then $2 per hour. Additional basic Coffee is free but food needs $$$. Does it make any financial sense? I guess no? Is there a way for the customer to claim the expense as sort of WFH expense?
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Re: Show HN: I built a website to find nearby cafes to work remotely from
#229I... I don't get the appeal of working in a cafe. Isn't it better to work from home if remote ?
Why is it necessarily better to work from home if remote? It's not self-evident.
Some people don't have a great space to work in at home. Some people find home to be too distracting. Some people want to not be at home all of the time. Some people want to be in a more stimulating environment, to be able to interact with people. I currently work from home due to the pandemic, but I miss the physical separation of work life from home life. I plan to either work from a café or a co-working facility as soon as I feel it is safe to do so.
Re: Show HN: I built a website to find nearby cafes to work remotely from
#230This is cool. Reminds me.. I have always liked the idea of opening a cafe (who hasn't !?) but I'd struggle with the modern behaviour of peeps sitting for hours taking up a plug + wifi in exchange for ~£$4. Hugely uneconomical for independents. Good-faith customers aware of the economic burden of their behaviour are a VERY rare breed.. So I quite like (/ethically hate) the idea of creating scarcities in order to influ…
A few things that come to mind from having worked in many coffees in a few countries where those were implemented would be to institute an off-peak/peak time policy where people are asked not to work during peak time (e.g. lunch), have some sort of subscription model which comes with a faster wifi and X drinks a month.