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I rebooted my social life

takes.jamesomalley.co.uk

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Re: I rebooted my social life

#421

Post by Animats »

robomartin wrote: post #417
Animats wrote: post #391

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The business problem with maker spaces is that the "gym model" didn't work. The gym model is that you pay some fixed fee per month, and don't come very often. People who bought TechShop memberships showed up too much. Many were using the place as their day job. There are some successes. Maker Nexus in Silicon Valley pivoted to after-school activities for teens. Humanmade in San Francisco is mostly a job training cent…

Yeah, that makes sense. I wonder if a more transactional model might work better. Perhaps something like FedEx Office (formerly Kinkos). No membership. You go in and you pay to use equipment and resources. Of course, there would have to be levels of qualification someone would have to pass before being allowed to touch certain equipment. I suppose you could have classes (Solidworks, 3D printing, CNC machining, weldin…

Noisebridge was a free, open maker space in San Francisco, and they had too many people just hanging out there. Twice, they had to shut down for over a month, clean out all the crap, and start over. The maker spaces that charge don't have that problem.

At TechShop, the big operational problems were tool deterioration and staff burnout. Tools tended to stabilize at the point where they're just above worn out. The drill bits and milling cutters were dull. The sandpaper on the belt sanders was worn almost smooth. The CNC mill needed a coolant change. The laser cutters had laser systems performing at about 50% of rated power, and you had to halve the feed rate. In a commercial shop, you'd fix things before they got that bad, because you're losing production. The same business logic does not apply to maker spaces.

The staff problem with TechShop was that they paid slightly above minimum wage, which is nowhere near enough to keep people with a broad range of shop skills. The big employee benefit was that you could take classes for free, so it was sort of an apprenticeship program. Over time, the staff tended to become the ones who couldn't get a job in a real shop.

Those are some of the operational problems you have to beat.

Re: I rebooted my social life

#422

Post by jimbokun »

fleeting900 wrote: post #230

> a significant proportion of the people you used to hang out with have kids and disappear off the face of the Earth for two decades. I’ve been on both sides of this, so I’m going to put this out into the universe: Your friends with kids still want to see you. They have a lot to deal with suddenly. They’re exhausted. But they miss hanging out with you, and will leap at the opportunity to hang out if you take the init…

And the kid friendly accommodation might simply be going to their house and hang out.

Re: I rebooted my social life

#423

Post by jimbokun »

levocardia wrote: post #292
fleeting900 wrote: post #230

> a significant proportion of the people you used to hang out with have kids and disappear off the face of the Earth for two decades. I’ve been on both sides of this, so I’m going to put this out into the universe: Your friends with kids still want to see you. They have a lot to deal with suddenly. They’re exhausted. But they miss hanging out with you, and will leap at the opportunity to hang out if you take the init…

Part of it is the uncomfortable fact that it is not very much fun to spend time with people who have small children -- it's hard to have a real conversation for more than a few minutes, and if you yourself don't have kids, what their life revolves around right now (daycare, finding a kindergarten, etc) is just not going to be very interesting.

It’s incredibly sad that this pathetic attitude is so wide spread.

Kids are generally much more interesting people to engage and interact with than adults.

Re: I rebooted my social life

#424

Post by jimbokun »

leoedin wrote: post #329
levocardia wrote: post #292

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Part of it is the uncomfortable fact that it is not very much fun to spend time with people who have small children -- it's hard to have a real conversation for more than a few minutes, and if you yourself don't have kids, what their life revolves around right now (daycare, finding a kindergarten, etc) is just not going to be very interesting.

Imagine being in that "not very fun" zone continuously, day and night, for decades. That's kind of what having kids is like. I love my kids and have great times with them, but there's also a lot of routine, endless cleaning and boredom. People with kids probably wish they could have longer conversations. They'd happily talk about things other than kids. Sometimes that's possible - but it's very hard to predict when i…

That’s because there is a lot of routine chores and boredom to life regardless of whether you have children.

Having kids for most people means LESS boredom, as kids are more interesting and curious and active than most adults.

Re: I rebooted my social life

#425

Post by jimbokun »

iamnothere wrote: post #110

As someone who used to have a highly active social life and now finds IRL socializing to be mostly a dull chore, I always find it confusing to see so many people commenting to the contrary. My partner is slightly more social than me and gets out slightly more than I do, but generally we are homebodies and we like it that way. Other people (at least in this country) are generally emotionally messy, unwilling to tolera…

You seem to have an extremely high regard for yourself.

Re: I rebooted my social life

#426

Post by jimbokun »

squigz wrote: post #33
littlecranky67 wrote: post #31

Working remotely taught me a similar lesson as the author. The most important part that I think people get wrong in general is that online friends, or your good friends from uni or your childhood youth that you only see in person once or twice a year, can't replace an active local friends group - or community as he calls it. Cutting the daily interactions with other humans by no longer going to an office every day ma…

Why can't you have an online community? littlecranky, put your reply back please; it was a good one.

For most people it just leads to poor mental health.

I suppose there are exceptions.

Re: I rebooted my social life

#427

Post by alexfoo »

EE84M3i wrote: post #310
alexfoo wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My wife and I go to co-working spaces a couple of times a week (on separate days and different co-working spaces), despite both working fully remotely. This is our solution for a "third space". This gets us out of the house, gives us some time away from each other and kids, and gives us some interaction with some other people (who work for completely different companies) but are kind of like colleagues in terms of ge…

If you go to these co-working spaces to work, then that's a second place, not a third place.

That's my point, it's not just to work, we treat it as an extra social space that isn't directly connected to work. No-one is going to hassle me about my TPS reports. I can sit and have a conversation about non-work related things.

It's more than my second space but not completely a third space. Space 2.67?

Re: I rebooted my social life

#428

Post by artk42 »

fleeting900 wrote: post #230

> a significant proportion of the people you used to hang out with have kids and disappear off the face of the Earth for two decades. I’ve been on both sides of this, so I’m going to put this out into the universe: Your friends with kids still want to see you. They have a lot to deal with suddenly. They’re exhausted. But they miss hanging out with you, and will leap at the opportunity to hang out if you take the init…

This is so true, and it is so crazy that the __majority of single people__ are so lacking empathy to at least understand this simple scheduling arithmetic.

That led me to quite radical thoughts, that childless people shouldn't have the same voting power as active parents, just because they simply do not and _can not_ understand the generational mechanics of society and nations survival. They just lack this critical extremum of life experience and can not contribute consciously.

Re: I rebooted my social life

#429

Post by [deleted] »

gcanyon wrote: post #404
jstgunderscore wrote: post #390

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As part of the 300 club, I have to say that there was no underwear involved in my cohort, just shoes (a requirement).

I am jealous -- can you expand on what I read about having to be careful about breathing as you ran outside for fear of freezing your lungs?

[deleted]

Re: I rebooted my social life

#430

Post by robomartin »

Animats wrote: post #421
robomartin wrote: post #417

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, that makes sense. I wonder if a more transactional model might work better. Perhaps something like FedEx Office (formerly Kinkos). No membership. You go in and you pay to use equipment and resources. Of course, there would have to be levels of qualification someone would have to pass before being allowed to touch certain equipment. I suppose you could have classes (Solidworks, 3D printing, CNC machining, weldin…

Noisebridge was a free, open maker space in San Francisco, and they had too many people just hanging out there. Twice, they had to shut down for over a month, clean out all the crap, and start over. The maker spaces that charge don't have that problem. At TechShop, the big operational problems were tool deterioration and staff burnout. Tools tended to stabilize at the point where they're just above worn out. The dril…

Yeah, this is why I never moved on this idea. There's a lot of potential for it to derail into something that isn't pleasant at all (or self-sustaining/profitable).
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