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Comment by vonkow | Hacker News Reader

I used to skip class in high school to go drink turkish coffee, chain-smoke, and discuss life, poetry, code, and philosophy at Cafe Algiers. I think I learned more there than I did in class. Sad to see it go, kicking myself for not dropping in last time I was in Boston, but all things must pass.

Farewell, Algiers, thanks for all the memories and conversations.

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Is it my skewed perception or have cafes stopped being places to drink coffee and have great discussions. They now seem to be mainly filled with people on laptops or on their cel phones.

I also miss European cafes with waiters...

Just my personal observations over the past 15 years or so, but I think laptops and headphones killed the cafe.

Sounds like a business plan for Cafe Faraday. "No wireless signal, guaranteed!"

Wow, how is this not a thing?

Great idea.

They're just another place to do homework or work now. Not sure where people discuss things in real life nowadays.

Cinemas, during the film :)

Cigar lounges and boxing gyms.

Please tell me this isn't a joke!

Well, come over to Europe!

I share your point of view, so if you're ever in my part of the world, I'll be happy to buy you a coffee in exchange for a conversation.

Well, the little town in Germany I went to school in used to have four awesome family run cafes with great service and even better products. I believe there is now one left. Instead there are now self service bakeries and fake Starbucks.

What country are you in?

I'm currently in Germany, too, but the small town I live in has only one Starbucks and plenty of traditional coffee shops. The one Subway that opened here had to shut down again because locals continued to go to the hole-in-the-wall pizza slice vendor across from them. (They sell exactly one kind of pizza and about three pasta al forno dishes, but lines are huge on weekend nights.)

It depends on the venue. Almost every time I go to Houndstooth Coffee on Congress here in Austin I bump into someone I know and spend time catching up. The majority of people there are usually talking, not working solo. I can think of other coffee shops and cafes here that are the same.

It's getting harder and harder to find a place for a good conversation. I thought this piece explored the idea well. It can be really frustrating if you're looking for a place for a coffee (or pint) and a chat.

Bars are too loud and Cafes are too Quiet - http://www.slate.com/articles/life/culturebox/2014/02/bars_a...

While that's a good piece, in my experience it overstates the situation a lot. Not that I go to them a lot, but there seem to be plenty of bars/pubs where music isn't blaring. Yeah, most are probably pretty crowded and noisy on a Saturday night but not sure when this wasn't the case.

As for cafes, I pretty regularly meet someone in a Starbucks or whatever to have a discussion. I'm probably not going to talk about my top secret plans for world domination there--but, again, I'm not sure at what point in time I'd be comfortable discussing something that the next someone the next table over could overhear.

Before they were mainly filled with people reading newspapers and writing in notebooks. Discussion still happens when people find it valuable.

Your comment brings memories. When I landed in US, fresh off the boat, this is what I implicitly expected of a café. So it was a significant culture shock to run into the typical Starbucks'ish café.

Thankfully Austin, TX had pretty good ones too. Metro on the drag was quite awesome, not particularly good coffee (but that's missing the point).

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