Comment by LeonM | Hacker News Reader

Comment by LeonM | Hacker News Reader

I'm in a co-working space, and the primary reason I took it was loneliness.

But I think that, for me, a social app wouldn't be able to replace a physical work space. It's not just the interaction with co-workers, but also the separation of work and home. The routine of riding my bike to and from the office is like a mental barrier, helping me to switch between work and leisure.

By going to my office, I effectively switch to work mode. I'm less inclined to get distracted (HN, YT, Reddit, etc) while I'm at the office. Then, during the ride back home I have time to reflect on the day. By the time I'm back home my mind is clear and I can relax.

My findings are that (at least in the Netherlands) there is plenty of opportunity for new co-working spaces. Currently it's hard for small or solo businesses to find a suitable office. All offices I found are either geared towards larger groups (10+), or had ridiculous requirements to be eligible. All the 'innovation' spaces are hard to get in when you just make a software product. They require some 'impactful' business to be accepted, which basically means you can choose between creating yet another replacement for plastic straws, or blockchain.

I don't need foosball tables, I don't need eco-vegan food, I don't want to attend blockchain disruption events. I just want a desk to sit at, and do my work.

i work from home and get a "day pass" at a coworking spot from time to time (Common Desk in Dallas). After a while, wfh feels like being on house arrest.

I head over to the co-working location for the commotion and activity honestly. Everyone is still working and so it's not like a social event but I need to be around other humans while at work from time to time.

Plus, one time I met these kids (likely right out of college) working on a IOT weather station. They had a few customers and we're working on their hardware at Common Desk. I chatted with them and gave them some biz pointers and some contacts from my network. I got a real kick out of that.

This was my experience at Coworking spaces. If you are more of a freelancer and need access to conferences rooms for your clients then they absolutely make sense.

If you're just working from home for another job though, there's not as much of a social aspect since everybody is just...working. I get much of the same benefit by going to work in my local library (out of the house, working around other people who are quiet).

I have a similar setup (also at common desk! heyo....although with silicon valley bank and Walmart IT housing corporate offices at CD it's perhaps less science fair-y that it used to be). I use it on the weekend and once to maybe twice a week on WFH days. It's nice to have a place to sit and work.

I have thought about starting a little website where people open up their living rooms every once in a while to create an ad-hoc coworking space. It could even be the kitchen or the dining table, as long as you're sharing ideas, learning, and getting to know what other people are working on. From a business perspective, I'd rather make use of the plentiful libraries in Amsterdam than pay for a coworking space.

I think that was the idea behind http://www.workatjelly.com

Yeah I saw them, but it seems like it's just a directory to Facebook pages that needs to be updated by sending an email. I think there's a good business case to make a nice website and app that would afford people a coworking space-like luxury, but at rather ad-hoc and personal locations.

Safety becomes a big issue for this kind of thing. It might make sense to start by leverage a platform like couchsurfing which has a personal review system.

Good point; I think it would initially involve some personal vetting as well as starting at a local level. This could be made part of the listing process where the only way to get verified as a member is to allow a designated photographer if you're hosting, and some kind of social proof (LinkedIn?) if you're looking for a space. I think this is a bigger concern in remote towns and the countryside, though. For a city like Amsterdam, safety might not be that big of an issue.

Have a look at https://www.codiwork.com

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