Stop Working at that Coffee Shop! Alternative Places to do Work | Hacker News Reader

Stop Working at that Coffee Shop! Alternative Places to do Work

martinizer.com

34 pointsmartinshen57 comments

> Art galleries are beautiful quiet places to work

Art galleries are beautiful quiet places to enjoy art.

Until people with laptops start occupying it.

My favorite place in Lausanne was the cafe in the museum downtown. It was also a favorite place for studying, though it completely lacked wifi.

Maybe you're right, but I've personally always found galleries sterile, and perhaps would be humanized by some normal human activity. Better than the usual gawking parade. That dead artificial vibe tends to overwhelm my appreciation for the art it purports to showcase.

As someone who often frequents galleries and enjoys the common experience - we are just fine with the current normal human activity in there, no need to fix it, thank you.

Why does the fact that you like the current situation and he doesn't make you more right than he is?

it sounded like he doesn't like them. if I don't like the place and people in it, I just don't go there. I don't try to change it against everybody else who is fine how things work.

on a side note, I really don't think that every piece of public space needs to be occupied by people on computers. I wouldn't like if galleries were the victim of what happened to cafes, where I need to look if there is actually an atmosphere of a cafe, not an office/chatroom with coffee tables instead of desks (sometimes it reaches a ridiculous degree). it's not like I'm offended, it just spoils the mood.

my kind of 'get off my lawn'.

since when hackers are normal human beings?

I'm currently traveling around SE Asia working on stuff. Just had a very productive week on Don Det, one of the "4000 islands" in Laos. Quiet, beautiful, not much else to do there. Not stressed about money as perfectly acceptable bungalow on the river was less than $5 a day. Annoying place to get to however. General comments on doing this: I like to stay in the one spot for a while as travelling is tiring and distracting, and when you are somewhere new it takes a day or so to suss it out to get into a routine.

http://backrecord.com/4000islands.jpg

Find a good internet connection?

Is Phnom Penh on your itinerary? Then holler.

I'm living in Vietnam but will probably visit Cambodia again before too long. Contact info is in my profile if you want to meet for a drink or something.

If you're coming to phnom penh, feel free to contact me also (email in my profile). Based here. Great to meet for a drink or something.

It's my base (I live here). Just back. Feel free to contact via email (check my profile).

Thats pretty cool. I'm currently doing the same at Ko Phangan in Thailand spending almost the same (well, maybe a couple of dollars more per day). And i've been more productive working like this than i was at home.

Btw, just curious. Does your place have a fast Wifi connection or are you using 3G internet for your work ?

On Don Det the wireless was 3G and very dodgy. I laughed at the sign that said "Free WiFi (sometimes)"

I've done the same thing all over SE Asia before settling down in Nha Trang in Vietnam. I tend to get more done in quiet places like this than I ever did in offices in S.F.

For me it was Hoi An, spent better part of a month there with my friends, about two weeks at their farthers family home, which did create a nasty 3G bill.

Was able to get a small project finished ahead of my estimates, that has never happened before!

However I found Chiang Mai in Thailand to be very good as well, can easily take a day out to Pai if I want something quieter, and it still has a lot of big city facilities!

Hoi An is beautiful. A little too small to be a long-term destination but I think I could easily spend a month there too. Some very nice cafés to work in.

Chiang Mai is on my list but Thailand is a lot stricter about work permits + visas so you have to be careful.

My friends have a small shop and their parents are the traditional small holder farming types, so I actually spent most of my time outside of Hoi An during the day in the mangrove trees. With my SLR and a Samsung Series 9 which didn't appear to mind 45°C heat. It really does change how the brain works (I'm back in London atm, longing for such things). I was of course covered head to toe in DEET. Anyone reading these things should know its not all golden!

If your not working in the local economy, they really don't mind at all. The worst you'd have to do is show a bank account with some money in. The problem they face is mostly due to tourists who can't really pay their way, the amount of 'White Crime' surprised me, espesually in the smaller towns, pretty much all crime was attributed, rightly or wrongly, to tourists desperate for money.

For Chiang Mai its easy to get a 6 month visa, and you can always do a run to the border with Burma to get an easy extension. I would really recommend the north of Thailand, a lot less red light, a lot more relaxed.

Ultimately when I was there I was on holiday but I just didn't stop working on my UK based work, I had a couple of laptops with me. All money I earned was payed to my UK company, paying UK rate of taxes. I realise that was a bit silly, and I should have had an HK registered company, and been paying much less tax. However if your US citizen, you have less options in the matter due the whole state of been expat/nondom under US tax law, so YMMV. But no matter how you arrange it, so long as your not working in a bar they won't care at all. Even if you do work illegally I believe the bribes are very cheap anyway.

Hmmm. Not sure I'd be able to type much without hearing Martin Sheen's Apocalypse Now voice over in my head.

Your jpg is 404 ;)

I stopped doing this many years ago. And this is product of having an office badly designed or, your own home. When I did my home properly I just can't go outside to work. I cannot work better than the confort of my flat. I just go outside to enjoy, not to work.

My recomendations for a proper place to live, work and rest:

1. Decorate minimally your home. Use the furniture that you will use. Free all the space you can. 2. Choose a proper selection of colors and combine them well so you can achieve some sense of 'balance'. 3. It is important lighting: light it up all and well. Have choices like table lamps too for those moments you want dark mood. 4. User proper bedclothes, some people just use white beddings and the same ones at least for 3 months. Don't do this isn't confortable and nicer. Change it every week and it will help to improve the quality of the space. 5. Be clean. The more cleaner, the better you enjoy your place.

Following this you will never need to go outside for working. You will go outside just to enjoy a rest and fresh air not to bothering you with work again. Real disconnection.

You're telling me that some people don't change their bed sheets for three months!!!!!!

Apparently in the UK 1 in 3 people change their bed sheets every 3 months. I can't find the source but I read this somewhere a couple of years back or so...

I'm in the UK. I change my sheets every week. I did this even when I didn't live with my girlfriend.

In the "Bachelor Home Companion", PJ O'Rourke advises that the optimum frequency is "once per girlfriend".

That's the truth. I've meet so many people that don't do this. But the worst, when they do they use the same beddings. I just recommend you use as many colors, and quantity you can.

The problem is actually about "working alone". When you work alone, the loneliness creeps upon you and takes away the focus from work, and then you're left with the unenviable choice of trying to regain focus (hard) or staring at walls or spiders building cobwebs.

So, ANY place with some people and a decent, undisturbed atmosphere would do. Although, if you already have a coding buddy or someone in the house, then there is no problem working from a house, be it a $2700 mansion in the heart of the prairies or a cramped house in Mumbai.

Just make sure to take regular breaks and go outside to remind yourself that you are alive.

As working environments go coffee shops (and indeed most public spaces) are generally pretty dire. They can be noisy with interruptions and the physical set up isn't well suited to work (bad chairs, tables not at a great height, limited space) - in short most of the things programmers will (rightly) complain about in a bad open plan office environment.

It's nice to get out and go somewhere different once in a while but to me unless you're going to spend money on getting a private room somewhere (be in a hotel, a rented house or whatever), they're not places to get anything serious done, they're more about having a break and a change of scenery.

Stop annoying people in art galleries or squatting coffee shops, and just get a co-working space. Or just rent a incredibly overpriced office space in airbnb, that will do as well

For some people it's the specific vibe from a coffee shop that makes them productive. For a while after Uni I'd be more productive in pubs than anywhere else from spending time working in them during Uni, it took a long while to get out of it.

When I was in Thailand I was coding in a wicked high speed internet coffee shop in Samui, on terraces looking out to the beach, on a bed next to a pool by the beach and in bars with live music at the nights.

If you're into what you're working on you can work anywhere, the more dynamic the better.

Every time I go to Thailand or Bali, I want to do this, but my wife has instituted a no laptop rule for our vacations :( Honest, I found Tokyo and Osaka to also be quite nice for coding, but I would usually wind up in one cafe or another.

Ah man! Buy her a book or something, take her to a day spa! Tell her you're reading an ebook on the laptop.

I'm allowed to bring a tablet, but you can't code on that :)

The best place to work is an office.

Id argue that a consistent place to work (Office and home) is alot less overhead and alot cheaper to get most of your work done. The ergonomics of working on laptops fulltime are also horrible.

When i am out and about i enjoy the places for the reason they should be enjoyed, not because i can get more work done there.

The library

I've worked at the library plenty but I find that you run into the same problem of just sitting there. For me, continuous focus needs better, more interesting breaks in between sessions.

The libraries around here tend to be packed full of students.

That's strange--ours are packed full of books.

What's the return policy on students?

Go to public libraries before 3pm. Students will be in school, and college-age students have their university libraries.

I find that having a 4G wireless hotspot is the hot setup. If the weather is nice you can be outside while not being tied down to a specific location. Only restriction is coverage & power.

I've chased that dream, in libraries and all over Asia. It always falls apart because an external 24" screen is such a big boost in productivity and ergonomics.

If you feel like you can no longer work in the comfort of your own home, then you need a vacation. Or a workplace (go Marissa!). :D

This is perfect. Always looking for new inspiring places to work!

I always assumed those who work at coffee shops are homeless people (living with mom at their 30ties) or idiots.

What is behind working in coffee shops anyway? What's the point, what's the advantage of working in quite room all by yourself?

People work in coffee shops to be noticed.

What for? Networking in coffee shop?

Dude pays a $2700 mansion to work [https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/668090], but the others days, can only afford the coffee shop. Something's wrong.

That airbnb is actually of the place I took a few days vacation at. Most days, I work at our office but sometimes I like to work elsewhere. I was just showing a few places I like to work at that are not offices or coffee shops.

I'm not sure how the monthly rate is relevant. It costs over $6,000 to buy a month's worth of days at high-quality hotel chains but no one seems to object when they stay in one in Las Vegas. How does taking a "working vacation" for $109/night (the nightly cost of what you derided) count as being overly extravagant?

> Something's wrong.

How so? If I paid 2700 rent, I too would take a much closer look at my other expenses... ;)

> The real challenge here is finding somewhere shaded so I’m not blinded by the glare of my MacBook.

You could have said "Laptop", but said "MacBook" instead. Why?

Would you have jumped down his throat if he had said 'ThinkPad'?

MacBooks are known for their screen glare, because of the glass cover.

Ah, that must have been the reason why he mentioned it.

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