They're Using it at Coffee Shops
usingitatcoffeeshops.tumblr.com
usingitatcoffeeshops.tumblr.com
But the dream is of the metaphorical coffee shop, of course. You could work in a colourful bean-bag-chair-filled brick-and-beam, but still be miserable in your current role. Or you could come into a suburban corporate park and burst at the seams with energy.
Though these days it's maybe more of a supplement to the Internet.
If you work in a drab setting and hate it, get out more!
[1] http://www.pbs.org/thisemotionallife/topic/creativity/creati...
You have just described literally all marketing.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Engineering_of_Consent
It is no coincidence that the inventor of public relations was the nephew of Sigmund Freud. He wanted to call it simply "propaganda" but he decided that term's nazi connotations rendered it unsuitable.
I'm not a religious person, but in my view religious communities are some of the few that have been able to see and understand the deleterious effects of this "field of study".
To really understand Freud I think you probably need a comparably boundless supply of 19th century viennese cocaine.
I beg to differ. Those are all part of sex and death.
Without food I will wither away until I die. Without tasty food I will feel like I'm in a living death.
Money buys power (consumer power, or what have you) and with that grants you the possibility to expand your genetic profile, just like sex. And the desire to fit in is in the same realm as sex, because we want people to find us desirable so that we can potentially become a mate. I'm stretching and only using male-female desire here, but it's not a great leap to see how male-male desire (not sexual) is just a form of males wanting to become alpha- rather than beta-male to increase attractiveness.
The thing about a coffee shop is that it provides just enough noise to not be distracting. Plus it's much easier to tune out the sound of an espresso machine, people coming in and out, and the clatter of dishes than it is a co-worker on speaker phone two cubes over or someone standing behind you talking.
Sure, some people need complete silence and tranquility and work best in a closed door office, but many people can tune out and work well in a busy, noisy coffee shop.
But yes, the "tech products are better used next to a mug of coffee" trope is amusing :)
This is why when you see ads for Porsche's and Mercedes, they are parked on a brick-covered street in Soho or a huge mansion with a circular driveway, instead of parked at a red light on a dirty street or in gridlock traffic, which is where they will most likely end up.
Most of these companies are selling stuff to developers/designers/people running startups or tech businesses. There's a reason for this aesthetic, even if it's quickly becoming stale.
I don't like it partly because it kind of reinforces a stereotype that software engineering and design is an easy job and the people doing it are somewhat shallow. Working from a coffee shop in no way implies that, but when people dismiss developers/designers as hipsters using their laptops in a coffee shop, there's a baggage in the discourse.
I think that making your office space awesome (e.g. Google's Tel Aviv office in particular – http://bit.ly/1ePziyy) is the ultimate solution. You need a place where people can be creative but productive, and still interact with others around them so that they don't feel alone and depressed.
If you want the best out of people, you need to give them the best.
I work in an office in downtown Boulder, CO, and while it looks amazing (heaps of comfy chairs, bean bags) there is construction being done all the time and my desk shakes like we're being hit by an earthquake. Down the road from us are Quickleft's offices, and they have a keg of beer on tap and a Japanese rock garden. Jealous.