Comment by digisth | Hacker News Reader

Comment by digisth | Hacker News Reader

I've been thinking about this idea for a while; it seems really compelling. Think of the things you might be able to do with this:

- bounce ideas for your company/product/project off other people

- get real-world testers

- find co-founders/partners/new friends

- have animated discussions on technology and such

Coffee shops are great, but loud background music and a lack of knowledge about who might be there makes it less than ideal. "Regular" co-working spaces are often more focused on work qua work. Something like this seems like a good middle ground with a looser vibe. Work is the default, but with (hopefully) the expectation that people are OK with being interrupted/talked to. A quality coffee machine seems like a good idea, too.

In this scenario I imagine, you'd rent out your space to more than one person at a time, and hopefully the host would always be present. Renting out to a single person definitely would make it less compelling.

Exciting idea.

So when does anyone get down to doing any work in your plan? I mean, you're there assuming everyone is there to do things for you (talk about your ideas, test your stuff) or free to waste time with you (talk about things that interest you). Presumably everyone else is coming to it with basically the same idea.

So when is anyone supposed to do any work?

If someone is trying to go heads-down, then can let other people know (or maybe use a do-not-disturb sign / flag or similar), but I think of it more as something you would do when you're in the mood for possible engagement/interruption rather than just straight working; in cases where you wanted to be sure you'd not be interrupted, there's always regular co-working spaces/your apartment/regular coffee shops. This would be more for "I'm working, but not so intensively that you can't talk to me" times.

I think earbuds / headphones are the internationally recognized sign for "head-down / do-not-disturb".

After more than a year of co-working, I had this idea, too. I don't know if it is like that everywhere, but it is hard to connect with people - they are just focusing on work, and often aren't very talkative. Which I find very weird.

I'm very curious how this works out.

Sounds like a mini version of college.

It is exciting. Work is always going to be the default activity but you should have a read of this: http://whatiscoworking.com/ Note this is Coworking without the hyphen, sadly lots of self described "co-working" spaces don't get the balance quite right.

You get it.

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