Ran into a guy at a coworking space who made me rethink my whole setup

I was at this new spot in Austin last Tuesday, just trying to get some invoices done, and this older dude sitting across from me starts talking about how he's been freelancing since the 90s before coworking was even a thing. He said something like, "You kids think you need fancy desks and kombucha to get work done, but I used to do it from a library with a dial-up modem." It hit different because I've been spending $350 a month on this space thinking I needed the vibe to stay productive, but he was right that half of it is just showing up and doing the work. I started wondering if I'm paying for the community or just for the excuse to leave my house. Has anyone else ever felt like their coworking membership is more about avoiding distractions than actually networking?

3 comments

3 Comments

fisher.jessica6d agoMost Upvoted

Kept going to this one spot in San Diego for months before I realized I never actually talked to anyone there. I'd nod at the same people every day but we were all just hiding behind our laptops pretending to be busy. Then this one time the wifi went down and suddenly everyone starts talking, turns out half the people there were just using it as a fancy living room too. One guy admitted he only got the membership because his roommate's dog barked too much during his Zoom calls. Made me think we're all just paying for the illusion of having it together when really we're just avoiding something at home.

henry_anderson546d ago

I don't know, the wifi outage thing sounds kinda nice actually...

wadejenkins6d ago

My buddy Mike dropped $300 a month on a WeWork in Denver for six months. He swore it was for the coffee and the fast internet, but he told me one night over beers that his real problem was his wife working from home too. He said they were getting on each other's nerves just being in the same room all day. The coworking space was basically his escape hatch, not his productivity hub. He canceled the membership after they started taking walks together during lunch instead. Funny how the real reason you're paying for something is never the one you put on your expense report.