
Coliving: Dorms for Grownups - kareemm
http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/11/coliving/414531/?single_page=true
======
greggman
These are a thing in Japan. Not sure how common they are. One of my co-workers
now in is 40s recently moved into one.

They generally advertise you'll have an active social live in the shared space
and they advertise beautiful shared spaces. I've never been so I don't know if
the ads live up to reality.

A few links

[http://www.social-apartment.com/](http://www.social-apartment.com/)

[https://www.hituji.jp/](https://www.hituji.jp/)

[http://tokyosharehouse.com/jpn/](http://tokyosharehouse.com/jpn/)

Note there have been crappy shared living houses for ever, for example an
infamous one that targets foreigners is Sakura House

The new thing is advertising them as better than living alone and dressing
them up, including organizing activities like shared dinners etc..

~~~
icanhackit
_The new thing is advertising them as better than living alone and dressing
them up, including organizing activities like shared dinners etc.._

"Here are your new cellmates...I mean friends!"

Happily introverted people would love this arrangement /s. A better decision
might be to rent out a capsule in a kapuseru hoteru and use the money saved to
enjoy going out with real friends or sit in a quiet izakaya gulping beer and
smoking while reading/surfing/hacking.

This contrived social shit reminds me of working in aged care many moons ago.
None of the tenants cared deeply for each other and the company running the
show was able to fleece them under the guise of a more social, more fun
environment. They would have been happier staying in their family home where
the spectre of death wasn't standing in every hall.

~~~
BookmarkSaver
I suspect that elderly people don't move to one of these places because they
are tricked into thinking that it will be better than living with family. I
think your comparison is disingenuous.

~~~
icanhackit
_tricked into thinking that it will be better than living with family_

I didn't say that. I said _to fleece them under the guise of a more social,
more fun environment_ which is exactly what the sales pitch was. To be around
people your own age and do things people like you do, IOW.

And what was inferred by _They would have been happier staying in their family
home_ wasn't to be with family, rather that the home is filled with memories
of life and accomplishment whereas a death every-other-week at the "village"
was a constant reminder of our approaching end, even for the people who worked
there.

 _I think your comparison is disingenuous._

I suspect you say this because older people require care which can be hard to
provide at home. Fine. But many of the people who resided there were initially
healthy and making a lifestyle change rather than seeking care. A side-effect
of moving to a retirement village is that your progeny assume everything is
dandy - you've got friends and carers, so they visit less often. The effect is
devastating.

------
tdicola
These are already a thing in Seattle--they call them 'apodments':
[http://www.seattletimes.com/pacific-nw-magazine/seattles-
mic...](http://www.seattletimes.com/pacific-nw-magazine/seattles-micro-
housing-boom-offers-an-affordable-alternative/) There's a lot of controversy
around them though as they're in a gray area of regulations. Developers want
to take existing buildings, gut them, and rebuild as apodments without adding
extra parking or other facilities that a denser building would need.

~~~
TulliusCicero
Adhering-to-regulations aside, I think this is a good thing. Buildings
shouldn't be required to have lots of parking. What other facilities are they
missing?

~~~
tdicola
Stuff like handicapped access, fire escapes, sprinkler systems etc. can be
eschewed from the grey area apodments fall into. Because each unit doesn't
have a full kitchen it's not classified the same way as a normal apartment so
they can skirt a lot of regulations.

------
mbrock
Right now I'm hunting for second-hand apartment rentals in the most boring and
unattractive parts of Sweden because I work remotely, don't need excitement,
am okay with being alone, and can't afford big city rent—plus there are no
apartments to rent in major Swedish cities unless you've been in the right
queue for 15 years. I'd move into one of these things tomorrow if I could.
Nothing is less interesting to me than owning furniture or signing long
contracts. Yes, I am a millenial.

~~~
bro-stick
Consider dwelling in an RV or fit out a fully functional home in a schoolbus.
[http://hankboughtabus.com](http://hankboughtabus.com)

~~~
mbrock
That's pretty amazing but I'm way more likely to just couch surf at my mom's
and grandma's and friends'. If I had a drivers license I'd look seriously into
the RV thing though.

------
friendcomputer
"Evans plans to create an online recruiting process that will help him select
applicants who fit into the community."

Gotta be careful of those discrimination laws.

~~~
Sniffnoy
IINM, at least in the US, such laws don't apply to "shared dwelling spaces",
which these would count as. (Not a lawyer.)

~~~
reptation
Certain characteristics can be selected for ("all female" is legal) but it is
of doubtful legality to post discriminatory housing ads in terms of age.

~~~
function_seven
This link[1] agrees with you, but I'm wondering how retirement communities get
around this. I'm not talking about assisted living, but places like this[2].

[1] [http://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/free-books/renters-
ri...](http://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/free-books/renters-rights-
book/chapter5-2.html)

[2]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laguna_Woods_Village](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laguna_Woods_Village)

~~~
dbarlett
The Housing for Older Persons Act of 1995
[http://www.manufacturedhousing.org/publications/default.asp?...](http://www.manufacturedhousing.org/publications/default.asp?id=10&article=120)

------
joshuaheard
Why limit to millenials? This seems like it could be tailored to be a good
solution for the poor or fixed-income elderly as well.

~~~
xkcd-sucks
The elderly already have a whole spectrum of shared living spaces ranging from
crappy senior homes to swanky gated communities. This is just rebranding
retirement homes as something for young working people.

------
alkimie2
I detest the idea of living in a space where I could not open a window. I
barely tolerate it in an office environment.

------
andrewstuart
Shared living as a middle aged man. Sounds like the ninth inner circle of hell
to me. The one just after the eighth inner circle where you freeze in liquid
nitrogen for eternity.

~~~
osipov
It pisses me off that US is turning into a version of USSR. The housing
described in the article approaches the horrors of Soviet communal apartments
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communal_apartment](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communal_apartment)

------
qopp
I wonder if this kind of thing is starting up more simply due to the rise in
the age of first marriages?

[http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0005061.html](http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0005061.html)

------
patkai
Why doesn't Y-combinator have such, I always wondered. Small bedrooms and
small offices, I mean. It would save a lot of money for startups and it would
also let them mingle a lot, maybe too much :)

------
sekou
I thought about this idea a while back when I saw an article about modernizing
the concept of the trailer park home. I guess cultural grouping could be bad
if it lead to more homogeneous thinking, but maybe it could occur naturally on
a smaller scale in the same building and provide a different dynamic of
interaction, kind of like what you see in some neighborhoods in NYC.

------
beatpanda
These stories are becoming tiresome. "Millenials" did not invent living in a
house with roommates, or coops, or boarding houses, or SROs, or any of the
living arrangements that have existed for centuries that pre-date scumbags in
San Francisco trying to charge foolish engineers $1,000 for a bunk.

~~~
Sniffnoy
None of these things are new, true, but they're not common. It's not so easy
finding a co-op to live in if you're not near a university, or, for that
matter, even if you are near one, especially if you're not a student. If
they're becoming more common, that's a trend worth broadcasting; hopefully it
continues.

I'll agree that presenting it as a new invention, or something tailored for
this radical new generation of "Millenials", is a bit obnoxious and
misleading. But I'm still glad to see this sort of thing.

~~~
ghaff
A number of those things have been very common and living with housemates at
least was very common among professionals recently out of school a few decades
back in my experience. I didn't personally but I knew many people who lived in
a shared house for a few years after school.

~~~
_mgr
33 and I still "flat" with other people. I've lived with same couple for over
5 years now in two seperate places. We've stayed together as it were as we get
on and can manage our lives without annoying each other. The only reason to do
it, it halves the cost of everything i.e rent, power, water and internet.

If I had't been so stupid with my finances in my twenties I might be in a
different place but I would be wasting money without knowing it.

I've been lucky with the flatmates I have now. I've had some average ones
before and I'm not sure If I will do it for much longer but it has it's
upsides.

------
cbd1984
Is there a plan to make this website render on Mobile Firefox?

~~~
dang
Yes. The plan is to fix the bug.

This question is off-topic though. If you want to ask us something, the site
guidelines request that you email hn@ycombinator.com.

We detached this subthread from
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10538020](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10538020)
and marked it off-topic.

~~~
cbd1984
> If you want to ask us something, the site guidelines request that you email
> hn@ycombinator.com.

Tried that. Got insults for my trouble.

~~~
cbd1984
Why do the mods bother to downvote? Isn't that an abuse of power?

~~~
dang
Your comment was downvoted by regular users. No one can downvote replies to
themselves.

I doubt that we insulted you, though it's plausible we told you that your HN
comments are problematic, and sometimes people interpret that as an insult.

~~~
cbd1984
You certainly did insult me, and denying it to my face is a further insult.

------
DrScump
already posted twice over past 3 days, e.g.
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10523455](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10523455)

~~~
kareemm
I posted this 22h ago:
[https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/5930/deletable/hn.png](https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/5930/deletable/hn.png)

But it's showing up on the front page that I posted it 4h ago:
[https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/5930/deletable/hn-
frontp...](https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/5930/deletable/hn-
frontpage.png)

The id is the same (10531322) so I'm guessing this is part of the "repost
interesting stories that didn't get traction" experiment that HN is trying.

FWIW I didn't _actually_ repost this a second time. Guessing the software or
one of the mods has a "move this story back to the 'new' queue" feature if
they think it should be given a second chance at frontpage glory.

~~~
dang
You got it—that's exactly what's going on. Instead of inviting a repost, we're
re-upping posts by resetting their timestamps and otherwise treating them the
way an invited repost would be. So far we're only doing this for submissions
that are up to a day old, but I don't see why it couldn't extend back a week
or two, especially since that would let us privilege the original submission
in most cases.

We considered resetting the timestamp a while ago and thought the community
wouldn't like it, but people turned out to dislike the repost solution more,
because it pollutes the story stream with more dupes. A couple users suggested
the timestamp approach, so we gave it a try, and indeed it works better. It
also has bonus properties like not relying on an account having an email
address (or people reading their email).

This is the latest in a series of experiments we've been running to try to
give the best stories multiple chances at making the front page. The holy
grail of this is figuring out a way to distribute the work of picking 'the
best stories' to the community, in a way that doesn't just reduce to upvoting.
(The latter bit is important, since if upvoting worked for this, we wouldn't
have the problem in the first place.) We're hoping to get to that soon.

Edit: I forgot to mention that the re-upped timestamps only appear on the
/news and /item pages. If you look elsewhere, such as the /submitted page for
the user, or the /from page for the site, the original timestamp is displayed.
So you can think of /submitted as the historical record and /news as
displaying a timestamp relative to other posts on the front page.

Edit: here are some links for anyone interested in how these experiments have
evolved:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10395389](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10395389)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9866140](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9866140)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8790134](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8790134)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9828818](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9828818)

~~~
voltagex_
How would this affect any future dataset / research of HN posts?

~~~
dang
Not sure. The two timestamps will converge over time.

