
Working Alone, Together - digisth
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/05/fashion/solo-workers-bond-at-shared-workspaces.html?src=dayp&_r=0
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Claudus
I've been working remotely (alone) for the past year, it's great, I'm
productive and focused, and I have tons of freedom to do what I want when I
want.

While it's true, I do need social interaction, I don't need to be "around
people" in order to work, in fact I work more efficiently when I'm alone.

Instead of the effort and lost efficiency of a "workplace", it's much easier
to participate in clubs and organizations outside of work to get
socialization.

~~~
lgieron
I've been doing that for the most of the last 5 years. It didn't happen
immediately, but eventually the lack of social interactions and the general
sterility of working alone became a nuissance. For me, it's easily fixed by
just working from coffee shops from time to time - after a few trips to the
coffee shops, with their distractions (music, conversations from nearby tables
etc.), I quickly return to cherishing the sterility of my home office :)

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untog
Maybe I am misunderstanding, but a trip to a coffee shop doesn't sound social
in any significant sense. When you work in an office you develop friendships
with your coworkers and often socialise outside of the workplace. The
conversation you overhear at a coffeeshop seems like a poor substitute.

~~~
corresation
Many people are already socially satisfied: When I work at home I carry on
multiple conversations with people over IRC, IM, Skype, video chat, Google
Hangouts, and occasionally even the venerable telephone. In real life I have a
number of friends who share interests and outlooks, who I'm met in many
interesting ways, and not just because we share an employer.

When I go to the cafe (I'm a different person from who you're replying to) I
often go to meet up with other peers, but even when I don't, just being around
other people mixes things up.

~~~
lgieron
I share the sentiment - I have a social life outside of work so having it at
work (with people I did not get to choose) is not crucial. When I go to
coffeeshops I'm mostly looking to mix up my routine with the stimuli that
coffee shop provides (noises, strangers at nearby tables) which I don't have
at home. Something about the brain being bored with the constancy of the
environment I suppose.

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hippich
While it might be right for some, it is not absolute truth.

First thing I do in the morning - take a shower and put on my jeans (clean)
and fresh t-shirt or shirt.

I have pretty spacious house and can work from any part of it, but when I am
loosing focus, short trip on my bike to tea shop near by and working there for
couple hours resets everything.

Although I am not typical engineer too. I have degree, but I got it remotely.
I got my first ever fulltime job at age of 27 and this was quite forced on me
because of immigration laws of USA.

So, as usual - it depends. I bet there are engineers who work their best
alone. And there are some who needs presence of their team nearby.

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bsenftner
If anyone wants to cowork in Los Angeles, there's Droplabs.net near downtown,
next to the Brewery, in a pretty cool freelance artist collective called Big
Art Labs. (Disclaimer: I'm one of Droplab's founders.)

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quocble
Is there something like this in the Silicon Valley, or SF ?

~~~
svachalek
Yes. In Mountain View there is the Hacker Dojo, sort of a specialized variant.
NextSpace has offices in San Jose and SF, and there are others... the generic
term is "coworking" for anyone who wants to search their own neighborhood.

~~~
jmspring
NextSpace (along with Cruzio) has a space in Santa Cruz. I've spent time at
the Hacker Dojo awhile back (before their troubles w/ the City of Mtn View).
At the time, it was a little more ... organic that NextSpace and a couple of
others I've been to. That said, it is member run as opposed to NextSpace which
is commercially run.

I prefer working at home myself, and know when I am being less productive and
just need to take a short break. That is hard to do in an office environment
(if one is a full time employee), but still possible in a less formal co-
working environment. Thankfully, when I need to be productive, I can focus and
get things done -- despite my cat wanting to play :)

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colinbartlett
RIP Loosecubes.

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corresation
Is this The Submarine in action? It even starts off with the infomercial-like
anecdote about working at home: "You fuss, you muss, but you just can't make
it work! Soon you're fat and lazy."

And in the caption of the photo-

 _People are “going back to the office to be around people again,” one of its
founders said._

Again? Since the beginning of the still incredibly uncommon @home work, a
fairly standard practice was to essentially turn cafes into workspaces,
including collaborating with other people.

