
The cult of WeWork - gadders
https://www.propertyweek.com/insight/the-cult-of-wework/5098454.article#.W75jF-5u1FM.twitter
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dang
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17931209](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17931209)

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iamben
I've been in my WeWork for nearly 3 years. As a (largely) solo worker it made
a massive difference to my working life, and I've made the money I've spent on
it many times over from meeting people there.

Some people live and breathe it. If I was 22 and an employee of someone, and
still into drinking a bunch of beer every night, I'd probably live and breathe
it too. Your work life and the people you meet would be better than 90% of
your friends.

That said the gloss wore off for me in about 6 months. You realise you can't
be 100% productive and drink beer every day. Events are great, but most of the
time it just means I have to find somewhere quiet to work. Etc. Etc.

That said, I'd still recommend it in a heartbeat. I have no intention of
moving unless I have to. The staff are great, the internet is super fast, and
I love it at the weekend when it's mostly a big, empty quiet, well stocked
building.

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jypepin
That's a question I've always had about WeWork (or other co-working spaces,
I've never really been in one, except for events).

Do people actually really socialise and meet other people? I'd expect that
people go there to work - knowing myself for example, I'd put my headphones
and work without talking to anyone, because, well, I'm here to work and need
to get shit done.

Can you clarify this to me? How to do you meet those people? I DO believe it'd
be very valuable for me to meet and socialise with most WeWork workers, but
don't really see how this happens. Except as you mentioned, through the events
at night.

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iamben
Yes - some people are very, very social. There are a good number of people
that have drinks towards the end of the day - like any other office-y
environment, you just need to take the leap to talk to people. Of course I've
seen people here who never speak to anyone, but the larger percentage people
do talk.

Personally - I'll come in, say my good mornings to the people I know, sit down
and put headphones on and power through. Occasionally I'll go make a drink,
where I may have ten minutes of screen break / water cooler chat. There's
proper 'social' drinks once a week, and probably 1 or 2 other 'events'. At the
drinks especially it's easy to just say "hey" and get talking. It's easier if
you're a hotdesker and you see that face every day. Otherwise you'll bump into
people throughout the day. You just need to chit chat - "Hey, that smells
good, what is it?" / "Sorry, can I just grab the milk from behind you? ... I
don't think we've met before..." etc.

I gotta say it was invaluable to me - I had maybe 5 years at home beforehand
and I'd be bouncing off the walls by 6pm. Social interaction, even lightly, is
very beneficial.

Hope that answers your question!

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pavlov
Why does so much of the news these days sound like the introductory chapter to
a 1990s soft sci-fi novel?

Yesterday I read about Papua New Guinea establishing a cryptocurrency zone
that’s exempt from local laws and can issue its own passports. Today it’s a
coworking space founder who acts like a cult leader, has his own festival and
wants to build entire towns owned by his company (and is funded by a shadowy
Japanese conglomerate — pure William Gibson!).

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peteforde
Cory Doctorow once said that good sci-fi doesn't predict the future so much as
it anticipates the present.

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UperSpaceGuru
I tend to view WeWork as the AWS of Office Space. It’s hard to make real
estate “sexy”, but they’ve done it. I totally see the value of the WeWork
culture & community. You go to WeWork for the affordable office spaces and
amenities, you stay because of the community connections you build.

That being said, this article just seems weird. Ofcourse it’s a company that’s
“cult like”, if it weren’t, it’s just be another shared office space provider.
WeWork is definitely tapping into something unconventional, maybe even a
market that other traditional real estate guys just don’t see.

As Reid Hoffman might say, they’re Blitzscaling. Sure it may not be efficient,
but if done right, WeWork will emerge as a new kind of market leader a la
Amazon, Uber etc. Instead of moving to Silicon Valley, it may be that
innovators around the world join a community like WeWork.

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peteforde
CEO's wife, on stage, sitting beside her husband: “You helped him create the
biggest family in the world. A big part of being a woman is to help men [like
Adam] manifest their calling in life.”

This is awkward and uncomfortable, no matter what lens by which you consider
it.

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ljm
I would charitably read it as her describing her own presence in her husband's
life and how exactly she's there for him. I'd take it as her talking about
herself as a woman, and many people do thrive in supporting roles as opposed
to leadership ones. She's every right to describe what womanhood means to her.

It might still be awkward and uncomfortable to hear (I would balk at any talk
of making a company be like 'family', for example), but I wouldn't take it any
further than personally disagreeing with the sentiment. No one is ever going
to agree on a single definition of what family means, or what men and women
are here for.

