> ..until I realized how annoying it is to have a café full of people working on their laptops
Again, some coffee shops just go for that market. They provide working spaces or floors etc. Their target is those customers who work there. This is not about your preference as a customer.
> How entitled can you be to think that you can occupy a table for the whole day and expect to only buy one coffee?
I'm not sure where this "whole day" come from. I never sit anywhere whole day, not in library, not in coffee shops. At most 2-3 hours at a coffee shop. Plus, I never said they need to provide me this kind of service. I have no demands. I clearly said, this kind of environment is not for me. I am not the target customer of those coffee shops, and I simply don't prefer them. I am listing the reasons why coffee shops does not work for me. Again, I am not telling I have those rights. I am exactly telling that not having the correct environment droves me away from coffee shops for work.
> Yes, that is exactly you are supposed to do. If you are working remotely and can´t afford a co-working space you are probably underpaid. Your salary should either include that expense or your employer should cover that for you.
Well, no? That's not what I am supposed to do. I am paid to work from home, not work from a co-working space. Spending my working hours outside of the home is my personal preference, not something that I need to get paid.
I belive it's fairly obvious that I mean life outside the work by "living your life". It's a pretty simple math that if you don't commute, spend time in traffic you have more time to do your stuff (whatever is your stuff). I still don't get how not liking traffic or liking decent amount of sleep is "entitlement"
I need that too! Especially when working remotely, I don't have the office to see my co-workers to socialize. Or back when I was in college, I don't have my classmates to chat about stuff. I wish "clubs" or communities in that sense were more common outside of college
On video calls, the library I go to is in some kind of cultural center & community space mix. So there are some common spaces that you can talk, and a cafetaria. These alone solve my problems for quick un-planned video calls. For daily meetings or planned pair programming sessions, I also wait for the meeting then head over to library.
Absolutely, there are some coffee shops. Like you when I was in Istanbul, there were lots and lots of coffee shops, some of them even has two floors with top floor spared for working. Now I moved to a smaller city and I don't have these options anymore. That part was just my current experience. Also, thanks for sharing your list! I love spending time around the world in google maps, this will be my fun for today.
English isn’t my first language, so some sentences may have lost their nuance in translation. To me, that paragraph was more of a humorous, playful way of listing the aspects of working in a coffee shop that don’t suit me, rather than an angry, dissatisfied complaint.
From this perspective, nothing we call ‘free’ is really free. Isn’t the purpose of taxes to receive some kind of service in return? I gladly use this service, and not having to spend part of my income for an office space (which I don't have to) doesn’t strike me as entitled. Maybe some thoughts are getting lost in conversation here.
Yes, another user in the comments mentioned that their library offers streaming services, rental video games and cheap/free snacks. Right when I was thinking I am lucky with mine :)
Fair point, but we can’t ignore the fact that many coffee shops provide desks with power outlets, and sometimes even dedicated workspaces, and that this has become a clear trend. These coffee shops also earn revenue from customers who want a workspace, and they incorporate this into their marketing. So, cafes don’t rely solely on coffee sales; the environment they provide contributes significantly to their income. Many people choose cafes as an alternative way to spend time outside. Therefore, some bussinesses aim to offer a workspace, some a social space, and some simply create an environment for spending time.
And their offer just don't work for me. I'm not demanding anything from them; I just don’t use their business.
Mentioned in the article, I'm not sure if libraries work the same way in everywhere. But this one has literally free co-working spaces that anyone, including remote workers, students, or readers could use. Also quoting from an aspiring-librarian: "It always makes me happy to see someone using their local library as the community space it was meant to be!"
Probably different countries, cities or organizations have different uses for libraries.
I totally feel what you mean about design. The library I used back in university was really tasteless and carelessly designed (if we can even call it "designed"), and I wouldn’t have used it if I didn’t have to. This one, I got lucky.
I hope both the authorities and the public will continue, more and more, to do their best to make libraries more valuable and beautiful.
Oh you have much more than we have.. I live in a relatively small city, so there are not many events or offerings, but I'd love to have a bigger community in there. Even hanging out with your people, sharing daily life is such a wholesome connection. I'm happy to see that there are people from all over the world who value libraries in different ways.
> now I feel FOMO creeping in, perpetuating this incessant need to find others like it…
this.. this is what I forgot the mention in the artice. When you find something really good, really relatable, inspiring while you're consuming content, you'll always be wondering what if there's more? and you keep consuming, you keep adding to your bookmarks, your reading list etc.. It gets bigger and bigger, overwhelming at the same time. It's hard to suppress this feeling
The problem with social media for me is that I stay in touch with my friends there. I mean there are some people I don't know irl but following each other over 10 years, and I like to see / share what's new with our lives.
Also, as a remote worker, the only way to communicate and create a professional network for me is also social media.
I believe I can handle a couple of minutes every day to read about my friends and people I respect. The "algorithm" that shows me all those somehow interesting but not useful stuff, which leads me over consuming content, is the real problem. I need tostay away from that, not completely social media but I'm not sure if there is a such way..
Your goals for 2025 seems inspiring! I recently created a reading list for myself and I'm actually really excited for all those new stuff to learn
> I really believe people will go far if they focus on this kind of stuff, and way less on structured self-improvement, productivity hacking, finding "secrets", shortcuts via programs, seminars, coaches, and tools, and all that shallow, nutritionless baloney.
This is exactly the state of mind I am trying to guide myself towards. I know the things you listed are superficial and ineffective, but they also lead to the shiny object syndrome and the 'quest for productivity' that I mentioned in the post. When I reduce the frequency of falling into these traps and eventually let them go completely, I will have come a long way.
Thanks for the insight.
I think acknowledging the problem is one of the key aspects of focusing on the solution, maybe even the most important one. Writing it down in a concrete way that defines and explains it made me realize the issue. My next plan is to sign up for the gym :)
Again, some coffee shops just go for that market. They provide working spaces or floors etc. Their target is those customers who work there. This is not about your preference as a customer.
> How entitled can you be to think that you can occupy a table for the whole day and expect to only buy one coffee?
I'm not sure where this "whole day" come from. I never sit anywhere whole day, not in library, not in coffee shops. At most 2-3 hours at a coffee shop. Plus, I never said they need to provide me this kind of service. I have no demands. I clearly said, this kind of environment is not for me. I am not the target customer of those coffee shops, and I simply don't prefer them. I am listing the reasons why coffee shops does not work for me. Again, I am not telling I have those rights. I am exactly telling that not having the correct environment droves me away from coffee shops for work.
> Yes, that is exactly you are supposed to do. If you are working remotely and can´t afford a co-working space you are probably underpaid. Your salary should either include that expense or your employer should cover that for you.
Well, no? That's not what I am supposed to do. I am paid to work from home, not work from a co-working space. Spending my working hours outside of the home is my personal preference, not something that I need to get paid.