I finally visited that trendy coworking space in Austin and noticed something weird

I went to the new Common Desk spot on East 6th last week because I needed a change from my home office. What caught my attention was that almost nobody was actually working. Like maybe 3 people out of 30 had headphones on and were typing. Everyone else was just chatting or scrolling their phones at the fancy shared tables. Has anyone else noticed these places turning into social clubs instead of actual work spaces?

2 comments

2 Comments

wendy2051mo ago

Actually that's the whole point of coworking spaces for a lot of people now. If you want total silence and heads down work you can stay home or hit a public library. Those chatting groups and phone scrollers are probably networking, making connections, building relationships that lead to new clients or collaborations. That's way more valuable than just sitting alone grinding out code in a quiet room. For freelancers and remote workers the social aspect is the main draw, not the desk or the wifi.

king.ruby1mo ago

Quiet work still pays the bills though, networking can't replace actual productivity.