Published on 31 May 2015
I’ve been thinking about building a site for coworking for many years. I’m not alone in this; there are many communities and websites building sites for digital nomads and itinerant workers in various cities, such as Work From or Digital Nomads Life. More recently, after having visited half a dozen coworking spaces in South East Asia, I’ve been considering building a site for coworking spaces in particular: not for cafes, or restaurants, or libraries that are good for working in, but for coworking spaces.
Coworking spaces offer more than cafes. They often have more reliable internet, better facilities, and most importantly, they have other people you can interact with. I’m not just talking about mixers after work; just talking around the coffee pot on a break can be a useful experience, especially for solo nomads who need more interaction with their peers than they get in their work, especially if you are an extrovert. A site dedicated towards finding the best and most productive places could potentially be a useful list for people not sure of where to go.
The issue, and the reason I am going to not make this project, is that there isn’t enough value in such a list. People normally don’t choose their locations based on the coworking spots (although I do, but I suspect I’m alone in that). They choose based on where they want to go. Once they are there, they scope out the best places to work. Trying to direct people towards certain coworking spots goes against this grain.
The other problem is that people don’t tend to google to find good spaces. They use Yelp, or Trip Advisor, or they go on NomadList or Hashtag Nomads and search there. They ask their friends and nomads who have been around longer. This is easier, more effective, and provides more relevant feedback for any given parameter. I don’t see how a website would make this any easier.
Some pain points aren’t actually pain points. I constantly think that this might be one for me - it isn’t. I would like to know where the best coworking spots are in the world, but I’m not desperate about it and I’m not concerned about being able to find them. The pain is just a momentary wish that I knew more than I do, which is easily fixed by five minutes of googling. Finally, curating a website of coworking spots doesn’t really interest me. I’d like to go to those places, but taking photos, getting reviews, testing the internet; I’m not sure if I have the time or interest to do all of these things.
Why am I writing this? Well, one of the hallmarks of success is being able to choose projects wisely. This means rejecting projects that are suboptimal. I’ve thought about this one for a long time, dedicating many hours to it, and the above is my rationale for saying no. So this is my goodbye to that project.
See you at the coworking space, where I’ll be working on something else.
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