Written by A new coffee shop cum cafe opened up within walking distance recently, I have high hopes and detailed aspirations.
I had hoped that it would be a COFFEE SHOP, you know, with comfortable chairs, understated music and interesting patrons.
Instead, it is a CAFE, with a coffee robot.
I had intended to have lunch then settle down to some coding in changed surroundings, away from my little office at home. I had hoped that other local geeks might have found the place before me, and I could be welcomed into a new network of similarly minded caffiene addicts. But, it is a linolium floored cafe with about 5 tables and it closes at 2pm.
On my disappointed trudge back home through the slush and snow I got to thinking. Am I being completely unrealistic in my hopes of a greographically based circle of geekness? Probably. Yes, there is the NWRUG and local geekup groups, but they meet up infreaquently and
mostly in the evenings. But, the main problem is that I am expecting too much from geography.
While the internet has made geography pretty much irrelevent for the purposes of communication, there is still a need for physical, geographic proximity. However much I wear my 'You read my t-shirt, thats enough social interaction for one day' tshirt I still recognise a gap. Having said that, I spent much of last week working from a clients offices, and the 45minute to 1hour commute each way left me cursing geography and office work in general. SURELY there are better ways to collaborate than having to actually, physically MOVE to where other people are MOVING too!
Anyway, enough ranting. I had intended to run an experiment of working from home in the morning and this cafe/coffee shop in the afternoons but even if I felt it would have been worthwhile, the experiment is halted simply because the place closes at 2pm.