20,000 square foot coworking / hackspace opens in Manhattan

Re:20,000 square foot coworking / hackspace opens in Manhattan by jonah on Tuesday January 25, 2011 @12:45AM (#2138166)

For those of you who have worked in a space like this: How is the environment? Noise, distractions, people coming-and-going, phone calls, etc. How does it work in practice for heads-down productivity and how does it work for sitting down and hashing something out with your co-founders?

I really like the concept of community, but how is it in practice?

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Re:20,000 square foot coworking / hackspace opens in Manhattan by YuriNiyazov on Tuesday January 25, 2011 @12:54AM (#2138186)

I've worked in places like this. I am very easily distractible by noise, but I can usually ignore people walking around me, so for heads-down productivity, headphones or earplugs for me are a must. However, I've always had headphones even in standard cubicle/office environment where it's supposedly quiet and easy to concentrate and get work done. If you find the visual aspect of people coming-ang-going distracting, you might have an issue.

For sitting down and hashing something out with your co-founders, these places are great - conference rooms and whiteboards are usually very available, and that guy across from you who usually has headphones on might actually turn out to be a MySQL expert who can answer a very obscure question in 15 seconds.

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