Poll: would you visit a "thinkerspace?"

[Foomandoonian]

The idea needs a lot of development - and a name better than a 'thinkerspace'.

Math and music? What about philosophy, literature, other branches of science? I can think and write with my flouncy fountain pen at home, so what are the merits of me going to a collaborative space? I'm sure there could be many, but these aren't elaborated upon at all. Conversation? About what? Will it be structured? Themed? How? Or why not?

Tea but no coffee? Bookbinding but no typewriters? Blackboards but no wifi? Why is technology unwelcome in this context? Are these important distinctions? I've no idea.

Sounds like you need a manifesto. And I would suggest you try very hard to make it as unpretentious as possible.

Short answer: Nope.

[EliRivers]

Some technology can be crippling to the art of thinking. When an answer you seek is moments away at the end of an internet connection, for how long can you resist its siren song before succumbing, surrendering your own cognitive processes for the already completed thoughts of someone else? :)

[pavel_lishin]

I think he just wants to find people who share his exact hobbies to help fund a clubhouse.

It's not a bad idea, but it's kind of dishonest to assume that this is the sort of thing that interests a ton of people, and that people will flock to it.

[miles]

Here are some similar existing spaces:

http://www.theofficeonline.com/tour.htm

http://www.paragraphny.com/

http://www.sandboxsuites.com/

http://www.onealfredplace.co.uk/

The idea is rather reminiscent of the Diogenes Club:

"There are many men in London, you know, who, some from shyness, some from misanthropy, have no wish for the company of their fellows. Yet they are not averse to comfortable chairs and the latest periodicals. It is for the convenience of these that the Diogenes Club was started, and it now contains the most unsociable and unclubable men in town. No member is permitted to take the least notice of any other one. Save in the Stranger's Room, no talking is, under any circumstances, allowed, and three offences, if brought to the notice of the committee, render the talker liable to expulsion."

(from The Adventure of the Greek Interpreter: http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/etcbin/toccer-new2?id=DoyGree.... )

[seanmcdirmid]

This is quite cool. I wish we had something like this in Beijing. Also, nice Sherlock Holmes reference.

[goldfeld]

Call it a Renaissance space! Encourage the sciences, writing, philosophy, the arts. Make it the micro-equivalent of going through a liberal arts major for those of us who picked something else or people who can't afford it. Organize discussion, readings. Have a studio setup for painting and the like. I'd sign up in a heart beat.

[jstanley]

Note that your results will likely be skewed. I don't care about this and I couldn't be bothered filling in the form, and I'm sure I'm not alone.

[shanusmagnus]

In other words, you decided against one click (the 'submit' button, since the 'nope' radio button was already selected) in favor of several clicks and a hundred keystrokes to tell the guy how uninterested you are? Huh.

[jjsz]

When you mentioned a modern salon I thought about 300 B.C. Back when barbershops / salons were the center of gossip, philosophy, and debates. The stylists / barbers, mostly focused on men, and participated in trimming the beard, hair, and fingernails of other high profile people. Since most of the time they didn't have their own shop, they went to an agora. Agoras were opened to the public, but they had to obviously create a group around high people to allow higher forms of conversations. When men visited these areas, whether it was the agora itself or the shop / salon, they wanted to tackle two things at the same time just like how you're suggesting bookbinding and painting at the same time. Personally, I can't paint and have a decent conversation at the same time, or bookbind-- I won't get much done because I'll have to look at the person from time to time or I'll feel I'm disrespecting them.

I can't think of a being who would want to be in the same room as someone doing bookbinding, painting, and reading. Maybe some readers want a quieter room. Not sure but you should consider topic specific private rooms.

Back then, in an agora there wasn't arts and craft tools because men had their public social fix handed to them already from getting groomed, they did this with their private friends. Now. This was done in the open and in the public, outside in parks or plazas. So taking that idea and making it subscription based and inside. I wouldn't go to it. I would go to a public outdoor space, where I have the option to rent bookbinding and painting materials, or other books so I don't have to bring my own there. I shouldn't be excluded to participate if I wanted to bring my own canvas.

Now I understand why you said, modern day salon, and not a modern day agora. It's indoor based.

[quarterto]

You basically just described the Common Room of my old university's Maths Department.

[hammock]

You are getting a lot of hate in this thread. Just wanted to say that I work in an ad agency, and we have a number of these spaces, and everyone (or at least, the most ambitious people among us) loves them - creatives and technologists alike.

Here's a description of some of them: 1) a small quiet room with a couple couches, soft fengshui-safe decorations, iPad hooked up to overhead speakers playing music, and a guitar. 2) A room filled with magazines, craft supplies, and meditative collages that people have pasted all over the walls. 3) A huge, white room with bare floors, long wooden tables. The walls are white, can be written on with markers and are magnetic for posting up whatever ideas, paper, etc you are banging around, by yourself or with others. There are big screen TVs, and also speakers, scattered that you can hook up your computer to if you need. And of course wifi everywhere (should go without saying)

I use 1 and 3 quite a bit, for collaboration and sometimes just meditation.

[alanctgardner2]

Is this substantially different from a member's club for technologists? If so, it's a pretty established concept, you just probably want to attract a younger demographic. Wikipedia link is not NSFW, btw.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gentlemens_club

[tomhschmidt]

I imagine the clientele would be try-hard pseudo-intellectuals, so no.

[bigiain]

I had a similar reaction. I often use my local hackerspace (Robots and Dinosaurs in Sydney) as a place to hang out and talk to smart interesting people - I guess because I find people who make stuff more interesting to people who just talk about stuff. (Maybe that makes _me_ the try-hard pseudo-intellectual sometimes… Hmmm…)

[minos]

Well, I'm not much of an intellectual either, but if there were sufficient amounts of free whiskey, cigars and monocles, it still could be worth a try...

[charliepark]

This type of thing is already present in a number of larger cities. It's usually called a private library, a private club, or an "athenaeum."

[niggler]

Why not make a HN poll? https://news.ycombinator.com/newpoll

[_lex]

He gets better data, and the ability to restrict how people vote. For example, HN polls allow you to upvote several options simultaneously.

[petercooper]

Almost sounds like a university library outside of a university. I would certainly be in support of that, but as it'll be nowhere near anywhere I go, I'd find it hard to put actual money down.

Now.. I'd totally love one of my own, just need to save up for that bigger house ;-)

[n2dasun]

That's so frightening. I was thinking of this exact thing as a business idea on a road trip this weekend. Comfy chairs, a cash bar, maybe pool/foozball/darts. Companies could rent space out for interviews. You could rent rooms to hang out and bounce ideas around, or maybe have an open space where you can just draw up and chat about ideas and allow others to freely come over and weigh in on them. You might meet a new employee or employer this way.

The names I had in mind were ThinkBar and... uh... "Lounge" something.

Anyway, I just thought it interesting that I'd be mulling this over all weekend and jump on Hacker News, only to see this post.

[smegel]

I think your local uni Arts department probably have this one covered...

[JulianMorrison]

I dunno about that, but something I want is a space that has little one-occupant rooms with no particular furnishings aside from perhaps a beanbag, a frosted window or indirect lighting, walls painted a neutral colour, heavy soundproofing, no electrical sockets, faraday cage shielding, and a door that locks. They should build a few rooms like that into every office. Somewhere that you can go and switch off your external attention and think or meditate.

[jmharvey]

Aside from the faraday cage shielding, that shouldn't be too hard to achieve. Why not just shut off your cell phone?

[tlarkworthy]

Our hackerspace is largely this during open nights. Too many people to actually do anything practical (www.edinburghhacklab.com)

[superuser2]

Sounds a little like a university library. Yes.

[fauldsh]

As some-one living in a flat, if there was somewhere with a quality piano I would happily pay gym prices to go play it. Although much like a gym, if I couldn't get at the piano I would soon stop paying.

I live nowhere that would have this unfortunately (140k pop town)

[trafficlight]

I live in Helena, MT (let's say 60k pop). I met a local piano tuner a few months back who had started a program where he would place unwanted pianos in local businesses and maintain them for free. He said the local market just isn't buying pianos anymore and he has a couple dozen sitting in storage. Rather than throw them out, which he is a real, tragic possibility, he gives them away.

I just opened a coworking space in town (grand opening was Friday!) and I'm going to try and get one of these pianos in there.

[cottonseed]

I'm a member of a thinkerspace. It's called a math dept. See also: library, cafe.

[ww520]

Isn't it what a cafe is for?