The cafe lifestyle

I mentioned in my first post how I generally write my games from various cafés in New York.  This practice started with in 2006 and continues now.

At the time, I did it because I was between jobs and I wanted to feel like I was really working, so I'd pack up the laptop and bring it to a café in Tribeca (an area of NYC which is short for "triangle below Canal").  I'd plop down, order a latte, boot up the laptop, and then type type away on The Shivah.  For a solid month, I'd be there by 9am and leave sometime in the later afternoon.  The place had food, so I was able to nab lunch when I wanted it.  When I finished the game I figured it was a neat way to work, so I kept doing it.

In the four years since then, I've worked on games in all sorts of different coffee joints.  Most are your average Starbucks, others are New York based chains, and some are unique privately owned indie cafés (which there are less and less of, lately).  I tend to choose different cafés depending what my needs and mood are that day.  They all have something different to offer. Some have food, others have free wifi, and others have more convenient electrical outlets. I've actually become an expert on the location of every electrical outlet in every café with a five block radius of my apartment.  

Lately, more and more people have adapted to this café lifestyle.  I used to be the only nerd in a Starbucks with a laptop, but now it's hard to find a café-goer without one.  I see people writing papers, working on resumes, updating spreadsheets, or just surfing the internet.  I've seen a group of men in suits gathered around a café table, hunched over their laptops, discussing what appeared to be a high-powered business stuff.  I once saw a dentist examining 3D models of his patients' teeth!  The sheer amount of productivity that goes on in these places is mindboggling.

Earlier this year, the crowds temporarily drove me out of the cafés and I actually rented a cubicle in an office.  I gave it up in a few months.  Despite the crowds, the café lifestyle suits me.

-Dave