From what I understand, ppl like to go to coffee shops, open up their Macbooks, then 'pretend to work.' They 'take over' an alt coffee shop that isn't Starbucks, then become 'regulars' and just go 2 prove that they 'srsly have their own small business/freelancing job' that requires 'intense focus.' Really feel like every1 should work in an office just so they feel 'repressed by society' and work harder/feel like slaves.
Anyways, some NYTimes writer did some 'trend piece' abt how ppl go to coffee shops to drink coffee and 'work' on the internet. Trying to really deconstruct the concept of 'The_Office' and how young ppl need creative, energetic zones 2 evolve in2 a modern entrepreneurial vibe.
On a day when the cafe Internet connection had already been down for four hours, and the toilet had been blocked for even longer, I thought I had seen these worker bees pushed to their limit. But I had underestimated them. Nothing could stir these people. They were not in New York; they were citizens of Laptopistan.
For some reason the author of this article created a fictional world called LAPTOPISTAN 2 describe life inside of this coffee shop. Feels like this is some sort of high school journalistic tactic or something. Really took it to the next level acting like he was on a safari/expedition:
I was an interloper among them, an anthropologist of sorts, sent to untangle their odd society, to understand their mores and unwritten rules. How did the natives interact? How did the government function? What was the economy like in this land of bottomless cups and table hoggers? And what, oh what, were they all writing?
I was, admittedly, a profoundly skeptical observer. Though I had been a freelance writer for the last eight years, I had always worked at home, clad in pajamas and brewing my own fuel rather than paying $3 for someone to make pretty designs in my caffeinated foam. Whenever my wife suggested that I get out of the house, maybe take my laptop to a cafe, I shot back: “Real freelancers don’t work in coffee shops. It’s just unemployed hipsters and their unpublished novels, or screenplays, or Facebook stati.”
Here is some 'poetic' chunk where they say 'ppl were staring in2 their Macbook screens yall!'
Laptops had colonized every flat surface. No one uttered a word; people just stared into screens, expressionless. It felt like that moment in a horror movie when the innocent couple stumbles into a house filled with hibernating zombies, and they listen, in terror, as the floorboard creaks.
Really wonder if this person really 'sees the world' like this or if they are just 'pretending 2' 4 the sake of 'writing a beautiful article abt the state of the modern world.'
Wonder if I can open up a coffee shop called LAPTOPISTAN and transform it in2 a perfect microsociety/money-making scheme.
Here is another 'trying 2 hard' paragraph where the journalistbro talks abt how it is s000 hard to get thru the 'jungle of power cables'.
Entering Laptopistan is a task in itself. The floor presents an obstacle course of power cables snaking their way around coffee cups, over chairs, and around table legs, eventually finding a home in one of two power strips that look as though they came from a Soviet coal refinery. Whenever a plug is inserted, the outlet sparks, and certain movements can cause all the plugs on a given strip to simultaneously eject.
Glad I have a Macbook instead of a lame ass PC:
A quick glance around shows I have brought my laptop, a month-old MacBook Pro, to its nesting ground. Diversity here means the odd white MacBook or old black PowerBook scattered amid the silver MacBook Pros. Throughout the week I will see only a handful of PCs, each looking sadly out of place, like they have arrived at a black-tie affair in a corduroy blazer.
Here are just a few more dumb sentences that say LAPTOPISTAN:
Laptopistan’s is an entrepreneurial economy, driven by solitary thinkers.
LAPTOPISTAN
My long-held notion that Laptopistan’s citizens were just sitting around e-mailing other writers in other cafes around the world dissipated as I got to know the MacBook Pro owners around me. Sure, there were aspiring screenwriters, novelists and people updating Twitter...
LAPTONIA
Laptopistan provides structure, and freelancers, like children, secretly crave structure. You come to work, for two or four or eight hours, and you take comfort in the knowledge that everyone else is there to work as well. There’s a silent social pressure to it all.
LAPTOPPED STATES OF LAPTOPICA
LAPTOPBROS
MOST Laptopistanis — Laptopistanites? Laptopistanians? — at Atlas are in their 20s, 30s or early 40s, split evenly between men and women. The dress is casual, with both sexes wearing T-shirts, sweaters and jeans, though a few women seem dressed for “work” with button-down blouses, blazers, even a dress or two. Most Laptopistanis work alone, though occasionally I spotted a group collaborating at a corner table. Socially, Laptopistan is a conservative society; outward displays of emotion are frowned upon. Most people hide behind their screens.
Really want to learn what it is like 2 go 2 work in a coffee shop every day instead of in an office. Wish I could be a creative entrepreneur and 'make my own schedule.'
The article closes by saying that LAPTOPISTAN created a perfect society because the journalist bro 'watched some other dude's laptop when he got up 2 take a piss':
After an hour or so, the guy next to me got up to go to the washroom, turned toward his laptop and looked at me.
With a nod, I completed the transaction. When he walked away, I smiled. It was not a big smile; most likely it was barely visible to anyone looking beyond my screen. Precisely the secret smile that citizens of Laptopistan allow themselves when no one’s looking.
Sorta want to move to Laptopistan.
Do u think 'ppl working in coffee shops' is a relevant trend?
Are ppl who claim to 'work' in coffee shops 'full of shit'?
Do ppl in coffee shops need 2 'shut the eff up' so that I can focus on facebook/twitter?
Is this the opposite of a 'hipster bashing' article, like some sort of 'hipster justice' piece where they 'correct' stereotypes?
Do u work on ur laptop 2 do rlly important stuff?
Is Laptopistan 'the perfect' society?
