I'm a coffee shop programmer as well. Not always, but whenever I want to avoid the potential distractions in my apartment (tv, xbox, bed) I take my laptop and work from a coffee shop for the day. It's also a nice change of scenery.
The freedom to be able to work from anywhere is one of the greatest things about this arrangement. Sometimes I travel to visit friends and family, and that doesn't stop me from doing my work because all I need is my laptop.
How does the coffee shop feel about having people work at their tables all day? I have considered doing this, but I can't quite figure out the etiquette.
If it's not crowded I doubt they care how long you stay. On a weekday during business hours excluding lunch you're fine.
Trying to do high concentration work in a coffee shop would be impossible for me, personally. I don't understand how one could do development. The places I go the general idea is that people are interruptible and open to some conversation and maybe a date.
I have used hotel lobbies. Find a spot to sit and hack the guest wireless for access. The decor and furniture at a nice hotel can be enjoyable. Sometimes you can find an open conference room.
The public library is an obvious option, but they tend to close too early.
Another option is to sneak into local college libraries, or even unused campus classrooms with wireless access.
I have three words for you, my friend: "electric space heaters". :)
I won't dwell on the fact that laptops are ergonomically evil and will eventually send you to the doctor with one form of RSI or another. If you don't already understand this, it will be very hard to convince you.
Instead I'll point out that your productivity is proportional to how much monitor you've got. Researchers have measured this [1][2], hackers [3] and techies [4] have testified to this, and Apple has sold a lot of incredibly expensive 30-inch displays because of this. Why are you killing your own productivity in order to save the cost of running an electric space heater? Is it the coffee? Don't get hooked on the coffee!
Second the fact on laptops - they are indeed ergonomically evil, unless you have a laptop stand with an external keyboard ...but then you might be on a "web 2.0 three month mashup" - in which case it is probably ok , anything longer and youll screw up either your wrists or your neck if not both.
If you want to have good food too consider moving your startup to india - it costs around 60$/mnth for your own personal cook.
When I'm moving around I often use a backpack to carry my laptop (I don't know how much of a threat this really is, but if I were going to mug someone I'd be more likely to go after the guy carrying case that almost certainly has a laptop in it, vs. a guy carrying a beat-up old bag that might just be full of dirty clothes.)
So I often throw in a keyboard and mouse. The microsoft 'comfort curve' is particularly well-suited for this, though it is a bit long.
I'm not buying it. The bottleneck in my productivity is definitely not switching between virtual desktops and windows. More/bigger monitor is a "nice to have."
I'm not sure... I've become addicted to my vertical split-screen in emacs.
Often, I feel like I can only have so many finger macros loaded at once. I do a lot of switching back and forth merely to reference stuff. Error messages, output, data structure definitions, grammars, etc-- if you're trying to modify code based on information like that, it helps a ton to be able to see that and your code at the same time.
When working on multiple projects, it's easy to forget about stuff that gets buried; especially buried under explorer windows.
If you're waiting for an important email or IM or something, being able to see activity on a separate screen out of the corner of your eye is often preferable to (a) periodically checking or (b) setting some sort of flashy or loud message box alert
If you have server monitoring requirements, or stock market monitoring requirements... the list goes on. Screen real estate is important, so long as it's organized appropriately.
YMMV, of course. I've had issues like this for my whole life. If I need to use a reference for something, I slow way way down unless the reference is convenient.
I've done development at various local libraries and I would definitely recommend this over coffee shops. There are more wireless restrictions at libraries but the quiet, privacy, and space to work more than makes up for it.
great read, I think the biggest problem is toilet breaks, at home you don't need to take your laptop with you :p And if you do I don't want to know about it...
The freedom to be able to work from anywhere is one of the greatest things about this arrangement. Sometimes I travel to visit friends and family, and that doesn't stop me from doing my work because all I need is my laptop.