Against the Coworking Space

Sun, 29 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The modern coworking space is a marvel of category confusion: it charges the price of an office while delivering the ambiance of an airport lounge. It wraps commercial real estate arbitrage in the language of community, innovation, and — that most debased of words — synergy.

Let us be clear about what a coworking space actually is. A landlord leases a floor of a building at a long-term rate. A coworking operator subleases desks on that floor at a short-term rate, pocketing the spread. The desks come with a coffee machine, a few meeting rooms bookable via app, and a Slack channel where strangers post about their startups. This is presented as a revolution in how we work.

Culture on Adventures of a Digital Privateer

Against the Coworking Space