Tried to work from a 'digital nomad friendly' cafe in Chiang Mai and got a lesson in physics

Honestly, I set up at this spot everyone online said was perfect. About two hours in, a huge tour group came in and the whole place started shaking from all the people moving around. My coffee literally walked off the table from the vibrations. Ngl, I learned that 'good wifi' doesn't mean anything if the table isn't stable. Has anyone else had a work session totally wrecked by something weird like that? What's the most absurd place you've tried to get a stable connection?

4 comments

4 Comments

michaeld482mo ago

That's actually more of an engineering problem than physics, lol. The building's structure just couldn't handle the load and movement. Makes you wonder what else they cut corners on in those trendy spots.

riverw172mo ago

But what if the problem is that we expect too much? These places are built for a vibe that lasts a few years, not forever. The whole point is to be cheap and look cool now, because in five years the trend will be over and they'll redo it anyway. It's not about cutting corners, it's about building for a short life on purpose. Maybe we're just mad because we want things to last in a world that moves fast.

davis.noah1mo ago

Funny you say that, but I gotta push back a little. Three years ago I watched a crew put up one of those glass front places downtown, and they actually overbuilt the frame by a good bit because the architect wanted that raw industrial look with exposed steel. The problem wasn't cutting corners, it was that the concrete slab they poured was too thin for the weight of all those people packed in for a DJ set. You can have the best engineering in the world, but if the owner tells you to save money on the foundation so they can spend more on the fancy lighting, that's not an engineering failure. I've seen it a dozen times where the structure is solid but the ground underneath just wasn't prepped right. Sometimes the issue is that nobody thought about what happens when two hundred people start jumping in rhythm, not that they built it cheap.

corablack2mo ago

Totally agree with you @michaeld48, it's a failure of the engineering for sure. It just shows a bigger problem where style gets put way ahead of safety and function. You see it everywhere now, from buildings to the stuff you buy, everything is made to look good for a quick photo but falls apart with any real use. It feels like the people making things don't expect them to last or handle real life. Makes me not trust anything that looks too perfect.