Fiction

Coffee shop coders long for the old, distraction free times

Sioux Falls, South Dakota— Coders all over the city long for the times when they would sit in peace, sipping their coffee, next to their MacBook Pros.

“It’s just not the same as the old times when I could sit here undisturbed, able to get work done. Those were the good times. Now I have to deal with things like this family over here discussing how their day is going, or this guy coughing a lot while reading today’s paper. It’s all distracting me from getting my NodeJS app finished up and tested.” said one coder, who wished to remain anonymous. “Don’t even get me started on the people who come in and ask for the most inane drinks imaginable.” she quipped.

Aaron, a freelancer who spends most of his working days in select shops around town, has noted similar issues.

“When I get started with my day, I am usually the only one here with a computer in front of them. Before long, everyone around is sporting a computer, using up all the bandwidth. That bandwidth used to be all available to just me, and it’s disheartening. Spotify streaming quality suffers because of all the extra traffic. Because of this, my focus gets ruined and I fear my client site designs lose quality as a result.”

One report states that Aaron received cold shoulders and looks of disbelief when he brought his concerns up to the baristas. Once he asked to speak to a manager, the manager told him that they can’t just kick everyone else out. They said that the continual flow of customers is part of the daily revenue. These customers spend more money than Aaron does on his own.

When asked, both of our coders agreed that times past were much nicer. “It’s just better for both of us before the lunch rush kicks in and no one else is around.” Aaron then added “We’ll just have to return early tomorrow and enjoy the salad days while we can.”

No word yet on if they would try to work together to create their own peace.

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