this post was submitted on 06 Oct 2023
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San Francisco says tiny sleeping 'pods,' which cost $700 a month and became a big hit with tech workers, are not up to code::The pods, which are 4-foot-high boxes constructed from wood and steel, made headlines after tech workers praised the spaces.

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[โ€“] [email protected] 160 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Ugh. Bougie homeless. Just sleep in your car like normal people. ๐Ÿ™„ /s

I do want sleep pods at airports.

[โ€“] [email protected] 49 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Shower pod at the Paris airport was the best layover I've ever had. You pay in 30 minute increments but so nice to get refreshed when you're traveling across the Atlantic.

[โ€“] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago

Wow, 30min is really generous.

I bet that was really nice. ๐Ÿ™‚ As someone who takes red eyes, showering when I get there would be preferred.

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[โ€“] [email protected] 31 points 1 year ago (5 children)

San Franciscan here. What is โ€œcar?โ€

[โ€“] [email protected] 20 points 1 year ago

A mobile home. Donโ€™t worry youโ€™ll be able to rent one from Uber for the night soon enough.

[โ€“] [email protected] 14 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Well in San Francisco, a car is something that a robot learns how to navigate around the city streets.

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[โ€“] [email protected] 106 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (11 children)

$700 for this is insane. I get why theyโ€™re doing it but thereโ€™s no reason anyone should pay $700 for a bed.

San Francisco should build their own get that shit up to code, make it about 30 stories, have spots for restaurants, stores, retail at the bottom and make it actually affordable and for everyone. There should be no market for 700 a month 4 foot tall boxes. Greedy fucks.

Shit should be like $50 a month max and yea itโ€™s dystopian AF but if people want to do it I guess whatever. Just donโ€™t rip them off.

[โ€“] [email protected] 35 points 1 year ago

but if people want to do it I guess whatever.

They don't want it. They need to do it. There's no choice here. Alternative is to not have a job in your field, because you have to move 300km away to afford something.

[โ€“] [email protected] 14 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Just what is shown in the photo would get you $7000 a month... why rent out 2-3 houses when you can rent out 10 boxes I guess.

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[โ€“] [email protected] 90 points 1 year ago (7 children)

ugh, this is dysphorian THIS IS NOT FUCKING NORMAL. THIS IS LATE STAGE CAPITALISM

[โ€“] [email protected] 72 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Late stage capitalism? They were doing shit like this in the 1800s. It IS capitalism.

[โ€“] [email protected] 43 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Like, seriously. Itโ€™s always been a thing.

In the 1800s, you could rent a space on a rope overnight so that you could drape yourself over it and have a place to sleep that night that wasnโ€™t on the freezing, urine-soaked ground.

This has long been an issue.

[โ€“] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago

Holy balls. That was a wild read.

[โ€“] [email protected] 14 points 1 year ago

revolution time!

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[โ€“] [email protected] 82 points 1 year ago (1 children)

"A big hit" with people who desperately need accommodation that won't bankrupt them.

[โ€“] [email protected] 21 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yeah i love how every negative was couched within a sentence mentioning how popular and great these pieces of shit are

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[โ€“] [email protected] 64 points 1 year ago (1 children)

A pod for sleeping at home: ๐Ÿ‘ A pod for sleeping in a hotel: ๐Ÿ‘ A pod to rent for cheap on vacation: ๐Ÿ‘

A pod is your fucking home: ๐Ÿ‘Ž๐Ÿ‘Ž๐Ÿ‘Ž๐Ÿ‘Ž๐Ÿ‘Ž๐Ÿ‘Ž๐Ÿ‘Ž๐Ÿ‘Ž๐Ÿ‘Ž๐Ÿ‘Ž

[โ€“] [email protected] 16 points 1 year ago (7 children)

I imagine this is more like the Japanese coffin hotels. They are for salary men that work too late to take the trains home.

In this case, probably for people who don't want to do the 1-1.5hr each way to their "just affordable enough" commutter home every day. I doubt these are many people's long term permanent address.

$700/mo is excessive though.

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[โ€“] [email protected] 52 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I remember reading about, "pod hotels" in Akiharbara, "Electric Town", Japan in the late 90s or early 2000s. I recall them being marketed as a cheap way to see the neighborhood. Even back then, Akiharbara was the global epicenter of anime/manga, retro gaming, arcades, computer stores and repair shops.

Glad to see the concept has now evolved to, "dystopian hell" some 20 years later.

[โ€“] [email protected] 54 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (5 children)

yeah, to be clear: capsule hotels in japan are not meant to be long term stays, they're for busy business people that need a quick place to sleep for ONE night because they worked till late at night and missed the last train, or similar situations like that. Nobody actually lives in a capsule hotel

EDIT: to clarify, some people may live in a capsule hotel, but they're not designed for long-term living

[โ€“] [email protected] 22 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

There have to be people living in capsule hotels in Japan. There are people in Japan living in computer cafes, where the lights are on 24/7. Japan isn't all sunshine and roses. Tons of people barely hanging on and these cheap ass places let them have at least some sort of dignity. If you work any job in Japan, odds are you'll have a roof over your head. Same can't be said in the US, where many homeless people have jobs and can't afford to be protected from the elements.

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[โ€“] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago (6 children)

It's really sad that someone had the thought process of, "I bet we can convince people to live in these fucking things". An despite this small bump in the road, it is seemingly working.

It's disgusting how many people will leverage housing costs (especially in San Francisco) against their fellow (hu)man.

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[โ€“] [email protected] 48 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Don't get me wrong, I would LOVE to see modern SRO-style buildings, noise proofed, with small individual bathrooms and kitchenettes. That sort of development would be a godsend to the housing shortage, perfect for young people, supercommuters, and recent transplants, as well as for stopgap homeless prevention.

This isn't that. This is horrible.

[โ€“] [email protected] 20 points 1 year ago

Yeah young people(students) fresh out on their own and have nothing yet trying to make ends meet donโ€™t have standards yet when they first get out into the world and once they run into responsibilities they find out fast this type of living really isnโ€™t living. Itโ€™s actually super limited. Until then: extorters are going to extort.

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[โ€“] [email protected] 48 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

Centered in the square carpet of green plastic turf, a Japanese teenager sat behind a C-shaped console, reading a textbook. The white fiberglass coffins were racked in a framework of industrial scaffolding. Six tiers of coffins, ten coffins on a side. Case nodded in the boy's direction and limped across the plastic grass to the nearest ladder. The compound was roofed with cheap laminated matting that rattled in a strong wind and leaked when it rained, but the coffins were reasonably difficult to open without a key.

The expansion-grate catwalk vibrated with his weight as he edged his way along the third tier to Number 92. The coffins were three meters long, the oval hatches a meter wide and just under a meter and a half tall.

-- William Gibson, Neuromancer

Cyberpunk was supposed to be a dystopian vision.

[โ€“] [email protected] 23 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Most dystopian books are now used as a manual for some politicians and rich a**holes.

[โ€“] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Ready Player One was a dystopia and Zuck was so enamored it became required reading for building the "Metaverse".

Billions of dollars can't buy you the ability to sense irony I guess.

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[โ€“] [email protected] 39 points 1 year ago

Crush this trend, now.

[โ€“] [email protected] 36 points 1 year ago (2 children)

$700 / 30 = $23.33 a day to sleep in a wood box... brilliant!

[โ€“] [email protected] 16 points 1 year ago (3 children)

And when your are done, you get to sleep in one for free.

[โ€“] [email protected] 31 points 1 year ago (7 children)

lol someone has never bought a coffin and it shows.

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[โ€“] [email protected] 35 points 1 year ago (6 children)

This is the dumbest thing I've seen in a while

[โ€“] [email protected] 24 points 1 year ago (8 children)

As a person who worked at one of these cool tech companies that provided food for breakfast lunch and dinner and snacks 24/7, I found I was only using my apartment to sleep. Most of the offices of other amenities such as a gym, and all the tech workers would go out for happy hours. If I was single this would be a very valid option. Some people don't plan to spend time in their apartments.

[โ€“] [email protected] 22 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I never understood that whole tech/startup culture. I would absolutely hate for my entire life to be my job. And from the outside all these "cool" perks are very clearly designed to get you to spend as much time working as possible. No thanks.

[โ€“] [email protected] 16 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I worked normally hour, I just didn't need a full apartment. You going to start your work day there's breakfast you work there's lunch you work until 5:00 and then you go to the gym and then you go back for dinner when you do something cool in the city. I actually have really fond memories of that period.

[โ€“] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago (3 children)

I'm glad it worked out for you. And I also know that my idea of it all can't possibly apply to every single company that was or is a part of that whole culture.

I just find myself sceptical of it all since I much prefer to have my own time, and my own space as separate from work and the people I work with. And perks like that just very clearly seem designed to get me to spend as much time at work as possible.

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[โ€“] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago

Having worked at, and co-founded, multiple startups over a period of 28 years: Sure. But why are you choosing that?

The reality is that the moment I started standing up to employers or investors and expecting decent standards, they folded and I was able to have a good work-life balance and get paid market rates and still get to work on cool startups and get shares.

These companies prey on most people never thinking to negotiate (and having been on the other side of the table, and tried to be decent: most people never negotiate, even though we almost always have space to do so)

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[โ€“] [email protected] 29 points 1 year ago (5 children)

โ€œBecame a big hit with tech workersโ€ lmao thatโ€™s fucking stupid. Thereโ€™s just nowhere to live thatโ€™s remotely reasonably priced in SF. This is like one of the only choices if you really donโ€™t want a roommate.

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[โ€“] [email protected] 24 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Who had William Gibson's coffins on their Cyberpunk Bingo?

Spoiler: They appeared in Japan in the late 80s in hotels, rented a day at a time.

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[โ€“] [email protected] 20 points 1 year ago

Tech companies that offer places to sleep, eat and play at work, only do so so they can keep you working as long as a possible. If you never leave the office they make boatloads of money and make yourself a free Eggo waffle. And if you try to work from home so you can live in a city you can actually afford, they make come into the office so itโ€™s impossible. Not because you arenโ€™t doing good work at home, but because you canโ€™t wonโ€™t 24/7 at home.

[โ€“] [email protected] 19 points 1 year ago

They write "tech workers" but it's pronounced "tech slaves"

[โ€“] [email protected] 16 points 1 year ago (12 children)

As someone who's not American and had a couple of job opportunities to move to San Francisco, I'm glad not to have done it.

What kind of hellhole is that city? I had an impression it was extremely expensive but also very wealthy. The more I hear the worse it seems.

[โ€“] [email protected] 22 points 1 year ago

I like the city but it's not for everyone. I definitely wouldn't call it a hellhole.

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[โ€“] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago

$700 a month?!

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