[ogreveins]

The rationale behind it makes perfect sense. Do you really want to give someone $2-3000 per month or $24-36k a year just to have a box around you? Especially if you don't own much stuff? How much do you actually need besides your computer, phone, clothes and toiletries? Gym for bathroom and free public wifi for internet aside from your phone and you're set.

The rental and housing market is disgusting. I wouldn't consider it except for my wife.

[zzalpha]

The rationale behind it makes perfect sense. Do you really want to give someone $2-3000 per month or $24-36k a year just to have a box around you?

Really? You honestly can't fathom why some people might desire their own, private space, away from their work environment, where they might, I dunno, live their life outside of their day-to-day drudgery?

I'm not even sure how to react to that. It's such an alien way of thinking, I simply can't relate to it... it's baffling.

I mean, the minute humans formed fixed communities instead of hunting and gathering, we've been driven by the need to build public and private spaces in which to live. Questioning that need is questioning one of the founding tenants of modern human society...

[civilian]

Yeah, I'm with you. I have a guitar! I have books! I have a large bed and a variety of clothes. I need some place to store my skis and my running shoes. I enjoy cooking. I don't see myself as materialistic, just as a passionate hobbyist/human.

[saalweachter]

Tools, man. Where do you keep your table saw when you're living in a van?

[cfallin]

You joke a bit but this is one of the biggest things I miss now (in a small apartment in the middle of a city). Growing up in suburbia with a well-stocked garage for tinkering was a wonderful experience. Yeah, hackerspaces; not quite the same though...

[jschwartzi]

I won't pay 300 more a month for modern fixtures, plumbing, or millwork, but I'd pay it for a two-car heated garage with a 220v outlet and good lighting.

[WalterBright]

Haha, I told the real estate agent I wanted a 2 bedroom house with a 5 car garage :-)

[Turing_Machine]

220? I want 480v three phase. :-)

[bobbles]

I'm sure it wont be long until hackerspaces become competitive enough to introduce 'hobby' workshop rooms etc for people to spend more time there...

Hell maybe apartment buildings should accommodate things like this instead of just having a gym/pool included

[kragen]

Hackerspaces have had various conflicts related to people living in them for decades now. You’re probably aware that Stallman was sleeping in his office at the AI Lab in the 80s.

[beambot]

Google has some pretty insane machine shops and labs (electrical, bio, & chemistry)... They blow my home lab out of the water -- and I've probably spent upwards of $30k on my home EE lab.

[kragen]

Can you walk into one and use it to make yourself a new set of silverware, or do you have to be, like, working on a Google project?

[jsolson]

Our maker space at Google Seattle (which is not a full on machine shop, although we should have the mill online soon) is explicitly for personal projects only (for liability reasons, I believe, although IANALcat).

[Sophistifunk]

This. The fear of never being able to again live in an apartment is most of what keeps me from buying any tools bigger than the MakerBot.

[sremani]

When every one thinks alike, no one is thinking. I welcome frugalists who do not want to own home or pay rent, even though that is not my lifestyle. I see their point. Different strokes for different folks.

[s73v3r]

I can't see that as "frugalism", more just freeloading. They want the benefits of having a place to live, but with none of the responsibility or bills.

[superuser2]

I desire private space, but I'm willing to sacrifice just about anything to avoid the Midwest and suburbia. If no private space is the cost of living in real city, then so it goes.

[eli_gottlieb]

>Really? You honestly can't fathom why some people might desire their own, private space, away from their work environment, where they might, I dunno, live their life outside of their day-to-day drudgery?

I agree, but you do have to admit that $2k-$3k per month is a huge trade-off, especially considering how little you're actually going to get for that money.

Would you prefer to spend the same money on a shitty, expensive apartment now, or a nicer, cheaper house later?

[ethbro]

Or, hell, simple carnal pleasures. I'm pretty thrifty, but I think it's reasonable to expect most people could come up with some pretty solid ideas to increase their happiness with an extra $1k (after tax)/month. Then save the rest.

[timothybone]

>>Questioning that need is questioning one of the founding tenants of modern human society...

There's private space to live in his van, there's no problem there, yes he too wants a private space to live in like the rest of us. The difference is the van does not provide a box around him unlike the 2-3k box.

[holografix]

I completely disagree. Sure there a few things I'd want to keep with me, a couple of books, a surfboard, a suitcase with clothes and shoes, my laptop, etc.

I could leave my business clothes at work, 3 pairs of pants and 5/6 business shirts. At the end of the week I dry clean it as needed. I can shower at work and I have all the entertainment I could possibly need on my laptop.

If I had a convenient and dependable car and safe overnight parking I would DEFINITELY not pay rent. Oh yeah I'd have to lose the girlfriend too of course...

[devindotcom]

Not to judge it, but clearly your lifestyle differs greatly from mine. I value a separate space, privacy, my own books and plants and furniture, a neighborhood that isn't a business district or food court.... and a hundred other things that living full-time at a workplace make impossible.

These two lifestyles are not merely incompatible but imcompossible. What you describe sounds to me like living like a drone - as in, an actual bee.

[bbcbasic]

> The rental and housing market is disgusting. I wouldn't consider it except for my wife.

There you go. It is not in our nature to optimize for efficient use of money. There are other desires that will outwit this including the desire to reproduce, the desire to fit in socially, the desire for space and boundaries, the desire for inertia.

I used to think about living in a camper van to 'protest' against ridiculous house prices and paying rent. I never quite wanted to do it, and mainly because of what other people would say. Of course some people have the guts to be daring and different :-)

[jlarocco]

What doesn't make sense to me about that line of thinking is why even keep working? Why not work for a year, save money, and then live in your van wherever just doing whatever?

If you could save $75k of the $135k salary, you could go a very long time living in a van in somewhere like South Dakota.

[jimworm]

Alimony, or the quick modern way for man to achieve indentured servitude.

[ethbro]

I would hazard that someone who is happy enough in their job to live at work (let's face it, no one who is proposing this is working at Taco Bell) doesn't have being able to leave their job as their #1 priority.

I'm sure it's somewhere up there, but I see this as more of a compatible lifestyle choice than a suffer-in-the-short-term-then-cash-out scheme.

[jlarocco]

I hadn't thought of that, and it makes sense, thought I don't quite understand it.

[infinotize]

Only on HN!

Doesn't this beg the question: Why would you suffer such an unreasonably irrational wife?

[animefan]

Not sure that this deserves to be down voted. If the only reason for not continuing this lifestyle is his wife, doesn't that imply that his wife is being irrational?

[nikatwork]

It means his partner has different values and needs and they are compromising as part of the relationship. That is highly rational.

[s73v3r]

No, it doesn't. It's just as plausible that he's the one being irrational.

[nosuchthing]

Imagine an affordable mobile home for college students, or developing nations, or even just Americans who are priced out of the area where they work..

http://www.designboom.com/design/cornelius-comanns-bufalino/

[catbird]

That's so strange. If you're going to park your tiny home somewhere, why not make it the size of a regular car, like the VW Westfalia camper van?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volkswagen_Westfalia_Campers

[nosuchthing]

Westfalias retail for upwards of ~$50,000, with 1980's models still fetching upwards of $15,000...

If the Elio [1] can retail for $6,800 new, it's not a stretch to imagine a modern minimal camper-motorcycle/tuktuk/scooter for under ~$20,000... models for countries with less regulatory requirements like India or Asia regions might have much less expensive versions.

[1] http://eliomotors.com/

[shanemhansen]

Westfalias are expensive because they are a bit of a fetish item. I have a 2000 converted camper van (pop top, fridge, solar panels, stove, running water) that I bought for 13k. It's still expensive, but not compared to a tempermental westfalia that's 20 years older.

[nosuchthing]

I assume it's somewhat due to the slim form factor?

There are ford/dodge van campers but they're cumbersome compared to the slimmer Volkswagen Westfalias and similar early Toyota TownAce models. Westfalias have a much larger userbase and parts aftermarket though.

[catbird]

Ah, I had no idea that they cost so much. Thanks

[fwn]

Looks cool but maybe overengineered?

I don't know about college students in the US, but German students live pretty cheap in shared flats. I pay 350 Euro for my share of an inner city Wilhelminian apartment house. It goes down to maybe 200 Euro. I can't see this to be a bigger problem in developing nations.

I'd consider those mobile homes for the mobility though..

[seansmccullough]

I agree, especially if you're not home a lot, it's not worth it.

[Chinjut]

Also not worth it: spending so much time at work that you're not home a lot.

[rayiner]

Where would you host dinner parties?

[Turing_Machine]

There are rental spaces for that sort of thing -- people rent them for weddings and such all the time, some privately owned, some public (the parks department here has some buildings that can be reserved for functions).

One that I'm thinking of even has a full commercial kitchen that you can use (for extra money).

[samstave]

Have kids?

[s73v3r]

" Do you really want to give someone $2-3000 per month or $24-36k a year just to have a box around you? "

Yes. I want to leave the office. I want to have my own space, where I can do my own thing. I want to have a place where I can cook my own meals, and raise my plants. Possibly a pet.

[collyw]

I want the box part, but the $24-36k per year bit I don't.