London is far from a cheap place to live and as a full-time indie developer, I sometimes question why I decide to live and work from here. By being location independent, I could technically work from anywhere, but as it stands, I just love living in London and I’m happy to spend most of my time here.
I’ve never been a huge fan of working from home so I tend to get quite bored not having an office and a team sometimes, but I’ve really managed to find my way around that.
Ramen Club
Once a week I work at Ramen Club. Ramen Club is a online & offline founder community where its members are aspiring to reach the so-called Ramen Profitability, coined by Y Combinator founder Paul Graham.
At Ramen Club founders meet weekly at a shared office space and work together. Each day starts with a standup where each member lists their goals for the day and we all get to work. We get coffees together, we get lunch together, and at the end of the day everyone has a chance to demo their project. We also have regular , such as bowling and darts.
Meetups
Not a day goes by without a meetup being organised in London and there are so many different niches. My favourite meetup is definitely Indie London, a monthly meetup organised on every last Wednesday of the month where indie developers gather. I think what makes Indie Beers special for me is that it’s a rare meetup where nobody really wants anything from you. Everyone’s just really excited about building cool things and eager to share their progress with each other. There are a number of huge companies that have sprouted from the community and it’s always great to hear everyone’s updates.
If there isn’t a meetup for you, just create one! I’ve just started my own meetup group this week as I wanted all the indie iOS developers to gather once a month as well.
Coffee shops & libraries
There are so many great coffee shops, libraries, and other open spaces to work from in London so if I ever get tired of working from home, I just pop out to one of my favourite spots. Brewdog Waterloo with its huge open space and a great £15 unlimited coffee deal has become one of my go-to places in the last year.
Inspiration
London is famous for it’s many museums and galleries, most of which are still free to this day! If I’m ever low on inspiration, I’m just a short tube ride away from one of the great exhibitions.
