get people to drink alcohol and dance rather than talk
Also important to notice that restaurants and bars are not fully aligned with your goals. On one hand, if you feel good there, you are likely to come again, and thus generate more profit for them—this part is win/win. On the other hand, it is better for them if you spend less time talking (even if that’s what you like), and instead eat and drink more, and then leave, so that other paying customers can come—that part is win/lose.
(Could restaurants become better aligned if instead of food we paid them for time? I suspect this would result in other kind of frustrating actions, such as them taking too much time to bring the food in very small portions.)
So while it is true that the music serves a socially useful purpose, it also serves a profit-increasing purpose, so I suspect that the usual volume of music we are used to is much higher than would be socially optimal.
Could restaurants become better aligned if instead of food we paid them for time?
The “anti-café” concept is like this. I’ve never been to one myself, but I’ve seen descriptions on the Web of a few of them existing. They don’t provide anything like restaurant-style service that I’ve heard; instead, there are often cheap or free snacks along the lines of what a office break room might carry, along with other amenities, and you pay for the amount of time you spend there.
I think a restaurant where you paid for time, if the food was nothing special, would quickly turn into a coworking space. Maybe it would be more open-office and more amenable to creative, conversational, interpersonal work rather than laptop work. You probably want it to be a cafe—or at least look like a cafe from the outside in signage / branding; you may want architectural sound dampening like a denny’s booth. You could sell pre-packaged food and sodas—it isn’t what they’re here for. Or you could even sell or rent activities like coloring books, simple social tabletop games, small toys, lockpicking practice locks, tiny marshmallow candle smore sets, and so on.
Also important to notice that restaurants and bars are not fully aligned with your goals. On one hand, if you feel good there, you are likely to come again, and thus generate more profit for them—this part is win/win. On the other hand, it is better for them if you spend less time talking (even if that’s what you like), and instead eat and drink more, and then leave, so that other paying customers can come—that part is win/lose.
(Could restaurants become better aligned if instead of food we paid them for time? I suspect this would result in other kind of frustrating actions, such as them taking too much time to bring the food in very small portions.)
So while it is true that the music serves a socially useful purpose, it also serves a profit-increasing purpose, so I suspect that the usual volume of music we are used to is much higher than would be socially optimal.
I also like Lorxus’s proposal of playing natural noises instead.
The “anti-café” concept is like this. I’ve never been to one myself, but I’ve seen descriptions on the Web of a few of them existing. They don’t provide anything like restaurant-style service that I’ve heard; instead, there are often cheap or free snacks along the lines of what a office break room might carry, along with other amenities, and you pay for the amount of time you spend there.
I think a restaurant where you paid for time, if the food was nothing special, would quickly turn into a coworking space. Maybe it would be more open-office and more amenable to creative, conversational, interpersonal work rather than laptop work. You probably want it to be a cafe—or at least look like a cafe from the outside in signage / branding; you may want architectural sound dampening like a denny’s booth. You could sell pre-packaged food and sodas—it isn’t what they’re here for. Or you could even sell or rent activities like coloring books, simple social tabletop games, small toys, lockpicking practice locks, tiny marshmallow candle smore sets, and so on.