Edward Hopper, Cape Cod Morning, oil on canvas, 1950

The Knight: As you know, I am afraid of emptiness, desolation and stillness. I cannot bear the silence and isolation.

Death: Emptiness is a mirror turned to your own face.

— Ingmar Bergman’s workbook, April 5, 1955

In the early 2010s, a popular idea was to provide coworking spaces and shared living to people who were building startups. That way the founders would have a thriving social scene of peers to percolate ideas with as they figured out how to build and scale a venture. This was attempted thousands of times by different startup incubators.…