Shared hobbies are social shortcuts, which is why we built something new at Cohere.
Most people think community starts with introductions, name tags, networking events, and awkward icebreakers everyone secretly hates.
Usually, it starts with something else. Someone mentions they trail run. Someone else says they’ve been trying to get back into it. A conversation starts over gardening, pottery, Dungeons & Dragons, birding, bread baking, or backyard chickens.
Friendship rarely forms because two people work in the same industry. It forms because they both mountain bike, both have kids the same age, or both need someone to laugh with about their failed baking attempt.
Member Hannah, our resident social scientist from Divergent Science, teamed up with member Ellen, graphic recorder and illustrator, of Noted by Ellen to create our Hobby Map, a giant interactive wall where members can literally color their way into the community.
Hobbies spread across the wall like a visual ecosystem, and members mark where they belong. Cycling, climbing, thrifting, D&D, gardening, writing, live music, photography, parenting, fermenting questionable things.
Instead of starting with “what do you do,” we get to ask “what are you into?”
The map makes it easier to find your people fast, and those hobby groupings will eventually shape our Slack channels and event programming, helping Coherians connect, plan, and spend more time together beyond work.
Because the best version of coworking is when another member becomes your hiking buddy, joins your book club, and then becomes someone you call when life gets weird.
Community needs infrastructure. Sometimes that looks like coffee and monitors. Sometimes it looks like markers on the wall.