In the first future vision there is a Coming Soon announcement.

Combo Temp Agency, co-working space, training center and employment agency. Beautiful open space work environment for people between jobs. Lounge environment with work-friendly ambient music. In one corner is the Work Shop, where you see a desk or counter and “work leader.” There you pick up a paid work assignment that matches your skills, for an hourly amount that’s not as good as a full-time job but better than sitting home being unemployed. Data entry, customer interviewing, web design, proofreading, financial tracking and many other assignments are available. You can do your paid work around a table with others who may be talking, sit alone with your computer in the coffee area, or take it home. Company contract managers may actually come in part time or co-locate there to get work done flexibly and at a bargain rate. You leave Work N Search with a pay check.

In another corner is the Employment Shop where you can search job postings, get help with resume or prepare for interviews. In the Learning Shop, there are regular classes on commonly used software, technical or management skills in greatest demand.

Most appealing is great coffee, lighting, design, colors, furniture, music and design elements that keep you comfy, happy, and feeling connected. Internet connectivity is of course easy and fast and printing, copying, and faxing readily available. You even have co-workers to tease and gossip with. You may decide to stay here several years!

How much does it cost to live, eat, work, and play in the spaces that bring you the most joy? In evaluating your options, it may be best to compare your personal joy return. Instead of living in a large vintage home you re-modeled, it may be better to love closer-in—nearer to art, architecture, and artistic people. Smaller space, yes, but you can have fun fixing it up within space limits that residents of Paris, NYC, or Tokyo have had to face forever.

Who are the friends you’d most prefer being with? Should you invest more time with them? What about food, fitness, spiritual, hobby or other interests you’d like your life to be more filled with? Health care, nutrition, or alternative medicine? What about traffic, gossip, dogma, ugly landscapes, politics, isolation, and other things you want to get away from? All of these things can be weighted compared, sliced and diced to analyze the best ways of getting more enjoyment.

Richard Florida’s Who’s Your City: How the Creative Economy is Making Where to Live the Most Important Decision of Your Life gets into the geography of where you soak up the most creative energy. And in that decision process, you can add on weightings and ratings for how you most like to spend time, whether for work, play, learning, or creating.