A wise man once said that there's a country in Europe that only exists so you can drive through it to get to Italy.

I disagree. But I get it. I don’t mind this country. In fact I like it. I was there a few weeks ago, and since I had to check out of my hotel at 11 am and couldn’t really go to the airport till 7 pm, I booked a spot at a WeWork location.

It’s included with my Revolut card, so why the heck not.

Ordinarily, a WeWork daily pass would’ve cost me 60 euros ($70) and you get free coffee and free beer after 5 pm.

But since I was getting it for free with Revolut, the way I saw it, I was getting a place to stay for the day, and beer, and coffee, for free.

I should preface this by saying that I have opinions about WeWork.

The thing is, WeWork is not a tech company.

This is key.

WeWork is a real estate company that just so happens to rent office space to a lot of tech startups, but that doesn’t make you a tech company.

That’d be like a hotel claiming to be a law firm just because hosts lawyer conventions.

Or calling your restaurant a football club just because football players occasionally dine in your restaurant.

But WeWork has always marketed itself as a tech company in order to boost its reputation and valuation and attract investors.

That’s ridiculous. But clearly also clever. Because it worked. And WeWork works because it’s almost like a cult.

You can tell. It’s tangible.

And I get it.

I get it now because I did have a particularly proficient day working from there.

And I exploited the bottomless coffee policy ruthlessly and then the beer policy after 5 pm.

I still think WeWork marketing itself as a tech company was sneaky.

And I still think everyone takes themselves a bit too seriously. But still. I get it now