I don't think it's the silence the owners really care about, it's more that people aren't paying and they hog the seats all day for the price of a $2 coffee.
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Charge them, or install some kind of time limiting then. Cafes here either charge at least $5 for a coffee (note that wage in Taiwan is about half than the US), or would ask you to leave if you stay for 2 hours (they will tell you first, of course). If this is what the owner really cares about, I feel the article is solving the wrong problem.
> If this is what the owner really cares about, I feel the article is solving the wrong problem.
True, but then again the hallmark of NYTimes aspirational twee writing is to harp on some wannabe hipster psuedo-retro twee bs - "Cafes are too silent!! People aren't interacting in social old fashioned ways! Nobody makes 3-week brine horseradish pickles anymore except for this one Fort Point Hassid who only works on the 8th Tuesday of the Month!!!" while simultaneously ignoring the common sense factors (Cafe owners are losing $$ because people use their cafes as free office space, and horseradish pickles be gross).