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Comment by virtualritz | Hacker News Reader

'Commute less' should be taken with a grain of salt unless one talks about cars.

Any form of transport I take where I am not driving the vehicle myself gives me time to read, relax, think – even meditate (trains are great for this).

I know for a fact that I read most books/month in my life in times I had a job that included at least 20 mins of commute (one way) on public transport.

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For you, perhaps. Public transport for me involves having to fight for a space in an incredibly crowded environment, having to take multiple buses or a bus + tram, it's expensive, smelly and a vector for illnesses. I read a lot of books on my commute, but for me the cons outweigh the pros by quite a margin. No thanks!

Hmm, in my time we’d have said something like that builds character.

I commuted from the age of 11 until 21, when I had finally had enough of the BS to buy a bicycle and learn how to navigate the pot-hole-ridden roads of UK cities, figure out how to avoid getting killed by tired motorists and how to quickly fix a punctured tyre in -4c.

Those things build character. Sitting in a bus just breeds resentment.

I enjoy traveling by train, but I'd never want to commute by train. Even if you can use the time for something else, you're still pre-committing to spend that time in transit, which changes the effective workday from ~8-9 hours (counting lunch) to ~11-12 hours. It doesn't matter that that isn't "work" time; it's still time that's pre-committed and constrained. That makes a substantial difference in how much free time you have that's not spent in transit.

In terms of commuting, 20 minutes is my threshold for starting counting the minutes.

Anything up to 20 minutes is zero in my mind.

I used to commute 90 minutes via public transport. Twice daily. Did I read a lot? Sure. It still was a nightmare.

I now commute 17 minutes by car. Biggest improvement of life quality I've ever had.

A comfortable train ride is nice, but I had a chance to listen to many books on tape and podcasts when I had a long driving commute. It also was helpful to be able to stop at a store if I needed something on the way to work or home.

That said, I am very happy to work from home now!

It much depends: if trains are very frequent, train stations easy to reach and you only take one single train, that's one kind of experience. If there's few trains, you have every day the anxiety of risking to loose the train and the be very late, or in some cases, absent for the day.

If the train station is hard to reach, you have stress along the way.

If you have to switch three trains, you cannot concentrate on your book/podcast/whatever, because you must always check if it's your stop, and then maybe you have to sprint to take the next train.

Can be unpleasant.

I'd say that even if you "drive" yourself, the commute can be a pleasurable experience, depending on the circumstances. I for one love my commute (which is a calm promenade in the woods on my bicycle). But this is very specific: even a much shorter commute but inside the city traffic and among cars and red lights would be a nightmare.

I used to be very big on commuting less. Then my wife got pregnant and suddenly it was more important to be in the right school district and close enough to my parents that they can come over regularly to visit and help. I find that shortening other people’s commutes to you changes their behaviour in ways that involve seeing you far more. Shortening your commute adds time to your day but doesn’t really change the things you can do in that time. These days I value the extra interactions far more than the extra time. For what it’s worth in non-COVID times I’m a subway commuter who mostly reads on the subway.

I have found that having more free time does not necessarily allow me to be more productive. Productivity, creative pursuits, still require down-time, pauses between creative activities where, like dreaming, you can process and consider your next steps.

Commuting, walking, can be those break times between productive bursts.

I love commuting in my car. It's one of the only times I'm guaranteed solitude, and an opportunity to listen to or think about whatever I want in an enclosed space without interruption or surveillance (older car).

Maybe you have some podcasts you want to listen to. Or books. Or just music. A car can be a joy too, but I would struggle to fill 1 hour each way though.

Personally, I get that time of thinking during driving. In fact, I hate taking public transportation after work since it is always noisy etc.

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