4 ms·

You could ask the same about white collar workers voluntarily spending 2hrs a day commuting to get to and from work everyday

• jlarocco 7y ago
  After bike commuting for 10 years and now working from home, I ask that question all the time. My only guess after asking around is people think they "have to". People put their head down and forget to think about the bigger picture. Maybe working for DoorDash is the same type of thing?
  • Can_Not 7y ago
    A bike commute for me would be a minimum of 2 hours (twice a day) and I'm almost at the years of experience the vast majority of remote jobs start at (which isn't a small number like 2), so you could say I "have to".
    • jlarocco 7y ago
      Well, apparently there's something more important to you than moving closer to work. That's your choice.
      • Can_Not 7y ago
        > apparently there's something more important to you Yup, it's called living in the real world.
        • deleted 7y ago
          [deleted]
      • bigwavedave 7y ago
        > That's your choice. Yep, it's totally someone's choice to live in a neighborhood with affordable housing as opposed to a mansion across the street from their place of employment. Gee, looks like we both know how to make irrational overgeneralizations.
• chrisseaton 7y ago
  Two hours of reading, snoozing, thinking, hobbies, what's wrong with that? I used to quite appreciate the time and space of my long commute.
  • bcyn 7y ago
    This is classic Stockholm syndrome with commutes that I see all too often. What's wrong with the commute? The fact that, if you didn't have the commute, you could do all those same things and also anything else you can think of. The opportunity cost is enormous.
    • chrisseaton 7y ago
      > if you didn't have the commute, you could do all those same things and also anything else you can think of I don't think that's true. In my case, I'd pay the opportunity cost of not being able to both do the PhD with the advisor I wanted and also have my daughter live where I wanted. If I didn't take the commute, I could do my hobbies, but not simultaneously both do the PhD I wanted and have my daughter live where I wanted. Only the commute lets me satisfy everything I want. See?
      • denkmoon 7y ago
        Always an edge case. You can't have your PhD advisor at home, but consider how many people commute to jobs that could be done just as effectively from home/remotely. How many man-hours are lost to that. Also, it seems like you're using public transport. You're lucky that that is a) a viable option and b) pleasant enough that you don't want to murder people after a few weeks of doing it. The majority of commuters around the world are using personal transport, which has a huge carbon cost and does not allow for doing other things while commuting. Finally, there are plenty of studies demonstrating the link between longer commute and lower well-being and mental health. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11116-019-09983-9 https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11116-019-09983-9 Personally, I wouldn't mind a 40 minute train trip and a 5 minute walk either side, but a 40 minute drive is awful. I've gone from a 40 minute drive to a 10 minute drive, and I feel "free-er" because of it.
• foogazi 7y ago
  Heh, I used to do that - if you asked me I think it worked out ok. Lived in a bigger place, but had the bad commute.