4 ms·

Totally agree but I serve two masters; both of which treat me very well—so not only is the commute the worst part of my day, it’s also the only negative part of

Totally agree but I serve two masters; both of which treat me very well—so not only is the commute the worst part of my day, it’s also the only negative part of the day.

triceratops 6y ago
Are you certain you've considered all the negatives of a 60 mile commute? I'd encourage you to read this: https://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2011/10/06/the-true-cost-of-commuting/ https://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2011/10/06/the-true-cost-of-...
- kortilla 6y ago
  That analysis is pretty fatally flawed (at least for software jobs). When I was at google you could easily get by on working 6 hours in the office and commuting an hour each way. The housing cost difference was obscene and would easily offset the cost of a new car every other year. Like most Money Mustache article’s the analysis looks sound because “numbers” but the numbers have a bunch of fucked assumptions to reach them.
  - triceratops 6y ago
    > That analysis is pretty fatally flawed (at least for software jobs) > When I was at google So it's fatally flawed if you work at Google (or another high-paying tech company) as a SWE in Silicon Valley - which is a minuscule fraction of the working population of software engineers. It may not be the assumptions in the article that are "fucked". You might just be an edge case. > The housing cost difference was obscene and would easily offset the cost of a new car every other year. It's not just the cost of a new car. It's also the time and energy lost to the commute, the increased risk of a serious accident, the opportunity cost of all that time spent in traffic. As a SWE working at a big tech company in Silicon Valley, I've done pretty well financially by avoiding long commutes - and had lots more spare time. There's more than one way to skin a cat.
    - kortilla 6y ago
      > You might just be an edge case. Yeah, aka the assumption is fucked. This dude cranks out shit on his blog as if it’s based on some objective stuff but realistically it’s a bunch of evidence based on his lifestyle. > It's not just the cost of a new car. It's also the time and energy lost to the commute, the increased risk of a serious accident, the opportunity cost of all that time spent in traffic. That’s the flaw again. “Time and energy” is not lost in a commute unless you waste it. If you are a competent SWE, you should be able to spend that time thinking about architecture, design plans, algorithms, data flows, UX, and on and on. Not to mention you can keep up on industry podcasts, industry news, and a bunch of other audio only shit. BTW, “increased risk of a serious accident” is yet another misunderstanding of a stat. “Deaths per million miles” in the US is a general stat averaged across commuters, drunk drivers, poor driving conditions, old cars, and bad roads. I’d posit that my chance of death putting along on the 101 at 20-30 mph during rush hour in a car with modern safety features for an entire year was lower than on a single night on a two lane road up in Sonoma on the weekend. All driving is not equal, and that’s just one of the many mistakes the money mustache blog makes. I’m all for promoting objective analysis of costs, but it needs to be done on a case-by-case basis. Trying to make general financial advice based on averages is as much folly as trying to make a shirt that fits everyone by sizing it to the average.
      - triceratops 6y ago
        > If you are a competent SWE, you should be able to spend that time thinking about architecture, design plans, algorithms, data flows, UX, and on and on. Not to mention you can keep up on industry podcasts, industry news, and a bunch of other audio only shit. I do all of that during my workouts and walks, or while cooking my family a healthy dinner. All of which I have time to do because I'm not spending 2 hours/day "putting along on the 101 at 20-30mph". On top of saving a ton of money and helping the environment, it's better for my health and my stress levels, because I'm not swearing at the 10th person to jump the queue at the exit. Before WFH started I was in far better shape than my colleagues who commuted from 1.5 hours away because they could get more house for less money. Long commutes are a destroyer of health, wealth, happiness, and the environment. They steal time from our lives, with our children and families and friends - the only non-renewable asset we have.
loceng 6y ago
What work do you do - if you don't mind me asking?

Totally agree but I serve two masters; both of which treat me very well—so not only is the commute the worst part of my day, it’s also the only negative part of the day.

triceratops 6y ago

Are you certain you've considered all the negatives of a 60 mile commute? I'd encourage you to read this: https://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2011/10/06/the-true-cost-of-commuting/ https://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2011/10/06/the-true-cost-of-...

kortilla 6y ago
That analysis is pretty fatally flawed (at least for software jobs). When I was at google you could easily get by on working 6 hours in the office and commuting an hour each way. The housing cost difference was obscene and would easily offset the cost of a new car every other year. Like most Money Mustache article’s the analysis looks sound because “numbers” but the numbers have a bunch of fucked assumptions to reach them.
- triceratops 6y ago
  > That analysis is pretty fatally flawed (at least for software jobs) > When I was at google So it's fatally flawed if you work at Google (or another high-paying tech company) as a SWE in Silicon Valley - which is a minuscule fraction of the working population of software engineers. It may not be the assumptions in the article that are "fucked". You might just be an edge case. > The housing cost difference was obscene and would easily offset the cost of a new car every other year. It's not just the cost of a new car. It's also the time and energy lost to the commute, the increased risk of a serious accident, the opportunity cost of all that time spent in traffic. As a SWE working at a big tech company in Silicon Valley, I've done pretty well financially by avoiding long commutes - and had lots more spare time. There's more than one way to skin a cat.
  - kortilla 6y ago
    > You might just be an edge case. Yeah, aka the assumption is fucked. This dude cranks out shit on his blog as if it’s based on some objective stuff but realistically it’s a bunch of evidence based on his lifestyle. > It's not just the cost of a new car. It's also the time and energy lost to the commute, the increased risk of a serious accident, the opportunity cost of all that time spent in traffic. That’s the flaw again. “Time and energy” is not lost in a commute unless you waste it. If you are a competent SWE, you should be able to spend that time thinking about architecture, design plans, algorithms, data flows, UX, and on and on. Not to mention you can keep up on industry podcasts, industry news, and a bunch of other audio only shit. BTW, “increased risk of a serious accident” is yet another misunderstanding of a stat. “Deaths per million miles” in the US is a general stat averaged across commuters, drunk drivers, poor driving conditions, old cars, and bad roads. I’d posit that my chance of death putting along on the 101 at 20-30 mph during rush hour in a car with modern safety features for an entire year was lower than on a single night on a two lane road up in Sonoma on the weekend. All driving is not equal, and that’s just one of the many mistakes the money mustache blog makes. I’m all for promoting objective analysis of costs, but it needs to be done on a case-by-case basis. Trying to make general financial advice based on averages is as much folly as trying to make a shirt that fits everyone by sizing it to the average.
    - triceratops 6y ago
      > If you are a competent SWE, you should be able to spend that time thinking about architecture, design plans, algorithms, data flows, UX, and on and on. Not to mention you can keep up on industry podcasts, industry news, and a bunch of other audio only shit. I do all of that during my workouts and walks, or while cooking my family a healthy dinner. All of which I have time to do because I'm not spending 2 hours/day "putting along on the 101 at 20-30mph". On top of saving a ton of money and helping the environment, it's better for my health and my stress levels, because I'm not swearing at the 10th person to jump the queue at the exit. Before WFH started I was in far better shape than my colleagues who commuted from 1.5 hours away because they could get more house for less money. Long commutes are a destroyer of health, wealth, happiness, and the environment. They steal time from our lives, with our children and families and friends - the only non-renewable asset we have.

loceng 6y ago

What work do you do - if you don't mind me asking?