

Ask HN: Does anybody code during their commute? - cotsog

Inspired by this comment where conesus (Samuel Clay) says he is coding NewsBlur (http://newsblur.com) during his 35 minutes commute on the A train in NYC:<p>http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1869550<p>An this post by dblock (Daniel Doubrovkine) saying he also codes during his commute in NYC:<p>http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2597962<p>I was wondering if anyone else is coding/hacking on their commute time and if you do, could you share your exprerience, your setup or any tips?<p>Thanks!
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bigohms
I live in DC, my commute is 1.5 hrs/day on the Metro. I consider this my time.
No internet, no cell phone. I set a goal "theme" for each week, it could be
getting a project done, move along an idea, learn something new, whatever.

Each week, I get one full day (~7.5 hrs) of learning/doing something new that
would have otherwise been spent watching others play Angry Birds or Sudoku. To
date, I've read the notable lean startup/venture finance/start something/be
inspired books, listened to all of Andrew Warner's interviews/taken notes, run
through all of Rails screencasts, updated my linkedin, launched a small blog,
built a couple MVP apps and have hammered out most of the details of a project
for an upcoming YC application. Next up is learning more about managerial
finance & economics of ventures small and large.

~~~
cotsog
Wow! Great insights!

I love the idea of a goal theme per week.

Thanks for sharing!

~~~
bigohms
No problem! One more thing I forgot (an ancillary benefit), about once a week
what I'm doing leads to conversations that I didn't expect to have.
Wireframing & coding have both lead to meetings, contacts and a couple
consulting contracts.

Good luck!

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saberworks
I live across the water from Seattle and take a ferry to work. The ferry ride
is an hour long (each way). I've spent a lot of time working on personal
projects but for the past few months I've been doing contract work. This is
about 2 hours per day or 10 hours per week and the money I earn really adds
up. And it's a lot more lucrative than the personal projects I've worked on in
the past.

I don't typically get burned out as the work is really a lot different than my
day job. Same programming language, completely different problem spaces,
though. It works for me because my contracting client isn't in a huge hurry to
have stuff done (deadline is like... "before Christmas").

The ferries have wi-fi now but it's terrible so I have to make sure I have
everything I need on my laptop (basically a complete instance of the web-based
software).

~~~
cotsog
Great job doing contract work during your commute and I find taking the ferry
to work pretty cool!

It must be relaxing. :-)

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glimcat
The part that goes on in my head, yes. The part that involves typing, no.

~~~
getonit
Ditto, but it comes with disadvantages. Apparently my concentration-face is
the same as my I'm-really-bored-please-talk-to-me-even-if-you-have-nothing-to-
say-face. I only listening to music around half the time, but if I'm not doing
something that's obviously requiring my attention, the headphones are always
in anyway. Sometimes I just stare blankly at an open book while my mind is
elsewhere :)

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dholowiski
I would love to, but since I'm driving a car it's actually illegal where I
live. But I do get to work an hour early and spend about an hour in a nearby
starbucks coding, every morning. It's amazing how much you can get done when
you work just an hour every morning.

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nc
Yup. Live in London & I code on the tube sometimes, only if it's quiet and I
can get a seat. I use a Macbook Air which makes it a ton easier than if you
have something hefty to carry around. It's really useful for ticking of small
bits of work.

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pdenya
I live in Pleasant Hill and commute to SF daily on the BART train. I code for
the full 50 minutes - 1 hour each way (as long as I can get a seat).

I haven't found anything difficult about it. If I run into something I need to
lookup I either check briefly from my iphone or just skip it until I'm in the
office or at home. I also skip anything that would have me sitting idly trying
to make a decision because there's plenty of time for that on the MUNI.

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byoung2
I live in Los Angeles, where the car is king. My 30 min commute by car is 1:15
by bus. It's more efficient timewise to code at home and then drive to work.

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geekytenny
Once i typed a document on a bus on my android phone. Laptops wud feel awkward
for me and probably hurt my neck. If there was a good IDE app (for android) on
which i could hack a lil python i probably wud....most text editors i have
tried are not so good. That said, i think commute time is great for mash ups,
and reading stuff: documentation, books etc.

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cotsog
Clickable links:

<http://newsblur.com>

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1869550>

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2597962>

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gdulli
ExpanDrive (www.expandrive.com) is the best solution for mapping an FTP/SFTP
share to a local drive. What makes it useful for commuting is that it handles
going offline, drifting in and out of connectivity, laptop sleep/wake
seamlessly and flawlessly. My experience is based on the Windows version.

