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Ask HN: As a developer, how can I take advantage of time spent driving to work?

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Re: Ask HN: As a developer, how can I take advantage of time spent driving to work?

#51

Post by ivansavz »

I have a nice "life hack" which I use to keep entertained while doing dishes or cooking: I make the computer read to me HN articles (not all of them... god no!), but the select few long reads that seem interesting. I select the text of the article and press a shortcut to enjoy a "custom audiobook" for the next 5-15 minutes. I use the built-in Mac OS X text to speech functionality[1], but I'm sure you can adapt this to other OS.

I have to go back to the computer and "play" a new article every 4-15 minutes which is not good while driving, but you can probably script the whole process and make longer recordings:

    manually select a list of articles that seem worth reading
    urls list --> main content recognizer --> html2text | `say` --> .wav --lame--> .mp3
    concatenate all the mp3 files to form a 2h long podcast
[1] https://docs.google.com/document/d/1mApa60zJA8rgEm6T6GF0yIem...

Re: Ask HN: As a developer, how can I take advantage of time spent driving to work?

#52

Post by douche »

grzm wrote: post #50
douche wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh, it's some sort of $20 SanDisk copy of the original iPod Nano from ten years ago. Plays MP3s beautifully, but that is about it. So I ended up buying some files from Audible, then had the choice of resorting to torrenting the ripped versions or using some dodgy converter to extract something useful. Or cancelling the subscription and getting a refund, which is what I did.

Sounds like Audible has pretty good customer service! I see a little incongruity here. You're willing to pay $20 10 years ago for media player. Audible subscriptions are about $15/month, with additional titles approximately $15 (or more) a piece. You're willing to spend perhaps $30–$45/month for a subscription or $30–45 per title? 1 year Audible subscription: $360 (at $30/month) 10 years: $3,600. Apple iPod nano: $15…

No, you're correct; I ought to just knuckle under and spend the money, if I want to consume from Audible. But I picked up the current MP3 player on a flier, and have become used to it - it does what I want it to, in a very simple and straight-forward way.

The content that I've spent money on already dwarfs the purchase of the player. Although that content is DRM-free, so I am free to use it on this player, or any of my various laptops and desktops, and any future devices that I buy. And it is in a standard format that virtually any audio playback application understands. And I can just download those files normally, without having to install the weird Audible download manager.

Re: Ask HN: As a developer, how can I take advantage of time spent driving to work?

#53

Post by grzm »

douche wrote: post #52
grzm wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sounds like Audible has pretty good customer service! I see a little incongruity here. You're willing to pay $20 10 years ago for media player. Audible subscriptions are about $15/month, with additional titles approximately $15 (or more) a piece. You're willing to spend perhaps $30–$45/month for a subscription or $30–45 per title? 1 year Audible subscription: $360 (at $30/month) 10 years: $3,600. Apple iPod nano: $15…

No, you're correct; I ought to just knuckle under and spend the money, if I want to consume from Audible. But I picked up the current MP3 player on a flier, and have become used to it - it does what I want it to, in a very simple and straight-forward way. The content that I've spent money on already dwarfs the purchase of the player. Although that content is DRM-free, so I am free to use it on this player, or any of…

It's the blades, not the razor :)

Yeah, cost of content definitely dwarfs the device over time. I'm not a huge fan of DRM (region locking particularly chafes), but I understand why DRM exists, and as long as it's reasonable (for some value of reasonable :).

One last parting gentle ribbing: the devices that play DRM-protected media usually play the DRM-free stuff, too ;)

Re: Ask HN: As a developer, how can I take advantage of time spent driving to work?

#54

Post by Nadya »

douche wrote: post #52
grzm wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sounds like Audible has pretty good customer service! I see a little incongruity here. You're willing to pay $20 10 years ago for media player. Audible subscriptions are about $15/month, with additional titles approximately $15 (or more) a piece. You're willing to spend perhaps $30–$45/month for a subscription or $30–45 per title? 1 year Audible subscription: $360 (at $30/month) 10 years: $3,600. Apple iPod nano: $15…

No, you're correct; I ought to just knuckle under and spend the money, if I want to consume from Audible. But I picked up the current MP3 player on a flier, and have become used to it - it does what I want it to, in a very simple and straight-forward way. The content that I've spent money on already dwarfs the purchase of the player. Although that content is DRM-free, so I am free to use it on this player, or any of…

I believe the selection is smaller but there is also Downpour [0]. DRM-free which means you should be just fine playing on your MP3 Player. The cost is comparable to Audible ($13/mo instead of $15/mo) and you get much the same deal: 1 audio-book per month with the "credit" you get.

[0] http://www.downpour.com/

Re: Ask HN: As a developer, how can I take advantage of time spent driving to work?

#55

Post by NinoScript »

Gee19 wrote: post #8

Audiobooks.

When I'm not consuming my weekly tech podcasts, I'm listening sci-fi or fantasy on Audible. Books are really cheap if you pay a subscription, and you also get access to "channels", I sometimes put some comedy channel to lighten up my day.

Re: Ask HN: As a developer, how can I take advantage of time spent driving to work?

#56

Post by NinoScript »

grogenaut wrote: post #32
superdex wrote: post #10

commute by bike. 3 hours in the car every day is brutal.

3 hours by car is likely minimum 60 miles which is 4 hours by bike every single day minimum. If they're getting to highway speeds at all then it's even worse. It'd be like black mirror episode 2 every day

Unless a big portion of those 3 hours are spent in traffic jams, then bike could be an option, or at least an e-bike.

Re: Ask HN: As a developer, how can I take advantage of time spent driving to work?

#57

Post by quicklime »

grogenaut wrote: post #32
superdex wrote: post #10

commute by bike. 3 hours in the car every day is brutal.

3 hours by car is likely minimum 60 miles which is 4 hours by bike every single day minimum. If they're getting to highway speeds at all then it's even worse. It'd be like black mirror episode 2 every day

Another way of thinking about this is that the marginal cost of biking is only 1 extra hour per day. And there's no reason why this needs to be done every day - he could just bike in once a week.

Re: Ask HN: As a developer, how can I take advantage of time spent driving to work?

#58

Post by twblalock »

Eric_WVGG wrote: post #44

I’m sure you have some very good reasons for explicitly stating that moving closer to work is not an option, but I’m really dying to know why you’re trapped in such a miserable circumstance.

Yeah, this seems odd to me, considering that a reasonably successful software engineer can afford to live pretty much anywhere.

Re: Ask HN: As a developer, how can I take advantage of time spent driving to work?

#59

Post by BooneJS »

douche wrote: post #42

I listen to podcasts or audiobooks on my commute. This summer I went through all of Dan Carlin's Hardcore History. It's true that it's not IT-related, but it's learning, and it is a good break from work. Now I've moved on to going through Game of Thrones once more. It helps if it is something that you can enjoy without paying rapt attention - it's kind of important to have most of your brain focused on the road if yo…

If you're into the subject matter, there's the History of the Crusades podcast by Sharyn Eastaugh. In depth content, some levity, and I found it to be totally engrossing.

Re: Ask HN: As a developer, how can I take advantage of time spent driving to work?

#60

Post by kayman »

I suggest leveraging the meditative process driving has on the brain.

I went through a process where I was trying to be extremely productive every minute of every day. That meant filling every minute with productive tasks including commute time with Podcasts and educational material.

But you get into this productivity loop without any real productivity.

In the end I found the best use of my drive time is just relax and let your brain run. Enjoy the sights and smells, the air coming through the window. Observe your brain how it notices cars and avoid potential disaster.

If you play it right, you'll have 2 hours per day to just do nothing. Let your brain work freeform while focusing on something simple like deep breaths.

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