Just sit. Silently. Give your brain a break -- that might be more helpful than keeping yourself busy.
A lot of us already do, however audio resources are handy so eyes and hands are free to do even more healthy things like jogging.
Ask HN: What audio resources can improve my technical skills during my commute?
61–70 of 97 posts
Re: Ask HN: What audio resources can improve my technical skills during my commute?
#62I used to commute in silence or listening to the radio for my daily Silicon Valley drive (237 Milpitas to Mountain View), and by the time I got to work, I'd be angry, frustrated, and cognitively spent. Listening to audio books has allowed me to relax, enjoy the reading, and get to work excited about the day. I treat the time as a chance to "read" those books which I wouldn't normally spend either my work hours nor my…
And if you're looking for meaningful books to listen to, there was a solid discussion 2 days ago:
Ask HN: What books have made the biggest impact on your mental models? | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15155833
Re: Ask HN: What audio resources can improve my technical skills during my commute?
#63I find Siri reading company wiki pages helps a lot. I only get about 50% but enough that I know what to revisit at work
Re: Ask HN: What audio resources can improve my technical skills during my commute?
#64I used to commute in silence or listening to the radio for my daily Silicon Valley drive (237 Milpitas to Mountain View), and by the time I got to work, I'd be angry, frustrated, and cognitively spent. Listening to audio books has allowed me to relax, enjoy the reading, and get to work excited about the day. I treat the time as a chance to "read" those books which I wouldn't normally spend either my work hours nor my…
Do you mind sharing where you have found an audiobook of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance? Doesn't look like it's available on Audible or Scribd.
Re: Ask HN: What audio resources can improve my technical skills during my commute?
#65White noise... But the brown note should be avoided. ;-)
Re: Ask HN: What audio resources can improve my technical skills during my commute?
#66I used to commute in silence or listening to the radio for my daily Silicon Valley drive (237 Milpitas to Mountain View), and by the time I got to work, I'd be angry, frustrated, and cognitively spent. Listening to audio books has allowed me to relax, enjoy the reading, and get to work excited about the day. I treat the time as a chance to "read" those books which I wouldn't normally spend either my work hours nor my…
Do you mind sharing where you have found an audiobook of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance? Doesn't look like it's available on Audible or Scribd.
My local library has it via Overdrive. It's on my holds list (#6 on 5 copies - any day now :) ) YMMV.
Re: Ask HN: What audio resources can improve my technical skills during my commute?
#67Just sit. Silently. Give your brain a break -- that might be more helpful than keeping yourself busy.
If a commute takes 1 hr and that is a time of day when you typically have peak productivity/ mental energy then one is hardly likely to want to just sit there in silence. Do you not think that if you were in prison you might want pen and paper at least?
Well, that might depend on the commute. I'm on the train from 8:20-9am, and I've not yet had coffee, so there's no productivity to be heard of there, and at 5:20-6p the productivity tank is definitely empty.
Perhaps the morning side could, if I were awake. Although, on the afternoon commute, I read stuff such as on HN because I am mentally spent. (Though if it's too rigorous, like a deep CS paper, that might get passed over.)
Re: Ask HN: What audio resources can improve my technical skills during my commute?
#68I used to commute in silence or listening to the radio for my daily Silicon Valley drive (237 Milpitas to Mountain View), and by the time I got to work, I'd be angry, frustrated, and cognitively spent. Listening to audio books has allowed me to relax, enjoy the reading, and get to work excited about the day. I treat the time as a chance to "read" those books which I wouldn't normally spend either my work hours nor my…
Do you mind sharing where you have found an audiobook of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance? Doesn't look like it's available on Audible or Scribd.
I got mine from Audible at the link below. If you do use it, please SKIP THE INTRODUCTION. If you haven't read or listened to the book before, it gives away some major plot points as part of the author's update.
https://www.audible.com/pd/Bios-Memoirs/Zen-and-the-Art-of-M...
Re: Ask HN: What audio resources can improve my technical skills during my commute?
#69Earlier quoted context omitted.
I second the recommendation - not too deep to make your commute mentally tiring, but still useful enough that you learn new things (even as starting points). Covers a wide range of topics, from machine learning to infrastructure, which may also help you open your views. A similar one would be: http://www.se-radio.net/ There are also some more tech-specific ones, such as Talk Python to Me, Under the Radar (iOS dev), e…
I find SE Radio (IEEE) to be less captivating than Software Engineering Daily. I think it's partly because the latter has better production values, better pacing and attracts more prominent guests in the field(for instance, Martin Kleppmann, Neha Narkhede, etc.) I find myself not being able to get through an episode of SE Radio.
I also listen to SE Radio (mainly back episodes as they don't release often). This other one look great!
My contribution would be FLOSS Weekly with Randal Schwartz (most of the time).
Re: Ask HN: What audio resources can improve my technical skills during my commute?
#70I used to commute in silence or listening to the radio for my daily Silicon Valley drive (237 Milpitas to Mountain View), and by the time I got to work, I'd be angry, frustrated, and cognitively spent. Listening to audio books has allowed me to relax, enjoy the reading, and get to work excited about the day. I treat the time as a chance to "read" those books which I wouldn't normally spend either my work hours nor my…
I've been doing audiobooks on commute for the last year or so and have particularly enjoyed these as well:
* anything by & narrated by Bill Bryson
* The Phoenix Project
* We Are Legion (We are Bob)
* SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome
* The Adventure of English: The Biography of a Language