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More Americans now work full-time from home than walk and bike to office jobs

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131–140 of 143 posts

Re: More Americans now work full-time from home than walk and bike to office jobs

#131
post #52

I wish I didn't feel in the way when riding a bicycle on the road. So I walk instead. Oh well. Then my next fear is being confronted by strangers asking for a lighter then money. It's not so bad though, I just feel anxious to be encountered.

> my next fear is being confronted by strangers Don't make eye contact, eyes straight ahead, walk with a purpose.

It's that whole guilt thing. This one guy kept insisting he was hungry/homeless like it was my problem. But first he asked for a cigarette, then a lighter, then $1,$2,$5 ahh... I had just gone to a store and had a bunch of singles/quarters for the bus.

Could I spare a few bucks sure. Do I waste money on myself sure.

I remember one time I was scammed haha. This old lady's like "You're a good boy, you had a good mother." Haha as they walk off with $20.00 for "gas" where I could have pumped gas into their car but insisted on cash.

Oh well I just think if it's my time it's my time.

Re: More Americans now work full-time from home than walk and bike to office jobs

#132
post #53

It's interesting to see that the average earnings of people who bike to work are increasing so much faster than the other groups. There's a stereotype that people who bike for transportation are just rich spoiled white liberals. I have no idea where it came from, and I'm pretty sure that historically it has been the opposite of the truth, but it's used as a political weapon by people on both ends of the political spe…

Motorists (and many pedestrians) just hate cyclists and look for any excuse to marginalize them. If they go too slow, they're slowing down traffic, if they go too fast they're a menace. If they're spandex clad, they're hated for their wealth, and if they're toting delivery food they're hated for their poverty. There's no winning. Despite cycling being the obvious fastest and cheapest way to get around in a dense urba…

>"infrastructure" (painting lines on streets that have to be repainted periodically anyway)

Bike lanes aren't really for bikes - they're for cars. If a cyclist isn't afforded a lane, they'll take the rightmost lane for themselves. If enough bikes do this, that lane becomes unusable for cars. Rather than lose a whole lane to bikes, traffic planners cut off half to give to bikes, and give the other half back to cars.

Re: More Americans now work full-time from home than walk and bike to office jobs

#133
post #105
post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Working remotely doesn't mean you're a hermit." Yes, I'd call it much closer to monk-like existence. It still isn't what the vast majority of humanity is going to prefer. The proof is that if there was some sort of massive preference for working from home, we should be seeing it now. The tech is here. The Internet is here. The computing power is here. All the preconditions would seem to be here. If what is missing i…

> The tech is here. While I WFH quite a bit, I have to disagree with this statement. For a lot of interaction modes, being remote still lacks a lot of the bandwidth (for lack of a better term) than in person. If you're working out a problem/presentation/etc. with a group, it's still hard to beat a conference room with a whiteboard. Things are better than they used to be. Something like Google Docs can certainly help.…

I'm perplexed that to this day there still aren't physical whiteboards with a screen underneath where you can write on them and see others writing. This, along with seeing the face of whoever is talking would be basically as good as being in person.

Re: More Americans now work full-time from home than walk and bike to office jobs

#134
post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The tech is here. While I WFH quite a bit, I have to disagree with this statement. For a lot of interaction modes, being remote still lacks a lot of the bandwidth (for lack of a better term) than in person. If you're working out a problem/presentation/etc. with a group, it's still hard to beat a conference room with a whiteboard. Things are better than they used to be. Something like Google Docs can certainly help.…

Thanks to Google Docs and video Hangouts it's gotten a lot better than it used to be when I first joined the industry a decade ago. You're right though, it's still not as good as being physically co-present in a conference room, or sitting side-by-side at a computer. I suspect it will get better with VR. For now, though, I definitely enjoy working in an office with my coworkers the most, with perhaps a very occasiona…

I love my vive and all, but having to deal with it for every meeting just sounds like a hassle.

Re: More Americans now work full-time from home than walk and bike to office jobs

#135
post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

After working from home alone for about a week I start to feel less and less motivated too. For the couple past weeks I was working on my own project and to keep my energy levels up I rented a desk in a almost next door coworking space. It is definitely boosting my productivity and is great for networking too.

I feel exactly the opposite. Working an entire week at the office will have me so demoralized and burnt out by Friday that I have to go get away from everyone in the woods for the weekend. The most effective mix for me is going into the office on Monday, and getting all of the meetings and planning and face-to-face busywork out of the way, and then working from home the rest of the week. It's easily 2-3X as productiv…

Amen. Silence is the ultimate nootropic.

Re: More Americans now work full-time from home than walk and bike to office jobs

#136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Motorists (and many pedestrians) just hate cyclists and look for any excuse to marginalize them. If they go too slow, they're slowing down traffic, if they go too fast they're a menace. If they're spandex clad, they're hated for their wealth, and if they're toting delivery food they're hated for their poverty. There's no winning. Despite cycling being the obvious fastest and cheapest way to get around in a dense urba…

I'll be happy to explain! Indeed, both as a driver and a pedestrian, I am usually not particularly happy with cyclists. Cyclists are the most vulnerable agents on the road. More than pedestrians (even a light touch or sudden appearance is enough to tip the bike). At the same time, they are usually the most reckless people on the road. They are happy to ignore traffic lights, passage priority, almost never signal a tu…

I regularly here this lament from people who don't cycle, yet when I'm out I see far more poor behaviour from car drivers than other cyclists.

If you want to see what it's like from the other side without getting out on a bike have a look at https://www.reddit.com/r/BikeCammers/

Re: More Americans now work full-time from home than walk and bike to office jobs

#137

Meanwhile 56% of people who work or study in Copenhagen commute by bicycle.

I doubt they have the hills I have to contend with. I don't want to show up to work drenched in sweat.

An e-bike solves that problem.

Re: More Americans now work full-time from home than walk and bike to office jobs

#138
post #127
post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you're not fit or live in a hilly area then you can buy an electric bike to avoid sweating.

Electric bikes are crazy expensive, though.

They are more expensive than normal commuter bikes but you can still get a decent one for under $1000.

Re: More Americans now work full-time from home than walk and bike to office jobs

#139
post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's true. Go to Europe, poor people ride the bus the better-off use a bike. I think it'd have to do because of things like getting a bike requiring a larger initial capital investment, plus there's the danger of it being stolen (which is smaller if you live in a nicer neighborhood).

Go to Europe, poor people ride the bus the better-off use a bike. This was my impression from the United States, too, but then numbers made me look again, and I started to notice a lot of people who didn't fit my assumptions. The image that makes me think "bike commuter" is someone briskly riding a practical, efficient bike with a laptop bag of some kind, so I was ignoring a lot of other people who are often not carr…

The DUI commute.

Re: More Americans now work full-time from home than walk and bike to office jobs

#140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks to Google Docs and video Hangouts it's gotten a lot better than it used to be when I first joined the industry a decade ago. You're right though, it's still not as good as being physically co-present in a conference room, or sitting side-by-side at a computer. I suspect it will get better with VR. For now, though, I definitely enjoy working in an office with my coworkers the most, with perhaps a very occasiona…

I love my vive and all, but having to deal with it for every meeting just sounds like a hassle.

That's actually a good point. I hated remote meetings back in the day when you had to call up a number and then enter a meeting ID, and having to put on a VR headset seems like a similar amount of hassle. I also have eye issues readjusting for some time after using one -- that doesn't seem like fun to deal with repeatedly throughout the day.

Maybe we'll have to wait until mind-integration VR becomes a thing.

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