21–30 of 91 posts
A 20-25 minute bike ride is actually better than a shorter commute because you get just enough exercise every day.
Unless his kids are planning to become professional American football or lacrosse players, his justification seems very weak to me.
Wait till cars become automatic. 4 hour per day commutes could become quite normal. It could really change the structure of living in cities.
But it's really annoying and it feels mostly like wasted or very unproductive time.
I would argue that the train is still a better place to work than the car because it has much less abrupt accelerations. I would get motion sick working in a car when driving through a city.
Anyway, the mobile Internet connection still sucks, and in addition the data plans usually are only about 100MB per month. In the morning, I usually try to sleep somehow, but I cannot really, and it fells far less restful than in bed. In the evening, I often try to work but the productivity very much depends on the task. Some task require a constant good SSH connection (Mosh makes it a bit better) and you have to edit files and switch forth and back remotely through apps. If you sometimes have to wait a minute or even if it's only seconds to complete some keystrokes, you get insane. Sometimes I read some research papers, but you don't have a big desk in front of you where you can put other papers, a notebook + computer to look up other things while reading, or make notes, etc - the place is just not there. Also, it's often very loud and other people talking constantly directly next to you. You can try with earplugs or music - but it's just not as productive as you would be in a silent environment.
That is in Germany, the RE4 train from Wuppertal to Aachen and back.
I would move to Aachen and I will move when my girlfriend is finally finished with her education in Düsseldorf + Krefeld (again other cities...).
Structuring your life quality, and structuring out cities for life quality, should become the norm. We should be eager to sacrifice work efficiency.
Unfortunately our civilization took this wrong race-to-the-bottom turn where instead of ten 30 hrs/week jobs we have four 70 hrs/week jobs. This is wrong and unsustainable, and we're going to lose a lot of people to a combination of burning out, family failures, suicides and other bad stuff.
In the century XXI, we should fight the network effect, not embrace it.
Wait till cars become automatic. 4 hour per day commutes could become quite normal. It could really change the structure of living in cities.
4h commutes ARE normal in the bay area. the transit system is the worst in the world asz compared to general income and overall development of the country
That's considered paedophilia nowadays. /s
You can love your family more than anyone else, but you still don't want to do the chores.
Is this the next "I work 27 hour days and never leave the office" thing people will brag about? I understand keeping a family together is good parenting but is choosing to spend 3-4 days a week elsewhere good parenting? I would question that versus relocating them if needed.
But if someone works relatively long hours they may not see their kids much regardless. For example if someone works on Wall St - they may have to leave the house at 6am and be home at 8pm. That doesn't leave a lot of time to see young kids.
What an odd sentence in the article: "But a more child-centered approach to parenting also seems to be a factor, as these executives make other major sacrifices in order to balance their professional and home lives." I would argue that not having a parent at home in the evening (because they are commuting) is the opposite of child-centric. Yes, they get a nice suburban home and parks, but what about parental bonding?
And they kept saying "I didn't want to uproot my family blah blah." Is there no value in exposing your children to unique and different experiences? I'll have failed if my kids grew up in the same town/city all their lives.
I grew up in a family that had to move around a lot, to the point where I attended 3 different elementary schools, 2 different junior highs and 1 high school. We were not rich but poor. And I SO WISH I had grown up in same neighborhood so that I could've have made some friends in my childhood.
You can go live in different towns/cities when you are older. For kids, I highly recommend for kids to have stable environment with mostly same friends at least until college time.
What an odd sentence in the article: "But a more child-centered approach to parenting also seems to be a factor, as these executives make other major sacrifices in order to balance their professional and home lives." I would argue that not having a parent at home in the evening (because they are commuting) is the opposite of child-centric. Yes, they get a nice suburban home and parks, but what about parental bonding?
And they kept saying "I didn't want to uproot my family blah blah." Is there no value in exposing your children to unique and different experiences? I'll have failed if my kids grew up in the same town/city all their lives.