[unity1001]

> Commuting is not so bad when public transportation is good and/or you live close to the office.

Nope. Consider the BEST case:

You live NEXT DOOR to your office. You get up in the morning. You quickly grab a bite. Then prepare for ~10 minutes for going to the office. Getting out of your house, going into the next building, settling down etc all take another 10-15 minutes. And that's for people who prepare in the morning fast, walk fast, settle down fast.

So its still ~1 hour lost every day.

> Now I take a subway and I can read for 20 minutes.

Would you sit and read for 20 minutes if you didnt have to commute? That sounds more like pulling something good out of an undesirable situation through discipline and personal talent than any benefit. Not to mention that if you actually sat and read in your own house, that 20 minutes of reading would also be totally different than reading in the subway.

[kredd]

It’s a bit over-optimizing for every aspect of life. I’ve been WFH for the past 2.5 years, but I didn’t mind my 20 minute commute on subway before.

My previous employers were completely fine for us to work from home (bad weather, repairs, or just simple sickness) if we ever needed to, but in-office environment was fun. Not everything needs to be over-optimized to the T when you have plenty of free time in the morning.

[ahoho]

I appreciate the nudge to go for a walk/read—at home I can end up sitting on my couch mindlessly scrolling hackernews comments.

I had to work from home consistently during the pandemic and I despised it. Once a week or so is ok, all the time is hell—I can’t bounce ideas off my colleagues or have serendipitous conversations. In fact I’ve made some not-insubstantial personal sacrifices to avoid working from home. Everyone is different.