[ssharp]

I don't really relate to the "soul sucking" idea of a commute.

I work about a little over an hour away from my office and work from home several days a week. It's a nice trade-off between being in the office, where interaction happens, and being remote, where remote interaction happens, but also where I can hit substantially higher levels of productivity.

While I could do without my evening commute, I generally ENJOY the morning commute. I have Spotify to dig into albums and discover new music, audiobooks, a lot of podcasts I like, organize my day and think through problems at work. Even on the return home when I want to decompress and NOT think about work, I still have stuff I can listen to and enjoy.

I don't think commuting is any sort of great way to spend time, but "soul-sucking", even in horrible traffic when you're having a bad day and just want to be at home, is a bit dramatic. Inconvenience != soul sucking and such statements remind me of the Louis C.K. bits on American whining.

[amplification]

This probably depends on personality too: I just really hate driving (no matter what). ;)

There is, however, good research that shows the adverse affects of commuting: http://www.slate.com/articles/business/moneybox/2011/05/your...

[famousactress]

I don't like driving much, which is why I thought the commute at my last gig (a 40 minute train ride each way) was amazing. It's a really awesome train down the coast of San Diego, half of it within view of the ocean, the other half through some beautiful canyons. You can eat or drink (even beer/alcohol) on the train, there are clean bathrooms, and it runs on time. There's even wifi sometimes. I worked, or read, or cracked a beer with friends on the way home in the evenings.

Then I got a job without a commute at all, and I swear it improved my day to day happiness by like 20-30 percent. I would have not predicted this much difference, but it's really true I think that your commute is way worse (or put another way that losing your commute would be way better) than you think.

[Edit: Oh, and I'm not even counting the other benefits like dropping hundreds of dollars on gas or train tickets, maybe even losing a car payment, or the satisfaction from helping to reduce pollution. I'm only talking about the enormousness of having two extra hours poured back into your day and the additional freedom to work when/where you're most productive]

[dmm]

If you lived a mile away from work you could always choose to just drive around in circles for an hour every morning and listen to audiobooks.

[ssharp]

I did say it wasn't a "great" way to spend time. Lots of shades between that and "soul sucking".