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Comment by jacobkg | Hacker News Reader

I commuted 90 minutes each way for a year (120 miles round trip) in SoCal. The time spent driving wasn't that bad; I spent that time listening to books on Audible. The problem was everything else that had to give because I was spending that time driving. I couldn't cook dinner or spend much time with friends. It was tough to stay after work or develop friendships with coworkers because we were so geographically separated. I would not want to do this long term.

Now I work from home. I still listen to audiobooks whenever driving which is still amazing.

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European here. After moving I was commuting for about 105 minutes with public transport, about 70 minutes by car. Was using public transport most of the time though, but I couldn't do this more than a few months. There is so much time and money that goes into commuting, it is insane... Going to the doctor/bank/shopping/etc. was always problematic because then I would have to stay in the company late into the night. When you come home you are just tired and want to rest. Pay wasn't even in the near of being good enough to justify that.

Right now I am working from home which (after some months of experience) I enjoy much more. Also got a substantial pay raise when changing jobs and at the same time save money on the commute.

Still glad I was at my old job since it got me into another field of software engineering and I learned a lot. Don't think I would've got my current job without it.

I find longer commutes more tolerable if it's by mass transit, so long as you know you will have a seat. There are a lot of ways to be productive or enjoy your time, where as with a car, you are pretty much limited to audio. I see where you are coming from with the interpersonal stuff but at least you still have the weekend.

This was why I never got that much value out of being in Silicon Valley beyond my day job. So much of the hot new startup activity was in SF. I lived and worked in the South Bay. While I'd have liked to attend some tech talks in SF, it was not practical for me to leave work early to get there on time, and then figure out how to get back.

Oakland offers a relatively short commute into SF, and it's affordable by west coast standards.

But not a short commute to the South Bay, which is where I worked.

I was between 1 and 1.5 hours for about 18 months once. It wasn't too bad as I only ended up going in maybe half the time between working from home and travel and being able to take the train if I wanted. The fact that I was working in the city for the first time took some edge off too, especially in the summer.

But I wouldn't have wanted to do it long-term. As you say, it's just too big a chunk out of the day.

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