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Comment by kstrauser | Hacker News Reader

I cannot relax before I’ve physically visited the gate, starting from the night before. I sleep poorly before a flight, waking up a hundred times to glance at the clock to make sure I haven’t overslept.

I’ve never overslept. It doesn’t matter.

So, my mental options are 1) give in, get up, take a leisurely trip to the airport without worries of an unplanned traffic slowdown, get through security, stroll to my gate to make sure I know where it is, then find a lounge and chill in relaxation knowing that everything’s fine, or 2) stress out that something might go wrong and make me miss my flight up and wish I’d left earlier.

I know me. I’ve done this plenty of times. This is my choice. So I go with the first every time: get there too early, then chill more than I possibly could if I were anywhere else. Either way I’m going to be up and moving. Why not use that time to radically de-stress my morning?

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Had to check your screen name to make sure my dad didn’t just find out about HN :) He’s very much like that and this is exactly what I meant about some people who would get there very early anyway. I get it.

There are dozens of us. Dozens!

Some of this may be because a lot of my formative year travels were when I was in the military. In practice, no one’s likely to send you to Leavenworth just because you missed a flight and got back late, but it’d certainly give your boss an opportunity to yell about it if they wanted to. Consequences today are more about expense and inconvenience than trouble, but a little core bit of me still recoils in horror at the idea of not making my plane.

> I cannot relax before I’ve physically visited the gate.

Haha, oh lawd I can relate. After getting through security with hours to spare before boarding, I make sure to check that my gate actually exists before I can relax.

Seriously! And also, that it exists where I think it will be. I’m flying out of gate A28? Turns out A1-A26 are in this terminal, and gates A27-A843 are in another zip code.

That sounds awful. Have you tried thinking what’s the worst thing that could happen? It’s no so bad.

Yes.

Doesn't matter, I'm wired the same way.

Planning ahead pays off when something eventually goes wrong at every step.

Late start, traffic, late shuttle, understaffed security, long lines, construction, gate moved to another concourse, gate moved to another concourse - if you put enough buffer time in the schedule, you can still make the flight.

Nailed it. All of those things are outside of my control and completely random. I can only make sure I’ve given myself the flexibility to adapt to them.

The last thing I want is to start thinking of the worst that could happen. I am very creative and my brain won’t shut up once started. I’ll get stuck in a strange airport for 12 hours, and have to sleep in a chair which will hurt my back and I’ll have to get a refill of muscle relaxants, which will probably get me addicted and homeless. My cat will miss her meal and starve to death. My bank will see that I’m outside the travel window I’d told them about, see strange changes from Tampa, and cancel my debit card. Or if I’m heading to a business trip, it’ll leave such a bad impression on my boss that I’ll have to get a new job.

I could go on like this for an hour.

I’m not really that anxious 99.9% of the time, but add in the inherent stress of travel, especially if it’s for business, and we’re off to the races.

Orrrr, I could get there early since I’m awake and moving anyway, find a lounge, and have a leisurely breakfast and beverage before settling in with my Switch or an ereader. That’s my choice by a wide margin.

In the 1980's they wouldn't let a guy from Apple keep all his stuff with him. He and his buddies got off the plane, maybe to hire a car I don't know. I think he was talking about driving.

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