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Comment by slowpoke | Hacker News Reader

>To allow yourself a momentary disconnect. To watch the world out of the window, or the people around you. To take an interest in the weather and season.

I'm sorry to sound misanthropic or otherwise cynic, but people on the train are, for the overwhelming majority, uninteresting or annoying. I don't take that much interest in the landscape or weather, either. I'd much rather disconnect from that and hack on my laptop instead, thank you.

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>but people on the train are, for the overwhelming majority, uninteresting or annoying

And they're usually the same people every day, if you catch the same train.

The odds are pretty good that someone on your train works is quite interesting.

For example... I happen to know that if I take a commuter line into Boston in the morning, I am likely to encounter one or more of: a senior scientist at an R&D lab, a bunch of Google programmers and engineers, a non-profit fundraising expert, or an IP lawyer. I don't know what the guy with the MongoDB sticker on his laptop does, but eventually I'll say hello and find out.

Maybe you should drink your coffee before you get on the train and try finding out who people really are.

Wow. People talk to each on the T? Never seen it.

UK: random conversation breaks out when there is an unusual delay or we get stuck at a signal set to danger. After an initial silence, someone will make a joke, and then it breaks out. Those are good delays.

That's a global trend, not a local one.

I talk to the same people on the bus every day, it's been 4 months now and it's fabulous, I'm never bored!

I've seen it, but usually they are some brand of crazy.

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