What I miss about my long commutes on public transportation in early 2000’s was the serenity of doing absolutely nothing.

It was essentially forced meditation, and it helped me a lot in reorganizing my thoughts.

I had moved next to the office later, and noticed that I’d really missed those meditative hours. I saved maybe 1.5 hours of commute every day but my net productivity had declined.

I don’t think it would be as easy to achieve the same effect today as it was back then. We now have phones and interactive ads, and that dopamine driven economy.

I miss that about those times.