Being tired isn’t a badge of honor – Signal v. Noise
This hits home with me.
I live where I work (~15 min bicycle ride each way, 10 if I'm fast). I could also walk. I love this life; I haven't owned a car in five years.The past month, I've been assigned to work 17 miles out. My commute went from a pleasant 15 minutes one way to 1 hour and 15 minutes one way on sidewalks and shitty to no bicycle infrastructure in the suburbs. I take a bus for a portion of it.This change has disrupted my whole life; I now truly know what people mean by the term "the daily grind". You wake up, do your routine, go to work, do work, come home, and go to sleep. Repeat. Every day. It's depressing. It seeps into your whole life outside of work and affects your well being.After spending the last few years living and working within the radius of a few miles, after two days of working 17 miles away, I loathe it. The enjoyable work turns sour and it's hard to do your best.I truly don't understand how people spend their days like this.
I really feel for those who don't own a car and don't live close to their place of work. Some of the people on the bus work two jobs; just imagine spending that much time commuting and working just to get by.