Commuting

August 29th, 2011
commuting
People who spend a lot of their day commuting, especially by car in traffic, are less happy. By itself, this is not surprising: everyone knows commuting sucks. What is surprising is that people don't treat it as a big enough downside when considering potential houses or jobs. This is known as the "Commuter's Paradox", and I just read a (kind of technical) economics paper on it (via lesswrong).

If I'm looking at a decision where I'm weighing more or less commuting against something else, how can I do better at predicting which will make me happier? I can remind myself that "enjoyment of a large house fades but the pain of a bad commute wears you down every day," but I'm not sure that's enough. Thoughts? How can we spend less of our time on the least pleasant daily activity?

Referenced in: Internal Statistics

Comment via: google plus, facebook

Recent posts on blogs I like:

Book Review: The Kingdom, The Power, and the Glory

Against the Internet

via Thing of Things April 25, 2025

Impact, agency, and taste

understand + work backwards from the root goal • don’t rely too much on permission or encouragement • make success inevitable • find your angle • think real hard • reflect on your thinking

via benkuhn.net April 19, 2025

Which Came First, the Chicken or the Egg?

When I thought about this question it was really hard to figure out because the way it's phrased it's essentially either a chicken just pops into existence, or an egg just pops into existence, without any parent animals involved. I thought about t…

via Lily Wise's Blog Posts April 13, 2025

more     (via openring)