- short commute proved to be more important to ME than my peers. Most of them would emphasize school district…
- distance to rail station adds or shaves a few minutes but those minutes really matter, even though I no longer have a long term self-study direction
- train
frequencyturns out to be rather important. Some trains leave a minute earlier and I ended up waiting a long time, as experienced in East Orange and Bayonne. - reading on train, with a seat
- perhaps I would feel extremely productive to blog on train with a netbook. Consider offline blogging
- I hate buses because Unable to read !
- biking to work is extremely effective (and also healthy) though .. I hadĀ 3+2 repeated dangerous habits #cross street@bike impatiently
Category: locommute
[18] martyrdom: discretionary spend@kids
Many fellow Chinese parents (plan to) spend /disproportionately/on their kids because .. (hold your breath) they want-to not pressured-to spend.
Chinese parents feel good about /martyrdom/sacrifice/ — saving up and investing on kids education.
Labor of love — However, Some (33 to 50%) of my peers complain and appear to be under pressure to put up such huge amounts, due to peer pressure, and societal expectation like a “norm”.
How am I different?
- I don’t plan to spend on /branded/ colleges, so there’s a 50/50 chance I won’t start saving until 4Y before college
- I don’t want to spend on luxury vacations as an glorified “education” — unnecessary, unjustified and too costly
- I do consider taking lower jobs to spend more time with kids, if effective and worthwhile.
- commute — I want to spend huge amount to cut my commute so I can spend more time with family and for myself
- non-academic — I plan to spend on kids’ non-academic pursuits, as Jenny on swimming, piano, coding, camps
scheduled commute: discipline, stress
case study — I lived in East Orange for a few weeks. Train interval was around 30 minutes even at morning peak hours. I missed once and had to wait for a long time. If I have important work to finish, When I came home late I again missed the peak frequency š
Contrast with the flexibility of subway, or bike!
The more disciplined, the more flexible you can become.
Scheduled commute requires planning and discipline. Some get used to it and find it a non-issue on most days. but I feel it’s still a major inconvenience, like a loose screw on my bike — every now and then it breaks and needs a fix. We don’t prefer a life with too many restrictions, that requires planning on everything.
Discipline, adjustment, planning … all add to the “stress” — You miss one step, you suffer…. Painful lessons….
The rich teach their kids these useful habits, but these kids are not subject to the painful consequences when they fail. I’m not rich, so I had to learn these habits the hard way. Some people (perhaps my son) fail to learn all of these planning habits so they pay a price all the way until they get rich enough to avoid planning so many things.
I’m no perfect planner either š
subway^railway stations #buy home
A better location has more than one practical modes of transport, such as
- [bj, NUS, WP, TPY] bicycle
- [not some suburbs] walk to main street
- [TPY, bj] frequent buses
- subway
- railway
—-Subway wins on
- frequency.
- if you miss one, you can get another one easily. With railway, you need to plan better and be there in advance.
- partially eliminates cars. Less worry about parking
- easier, faster transfer to other lines
- stations have rain shelter
- cheaper esp. when you need to transfer lines
—-railway wins on
- neighborhood around stations are not so poor orĀ dilapidated/derelict
- have seats. Can read
- better safety and fault records
- much cleaner stations
- not so many temporary changes
commute: subtracted from%%24H
Ideally, office should be connected to train stations by walk, bike not bus!
Many people feel 20 min difference (like 40 vs 60 minutes) in commute is negligible. “It’s 20 minutes x both ways in a day.” For me, on same days it feels terrible to waste those 40 minutes on commute!
One of the things I always hated is long commute. One of the things I love is reading, including but not limited to
– self-improvement(muscleĀ building)
– my own reflections in recoll and blog
– Time magazine
…
These can take place on a train commute, so I should really stop thinking the old way.
To really make this happen, we need to plan meticulously (like the Outlook-GTD procedure)
* printer
* big-screen smart phone
* leave home early
* avoid buses completely
* minimize driving
–when speaking to friends and agents
- “I have lower tolerance for long commute than my peers. I’m willing to pay a premium for a quicker commute.”
- My soft limit is 50 minute train journey. Door-to-door becomes 60+ minutes when we add transfers at stations.
- 25 minute train journey would be “very good”
- “I much prefer trains rather than buses or driving”