I was on a plane yesterday (literally on airplane mode) and I finished a book I've been working on for a month, and prepped/wrote half of a presentation. Quite often I produce much of my writing on a plane.
I find myself very productive on a plane. Especially on cheap flights that don't have in-flight entertainment. Literally no distractions for a preset amount of time. You're not only offline, you're also physically stuck. Best way to make the time fly by is by being productive.
Planes work wonders for development too. After several trips and being on a deadline, I built my dev environment to be offline friendly (cached data, local libraries, etc.). Airports became the most productive locations for me because I could shut everything off and just focus on finishing the development work. Not having an answer at my fingertips ended up being a fun constraint too.
I always think of that... unfortunately I get nervous while flying and cannot just concentrate in anything. I usually only try to sleep, although I would love to be able to use that time to catch up on my reading and also some writing.
i'm better on long train rides. more room, more comfortable. no battery worries. don't notice the person in front of you bouncing up and down in their seat.
Agree 100%. Problem is though that many airline are starting to offer WiFi connectivity. I just hope that they've built shitty systems that won't work most of the time... :)
> Problem is though that many airline are starting to offer WiFi connectivity. I just hope that they've built shitty systems that won't work most of the time... :)
I take advantage of the cognitive friction induced by the fact that you have to pay (even though it's cheap); I don't think I've ever used WiFi on a plane. It's nice to have some time with (almost) enforced lack of connectivity. I also never get Internet when traveling, including on an extended backpacking trip when WiFi was hard to come by. It makes it more inconvenient, but it's more than worth the ability to be fully present while exploring new places.
In the flights I've taken in the past few years, I see wifi on about 1/3, and it's a fairly recent thing (a couple years, maybe). Obviously you're traveling on different planes than I am.
Really depends on: country, airline, price range you are willing to part with on amenities. Typically the Wifi costs extra, and most people are just trying to A-to-B it.
Yeah and you still get "told" to turn them off. Kind of a mixed signal of "put your electronics on airplane mode" and "switch off your electronics" where you're not sure which you're supposed to do. Really they don't care either way
I thought that a lack of self control was initially the point of the parent post hence the whole "being forced to be productive since there's nothing else to do' spiel
I was on a plane yesterday (literally on airplane mode) and I finished a book I've been working on for a month, and prepped/wrote half of a presentation. Quite often I produce much of my writing on a plane.
I find myself very productive on a plane. Especially on cheap flights that don't have in-flight entertainment. Literally no distractions for a preset amount of time. You're not only offline, you're also physically stuck. Best way to make the time fly by is by being productive.