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- Hacker News
- > "(...) I’ve written stories and parts of my novels during breaks—fifteen minutes for coffee and then half an hour for lunch. (...) Most artists I know are like this. Finding time to make art while working another job, or taking care of loved ones."
Has anyone had success finding a way do this, but for drawing? I've been trying to make time for a small comic project and, while I do have plenty of fifteen-minutes breaks I could use, those breaks are usually in places where drawing is impractical (such as buses).
- I'm having the same question about sewing. I feel like the lead time to first stitch is quite high, but I think I could make quite significant progress on my projects if I could use the all small 15-minute breaks to make some progress.by mailund
- What are the aspects of working on a bus that make it impractical? When I find myself in your position usually I end up realizing I'm self-conscious about people seeing what I'm doing more than I'm concerned about any practical downside or benefit.by farleykr
- All I can suggest is to make it as easy and cheap as you can manage. Carry a sketchbook and just get in the habit of making quick drawings. If you're into painting, watercolor is pretty portable; oil is less so, but try a search for "pochade box" to get a few ideas.by webnrrd2k
- Lovely. I kind of wanted to hear this guy reading this out aloudby Gigamouse
- From the title I had imagined that someone had turned the cab of a truck into a dedicated computer workspace. Hmm...by herewulf
- yeah, I feel like the missing desk could be resolved with a trip to Home Depot and a jig saw.by hk1337
- Lovely essay, tone reminds me this book which has a similar vibe.
https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/truck-on-rebuilding-a-worn-out...
by ianmcgowan - I think there may be an issue with your link, it's just taking me to the thrift books home page.
I also really enjoyed the writing style.
by jcjmcclean - by bookofjoe
- Just added to my cart. Thanks. Working from the car sucks, but it happens now and then. This should make it a lot easier.by geocrasher
- Roald Dahl approved.by sussexby
- Seems much better than a lap desk, as it probably gets air flow.by neinuke
- > I hadn’t interacted with any of the office staff, but they’d seen me.
This story would have taken a very different turn if early on he had realized that befriending the office staff would have scored him a permanent place in one of those empty unused cubicles. No need to be best friends, but just being friendly and forthcoming now and then would have avoided their attitude of "who's that weirdo let's involve the site manager to get rid of him". It fits with his lonely wolf persona though which makes it easier for him to be a hero in his story and which he seems to cultivate in purpose.
by teiferer - " if early on he had realized that befriending the office staff would have scored him a permanent place"
I feel like you don't have any first hand experience with the kind of classist horseshit that is endemic to these kinds of work environments.
- Former “scummy contractor” here. So, a “contractor” being in the office is considered a mortal sin.
I don’t know why this is, but it’s always been this way. Workers don’t go into the building.
The office staff don’t want you there and if you stay too long, your fellow workers will rib you for hours about going to “the dark side”.
In my few years at the job, I had only been in the office area for 5 minutes to fill out some sort of paperwork. Most of that from when I was hired.
Seeing as he was in there on multiple occasions, he probably did establish rapport with the office staff, but left that out because it messed with the flow of the story.
by runjake - Someone who can write for the Paris Review and play politics would end up the site managers boss before he could stop it.by ZiiS
- Being the weirdo frees you from a great many time consuming pleasantries. Making friends might secure a permanent place but it also means a few minutes from every break will be lost to small talk and sometimes the entire break; you see a self serving lone wolf casting himself as the hero, I see someone just trying to find a way to do what is important to him. I am fairly certain that much of the eccentric artist image is just frustration over small talk.by ofalkaed
- I know a good few who live versions of this particular life, feral creatives living inside the guts of our industrial complexes, working high steel, marine,etc. The drive for this goes way back, all the way to human origins, perhaps further to progenetor species, something to do with describing our world and rearanging the bits and pieces into a pleasant form, even in the harshest environments, something right, placed, just so the other impulse to then smash everything and have palaces and vast halls on the ruins is less explicable, inspite of the huge efforts at rationalisation, but also self evidentby metalman
- Reminds me of the ad I saw for the Ford transit van - whose steering wheel can be converted into a 'desk'/laptop table:
https://www.roadandtrack.com/news/a45497067/ford-transit-ste...
- For better or worse, "steering wheel lap desk" is what you've looking for, no Ford Transit van required.by fragmede
- It looks like a great steering wheel that won’t fly out the window while driving.by jihadjihad
- I've rented pickup trucks before and I've always been so fascinated with the hanging folder rails in the center console. I have no need to work out of a truck but the fact that you could turn it into a mobile office is very cool.by wildzzz
- Working on the road has become so prevalent for many field folks that Ford's F-150 has a "Center Console Work Surface" (at least as an option):
* https://www.ford.ca/support/how-tos/more-vehicle-topics/f-se...
* https://www.jdpower.com/cars/shopping-guides/what-is-the-for...
by throw0101c - Annoying if you're a lefty. :(by munificent
- Lovely story. I work out of the back seat(s) (Crew Model) of my Ford Transit pretty regularly and can relate.
I'm astonished at how productive I can be while waiting around outside a job site for late deliveries/people or even my kids music lessons for an hour or two, or when sometimes I can sit at my desk and get nothing done in the same time. Maybe it's the constraints of the time/space? I (only half) jokingly wonder if some times I'd be more productive sitting in the van in my own driveway rather than in my home office.
My "truck desk" is the rear parcel shelf/cargo blind out of a Hyundai Accent and the moulded counters fit my laptop and mouse pad perfectly. It also tucks nicely into the void behind the back seats when not in use.
I recently acquired a Vision Pro and am still coming to terms with how incredible it can be sitting in the back of my van parked literally anywhere in the country and having a full ultra-wide desktop experience that packs away into something the size of a lunchbox.
This is the cyberpunk future I dreamed of as a kid.
by dfex - I’m the same way with working on a plane. 2 hours of plane work is worth 4 hours of desk work. Something about the ambient noise, incentive to stay in the seat, and strict time boxing. Shitty internet (if it works at all) means there’s a high cost to trying to outsource my thinking to the internet, and there’s no immediate reward for pursuing a distraction.by el_benhameen
- I'm very impressed by (and jealous of) anyone who can context switch fast enough to make use of 10 or 15 minutes here and there to do a completely different task (and actually have it be coherent).
- I do this. The danger is that switching out is as easy as switching in. What one needs, in addition to the ability to refocus, is some actual discipline.
- I'm great at this if the other task is routine. For example, if I'm cooking a dish I've made dozens of times, I can context-switch between that and difficult work. If I'm making a recipe I don't know by heart, context-switching to another task ruins my ability to think about either.by dkarl