The other day, woke up pretty early, got some good writing done (Man on a Mission), was feeling high strength, and decided that it may be a good opportunity and chance for me to go househunting and apartment hunting in LA with Cindy. We loaded up our car, and drove down to LA, spent the whole day there and came back, and after the whole day there coming back, this was the most fatigued I felt in a very long time.
Thoughts on my mind:
Why was I so tired? Is it still the jet lag, or is it the fact of being stuck in the car all day, or driving all day?
Commuting?
Commute — to change, alter (con muto).
meytH— to change, to exchange, to move.
What does it mean to commute, what is a commute?
I suppose after studying the etymology, to commute means to simply exchange places. For example, typically you sleep in your home, wake up, and then you commute to work, whether it be walking driving etc.
In modern day times, or if you live in LA or southern California, the notion of a commute is generally speaking being stuck in traffic or being stuck in a car or being stuck driving for several hours a day.
For example, in my case, starting off in Orange County and driving to LA, even with Cindy and carpool, it still took us about an hour and five minutes to get to LA. And the tricky thing about driving to LA especially coming from Orange County is that the closer you get to LA, the more ratchet it gets. People drive more aggressively, the freeways become more condensed, interchanges become a little bit more unpredictable and confusing.
Concrete Islands
I call it “concrete archipelago hopping” to quote my friend Evyn Le Espiritu.
Basically the issue in LA, and a lot of southern California is that all of these different neighborhoods are like concrete islands, which instead of being separated by water is separated by traffic.
For example, Cindy and I toured several neighborhoods which included Marina del Rey, some outskirts of Santa Monica, Culver City, Westwood, etc. Even though they are all in close proximity to UCLA, during rush hour, trying to go from the east side to the west side is all local and you’re stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic.
Would a Tesla solve this issue?
Another thing that I’ve learned which is intelligent in Asia, Southeast Asia, is that rich people don’t drive themselves; either have private drivers, or just ride grab taxi or an Uber anywhere. In Asia, only servants drive.
In America we have this funny strange thing in which we want to be the driver. We want to be the man at the helm, the cockpit, inside the fuselage.
Even the notion of a modern-day sports car or a hyper car, I think the general analogy is that it is almost like having your own private jet fighter. I think this is what Lamborghini is going for, you may not be able to buy a jet fighter, and be like Tom Cruise, but, you can have your own land based jet fighter which is a modern day Lamborghini.
However, even if you have the worlds best Lamborghini or car or hyper car whatever, during peak rush-hour in LA, you’re stuck. I don’t know anybody who likes to drive during bumper-to-bumper rush-hour.
The curiosity on my mind is this:
If I had a Tesla, either with basic auto pilot, the one which does the “smart cruise control“ on the freeway, auto staying in the lane and keeping distance in front of the other car, or even full auto pilot, would this solve the issue?
For example, let me assume that in the morning, before leaving to LA at 10 AM, I was at 100% energy, honestly I think it would have just been better for me to go to the gym and try to hit over 10 plates for my atlas lift. After driving commuting going to LA coming back, I felt like my battery went down to a critical low of 2%.
Thus my curiosity:
If I had a Tesla, either with basic auto pilot or full auto pilot, would having to commute and drive deplete me of less energy?
For example, if I had auto pilot, would my energy levels still be at close to 100%? At 90%? At 80%? At 60%? 50%? 40%? 30%? Or about the same?
I know that when I’m stuck in traffic, but someone else is driving me, like during peak rush-hour in Saigon, it didn’t really bother me too much to be stuck in traffic. I just used that time to review my photos on my iPhone, or even publish some ideas to my blog, using my iPhone.
Jet lag?
Was I so tired yesterday because I was still jetlagged? Still a little bit uncertain, but the general takeaway point:
Conserve your energy and strength.
I think some certainties:
1. Driving drains your battery
Having to actively drive yourself saps you of your strength and energy: for example, typically I am able to easily atlas lift over nine plates at the gym, but yesterday after driving all day, and hitting the gym, I was so fatigued that I barely had energy and chutzpah to do seven plates. Being cognizant of my body, I still had the muscular strength to lift more, but, my overall feeling and just was I didn’t have the chutzpah to do it. Therefore purely speaking from a productivity energy perspective, if you want to maximize your energy, and to minimally deplete your energy, drive as little as humanly possible.