I program on the subway

Posted by evakhoury 12/16/2025

259 points | 202 commentspage 4

lukax 12/22/2025|

17 years ago I went to a summer vacation with my family (still a teenager). That meant 10 days without any internet connectivity. I just got my first laptop and I was allowed to take it with me. I was reverse engineering MSN Messenger's user to user and profile picture exchange protocol from TCP dumps. MSN Messenger did not use any encryption. Before I went to the vacation I recorded a bunch of sessions with Wireshark (maybe it was still Ethereal back then). Then for 10 days I was just trying to figure out from the dumps how the binary protocol worked and was writing the code without any way to test it. When I came back I just had to fix some minor bugs and it worked. Fun times.

jwpapi 12/21/2025||

Yeah I even do it in Ubers nowadays.

I actually feel like oversea flights are my most productive sessions.

I could totally see my using the train to drive through the country to work on some stuff, where I barely need internet.

It’s almost always better than my 49 inch monitor at home lol.

yuhmahp 12/22/2025||

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43894305

You can use commute time for day dreaming. It's not a waste of time

93n 12/21/2025||

I decided to cut an hour out of my in-the-office time recently, figuring that I'm sitting on the bus for any hour anyway, so I might as well use that time to knock some work out instead. Tethering is pretty good other than a predictable problem spot or two.

Much better experience than working on a plane. I've done a handful of cross-US flights this year on Alaska Airlines, and trying to do anything network-related on those flights was torture. Super spotty, high latencies, constant timeouts; very frustrating.

Chinjut 12/21/2025||

I love making money for my employer with every spare moment of my life.

htk 12/21/2025||

If you took the time to read the first paragraph instead of typing this snarky comment, you'd know he's working on his personal projects.

venturecruelty 12/21/2025||

Not paying attention on the train, even in 2025 girliepop-influencer-Instragram-latte-art New York, is not the smartest. You're probably better off during rush hour, but being aware of your surroundings is never a bad idea, even in "safe" New York.

ipaddr 12/21/2025||

Do your work today and tomorrow you can fool around and have some fun. Do the minimum today so you can do the maximum tomorrow rarely makes sense.

davnicwil 12/22/2025||

Coding on metros, trains, buses and planes is exactly the reason I always make sure my dev environments work 100% offline, with dummy services in place of the real ones.

One thing I love about coding on public transport is the sense of urgency can be fun.

Being on the verge of figuring out a bugfix or whatever when you know train is pulling into the station and you have maybe a minute to go, cracking it, quick test, bundle the laptop quickly back into your bag as you step off the train is quite a nice feeling.

allkushdiet 12/21/2025||

I used to do this as I commuted on the train between school and my hometown in the early 2010s. As a way to learn and pass the time.

No access to internet so mostly hacking from memory. I could use man pages for C, but Haskell was a bit more tricky.

Sometimes I’d just end up sketching things out on paper, but eventually I could complete entire modules without looking anything up. Was always a bummer to be stuck on something that I knew could be answered online in mere seconds. Good times.

rlue 12/21/2025||

I have also contemplated wearing a keyboard on my pants and using a pair of “XR glasses” (like those by X-Real or Viture) as a display.

I would absolutely never do this in a public place, much less a crowded one.

This guy’s figured it out though.

https://evantravers.com/articles/2023/04/06/magsafe-tenting-...

wahnfrieden 12/21/2025|

I use these same tripods with magsafe stickers (to be used next on my newer Glove80 with Pro Reds). It works well. I also use them atop somewhat taller mini tripods for other ergonomic situations, or with clamps attached to my chair. It's very quick to move the keyboard halves around and use during travel where desks will not be at ergonomic heights.

rlue 12/22/2025||

Very curious what other tripods you’ve found suitable for this purpose. At my own workstation, I use a pair of adhesive dashboard mounts, which allows me to achieve some pretty extreme tenting (see https://www.reddit.com/r/ErgoMechKeyboards/comments/1p1q5xz/), but while out and about, I worry that such light boards would get jostled around on a desk/table if tented as hard as I usually do.

wahnfrieden 12/22/2025||

I use two of these: https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B077JX7GBL?ref_=ppx_hzsearch_conn_d... it lets me tent at nearly 90 deg which is great. And it is also good for reclining on my LC4, where I use two Perriand berger stools as armrests and a Levo laptop stand.

For something sturdier I use Ulanzi super clamps with extensions.

The Glove80 (which is fantastic, as a 15 year Kinesis Aadvantage user prior) also has a tripod mounting kit which I haven't tried yet.

rlue 12/22/2025||

Very informative, thanks

wahnfrieden 12/22/2025||

Sure. The Nebula tripod is also tall enough to be just high enough to use while sitting on typical chairs, if you're ok with somewhat low keyboards / have long arms. It's a great at both lower and mid-range heights which makes it quite versatile as a portable tripod, aside from desktop use (although it would also be useful with "standing desk" laptop risers that go on top of other surfaces). It helps to rotate the tripod legs appropriately for stability when tented.

eigenspace 12/22/2025||

Ever since moving to Germany, one of my favourite treats has been to jump on a train out to the countryside, program on the train, and then go for a hike, do some more programming during lunch, and then program on the train on my way home.

It's often less productive than a normal workday so i dont do it super often, but It's very enjoyable, and the change of scenery sometimes helps me get unstuck on problems.

bitwize 12/21/2025|

I used to program on the Boston T. I had my little MSI Wind netbook and I coded a game on my commutes to and from work. I eventually ported that game to Android.

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