Ok, ok, if you are one of my clients, then please calm down and read a few paragraphs and then if you are still freaking out you can fire me.
I sit at a computer of some sort almost all day. When I wake up, I bring my iPad downstairs, make coffee, and check my e-mail. After breakfast, accompanied by some RSS-reading and twitter tweeting, I head up to the ‘work computer’, an old Macbook Pro with a huge HD monitor hooked up. At lunch I catch up on e-mail again, then I might do some reading on the iPad, or if I have a deadline coming up, it’s back to work. Some more coffee, some more work, some dinner, some work, maybe relax and play some PS3, write some music on the laptop, or watch youtube or a movie. So, it’s pretty ridiculous the amount of time I spend staring at a screen.
Enter the bicycle. The value of being carless and riding a bike everywhere has been retold over and over, so I won’t repeat the standard earth-day arguments here, although they are compelling to say the least. I would say, if you are a technonerd like I am, riding a bike could be the best decision you make if you are looking for positive lifestyle change. You gotta go to the store anyway, so why not get your exercise in, absorb some vitamins from the sun’s rays, go out and interact with real people in real life, and above all, meditate.
Now, I’m not saying that you should zone out entirely while riding a bike. I always ride earbud free, and I make sure to ride the road fairly and pay attention to my surroundings. But I come up with some of the best ideas for designs and projects while riding. If I get code blind, or if I have designer’s block, taking that ride over to New Seasons to pick up tonight’s tempeh and broccoli ingredients is amazingly enlightening. You know that feeling you get when you’ve been in the shower for five minutes, and you are full of amazing ideas and you can’t wait to finish brushing your beard so you can jump back on the computer? Add the endorphin rush from peddling a few miles, dodging cars and jumping curbs. You can’t buy that kind of inspiration, unless you have some hippie friends with a sugar cube collection.
