What I did on my Winter Vacation
I just returned to the US after eight months living in Taiwan. The trip was great fun for me and my family. But more than that, it was a very productive time for me to learn new programming technologies. Why was my trip so productive? I think some of the reasons were: I was away from my home computer set up (including video game consoles and a large TV). All I had was a Mac Mini (for the family to use), a MacBook Pro (for work) and a Nexus One phone. I commuted by bus rather than car. While my commute time was longer, it was much more productive. Instead of having to concentrate on driving, I had 40 minutes a day of free time to think, web surf, and even code. I didn't follow local politics, and USA politics were made less interesting by distance and time zone. I stopped visiting political web sites and obsessing over current events. The timezone difference between Taipei and the US ment that email became a once-a-day event, rather than a continuous stream of interruptions. ...