I've been asking my friends about this take and it seems like other people disagree vehemently, so I'll write about it.

I love long flights. I'm writing this post on a 12-hour flight to Tokyo as a matter of fact.

Something about that cramped chair, the Internet connection that’s just barely good enough to do anything meaningful, Sun chips and pretzels, and that portly cup of Coke with too much ice in it they pour you halfway. This is when my brain works best for whatever reason.

I don’t even really work during flights all the time. Sometimes I just read books. It’s actually quite a pleasant feeling to not have too many alternatives to reading, and given the slight unpleasantness of using a laptop (bad angle relative to head, slow Internet connection) reading an offline book is comparatively one of the smoothest experiences you can have. Bonus points if it’s print (though a bespoke book light is necessary when the flight’s lights go dark). I also can immerse myself into “reading flow state” much quicker and much longer on a flight compared to at home, possibly due to the lack of alternatives or the hard time limit on flights.

Maybe that’s part of why I can focus a lot better on a flight; even if it’s a long time, the fact that the clock is explicitly ticking forces me to lock in slightly harder than I would otherwise. I do act differently whenever a resource is finite (even if I’ve got a lot of it!) than when it’s truly infinite and I just do not need to worry about rationing it at all.

There’s probably a direction here where I start detailing the productivity strategy, talking about how to replicate this at home and make Cal Newport proud. But I won’t do that - all I’ll say is that, trapped in a tiny chair in a tiny cylinder in an endless sky, I feel free.

I love long flights.