I can understand that you dont have to make physical effort to feel tired, because I work as a computer programmer and I feel tired after making mental effort, but this effort seems way bigger than the one required to drive, yet, after 4,5 hours of driving I feel way more exhausted than after 8,10 hours of coding.
In: Biology
It’s down to micro vibrations, vibrations make people tired and cars vibrate quite allot. I’m sure there is a study on it https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/07/180705110030.htm. That one and I’m sure there are others.
A lot of it is just not moving much for a long time, even though you are sitting longer for your job you have more room to move your legs a bit and can get up regularly, in a car for 4 hours your legs are barely moving and you can’t get up, also the constant concentration is part of it too, at work you likely take small breaks, talk to people, get water but in a car you can’t just stop concentrating for 5 min because you will likely crash
Well when you‘re driving, you have to literally try not to die or cause any accidents. Whereas in coding you literally just sit and write some code without any real life danger. You‘re basically remembering every rule and law you learned to try and navigate the roads. In coding you can clear your mistakes and start over.
Driving a car is one of the most mechanicaly involved things an average human does in the course of a day. I don’t mean mechanical as in the machine that is the car, I mean the different mechanics your brain is going through to pilot a car safely. You are constantly visually and sonically alert for other drivers, signs, lights, potholes, what have you. Then you have your arms controlling direction, feet controlling speed (even moreso if it’s a manual transmission). Add in turn signals, car radio, climate controls and all the other comforts of a car and it adds up to a lot of things constantly and simultaneously happening.
Also, you are stuck in a pretty static position while driving so muscles get sore and stiff.
Its kinda mindblowing how easy it is for a person to get a driver’s license when you break down the act of driving a car on public roads into every little action and look at the web of how its all connected.
While driving you’re constantly analyzing, making decisions, and doing micro-corrections. Scanning the road for potential hazards and other drivers, looking for curves that require you to adjust speed or potholes and debris that you need to avoid, making a million tiny corrections on the steering wheel to stay in your lane, etc.
If you have been driving for a couple years (or even months) then your body does a lot of this subconsciously. So while it seems like you’re not doing much, your body is constantly working to avoid danger
Get a Tesla. AutoPilot + FSD is life changing, especially if 90% of your commute is freeway. All you gotta do is hold the wheel and pay attention the car will do the rest even take you to the exit
4.5 hours of driving is a solid 4.5 hours of driving. You can’t rest your eyes. You can’t let your attention drift too much.
4.5 hours of coding does not require 4.5 hours of completely unbroken attention. Even if you’re not taking breaks, you can still take a few seconds to mentally reset, look at something else, etc., if you ever feel like you need to, which you cannot do while driving.
It depends **a lot** on the comfort level of the car and type of road. I can drive a 10 hour stint across Europe without major issues in a comfortable and quiet Audi with massage seats. Some years ago I was doing it in a 2008 Civic. It was significantly more exhausting.
Try coding for 10 hours on a wooden bench with noise in your headphones instead of your favorite music and comfy chair.
because you stay 4,5 hours on the same posture. You need to take a 10-minute break every hour. During this 10 minutes you should walk around. Just walk 10 minutes every hour and you will not be tired after 5 hours driving.
when you are programming, you can change posture, you can stand up, if you are not comfortable sitting so much, etc… but when you are driving, you are just sitting on the same posture all the time. That’s not good for heath and can make that process exhausting.
It’s the same reason that road rage exists, you’re in a near constant state of stress essentially. Robert Sapolsky wrote about it in “Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers”. Our stress state while driving is because we’re being over-analytical and running calculations about the physics of our motion. That hyper-awareness is taxing on our energy.
When a zebra is chased by a lion, they too enter that hyper-state (plus the physical drain of running), but it’s always short lived. Meanwhile, we’re usually driving in cars for lengths of time without rest.
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