Chris Blattman gives his tips. Most of all, read this blog post, which will tell you not to take a 28-hour plane trip. If you must go, and can’t break it up by feasting on chili crab in Singapore, rethink at least one aspect of your life. But if you are stuck the preferred advice is to start with a bunch of fun books you can finish quickly, move to a longer, more serious work than will command your full attention for quite a while and you won’t want to end, and then have some fun stuff left over for the end. I wonder how general this is as an optimal pattern of intertemporal consumption.
I do this at least once a year, and have become a firm believer in the combination of 1) good noise-canceling headphones, 2) audiobooks, and 3) melatonin. Along the way I’ve trained myself (thank you, Pavlov!) to fall asleep when I get on planes, which makes the trip noticeably shorter.
I’ve also learned that if I bring 1 piece of work to do (say a journal review), I’ll do it. If I bring more than that, I won’t even finish the one piece of work.
Finally, the nice thing about audiobooks are that your eyes are closed, which makes it much easier to drop off into a dormant state.
Blattman’s tips: 3 magazines and a novel.
That sounds great for a 6-hour plane-ride, but how does that fill 28 hours? Color me confused…
If you are already absorbed thinking about a problem, 28 hour travel is not a big deal.
I always overestimate what my mental state is going to be like flying. I bring things to read and do that I will enjoy when fully alert but forget how much being confined in a small space with stale air and awful food affects my enthusiasm and ability to concentrate.
If I bring several challenging things to read or work on, I’ll manage for about two hours, or until the person in the window or middle seat beside me has to get up. (Also, I don’t particularly like writing or working with someone right next to me.)
I’d better have brought something engaging and not too challenging to while away the rest of the time; I’d really like to have my laptop on, but since I always fly coach without power outlet the battery dies too soon…
I would insist on those chili crabs in Singapore. A 28-hour flight in coach sounds like the seventh ring in Dante’s inferno
“start with a bunch of fun books you can finish quickly, move to a longer, more serious work than will command your full attention for quite a while and you won’t want to end, and then have some fun stuff left over for the end”
When giving advice, you should take into account the fact that most people are not like you. Almost nobody is going to read “a bunch† of books followed by a “longer† book followed by “some fun stuff† in a 28 hour period. A couple of books, max, is what most people will need.
Option number one: torture chamber.
Option number two: 28 hour flight in coach.
Me: “Uh, ok, do I get enough room to stretch my legs out during the torture sessions? Yes? I’ll take it.”
Ostap – you are a tool.
To each his own I guess, but if I read his list of books the 28-hour flight would not matter as I would be sound asleep after two pages.
This may soon be a moot point if the price of oil stays high.
Airlines are dropping very long flights because the extra weight of the fuel itself causes more fuel to be burned per hour. (via Felix Salmon)
I can’t say I’ve ever been on a flight nearly that long (transatlantic is the closest I’ve come, and that’s nowhere close), but I’d want to bring a large Romantic novel, a la Les Miserables. There’s a lot of rambling in the narration style, sometimes spending whole chapters on seemingly unimportant details or historical events. It’s like reading two magazines and a few short stories, while reading a novel. You also get the unintentional humor of how seriously Victor Hugo is taking himself (this is actually a good thing).
Take breaks to drink water, and occasionally soda for the sugar. I also like taking a newspaper, because on a long flight I’ll go through all the parts I would normally skip over.
if u have lots of money get first class!!!
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