ARTICLE: "A Lonely Road Home For Commuters: How Longer Drive Exact Social Costs," from The New Yorker (16 April), cited in "The Informed Reader," Wall Street Journal, 9 April 2007, p. B5.

Long commute times in your car are a connectivity killer. If you've ever endured an extreme commute (more than 90 minutes) it's a mind-killer on wheels. Books-on-CD help, but thinking time is compressed. The hardest time in my life was when I drove so much in Northern VA, not just the killer commute but the anywhere trip that always dragged into an hour or more. Bob Putnam, an old prof of mine at Harvard, says "every ten minutes of commuting results in 10 percent fewer social connections." He's right. People do tend to undervalue such losses. Honestly, that's why I do so much better flying everywhere, because I work so much on planes and in airports and actually drive so little (really, only with my family). When I'm home, I honestly don't work that much. Still, I don't pretend my life doesn't take its toll in all directions. You try to balance things out. You calculate your larger obligations to the world versus those to your family, and if you're somebody who lives by your wits, you fence off that thinking time like it's the most valuable asset you possess after your family.