I am about to start a job where I will have to commute ~1.5hr each way to/from work whenever I can't work from home. I won't always have a seat, so being able to use a laptop isn't guaranteed. Is there anything other than reading I could do to improve my skills during this period? (Relevant areas are programming, security, machine learning)
I occasionally drive 3.5 hours to an evening meeting, visit my brother overnight, return early in the morning.<p>If the meeting is pointless, I prescribe soothing classical music afterwards, Bach, Mozart, you'll need all the help you can get.<p>Otherwise podcasts. I recommend Russ Roberts EconTalk, not just about economics.<p>On a bus you'll need good noise cancelling earphones and a means to recharge or power it.<p>I find my best ideas randomly pop into my head when thinking about something completely different, so don't think it has to be relevant to what you're working on at the time.
Podcasts and meditation are fine suggestions.<p>You could also enter things like foreign or programming languages or whatever else into your long-term memory with spaced-repetition software like Anki.<p>Like so: <a href="http://augmentingcognition.com/ltm.html" rel="nofollow">http://augmentingcognition.com/ltm.html</a>
As others of said, download Podcasts, Youtube, Audio Books, etc. If you have a decent phone, download some books and read.<p>You can try meditating also.