Live data from Hacker News

Feeling uncomfortable when leaving phone at home shouldn't be normal

vaidik.bearblog.dev

291–300 of 395 posts

Re: Feeling uncomfortable when leaving phone at home shouldn't be normal

#291
I disagree with the premise. I understand people wanting to break bad habits with their phone, but it's like saying "feeling anxiety about not having a refrigerator at home shouldn't be normal." When a tool gets invented that makes our lives easier, what we didn't know we needed before becomes indispensable. These things, problems though they may bring, are extremely empowering, and we take it for granted.

Re: Feeling uncomfortable when leaving phone at home shouldn't be normal

#293
This is why I like my smart watch. I can walk out of the house without my phone and still stay in touch if it’s really needed (it usually isn’t) - I also like that I can triage notifications without touching my phone, if I try doing that with my phone I usually end up messing around with a lot more than I had originally planned. Also using it for music and having the assistant available fills out the main uses of my watch.

The only time I regret it is if there is something that i’d really like to photograph.

Re: Feeling uncomfortable when leaving phone at home shouldn't be normal

#294

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This must be like when in threads about Uber, people describe taxis as a traumatizing hellscape. When I was a child, I figured out how my city was shaped, and figured out how to get around. Knowing how to get around one's own city is a skill worth learning, and is less of a time investment than fishing around for a phone to spend minutes futzing around with for the rest of your life. > The first times I traveled invo…

Just because you don’t have the problem doesn’t mean you should trivialise someone else’s experience. How rude. Try listening more, and hold back from telling people how to solve problems they didn’t ask for help solving.

And yet you are trivialising the experience of the person you are replying to.

How rude.

Re: Feeling uncomfortable when leaving phone at home shouldn't be normal

#295

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I want to just dive into a little bit of a tangent. It's interesting to me that you're liberated by having access to everything all the time. Personally I find it pretty constraining. It makes me feel like there's nothing to discover, no mystery, no journey. If I wanted to find the best restaurant, I wouldn't have to go out and explore the local options or discuss it with friends. The more efficient and correct way w…

You don’t need an excuse to explore blindly. I agree that you no longer have one, but I think that is simply a fact of the modern world that requires adaptation. We have to be more honest with ourselves about why we explore.

Agreed 100%. Something I enjoyed doing a lot during the height of the pandemic was getting in my car and simply driving around, looking specifically for places I haven't been before. I'd drive up and down mountain roads, through small towns I'd passed through before but never paid attention to, and then when I was eventually unavoidably hopelessly lost, I'd pull out my phone and Waze my way back home.

For me, having that power to find my way home no matter how lost I'd get gave me the freedom to get out and explore.

Re: Feeling uncomfortable when leaving phone at home shouldn't be normal

#296

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It fails if you search for the incorrect quote; the last sentence should start "With" and not "Without". Checking competitors, Bing fails to find any variation of the quote, Yandex returns 5 results if you remove the incorrect word and quote it, but returns garbage otherwise. Considering the single-digit number of results for an apparently very obscure quote, and that it was incorrect, this does seem reasonable. I'm…

Trying this: Without a terminal, you were never more than a question or a shout away from almost anything you wanted to know It suggests results that don't include terminal (but of course that is a critical word for this quote), selecting must include terminal, gives the quote as the top results.

Fascinating. Quoting individual words like "terminal" or "shout" also works as a nudge for both Google and Yandex, but not for Bing.

And since our written observations modify the behavior, an update: quoting the whole sentence now returns a single result - this page.

Re: Feeling uncomfortable when leaving phone at home shouldn't be normal

#297

My phone screen was cracked, I had to leave it with the repair place for an hour or two. It was glorious. I leisurely strolled past shops, sat down to eat something without being distracted, and generally enjoyed being outside. I had to ask someone for the time. I resolved to go without phones more often, as it made me feel connected to me environment more, with less stress and reduced absentmindedness. Of course I n…

My advice: get a watch. A nice Seiko, Citizen, etc dumb watch. I found myself always pulling my phone out to check the time, then getting sucked in by notifications. Now, I only use my watch to check the time, and find myself pulling my phone out way, way less in public.

Nah, let's go further and start a ring sundial fad: https://www.amazon.com/Retroworks-Sundial-Ring-Silver-Finish...

Re: Feeling uncomfortable when leaving phone at home shouldn't be normal

#298

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Turning off a spy-phone does nothing to prevent them from tracking you. You need to either take the battery out (impossible with most spy-phones) or use a faraday bag.

Does Airplane Mode not do anything? AFAIK it could be a violation of FCC regulations if it was still transmitting or receiving with that enabled.

Airplane mode is only a convenience switch. My phone lets me turn wifi back on with airplane mode still active, for example.

Re: Feeling uncomfortable when leaving phone at home shouldn't be normal

#299

Personally I find modern technology to be very liberating. When I was a child, even going around my own city was a stressful thing. What if I get lost? What if I run out of money for the train? How do I know I got the bus in the right direction? (the darn things didn't announce stops at all). The first times I traveled involved printing a stack of papers including names, addresses, and maps. Getting to a hotel in a c…

I want to just dive into a little bit of a tangent. It's interesting to me that you're liberated by having access to everything all the time. Personally I find it pretty constraining. It makes me feel like there's nothing to discover, no mystery, no journey. If I wanted to find the best restaurant, I wouldn't have to go out and explore the local options or discuss it with friends. The more efficient and correct way w…

Having information doesn't constrain you, it's your choice what to do with it.

You don't have to follow the GPS' directions. You could just use it to find which way to walk, then take whatever path you want. You can get a list of restaurants and then ignore the ratings.

Post reply on HN