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Comment by cko | Hacker News Reader

I'm quite interested in your setup. You walk around with a feature phone and some bills? Sounds really Zen. I would like to get to that point.

How do you navigate without Maps, Uber, etc.? Do your friends know you won't reply to texts?

Maybe I'll buy a separate flip phone and leave the smart phone and credit cards at home just in case.

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Not the OP, but I walk around with a bunch of bills and occasionally a feature phone, most often no phone whatsoever. It works perfectly fine, my friends keep in touch with me in more roundabout ways, usually drop me an e-mail or call the landline when I'm home or in my office.

It amuses me that it sounds like zen buddhism or something super extreme when it is how almost everyone operated 5-10 years ago.

I was a practicing Buddhist for years. When I say Zen it's the pop culture connotation of the word, not specifically referring to Buddhism itself.

I was 19 before I got a cell phone. Now I travel internationally quite frequently so I'm jealous of people who are can go no phone.

Also I didn't have friends or a real job until I was 25, so though I grew up with AOL CD ROMs and Netscape and dialup and cassette tapes, the start of my social life coincided with smartphone ownership.

You can also travel internationally without a smart phone.

>How do you navigate without Maps, Uber, etc.? Do your friends know you won't reply to texts?

It's crazy how everyday reality from 20 years ago is now seen as unimaginable as hermitic living.

It's extremely convenient. I can't stress this enough. I remember navigating some cities in the country I grew up in with paper maps, hand drawn directions and lots of asking other people.

It was more frustrating than it was fun. Then came unlimited Internet and online maps I could print out. Then ubiquitous fast Internet, and smartphones with GPS and compasses! Built-in maps that will lead you straight where you need to go. No more asking for or giving painful directions, just use your navigator/phone/tablet!

Nowadays I can travel to almost anywhere in the world and find my way with just my phone! Amazing!

That's exactly it. The technology is a burden in my life, with connectivity expected 24 hours a day. Except for travel.

We are more likely to just point our motorcycles in a random direction and figure out where we're going later now that we have GPS in our pockets. It's like an absolute safety net for adventure!

I just moved to Europe from the US so it is not easy to have no backup navigation app. OP mentioned he had moved recently.

I mean, yes, that seems like how you would do it. If you've lived in your city for a while I don't think you'd really need maps all that often. I still remember printing out routes in the age before GPS!

Also, regarding texts, I carry an iPhone, but I'll answer text messages when it fits in, which can take hours. Don't want my phone to control my life.

If you're somewhere mostly covered by street view it's often easy to just walk through the route that way and then just do it from memory.

If you don't mind a small increase to travel time you can usually reduce the number of steps to get to any particular place to a small and conveniently memorable amount.

Yep, that's pretty much what I've been doing for the past 5 years or so.

I ask people, you'd be surprised how much easier it is to find your way somewhere by getting directions from a real live human with local knowledge. And they're generally more than happy to help someone out.

There's still SMS, even if it's a bit more expensive and less convenient.

Go for it :)

Not sure how Uber works in Sweden but in Kenya you can call a number and give your location and destination and they will send an Uber to you and you can pay the driver in cash.

Alternatives to Uber exist in Europe, America etc, and for decades the main way to contact them was by phone. The other way was to walk into an office, which were often located near restaurants and bars. (And the final way was by waving at an empty vehicle in the street.)

These options still exist, but I don't think Uber wants this business.

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