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Comment by Psyonic | Hacker News Reader

A bit over-dramatic coming from Sebastian. Some decent points, but too hyperbolic to take seriously. Also, some of them only apply to his unique situation (4/5).

Many of the other points can be dealt with through other means. Tell idiot cousin not to call you. Block his number if necessary. Demand more from people. It is possible to put your foot down and demand a set time even if you have a phone, and that will demonstrate balls just as well. In fact, I'd say it does a better job of demonstrating that. Extremism is often the easy way out compared to setting real boundaries and sticking to them.

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Not having a phone is extremism? That's rich! It is, however, a common attitude. The fact that I don't have a phone is generally met with incredulity.

Sometimes I like to trick co-workers by connecting to my VoIP phone with a SIP client on my laptop and calling from my desk extension. "You're still at work!?"

I mostly notice not having a phone when I meet people after work for cocktails, because I arrive on time, and sit alone in the venue, getting a head start.

If you are in the US, living without a car is also "extremist": http://www.novemberwest.com/blog/?p=288

Depends on which part of the US. In New York City, there are lots of people who don't own cars, and it's not considered strange at all. They take subways or buses to work, and rent a car on the occasional weekends when they want to get out of the city. Even if you can afford it, it's hard to justify owning a car and paying for the parking space if you're only going to use the car a few days a year. (Some NYC residents don't even have driver's licenses.)

Outside of a handful of large cities (like NYC, SF and maybe a few others), not owning a car is generally viewed as something only poor people do. It's not viewed as a personal choice in most parts of the US. And most parts of the US have pretty bad public transit. (In a former life, I wanted to be an urban planner or some such. American urban planners, who talk a lot about transit oriented design and pedestrian friendly design, often have long commutes and I've seen them ridicule carless-by-choice folks in their midst.)

In the modern business world? Seems a bit extreme to me. You'll have to explain that you don't have a phone constantly. Doctor's office: "Where can we reach you with your test results?" Sorry, you can't. Mechanic: "What number should we call when your car is ready to go?" Yeah, about that...

Just because it was once considered a luxury doesn't prevent it from becoming a normal part of society. You're certainly free to reject social norms, but compared to using a bit of self-discipline, it's a bit extreme.

Another way to look at this: How does Sebastian get away with using Skype? Because everyone else has phones. If everyone did this, getting in contact with anyone would become much more complicated. Also, Skype on an always-connected device is a phone, so that's not really a replacement anyway.

mos def. extreme acceptance or rejection of something (eg, phones, facebook) doesn't seem as smart as using more refined judgement on how best to personally use something.

Agreed. And if you do reject something wholly, don't see it as a weakness in other people, but as a condition within you that you need to account for and work around. For example (apart from my time at SXSW) I unfollowed everyone I had been following on Twitter. But that's not because I see them as the problem. The problem lies in my own distraction. While Twitter's one of the most friction-free places on the internet for distraction on demand, that's neither inherently good or bad.

> Block his number if necessary

Not as easy as it sounds, I tried to block a number recently and found it very difficult (AT&T). How would you do it?

Many phones have this option. Save his number as a contact and add it to a block group. The specifics depend on the actual phone, of course.

Another idea if this is important to you would be switching to Sprint. They are now embracing Google Voice network-wide. Google Voice gives you much better controls of when, where, and who you receive calls from. http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-12261_7-20046221-10356022.html

Use Google Voice. Then, it's as easy as blocking email spam.

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