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I lost my phone somewhat recently. It's been great: I read more books, and get a lot less distractions throughout the day. The privacy implication is a huge bon
by ymse 8y ago
I lost my phone somewhat recently. It's been great: I read more books, and get a lot less distractions throughout the day. The privacy implication is a huge bonus.
The main drawback have been that people rarely label apartment doorbells anymore, so if you don't know which button to press you're in trouble. Another is getting hold of old friends if you don't know their email address (I don't have Facebook either).
Overall, I'm fairly content with the situation, and am seriously considering not getting a new one. Another benefit is that I'm more likely to bring my laptop if I go somewhere, and thus when I do connect to the internet and have time to kill, I often get work done instead of mindlessly browsing HN/reddit or playing games.
- Aloha 8y agoYou must not be looking for work, or for that matter have a job. My phone is indispensable for the kind of work that I do, I literally couldn't do my job without it.
- l_t 8y agoI don't see a strong reason for a software developer to need a phone: - Async communication (slack/email) can be checked at your computer. - Voice calls are usually done with your computer anyway. - If you are on call, an old-fashioned pager can be used. Frankly, although I do have a smartphone, I wouldn't want a job where I was required to use it, or one where I was expected to be available at all times unless on call.
- MaulingMonkey 8y agoDitto. ~9 months into my current software developer gig and the only time I used it for work was when the company internet was down, and the data service was bad enough that I barely even used it for that. The idea that they anyone "must not [...] for that matter have a job" if they don't miss their phone is bogus.
- kimdotcom 8y agoIf email works fine, why have Slack? Does Slack have better uptime than email? Does the office have redundant ISPs?
- Swizec 8y agoThere are a lot of jobs you can do without a phone. Like starbucks barista, or software engineer. And the jobs that require a phone often come with a phone provided. So you still don’t need one yourself.
- ymse 8y agoHa, funny you should mention that. I am in fact looking for a job. Luckily the one interview I've had since losing the phone was on-site. If I need to participate in on-call rotation or similar, I expect the employer to issue a phone. For a remote job, I will obviously get one myself -- but then strictly for job-related activities. (by the way, if anyone is looking for an experienced infrastructure engineer/"DevOps" guy, give me a cal...errh email)
- MaulingMonkey 8y agoA skype number or somesuch might do in a pinch even for phone interviews.
- jsmthrowaway 8y agoInteresting calculus of choices there: I don’t miss the distraction or privacy implications of my personal phone, yet I expect a company to issue me a phone which comes with distraction and privacy implications (the subject surveillance of the article disregards whether a pocketed phone is corporate because it can work with numbers directly), and I also don’t maintain a landline to sit for a phone screen to find that opportunity in the first place, so I expect to talk to you over Zoom (ceding more privacy; surprise, cellular call content is legally sensitive for LE, video packets aren’t) or in person. You probably don’t realize nor intend this, but that can be a large red flag for your candidacy from the other side of the table, particularly if the role involves security because you’re broadcasting a slight misjudgment of your threat vectors and exposure. The number of resumes most folks go through, expecting ravens from Winterfell will get you dropped fast. Torvalds could probably get away with making initial hailing frequencies that difficult, but you or I should just buy a phone number of some kind, as much as it sucks. The phone isn’t the problem if you apply opsec correctly, buy the right one, and operate it like a compromise hazard. (It is.)
- effingwewt 8y agoI went several years using only wifi services on my phone, including voice and text services if I really needed them. Unfortunately it didn't help me much as, being OCD,I tend to quickly find other things to focus too intently on. Anyway, point is, if you need a temporary phone while job hunting, try google voice? I hate google now but this may help temporarily, or maybe you could find a better provider (other than google, that is). Good luck with the job hunt!
- losteric 8y agoOK, but most jobs do not require the use of cellphones. Aside from oncall periods, my software engineering position certainly does not.
- spraak 8y agoSounds more like it's related to your work. I don't need a phone for my job at all, but it makes some things more convenient