5 ms·

I really like this style of writing in short bursts, and I appreciate the author's tone and concerns. I do wonder if the author is very young. As much as I enj

I really like this style of writing in short bursts, and I appreciate the author's tone and concerns. I do wonder if the author is very young. As much as I enjoyed his small essay, a few things stuck right out at me: >I tried having a flip phone once (2014), but you couldn’t find out what time the movies were playing because moviephone just redirected you to their app. This has been a solved problem for a long time: you look up the movie times and such prior to departing for the movies. No smartphone needed. >And it’s not like there’s anywhere to go. The real world is strip malls and axe throwing and escape rooms. Oh god people actually go on a hinge date to axe throwing and think it’s the real world. You can escape, but you'll never hear about it by either checking online, or by listening to very-online people. Go on a hike. It doesn't even have to be a good one. Just go do it. Maybe say hi to some people you meet while you're there. You probably won't develop a deep friendship with them, but you will have a real, face-to-face human interaction. Living away from the internet can now only be done intentionally. It can be done, though, but it's not the automatic choice. It's not even difficult ... it's just "manual." You must always think about what you want to do and how you want to do it. It's a skill that will come back to you. Or, if the author never learned it, a skill he still has a chance to learn. What we've lost is getting to feel like you're connected to a common culture. This is a big, big loss, but it is not everything. The tools you need to escape are all around you. Power off your devices. Get some books at your local library. Try leaving your devices off all weekend, even when you get anxious, and bored, and your brain cries out for the easy, automatic stimulation it's become so accustomed to. Lay in bed and stare at the ceiling until your brain creates interesting thoughts out of your boredom. It's possible.

matltc 3mo ago
Well idk if the author is actually geohot but if it is then look him up. Famous hacker from cmu ppp, I think he was first to jailbreak iPhone 4
- dgellow 3mo ago
  Yes it’s geohot’s blog. He’s also active on HN from time to time
- everdrive 3mo ago
  Ah, sorry, I wasn't familiar with him. Looks like he was born in 1989, and so is not so young. I'm a bit baffled to hear that he doesn't think he can escape his smartphone given that he was resourceful enough to jailbreak an iPhone 4 back in the day. I understand he's speaking poetically and emotionally. Maybe he just means he has the knowledge but not the means.
  - ozozozd 3mo ago
    I think he is longing for the “old web” or “small web” as some refer to as these days.
  - eightysixfour 3mo ago
    I am a similar age to Geohot and I have tried to escape smartphones to a dumb phone. It didn’t work. So many things that used to work without a smartphone don’t anymore and people don’t realize it. • Surface parking in my city is all by QR code. Where there are machines, they are broken because no one cares. • Social groups are on iMessage or RCS. RCS is not nearly as backwards compatible with MMS as it seems and you WILL get dropped silently, eventually. • Some restaurants literally don’t have print menus (they’re expensive! QR codes are cheap!). • Rideshare, bike rentals, etc. are all dependent on apps. Taxis are not reliable or available. The list of tiny cuts goes on and on. When you have a smartphone you don’t realize the affordances that made it possible to be without them are disappearing. I’m sure you can do it in a smaller place but you have to be dedicated and willing to suffer in a city.
    - swiftcoder 3mo ago
      Similar age as well, and damn, if I could actually convince my bank to let me approve transactions with a dumbphone... The reality is just that a significant part of the modern world is contingent on carrying around a brand-name smartphone
      - sillyfluke 3mo ago
        Now imagine how poor people stress if their smartphone bricks or gets damaged or lost. Or if they're homeless, in which case the likelihood of their possesions getting damaged is probably much higher. It's weird that people are sleepwalking into this single point-of-failure dystopia instead of regulating it out existence and only realize it when their phone gets damaged or lost or is glitching in some deal-breaking way. Here's a tip, if you want people to help you out don't start with, "I don't have an smartphone..." Instead, say a variation of "Hey, my camera's broken/the app keeps crashing on my phone. Can you help me out?" People tend to be a lot more sympathetic. I've never had issues with the restaurant QR thing. me:"Hey, my camera doesn't work can you help me out?" waiter: "Sure you can take a look on my phone/use this tablet." Like, I have to fix my phone's camera before I can park in your city? are you kidding me?
ambicapter 3mo ago
He's not very young, he just acts that way.
jrm4 3mo ago
So, I'm a college instructor, and sometimes I find myself reading a paper that I dislike -- and as I get into it I'm finding that I'm mentally arguing with the content and the actual argument(s) (as opposed to "quality of writing") and that's when I realize this person should get a good grade. This is like that for me; he sounds kind of annoying, but as they say, points were made.
NetMageSCW 3mo ago
>This has been a solved problem for a long time: you look up the movie times and such prior to departing for the movies. No smartphone needed. Strangely, not everyone is at home when they decide to go to the movies.
- everdrive 3mo ago
  Well, I guess our only choice is to own an expensive corporate surveillance device. There's no other option. The ancient polynesians managed to learn to navigate huge, open seas by memorizing the stars. The ancient Greeks managed to measure the size of the sun with trigonometry and grit alone. We've mapped the genome and soon we may even cure inherited illnesses, or bring extinct species back to live. But I hear you. What if I wanted to know what movies were playing, but I was already at a restaurant? What could I possibly do? The only answer is a smart phone. There's no choice, and no escape.
  - Maxatar 3mo ago
    You're kind of being a dick now.
    - everdrive 3mo ago
      I'm just so frustrated by how quickly and easily people give in to these things. People face relatively small inconveniences and quickly give away their rights. Smart phones and social media (in large part, enabled by always-on, always-present smart phones) have so, so many negatives effects and people won't even consider moving on. "It's hard to find parking" or "some restaurants are now inconvenient to eat at" are measured next to "the suicide rate of teen girls is spiking" and "we've enabled government tracking and surveillance on a scale never before thought possible." I don't know how else to be. People are so obsessed with immediate impulse satisfaction and immediate comfort that they'd give up anything. I think if you offered to remove someone's right to vote, but told them they would be able to gamble for free once a month you'd lose half the votes in the country.
      - 3mo ago

matltc 3mo ago

Well idk if the author is actually geohot but if it is then look him up. Famous hacker from cmu ppp, I think he was first to jailbreak iPhone 4

dgellow 3mo ago
Yes it’s geohot’s blog. He’s also active on HN from time to time
everdrive 3mo ago
Ah, sorry, I wasn't familiar with him. Looks like he was born in 1989, and so is not so young. I'm a bit baffled to hear that he doesn't think he can escape his smartphone given that he was resourceful enough to jailbreak an iPhone 4 back in the day. I understand he's speaking poetically and emotionally. Maybe he just means he has the knowledge but not the means.
- ozozozd 3mo ago
  I think he is longing for the “old web” or “small web” as some refer to as these days.
- eightysixfour 3mo ago
  I am a similar age to Geohot and I have tried to escape smartphones to a dumb phone. It didn’t work. So many things that used to work without a smartphone don’t anymore and people don’t realize it. • Surface parking in my city is all by QR code. Where there are machines, they are broken because no one cares. • Social groups are on iMessage or RCS. RCS is not nearly as backwards compatible with MMS as it seems and you WILL get dropped silently, eventually. • Some restaurants literally don’t have print menus (they’re expensive! QR codes are cheap!). • Rideshare, bike rentals, etc. are all dependent on apps. Taxis are not reliable or available. The list of tiny cuts goes on and on. When you have a smartphone you don’t realize the affordances that made it possible to be without them are disappearing. I’m sure you can do it in a smaller place but you have to be dedicated and willing to suffer in a city.
  - swiftcoder 3mo ago
    Similar age as well, and damn, if I could actually convince my bank to let me approve transactions with a dumbphone... The reality is just that a significant part of the modern world is contingent on carrying around a brand-name smartphone
    - sillyfluke 3mo ago
      Now imagine how poor people stress if their smartphone bricks or gets damaged or lost. Or if they're homeless, in which case the likelihood of their possesions getting damaged is probably much higher. It's weird that people are sleepwalking into this single point-of-failure dystopia instead of regulating it out existence and only realize it when their phone gets damaged or lost or is glitching in some deal-breaking way. Here's a tip, if you want people to help you out don't start with, "I don't have an smartphone..." Instead, say a variation of "Hey, my camera's broken/the app keeps crashing on my phone. Can you help me out?" People tend to be a lot more sympathetic. I've never had issues with the restaurant QR thing. me:"Hey, my camera doesn't work can you help me out?" waiter: "Sure you can take a look on my phone/use this tablet." Like, I have to fix my phone's camera before I can park in your city? are you kidding me?

ambicapter 3mo ago

He's not very young, he just acts that way.

jrm4 3mo ago

So, I'm a college instructor, and sometimes I find myself reading a paper that I dislike -- and as I get into it I'm finding that I'm mentally arguing with the content and the actual argument(s) (as opposed to "quality of writing") and that's when I realize this person should get a good grade. This is like that for me; he sounds kind of annoying, but as they say, points were made.

NetMageSCW 3mo ago

>This has been a solved problem for a long time: you look up the movie times and such prior to departing for the movies. No smartphone needed. Strangely, not everyone is at home when they decide to go to the movies.

everdrive 3mo ago
Well, I guess our only choice is to own an expensive corporate surveillance device. There's no other option. The ancient polynesians managed to learn to navigate huge, open seas by memorizing the stars. The ancient Greeks managed to measure the size of the sun with trigonometry and grit alone. We've mapped the genome and soon we may even cure inherited illnesses, or bring extinct species back to live. But I hear you. What if I wanted to know what movies were playing, but I was already at a restaurant? What could I possibly do? The only answer is a smart phone. There's no choice, and no escape.
- Maxatar 3mo ago
  You're kind of being a dick now.
  - everdrive 3mo ago
    I'm just so frustrated by how quickly and easily people give in to these things. People face relatively small inconveniences and quickly give away their rights. Smart phones and social media (in large part, enabled by always-on, always-present smart phones) have so, so many negatives effects and people won't even consider moving on. "It's hard to find parking" or "some restaurants are now inconvenient to eat at" are measured next to "the suicide rate of teen girls is spiking" and "we've enabled government tracking and surveillance on a scale never before thought possible." I don't know how else to be. People are so obsessed with immediate impulse satisfaction and immediate comfort that they'd give up anything. I think if you offered to remove someone's right to vote, but told them they would be able to gamble for free once a month you'd lose half the votes in the country.
    - 3mo ago