Comment by tokyodude | Hacker News Reader

Comment by tokyodude | Hacker News Reader

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When I arrive at the airport I use my phone for maps, my travel info, my contacts, my reservations, busses, trains, taxis, uber, messages with people I'm coordinating with, my travel notes, etc...

Or are you suggesting I should camp out in the airport for a few hours to restore my phone before I can figure out where I'm going and get ahold of my contacts?

Oh let me guess. Your solution so to print those contacts and maps (oh, no GPS to figure out where I am on that map) and use a pay phone (because I still need to re-install the apps I'd normally be using to contact people). Heck, I don't actually have phone numbers for > 90% of my friends. I just have them on Facebook, Line, WhatsApp. The only people I have phone numbers for are for people who've been friends longer than about 15 years, in other words before messaging

Maybe I’m just too old or unimaginative, but none of these objections seem like serious showstoppers to me. This is straying far from the original topic but now I’m curious: How would you survive if you were to accidentally lose your phone while traveling, or if it got stolen? One can (and should) be capable of being a functioning adult without a cell phone.

This discussion is about taking a phone with you while travelling and be secure from border searches. Sure, you can leave the home but this is not the point of the discussion.

Why is this about survival? My commute to work is 20 miles. I drive because it's convenient, quick, and practical. I would survive without a car. I could walk for 6+ hours, work for 8 hours (snacking while I work), and then walk another 6+ hours back home. Or I could pitch a tent in my office parking lot and just live out of it during the week. It would be shitty survival, but doable, right?

It's absolutely possible traveling without a smartphone. I've done it plenty of times before smartphones became a thing. But smartphones make it so much easier.

These are all problems you have created by over-dependance on a single point of failure.

It's honestly kind of lazy not to take precautions, particularly when it's that easy - you've already listed out exactly what I'd suggest, and it's how people muddled along for decades in the before-times, more or less successfully.

I would suggest learning how to read maps. It's really easy, especially in urban areas. Find the nearest intersection, and look where it is on the map. There you are.

What a condescending comment.

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