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Comment by softwarelimits | Hacker News Reader

I live without a refrigerator. It works.

Probably most people do not need that thing, too.

It seems to be a cult object of prosperity.

It just happened a few years ago while travelling a lot (by train), but then I found that idea interesting and never bought one, just to see if I "can do it" without.

After a few years I do not even know what I would store in a refrigerator.

Yes, of course, I am living in a city, with everything I need in markets around me, but it really just takes a little bit of planning and thinking to not need that thing even in remote places, I did that, it worked.

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Each year I purchase a half-share in a CSA[1], which means that each Thursday from May to October I go to a local farm and pick up a wealth of fresh vegetables. By the next Wednesday, some of the vegetables are visibly starting to deteriorate, and that's with refrigeration. Most of the time I finish all my vegetables during the week, but if I didn't refrigerate, I'd be throwing away a lot of food.

Perhaps I'm conforming to a cult of prosperity. Or perhaps I'm supporting local business, helping the environment by reducing food transportation, eating healthily, eating good food, and meeting local people with similar interests.

I think there's a tendency people have, especially prevalent on Hacker News, to do something unusual and cool, and then assume everyone else isn't doing it because they're stupid/conformist/etc. It's great to do something off the beaten path, but don't go that extra step and start making assumptions about people.

I'll also add that in the past, I've lived in some poor neighborhoods, and even very poor people who certainly aren't in any "cult of prosperity" in the US usually have refrigerators. I think this has more to do with the cost savings associated with buying bulk food than to do with any "cult of prosperity".

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community-supported_agricultur...

I'm assuming you live in a country that's relatively colder.

Because where I live, food gets spoiled in hours without refrigeration and living without cold water/beverages/ice seems downright tortuous.

I've been living without a fridge for a few months too. It sucks. My eggs keep far longer in the fridge. I can keep leftovers, but only in a closed, sterile pot on the stove. Even sliced prosciutto starts to smell funny after a week. I got some Roquefort the other week that started growing black mold within two days after I bought it; I had to throw a corner of it out. I have a lot of canned food now, but it's more expensive and tastes worse.

I assume you don't do much cooking of your own.

I am using fridge for fish, meat and dairy products like raw fish and meat, sausages, cooked ham or fresh milk, cheese, cottage cheese etc.

Also to keep salad and vegetables longer fresh.

Can you describe in more detail how you are coming around of this?

I don't even know what to say about a comment like this. I take it you have loads of time and/or money or live off bread and nuts?

there's plenty of ways to store things without refrigerating them. you can keep meats and other things for a long time without refrigeration.. using for example salt.

That would be such an insane amount of effort to go through to replace a fridge.

Maybe they only got a freezer?

> It seems to be a cult object of prosperity

These sorts of strange delusional comments, followed up by a claim that they can’t understand normal perspectives on things like “what would you do with a fridge”, are surprisingly common on HN. I have no idea what sort of thinking goes into a comment like this, but I suspect it’s sort of role play where they imagine the world would be such a great place if only everybody else also prescribed to their fringe view on fridges.

On the other hand it’s always worth questioning these things as what everybody else finds normal might just have been effective marketing by someone with something gain.

Well, the normality of fridge usage (in developed countries) can’t really be called into question, regardless of how it got that way. But this idea that somebody who’s chosen to live without a fridge can’t understand why somebody could possible want to have one is just completely disingenuous, and honestly it’s a form of rhetoric that’s unsettlingly common here.

I'm not agreeing with software limits comment, neither do I agree with your reaction to it. Clearly modern fridge usage can be called into question, that's what this whole discussion is about. Binary responses aren't interesting, there is a continuum that can be explored.

I mean, if words aren’t going to have defined meanings anymore, then I guess you can question anything. But the Oxford definition of normal is:

> conforming to a standard; usual, typical, or expected.

Having a fridge is entirely normal, and to claim otherwise would require quite an extraordinary justification.

If you wanted to question whether people really need them, that would be a much more reasonable line of inquiry. But for anybody posting here to claim that they cannot understand why people would want to have one is frankly not believable.

But for anybody posting here to claim that they cannot understand why people would want to have one is frankly not believable.

Where did I say that?

they just turn the AC way down in their apartment

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