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Comment by mindslight | Hacker News Reader

When USB power jacks started appearing everywhere, I figured it was just a gimmicky branding thing. Why wouldn't I just use my known AC adapter in a standard receptacle, and be sure that my phone was getting the same power it always charged with. It's very unlikely that building power would be miswired to put say 277V or 460V on a common receptacle, whereas low voltage DC being crappy seemed quite likely. I certainly wouldn't want to screw up my several hundred dollar device, from a basically unaccountable charger, for the savings was taking one thing out of my bag instead of two.

But this is just not the way most people see the world, which is apparently "if it fits, I sticks". I just don't get it - for all of the general conservatism to resist actual change, why is everyone so quick to engage in new behavior that offers no gain?

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The same argument would make you not want to drink water from a public fountain, or eating at a restaurant as opposed to cooking your own food. It's a matter of implicit risk analysis. You need to charge your phone, you see a USB port. What are the odds that it's going to be wired to something other than 5V? If that were the case, what's the worst that can happen? It works out for the vast majority of people.

why is everyone so quick to engage in new behavior that offers no gain?

Phone charges up. Sure seems like a gain.

The phone also charges with your AC charger though, and likely faster. Your gain is merely having to get just a cable out, instead of cable + AC adapter.

And if you're worried about a shortage of outlets, the savvy traveler thing to do is carry a multi-outlet tap and facilitate sharing, which also works at 120/240 and not 5V.

Some places don't provide a power socket I can plug an adapter into. Just the USB socket. Sometimes I'm carrying a phone and a slim cable I don't mind putting in my pocket, but I really don't want to put an AC adapter in my pocket and carry that around with me. Sometimes the AC adapter is in my checked luggage rather than in my pocket. Sometimes my AC adapter is made for a different kind of socket and I don't have a travel adapter for it. Sometimes I don't have a cable or an adapter, but someone lets me use their cable for five minutes. There are a lot more combinations in life than carrying a bag with an AC adapter inside that fits the local plug shape.

And if you're worried about a shortage of outlets the savvy traveler thing to do is carry a multi-outlet tap and facilitate sharing

Carry MORE things? I'm not worried about a shortage of outlets; I just use the USB slot.

I guess you've never experienced a watering hole of people at the only power outlet around? And aren't foreseeing being somewhere without USB jacks but with regular receptacles?

There is a whole bunch of path-dependence in what you've said. I formed my approach a decade ago, primarily in the context of traveling, and haven't seen a benefit to revisiting it.

But surely by the time one is talking about buying special cables with no data lines, but still needing to do power negotiation somehow, maybe it's time to question some recent assumptions!

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