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Comment by sukuriant | Hacker News Reader

Ever tried working in BigCo since they've been a part of the world for any extended period of time?

I only know one person that successfully lived without a cell phone in the modern world for a while.

I live in the South Bay. I do not have a cell phone. I'm a full stack engineer at a startup that's raised series A--not some grumpy "Get off of my lawn!" grandpa.

What urgency is there to need a cellphone for, in most routine days? Sure, it would suck if something horrible happened to a member of my family and I couldn't be contacted until I got home, oh maybe 4 hours later. Short of some such edge case scenarios, "it can wait".

My car broke down earlier today and I had to call AAA. Glad I didn't have to get out of my car to contact somebody.

This would have been a routine day if I hadn't broke down.

Bet you don't own a TV either.

Carry a 2M HT and hit the local repeater when you break down. Give them your position and they'll call a tow truck for you.

This is why I come here, for the practical solutions to problems.

Could you elaborate on this a bit more? What's a local repeater? How do I 'hit it', so to speak, etc?

I don't drive :).

I do not own a TV proper. I own a Sony HMZ-T1 instead.

I'm a Software Engineer in a company with 500 employees, and I have not had a cell phone for > 7 yeas.

Granted, I live in a town of only 40k people, though I previously lived in a city of 1.5Mil, and before that 3Mil, both without a cell.

It's extremely liberating.

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