Your comment reminds me of this anecdote:

> "What I've noticed from users is that a windows user will blame the computer every time even if it is their own mistake, and an apple user will blame themselves every time even if the hardware failed.

> "Apple users know they have the Fancy Name Brand that Cool People(TM) use, so they have multiple levels of psychological aversion to blaming it for anything. They would be less cool by extension. And the brand image doesn't place any value on being capable of using "regular" technology, so they take no hit to their hipster image by blaming themselves.

> "It is really the same as any other name brand item. If a person buys name brand jeans and they tear, they're going to blame themselves for not taking better care of something expensive. Another person who buys a different brand gets mad that it didn't last longer because they only tried to use it in the "normal" way. If they blame it for anything, even its own real failings, then they lose the snob value."

The interpretation of said anecdote as it applies to your situation is left as an exercise to the reader.

In point of fact, it's a blatant lie. Not a shred of truth to it. 90% of Americans happy with their lives? LOL. "Step away from the crack pipe."

People are so happy to be alive they are at each other's throats daily over any one of millions of political disagreements.

People are so happy they are checking out by the millions via drug overdoses and suicide.

Close to 10% of the entire nation is in prison. Most of those work in sweat shops for big corporations at 50 cents an hour. I bet they're thrilled to be alive also.

We're told unemployment is 2.7%, but when we calculate the numbers ourselves using the exact same methodology as the U.S. government used during the previous Great Depression, we find they have somehow misplaced a decimal point--and that unemployment now is in fact worse than it was in the 1930s.

Which is obvious, to those of us who have eyes to see and ears to hear of all the "I hurt muh back" types roaming about the land, "getting a check", with no gainful employment to speak of.

Anyone who doesn't believe me can go calculate the numbers themselves; but most won't.

What about all of those people screaming about lack of health care, racism, etc; all roses and butterflies in the USA, amirite?

Definitely no major shootouts going on between gangs in Baltimore and Detroit right now. No mile after mile of economic devastation, bombed out neighborhoods as far as the eye can see. Yet another example of the zen garden of bliss that is the USA, with 90% of everyone happy as can be.

Tent cities full of homeless, as far as the eye can see, in major and increasingly even minor cities across the land?

Must I really continue???

The USA, much like the rest of the entire world, is controlled by lying psychopaths. And you're complicit.

You will find that people who have such similar faces also tend to think and act similarly also. Not a coincidence.

Like junk mail, to name another easy example. I complained about all the junk mail one time at the postal counter, and the woman replied, quote, "You call it junk mail; we call it job security."

(Which is exactly why I no longer have a mailbox, either; just a PO box that I check once in a while. I refuse to waste away my precious life dealing with such bullshit.)

Tells you everything you need to know right there about the entire society, really. The rot is everywhere. Which is why increasingly the only sane option is to Opt Out from the madness entirely.

Life is much more peaceful on this side of the fence.

I remember playing Leisure Suit Larry back in the day. I think it was episode 2 or 3, where at the end of the game the story goes that Larry has retired to his "programmer's shack" out on a lake in the wilderness, to write the next LSL game.

I remember being struck by the beauty of that scene--the idea of being out in a shack on a lake, alone in the wilderness, nothing but me and the compiler. The "escaping from the world" aspect seems to have been a large part of the allure, especially as a kid, dreaming about not having to wake up early and go to that sorry ass school in the morning. No more society and its constant demands and burdens. Just living, in peace and contentment.

Today I am blessed to also have my own "programmer's shack" on a lake out in the wilderness, with nothing but me and the compiler and time.

I'll take this life over a $500k Silly-Con Valley rat race job any day of the week. And indeed, the very reason I'm here today is because that's the choice I made, period.

People have a lot more control over their lives than they allow themselves to believe. Where they inevitably end up is a result of their choices and actions. As time goes on, more and more will see the wisdom of unplugging and dropping out of this insane society. It's no big loss. In time we'll start our own new and better society.

All this sounds good in theory, yet here I am on my second account after the first one 6 weeks ago was shadowbanned in less than 15 posts, simply for expressing my honestly held and well researched opinions.

Meanwhile I'm all the time seeing you on here busting various people's balls for the most ridiculous and trivial of things.

The person you replied to just now, while it's true that I don't agree with their comment (obviously they're wrong) they certainly ought to have the right to express their opinion. And the community as a whole has a right to see that opinion be expressed, to see the opinion itself and see the responses to it, so they can judge for themselves what is or is not the truth, without having a Nanny State/Government picking apart and criticizing every word someone writes.

You really need to lay off the bondage-and-discipline mod mentality. You're driving away good people from this site. Who the hell wants to stay in a place where they are constantly being nagged and harassed and even shadowbanned (one of the cruelest things that can be done to an online forum member) simply for having opinions? What is it about you personally that makes you so qualified to treat people this way?

Here's the reality: the electronic voting systems are being put in place because they are so easily hackable.

> 'it sends a real signal to steer clear.'

I'm sure the feeling is mutual. Or at least I hope that it is.

You are a Nazi. Plain and simple. I know it's not nice to hear such a thing, but it's true. Someone should have mentioned this to you long ago. There could have been much pain and hurt and suffering avoided, had you only known that your actions are destroying people's lives. I assume many posters are too intimidated and are afraid of being banned, to speak truth to your power. That's not me. I simply don't care, and will speak the truth to your face regardless.

Here it goes:

Are you the one who shadow banned my last account?

This is my second HN account. Honestly. The first one was a few months ago (account name 'shiftless'), when in my extraordinary 36-year-old graybeard naivete, I thought it might be a good idea to join this forum, to participate in discussions with fellow computer enthusiasts.

There are many intelligent and wise people here, and many great discussions. Being that I have been living as a hermit for the better part of a decade, it would be nice to have for the first time in a long while people to talk and discuss with, to learn from and to teach.

I invite you to read through the history of my comments, on this profile and the last, and honestly tell me with a straight face that I am a worthless person, that my comments are useless, that I need to be lectured, talked down to, etc like you're doing to this guy, or that I deserve to be shadow banned--my comments silently consigned to oblivion with no notification--simply for speaking my mind.

Yes, my opinions are strongly held, but they are never ignorantly so; everything I know and believe is thoroughly researched and I can argue my position on any subject. Rarely have I been given a chance to do so on this forum. Actually, the posters here are quick to downvote, to flag, to run screaming to the Nazi mods to please hurt this mean evil person who posted a comment I didn't like. You created that culture. The fish rots from the head down.

The harm you are doing to the community with your Nazi Germany style "moderation" is incalculable. The word "moderate" used to mean "moderation", but there is nothing moderate about your actions. There's no telling how many great people you've driven away from this site through this bullshit. It needs to stop, immediately.

Are you planning to shadowban this account as well? If that's the case then I will never, ever post here or read this site again.

For the record, this is my second ever account on HN. The first account was a few months ago. It was shadowbanned within 15 posts. Simply for expressing my opinion.

Likewise, what firmware is running on that phone's baseband chip?

Your plans aren't foolproof, but you're on the right path.

Tons of assumptions packed into your post here, all of which are incorrect due to your own lack of perspective.

Let me put this into perspective for you.

So that you can better understand the totally warped and ridiculous mindset of antisocial, contemptible extremists like me, try this little experiment: Give up your phone for 90 days. All phones. Totally and completely. Use email and snail mail only for communication. Or even IM, if you like; you don't have to go "whole hog" like me and not even have internet at the house. Just dip your toes in the water. Use a desktop or laptop for your computing needs, and leave the toy in the drawer.

There are many ways you could go about justifying this to your shocked and horrified colleagues and family members, limited by your own imagination; the best way from a scientific standpoint (to conduct a study and learn from it) would be to example pretend to be a person like me, who has decided to do this because of very legitimate reasons concerning security, privacy, etc, perhaps leaving off the part about the unwanted intrusion of society's selfish demands on one's own personal health and well being, of course, so as not to offend anyone.

(You don't want to offend anyone, right? Neither did I.)

You could say that you're doing it as an experiment for a limited time. Whatever suits your personality and temperament, while preserving whatever modicum of social standing that you hold so dear. The point is, just do it. Step into my shoes for a time, if only briefly, just to see what it's like.

Here is what you will learn:

* Yes, there are annoyance and inconveniences involved with not having a phone. They're pretty small, actually, for the most part. By far the biggest difficulty lies in dealing with other people's bullshit.

* In some people's minds, you will immediately and instantly because the biggest asshole on the planet, a totally selfish person in their viewpoint, just because they can no longer text or call you up on a moment's notice, but instead have to email and wait (sometimes an entire day!) for a reply.

* This is even despite the fact that you actually went out of your way to make it easier for them to contact you via alternate means, knowing that it would be something of an inconvenience to them, and wanting to mitigate that as much as possible. No appreciation will be shown for your efforts.

* Further reflection on the above points will demonstrate just what a low place you must have really occupied in such people's esteem, if this rather small inconvenience to them is really enough to turn people against you. This is one of many fascinating unanticipated insights into the mind and heart of humanity which you'll glean by following the road less traveled.

* Some people will instantly understand why you are doing this. To them, no explanation is needed. In many cases you will find there are others who quietly would like to do the same, but feel afraid to do so, because of social pressure. Or sometimes they will secretly think you're a nutcase, but yet will express solidarity to appear polite, while quietly judging you. And also assuming that you don't understand that they are pretending to express solidarity while quietly judging you.

* Some never will understand. They will refuse to understand, badgering you with ten thousand questions like "What? You don't have a phone? Why don't you have a phone? How can you not have a phone? What if there's an emergency? What if [...]? How is this possible? How can you even breathe?" etc.

* In many cases people will hardly be able to hide their contempt of you, and may even go out of their way to purposely make your life difficult--as if the real reason you don't have a phone was to purposely make their life difficult.

* Such people will have this greatly exaggerated bias against you, as if you have placed this enormous unwanted burden on their shoulders by simple virtue of the fact they have to exercise a little forethought and patience when attempting to contact you for whatever reason, selfish or unselfish; which (in the case of such people) you'll find generally leans much more toward the 'selfish' end of the spectrum.

* Some of the people in question may even be your own close family members--like your mother or father. These are always the saddest revelations.

* Needless to say, any burdens that legitimately but accidentally fall on others as a consequence of your attempt to live a different, better life will be blamed entirely on you, even if they have nothing to do with you and are in fact a perfect example of just what you were trying to escape from--such as the example of the mother who can no longer call her son since he doesn't have a phone, and she Just Doesn't Understand so she just calls his girlfriend instead, and he gets the blame.

* The very fact that you "think you're better than everyone else" by living a different life than the herd will be held against you.

* One previously bad thing that's been changing, is when you are asked for your phone number at any one of these thousands of places that want it so they can datamine you, in the checkout line or wherever, and you tell them simply, "I don't have a phone", people are now more likely to assume you really do have one but just don't want to give them the number--which has less of a negative connotations than their previous (idiotic) assumption that you're just too poor to pay the bill or whatever.

Those are many of the "bad" examples of things you experience by going "off the grid." I won't even bother getting into all of the good stuff, like the peace, quiet, and contentment, improved mental and physical health, etc. All of that goes without saying, really. None of that is a surprise. It's the above that will surprise you, bother you, and change your outlook, when you see from an outside perspective just how totally selfish this society really is.

Stating that you are, quote, "seeking its demise", is the very definition of intolerance.

> 'Nothing above is even "disparaging", even that fairy tale remark. It's not disparaging to state that, without good evidence, you believe fantastic stories from thousands of years ago to be fairy tails.'

This is the very definition of disparagement.

If I were to refer to your atheistic beliefs as 'the ignorance of children, raised by a wicked society that is under the influence of psychopathic demons', would you view that as disparaging? Of course you would.

The difference between that way of viewing things and your way of viewing things is simply a matter of perspective. The difference is, one viewpoint is based on knowledge, whereas the other is based in ignorance.

Source: I used to be an atheist also. As a teenager. In the Bible Belt.

I'm sure he would be perfectly fine with her not calling at all, and just speaking with her the next time he sees her, the way 95% of humans on the planet are perfectly capable of doing. But she chooses to not respect his very wise and very reasonable mode of living, and you choose to see that as being his fault somehow.

But I haven't imposed anything on anyone. It's society--or rather, a certain loud, vocal, and extremely selfish segment of society--which is attempting to impose something on me.

It speaks volumes about the mentality of such people that they somehow think I'm imposing on them, because they're 'forced' to think and plan ahead a little bit if/when they desire to contact me, rather than me being instantly available at their beck and call 24/7/365.

> 'they're constantly relying and leaching from others. That can be annoying, and people tend to not like annoying people?'

Exactly my reasoning for purposely disconnecting from those who always have to be joined at the hip with their digital devices 24/7/365, and who insist that I need to be also, for their convenience.

You mean the 'cost of interrupting other people while they are in the middle of living their lives' is near zero. On the other side of the coin, the cost of being constantly interrupted by beeping, buzzing, ringing, and jingling of every asshole in the county who calls/text on a moment's whim, and gets annoyed/offended when I don't instantly respond, is not zero.

Likewise, the cost of being constantly surveilled by intelligence agencies and evil corporations is definitely nowhere near zero.

I live completely off the grid. Far from giving a fuck about how offended/inconvenienced others are by my lifestyle, I purposely disconnected from all of those people. Life for me is much better now.

> It's not just about traveling. It's just one of the components. This guy was a teacher, musician, maker and now DL expert. And it doesn't seem like he is settled on that yet. He is still exploring what he wants to do. Changes his life to match his interests. I lived some of my life like that. Took some non standard paths. But it is getting increasingly hard for me to do this. Not because there aren't opportunities for me, but because it's getting unjustifiable to "society".

> And I know the usual line about "who cares what others think" in the west. Although it's logical in the west its not so in South Asia. Even if you don't care, your parents will and you will care for your parents. So it's inescapable. By Western standards I should be a totally free person, I am not married, don't have any debt, a high earning job which I'm bored by only 50% of the time. But these same things trap me. Single status leads to public derision in social gatherings (also friends get married and it becomes increasingly hard to be the only single guy in the group), my insistence on not taking on any debt means I live in a small rented apartment which it hard to be accepted in the society around me, a high earning job means I can never just quit because then I will have no social support due to it being a bad decision.

> As I write this, my (admittedly limited) understanding of how Western society works makes me think these would not be problems but my biggest assets.

Let me just say first that your instincts are completely true and correct, and are leading you in the right direction. Trust them. Those peers you reference (the big spenders with credit cards) are going down a path that will end in disaster for them. If only they could be half as wise as you!

Are you tempted to become one of the hikikomori? I read a comment by a young Japanese man the other day which was incredibly insightful. He compared the hikikomori to Buddhist monks who disappear from public view for years, for the purpose of self introspection and refinement of themselves. He felt these two phenomenon are intricately linked. I made the same observation also. He thought that (paraphrasing) 999 out of 1000 of these people maybe weren't much use to anyone, but 1 out of 1000 just may be the savior of the nation. I cannot overemphasize how strongly I agree with this sentiment.

Ask yourself, why is there such a phenomenon of the hikikomori? Why are Japanese businessmen working and drinking themselves to death? What larger purpose does this server? Why is there so much pain and suicide and other terrible things in your nation? Why do you, personally, feel such an urge to roam? What are you searching for, exactly? All of these things have their explanation. It's important to investigate these things and understand them.

Also, what do you think will be the long term effects of things like Fukushima, to name a very large but hardly-acknowledged elephant in the room? Do you know that the radioactive material, with all of that water flowing over it daily, is located directly above a major aquifer that supplies Tokyo with its water? These things need to be studied and fully understood also.

You said you don't understand Western civilization, but you are very fortunate because I understand it better than most. Western "civilization" consists of several hundred million children who play-act that they are adults, when in reality they are children who have absolutely no idea what they're doing, or where they're going, or the total disaster that awaits them.

Western "civilization" for example extracts resources from the ground and wastes them at an appalling rate. Its hunger for resources is enormous and ever-growing.

Western "civilization" is controlled by literal psychopaths, people with no emotion, no heart, no soul; their leader is called Lucifer, "the light bringer" as he sees himself. His system is based on endless war around the world 24/7/365, to support said extreme rate of resource consumption and depletion, with the vast majority of the benefits going to the top echelon while the serfs fight over crumbs.

Western "civilization" conquered your nation, subdued it, redesigned your society according to its own vision--explosive growth and endless resource consumption--and for a few decades you "prospered." But then you ran headlong into the inescapable fact that infinite growth on a finite planet is impossible. It's the same wall that the entirety of the West is itself running headlong into, in slow motion; you just ran into it first because you are an island nation with more finite resources than the large continental powers.

This is why in the 1980s your economy crashed and never recovered...while your government continues to everything is OK. In 2008 our economy crashed and never recovered....while our government continues to pretends everything is OK.

I hope you will come to see these "peers" of yours in a new light. They have expensive cars and mortgages, while you live in a humble home and drive a humble vehicle, ride a bike, or walk? You are the true picture of wisdom and humility, and should continue doing exactly as you are doing. You will be rewarded greatly, whereas their lives will end in ruin. You suffer a small amount in the near term, but they will suffer much more in the long term. The truth is they are not your "peers" at all. You were born for higher things.

About your parents, of course their opinion matters, and you are a good son for respecting their opinion. But their knowledge isn't perfect, nor is yours. Here in the USA there are many "baby boomers" (the boom generation after 1945) who just can't understand this mysterious Millenial generation and why they act as they do. They blame the son or daughter, and have no understanding or awareness of larger things. In their mind we are still in the 1960s and they believe everything they see on TV. That's why the real world remains a mystery to them.

Many of that generation are extremely spoiled; I saw a van one time with a vanity license plate on the front, which bragged "I'm spending all my children's inheritance!" Can you imagine a Japanese parent behaving in such a way, selfishly, with no thought to their children's future? Actually the person is spending their children's, grandchildren's, great grandchildren's, etc future, as well as the rest of the world's future, for their own personal self gratification.

What is Western "civilization"? It's extremely sick and corrupt and should not be emulated under any circumstances. That's why your nation desperately needs people such as yourself, such as the hikikomori also, monks, etc who have the personal courage to 'ignore' the demands of society, to remove oneself from its judgment for a time, to devote one's efforts to thought and reflection and learning and wisdom and understanding--all of these things that the masses lack--so that one may become the true leader and instrument of change that your nation so desperately needs.

Your people are counting on you! Don't let them down.

I recommend to study the works of Masanobu Fukuoka, to name an example of one wise Japanese man who had the courage to travel a different road, and was well rewarded for it. His book "One Straw Revolution" is excellent and I feel "The Road Back To Nature" is even better.

There is much more that could be said here, but this post is too long already. I just wanted to reach out to you because nobody really gave you a good answer in that thread, but you deserve one. I hope this post helps you to continue on the right path and not be tempted by the ways of others.

Much love to you and to Japan, my friend, from the land of Dixie!