I'm in the process of moving, and during the application process, they require verification, which is fair.

They don't want some robot or weirdo moving in.

So I use my minimal phone, which is an e-paper phone that I love.

I'm able to take a picture of my driver's license just fine.

However, I then run into a snag.

Turns out the website is only accessible via mobile, and their mobile site for verification assumes the dimensions are of a long-ass rectangle phone.

You know, the average one that everyone has?

Me, with my minimal phone that's, I don't know, 25%, 30% shorter, literally cannot continue the application because I can't press the button to go forward.

No, desktop mode does not work because they just throw you a QR code so you can continue on a phone.

You cannot do this on a regular computer.

Because I don't want a basic bitch smartphone and get tempted by all this app bullshit, I could not continue my application to move out.

This is why I still have my old phone for using it as a camera and for situations like this, and this sucks.

I would love to just have a more modest phone and be able to do anything I want with it.

If I need to do something a little bit more involved, then I'm able to do it on a computer.

But no, you need to have a smartphone to fucking live these days, and that's horrible.

I lean towards being a digital minimalist, but I also live in reality.

▵ For anyone who wants to dumb down their life in terms of their phones or internet connectivity, I recommend that you have a spare smart device available.

▵ Maybe an old phone or a tablet or something that can connect to the internet, just in case some service stupidly assumes that you have a basic bitch phone and locks functionality behind the screen ratio of those kinds of devices.

I pulled out my old phone, did the picture thing, and oh, wow, the button is in view of the screen now.

Amazing.

I was able to apply to this apartment simply because I kept my old phone.

If I did not have my old phone or any tablets or anything, I couldn't move.

I don't like that shit.

I really don't.

I worry the world will never go back to a time when we can just do general things without owning a smartphone.

People look at me fucking crazy when I ask for a paper menu at certain restaurants these days.

Even if I have my phone on me, sometimes I'll say, "Yeah, I don't have my phone" because my phone is just an e-paper screen, black and white, so it's hard for me to order well.

They're like, "Uuuuuh, uuuuuh," and then they go in the back and look for something.

Sometimes they don't even have a paper menu.

They have a fucking tablet, and they hand me that instead.

▵ If you want to minimalize your tech life, just have a backup.

Otherwise, you may be fucked because the world doesn't want you to disconnect.

By the way, here's a logo for my new course coming soon: the Sane Tech Workers OS.

I like to think of it as an anti-burnout system for tech workers.

In it, I go through literally everything I do to make sure that I don't hate my life having a job in tech.

I'm able to disconnect at the end of the day and during weekends.

Stay tuned.

Till next time,

Kevin Tejada