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ButlerianJihadtoday at 9:52 AM0 repliesview on HN

You know, it's very strange; during a normal week I may go "out and about" a lot during the day, even though I'm not employed, and I just go do errands or shopping. And I'm out in public carrying my phone. Now I may be 100% available to answer phone calls, whether I'm sitting on the bus, walking down the sidewalk, sitting in a clinic waiting room or a restaurant.

But I am definitely not 100% available to talk to you. Especially if you're a billing department, medical office, or some business that wants me to both authenticate my PII and then talk about some personal, financial/medical matter. That is not a conversation for public space. That is a conversation I must have in the privacy of my home (and with access to my computer for files!)

So that is why we used to have phone booths. I don't own a car, which is essentially a large, privately-owned, mobile phone booth. Sadly, because pay-phones went away, privacy booths naturally died with them. Dr. Who understood. But Pacific Bell didn't!

So just because you can reach me, and I can reach you, doesn't for a minute mean that it's an opportune time to talk.