The article is about using your phone in airplane mode for 100 days...

The article is broken into three primary sections:

- Social media minimalism

- Cell data minimalism

- Web minimalism

What you say is true about the 2nd section, but the comment you are replying to is referencing the 1st section which states, in part:

"I did not leave X the platform, but I did leave X the interface. Instead, I have been doing most of my tweeting through Firefly:

Firefly is a multi-client that combines together X, BlueSky as well as Farcaster and Lens (both partially-Ethereum-based decentralized social media platforms)."

wifi was still enabled, so internet access remained, and also used a number of wifi hot spots when not at home

having a phone with "flip to shhh" (put it face down, notifications are silenced) is really nice

That experiment also felt more cute than actually minimalist to me.

When I decided to take a break from being terminally online, I didn’t turn off the phone feature but leave Wi-Fi on so I could still check my socials on the office Wi-Fi; that wouldn’t have actually done much. I forced my phone off the bulk of the internet by turning off Wi-Fi and disabling cellular data for everything but a few core apps like Messages and Maps.

I agree with you, but this is probably not true for Vitalik, who is basically an influencer. We should all close our computers and spend our time in nature and reading books, but this does limit our outreach possibilities significantly.

"Vitalik as basically an influencer" is kind of a wild take, like maybe saying Linus Torvalds is an influencer.

Love or hate it, he invented the 2nd -- maybe even the 1st -- most impactful form of cryptocurrency.

You can leave Twitter and not read a book.

Twister is a cancer that doesn't need replacement.

I was a heavy Twitter user since its early years. 6-7 years ago I started trying to cut back on it because it was just consuming too much of my time, which was impacting me negatively, but found it really hard--it's addictive.

When Elon took it over I decided to go cold turkey and delete my account altogether so I couldn't go back. Best decision ever. I have twinges where I miss it, but I'm much better off without it.

I had already deleted my FB account about 12 years ago when I realized it wasn't making me happy. I still have IG which was great years ago (see your feed and then it stops when you've caught up), but I dislike what it's become (ad/promoted accounts infested). I still use it to share pics with friends/family and see but I use Screen Time (iPhone) to limit it to 20 min a day, and I had someone else set the screen time code so I can't just extend it. Works well and keeps me in check.

Thankfully HN doesn't have the same social media hooks so it's easier to keep in check. A couple of years ago I made some comment that dang didn't like and got my posts limited (max 5 within 12 hours, I think). It bothered me for a while, but now I'm actually happy because it acts as a limiting factor, so I wouldn't even ask for it to be lifted.