[basisword]

>> If you're over 40, you can remember the days when it was perfectly ordinary to remember the phone numbers for dozens and dozens of people and businesses. These days, we've allowed computers to think and remember for us (hello, Stackoverflow!) so we don't have to. Memory is a normal skill that many people have lost or neglected.

Heck, if you're over 30 you remember this. The problem though is that you remembered those numbers because you dialled them frequently from memory (and, at least in my location, landline numbers were much shorter than cell phone numbers). If you're not doing this on your smartphone you're never going to be able to remember the numbers. e.g. I can remember all of my childhood friends home phone numbers. I can't remember my partners cell phone number.

I recently considered getting an analogue phone book and noting down all the numbers in my smartphone contacts book just in case I ever lost access to the digital version.

[grogenaut]

You likely still have a printer. Print out your contacts and toss them in a safe

[basisword]

Yep good call. I just realised the Mac contacts app lets you export it to a nice PDF I can print.