[RyanZAG]

I’ve started calling people more. ... It’s funny how little I called people on my iPhone, and how surprised parts of my generation is when they receive a call. ... improved arrangements and generally had more fun communicating.

Did you ever think to ask the people you were phoning if they were busy with anything? Sure, it might have been great for you to break someones concentration with some basic question that could have had a quick yes/no answer in a text message, but was it great for the recipient? I would also be very surprised if someone called me for something they could have just sent a text for - and if they did it a couple more times, I'd set my phone to automatically redirect calls from them to voice-mail.

[acabal]

What? How is he supposed to know what the person is doing before calling them? Can't they just ignore the call if they want? Should we just never call anyone ever just in case they're really busy?

[RyanZAG]

I don't ignore calls from people as they could be important. Someone may need help, or they may need to notify me of something immediately. This is a good use for interruptive voice calls.

However, if someone keeps calling me for very unimportant issues, then I would ignore their calls, and check voice-mail later to confirm if it was important.

I expect to get down-voted for this as it is a bit unfortunate, but if people think they can have my time whenever they want for whatever they want, then I'm not going to have any time left for myself. Plus, if an important call does come through and I'm stuck talking to someone about something unimportant, then it's the important call that is going to be stuck in voice mail.

[assemble]

Or, you know, you can just say something like: - "I'm in the middle of something right now. I'll call you back." - "Hey, I can't talk right now. Try again after 3." - "Hey, I've got a call on the other line that I need to take. Talk to you later!"

[pavel_lishin]

I regularly ignore phone calls, and I tell people - if it's an urgent matter and I don't pick up the phone, call me right back. Two calls in a row means "Pick up, this is important."

[aw3c2]

For Android there is an fantastic FLOSS app called Harass Me that lets you set an amount of calls in a specific timeframe to make the phone turn up the volume and "harass you" to pick up. I have that setup for emergencies while my phone is silent otherwise.

http://www.rfc1149.net/devel/harassme.html | https://github.com/samueltardieu/harassme

[kintamanimatt]

> if they did it a couple more times, I'd set my phone to automatically redirect calls from them to voice-mail

That's a little ... inhospitable and cold.

[Sirupsen]

I am a programmer myself, so I am aware of how incredibly annoying interruptions are. I loathe being thrown out of the zone. So yes, I am very aware of whatever others are doing at the time of calling. I only call, if I believe it will shorten the interaction on both ends and would add something meaningful, and I am certain I am not interrupting the other person. I largely prefer email though, as it is more async and generally more convenient.

[smspence]

Put your phone on silent mode, and work until you don't feel like working anymore. Then check your phone whenever you feel like it.

Your phone calls don't need to control you. You can just check your phone later and see if you have missed calls / voicemails.

Working on something, but it's not super important and you don't mind being interrupted for a little bit? Take phone back off of silent mode. Easy.

Well, easy for me at least. Judging my all the comments here, this is absolutely IMPOSSIBLE for everyone else on Hacker News.

[OGinparadise]

Are you a robot or something? Humans need to talk, meet and interact. Even Obama and the Pope can find time for a chat, let alone a normal person.

[RyanZAG]

While I agree with what you're saying, your examples don't hold up. Do you really think you can just pick up your phone and chat to Obama or the Pope about the weather? Of course not, their time is too important. You'd need to schedule a meeting long in advance to chat with them, and you'd chat about very interesting topics.

Why should my time or your time be any less valuable than Obama's or the Pope's?

[CodeMage]

Because, believe it or not, we're not all considered as important as the president of United States or the head figure of one of the most popular religions. Therefore, we're not all treated that way.

You might think that your time is as valuable as theirs -- and I'm not arguing either for or against it -- but the fact is that you would be a minority and the world doesn't work the way we think it should, but the way majority decides (or is led to decide). And the world's that way not just when it comes to phone calls.

[OGinparadise]

Why should my time or your time be any less valuable than Obama's or the Pope's?

Do I need to answer it? Come on.

The gist of my post was that even the most important people in the world find time to talk, eat with friends and family, chat about nonsense or just watch it rain, let alone normal people.