Dual Wielding

A battery pack is an alternative, but they seem to be similar in size to phones and don’t allow the charging swap tactic

That's because you haven't used enough dakka. In addition to carrying an extra battery, you also leave an identical battery plugged in at each of the spots where you have a charger. You charge your phone by connecting it to the battery (with both in your inventory); you charge the battery by swapping the one in your inventory with the one that lives at the charger. This has the additional benefit that, in addition to solving the battery problem for yourself, if you find yourself with a group, you can solve the phone-battery problem for other people by lending or gifting them a charged battery.

Under The Law of Equal and Opposite Advice I'm going to say that some people spend too much dakka on things that are actively harmful and I'd recommend literally the opposite.

I use Google Fi so I can text/call from anywhere I have internet on any device and then I simply leave my phone off hidden in my car for emergencies. I keep a small pocket notebook for anything I need to write down. I do take my phone out for podcasts or audiobooks while cleaning but that's it. If you have kids you probably do need to get a dumb phone to keep on you but otherwise no.

Phones destroy slack. They are not a compact cost and getting a smartphone was a horrible decision for me. Now I just write down what I'm interested in and check it when I get home. The things that were time wasters don't make it on the list. I batch more so I only need to check things once. I take more time to sit and think and relax. This is the single best thing I've done for my happiness in the last year.

Self-review: Looking back, this post is one of the first sightings of a simple, very useful concrete suggestion to have chargers ready to go literal everywhere you might want them, and that is a remarkably large life improvement that got through to many people and that I'm very happy I realized. 

However, that could easily be more than all of this post's value, because essentially no one embraced the central concept of Duel Wielding the phones themselves. And after a few months, I stopped doing so as well, in favor of not getting confused about which phone was which, and not having to worry about the location of multiple phones. I wonder if I just got trapped by a Trivial Inconvenience and made a mistake, because I definitely find the lack of the second phone meaningfully expensive every so often, so I should think about a revisit perhaps. 

My guess is that this wouldn't do any harm, but it also isn't doing enough work, so we shouldn't include it.

It might be worth doing a thing where we include literally the final paragraph as if it were its own post, minus its first four words, and lose the rest, as a kind of interlude somewhere?

I specifically endorse the "literally just include the paragraph about buying lots of chargers" idea that Zvi suggested.

I just saw this in the 2019 review and was surprised I didn't see it earlier. I'm using two phones for a while now and it just have been standard advice for executives for ages (2014?). Just google "executive two phones".

Aaaa Zvi's writing always feels weird and discombulated :(

I don't expect this to be very universifiable advice? It's a concrete example of More Dakka, but not an especially great one IMO. Don't think it applies to me.

- phone battery
- lack of storage space
- a weird connectivity bug
- distracting apps

Are not really any my chief concerns. I worry more about forgetting my phone places, and having a secure method of syncing with my desktop, and quick access to my agenda / utility apps.

Maybe if this had started out enumerating considerations with which an extra phone helps, rather than assuming their needs are everyone's..

(Good point about the charging cables anywhere you sit, though. That's a slam dunk.)

Seconding Ben's nomination. This post was simple but concretely useful.

This directly improved my life. I have a laptop charger in each of the three main places I spend time, and my house has a bunch extras in common spaces. I think I wouldn't have done this if not for reading this (plus More Dakka).

Most of the problems you mention deal with limited battery life. I have never had any issues with this on my Huawei Nova, and in fact I only charge it every 2 or 3 days with normal use. Would you still recommend dual wielding if battery concerns are not an issue?

Updating slightly that dual-wielding is a good idea. Updating significantly that the Pixel has a crappy battery - my Note 9 only ever finished the day below 30% during the short while I was obsessed with Bloons TD 6.

Agreeing that just the final paragraph would be a good idea to include; otherwise, I don't think this passes my bar for "worth including as best-of."

Do you still use 2 phones? edit: oops, I saw your answer in your review; nvm

This of course, leads naturally to a new app/os idea. We need a way to semi-seamlessly use two phones together as if they were a single phone. Like dual monitors, but with phones.