you can get away cutting your grass shorter in the spring and late fall when it is cooler and moist but in the heat of the summer the longer the better to keep it from browning. Longer grass catches the dew better which when it's dry out any little bit of moisture helps. I tend not to really pay much attention to what the neighbors do because some of them don't necessarily follow very good practices IMO. I have one retired guy that mows his lawn at least 3 times a week and his usually browns long before mine will, have a few neighbors that probably could bale hay when the mow, and some either waste their money on trulawn treatment or don't do anything at all about weeds. Factor all that in and as much as I'm not home enough to have a routine with my lawn I've had a neighbor comment once that he'd pay to have a lawn that looked as good as mine does.
All I really do is not mow it too short, fertilize a couple times a year, bag my clippings (and use them for mulch in my garden to keep the weeds down) spray ortho when I have some weeds, and let the grass grow out a little once in awhile before I mow. I think the less you mess with trying to mow it when you get just a little growth on it and over-treating it with chemicals the healthier and more plush your lawn is going to be. Plus whenever you mow change the direction you mow in each time (horizontal, vertical, angles, in a square/circle, etc) because the more you go over it in the same direction you are going to see exactly where your mower wheels have been.
