What things did you purchase that enhanced the quality of your life in 2022?
Would love to know things that enhanced your work or personal life. I didn't "purchase" anything - but I upgraded from a "cleaner" to a "housekeeper". What's the difference, you might ask? My wife and I are both working parents and we commute to London at least twice a week, leaving very little time for things like laundry and general tidying up. We have an absolutely fantastic lady who comes in 3x a week, and rather than only doing the usual cleaning, i.e. mop the floors, clean the stove, dusting etc., she does a bit of everything. The laundry is taken care of, the expired/spoiled food in the fridge has been thrown out, kid's toy pile tidied up, my t-shirts have been folded and placed in their drawer. The bedding has been replaced, even the dog's bed has been cleaned. I can't tell you the immense quality of life improvement this has brought us. Now, when we come home tired at 6pm, we don't have to spend the next 3 hours doing chores, we can just put little one to bed and then sit down and enjoy dinner together. It's brought us closer, made us happier and given us more time with our daughter. If you can afford this luxury, I highly recommend it. It's the biggest quality of life improvement I've ever experienced - But you need to find a GOOD person you can trust to essentially run your house in your absence. Needless to say, she's getting a nice Christmas bonus :) I'm glad a housekeeper works for y'all, but to provide a contrarian view to round this out, I've found that doing a little bit of chores every day avoids the three hour pileups that you've described, i.e. throwing expired items out when they expire, doing the bed/clothes/etc every morning, etc. I personally would never ever pay for a housekeeper, but I'm also a neat freak! May I ask how much does an assistant like that cost? If you cannot (don't want to) tell the price in absolute terms, then maybe in relatives one? (e.g., 5% of your monthly net income?) In London you should budget for around £17-£20/hour, so 3 x 1 hour visits a week would be about £250/month, or £3k/year. For some people that would be ludicrous, for others it's an absolute bargain. Right now we bring somebody in for 2.5 hours every 2 weeks to do bedding, vacuuming, kitchen and bathroom cleaning. Totally worth it, but sometimes the laundry backs up when we're busy and becomes a mission. We might up it a bit next year and get laundry included. Rather than a bonus consider bumping her hourly rate if your wife and/or you get a pay rise? We did this with a child minder a few years ago and it felt really right to share our positive financial situation with the person who was playing such an important role in our family. Although I note you're in the UK so a pay rise might not be on the cards. A bike. (If you really want to know - this: https://www.merida-bikes.com/en-au/bike/3127/speeder-100). 7am early morning ride before work, then ~ 2pm in the afternoon. Both around 1 hour, often longer. My whole mood lifts the closer I get to ride time, and for a whole hour or so afterwards I am buzzing and I seem to write my best code. I never get stressed any more. I am fitter than ever with no sore knees or bad back or any other stuff I used to suffer when I was running. I sleep really well. I am 54 and I live next to a dedicated bike path that goes for ~4 hours in two directions. I work almost exclusively from home in Brisbane, Australia. I second that. Get any bike you can, you won't regret it. I have a few beater bikes and use them all the time. I feel better, I enjoy the landscape changing quickly in front of my eyes, I enjoy speed but also being a part of the landscape, not sitting isolated in a metal box. Marvelous! One pint since you mentioned that Merida bike: if you cycle a lot, get a version with shock absorbers (wheel + seat). Yes, they will make the bike minimally heavier. Yes, your spine will thank you later, even if you mostly use dedicated good quality lanes. Steam Deck. I got it to replace playing games on an Intel Mac, as Mac has become a worse platform for gaming (32bit dropped, OpenGL deprecated, no Vulkan support, and now developers would have to support Apple Silicon). The plan was to use it mainly in desktop mode, but it has been really amazing for handheld gaming, that I game more on the couch and in bed with it than as a desktop. Also Proton works really well and it is great to be able to boot in to a full Linux desktop environment. It’s so refreshing to have control of the device and to use it how I want. I did the same too. On the day I received it, I had the feeling that my Steam Deck would end up closed in its case taking dust, once the “new gadget” sensations would have worn out. In fact, something similar happened to me a couple of years ago with Stadia. But after ~6 months I am still in love with this pocket PC, well after the usual honeymoon.
I finally found the best way to play Paradox games and many indie gems right on my couch, reducing the friction that is involved in gaming while being “tied” to your desk. Now, every 30-40-mins slot is the ideal moment for a gaming session, instead of mindlessly killing time with doomscrolling or casual activities on my phone. What do you play on it btw? Water filter for my tea water. Our local water is quite hard and there is a stark taste difference. Walking treadmill for my desk. Usually sit all day and would then try to get in some movement in the evening. I now walk around 7k steps during meetings and other non-focus periods of my work. Also great when playing some games in the evening. Setup Homeassistant paired with smart wall plugs which measure usage and turn off on a timer at night. Reduced our electricity usage by ~20%. Good pillow and mattress. Makes a worlds difference from the previous IKEA stuff. Even though Im on the heaver side I can sleep really well on the new one. I purchased a water fountain (the kind you can find in an office) and 4 5 gallon drums and it's been one of my most used purchases ever. Mine is a bottom loader and I think that's important to the usefulness of it. It's been so successful I know of several other people who have also made such purchases after experiencing it. It's kind of an odd thing, but so so nice to have. It even heats water, although we turn that functionality off because we also have an electric kettle, but it's something to consider for anyone contemplating such a purchase. Might make sense if you're exclusively drinking it from the fountain, but we use the filter only for tee. Our water quality is generally exceptional. Just for tee it's a bit too hard. which walking treadmill did you buy if I may ask? Second that question, I'm seriously considering getting one as well The Kingsmith R1. As far as I know, it's a Xiaomi brand. It'd caution against getting a foldable treadmill however. Stability doesn't seem to be an issue but you do always notice the gap between the two parts. Most walking treadmills are light enough to be moved and the reduced size doesn't make massive difference. Beware, treadmill is harmful in the long run. how come? AeroPress (with the Fellow Prismo attachment), VSSL grinder, collapsible water kettle. ABSOLUTE LIFESAVER while traveling. I often travel to places where I can't reliably get a good cup of coffee (either because of meeting times or the town not having a decent coffee shop that's not Starbucks). Not a problem anymore with these three things. The VSSL grinder is relatively really expensive, but highly worth it given how precise its grinders are. I bring my own heat-sealed beans (4oz coffee bags are really cheap; 1000 for like $10, and you can heat seal with a curling iron) and brew a cup 45 minutes after I get up. Consistent coffee, all of the time, no matter where I am. It can even make iced coffee too. Definitely a huge enhancement to my life. It wasn't 2022, but 2020 when my SO got femtolasik (of all places in Estonia). €1700 and a couple of days of discomfort. It's not surgical so the recovery is speedy. Such a massive quality of life improvement as an outside observer (and by her own account as well). The procedure is quite fast, circa 10 minutes, and of course meetings before and after to determine suitability and post procedure care. I strongly agree with this! I expected a slight improvement of life, but it has actually been massive. You do get used to it really fast, but when you are being conscious about it a lot of the small things are an order of magnitude easier now that you can properly see without help. From a simple shower where you see your reflection, finding your glasses in the morning, falling asleep with glasses or contacts, carrying an extra bunch of things when traveling etc. to none of those being a problem at all. In fact this is what has allowed me to save enough space to do some trips with just a backpack, instead of a backpack + small luggage. Is that 10 minutes for both eyes? I had one as well this year and while the procedure takes 10 minutes for both eyes, the actual shining of a laser into your eye took about 30 sec per eye. The rest was getting you ready, getting a temporary healing contact lens in, etc. I opted for TransPRK, took about a week to get back into my previous state, then in two weeks everything was crystal clear. Best thing ever Yep. She had both eyes done. Edit: it really is one of those things where you kick yourself for not having done earlier. It seems much more scary than it actually is. It doesn't involve any cutting into the eye, as with regular lasik, just laser? That's correct no cutting into the eye(s). A french butter cup! It works by pouring a bit of water in the outer cup and the inner cup that holds the butter, fits upside down. Keeps it fresh without oxidation. I love real spreadable butter on my bread and together with my bread slicer, I’m a happy man :) pleasae tell me about the bread slicer. For me, and 2020 not 2022, a used bread machine. Fresh multigrain bread with only natural ingredients early in the morning, smells wonderful, and makes you want to get up. Also does pizza dough, the kids make all kinds of chocolate bread, cloud bread, etc, etc. All stuff that's really just a bit too much hassle for a busy family to do manually, requires handling a hot oven, etc. I just got the cheap Domo MS171, it does what it’s supposed to do and folds nicely in a drawer but I’m sure there are many better options out there. If you want a bread slicer and are able to find it in your location, I'd recommend Graef. They're an old German company and have produced bread slicers since the 1950s. Still super good quality and you can buy different blades to finely cut cheese and meats as well We have close to every kitchen aid imaginable, but I never heard of a butter cup. Now I have I will buy them as a Christmas gifts for this year. Thank you. A GPD Micro PC: https://blog.danieljanus.pl/2022/08/18/i-love-my-gpd-micro-p... I looked at these a while back. Really like what they've done with the mouse pad and keyboard layout. I could tolerate a slightly larger screen sacrificing some portability for readability and key spacing. I've always thought about something like these. What's the battery life like on this model? Something like 3-4 hours. Not great, but not bad either, given my usage profile (I charge it every couple of days). I feel like I'd end up using it on the tram to/from work or at lunch, so that might work for me. I've fought the urge to get one for a while, because I can't accurately assess whether I would genuinely use it, or if my brain just wants the cool nerdy thing :) A Home Gym - got a new squat rack, a used set of bars and weight plates and an incline chair and it's a game-changer for my physical and mental health. I can just go downstairs and go at it! Getting twinkle lights to add warmth to our house in the cold, cloudy winter months of Pittsburgh - noticeable change in moods for our family where it doesn't feel depressive all the time but instead conducive to reading and studying. +1 for twinkle lights. It's getting dark very early these days (Canada) and I was not feeling very productive after sundown. Why would I go back to my desk? But then I added a $12 christmas lights set all around the walls, and now looking forward to evening sessions. The ratio of joy per dollar is amazing! (No twinkling though; just steady state on) A "gaming mousepad", which is basically a padded surface that goes over the entire space of your desk where your hands may be. So my hands can be anywhere I want them to be, and still be comfortable. It's always worth paying for ergonomics in my mind, I buy high quality mice and keyboards (the Logitech MX Vertical and the Keyboard.io Atreus/Model 10, though I didn't but them this year), I add aftermarket padding to the arms of my chair, et cetera. You don't have to get stuff that's as expensive as what I listed, I have a pretty severe RSI and need top-of-the-line gear just to function as a programmer typing all day, but don't skimp out on this stuff & end up with an RSI. If you have discomfort, deal with it early. If discomfort becomes pain, stop what you're doing and take a walk. (/PSA) Various desk decorations, such as an analog clock and a small whiteboard. Making my desk a pretty space makes it easier for me to respect it, and reduces the problem of crap accumulating on it just because it's a flat surface at arm height. When there's pretty stuff, crap makes it look ugly, and this bothers me so I deal with it. Otherwise, it just looks like a place where crap goes, and the crap doesn't bother me. The decorations also break up the flat surface and make it so there's less big, tempting flat space. An analog kitchen timer. This allows me to time box things without looking at my phone, a recipe for distraction. It also has a rhythm which gently reminds me the timer is running without making me feel too rushed. A power strip with USB outlets. It's a nice convenience at my desk, but it really shines when I pack my stuff up to work somewhere else, like when visiting family. If I can get access to 1 outlet, I'm good to go, and I don't need to use a bunch of charging bricks to charge multiple devices. I don't have to worry about having to unplug a lamp and then remember to plug it back in when I'm done, or anything like that. Home office lighting. In my home office room (10.5 m²/115 sq. ft), I used to have 4 neutral-white (3000K) LED bulbs of average brightness (450 lm). I replaced them with the same number of cool-white (6000K), super bright LED bulbs (900 lm). What a difference! It took a few days to get used to it, but I am very happy with the change. I feel much more energized at work. I sometimes work before bedtime, and I was worried that the lew light would affect my sleep quality, but I haven't noticed any difference in that respect. A while ago, I read a blog claiming that most people have their light at home way too dim, but I cannot find it anymore. If anyone has some resources on this topic, I would be grateful for a link. Edit: Fixed the color temperature values, added some bg info. I assume 4000K (cool white) and 2700K (warm white) are mixed up. Definitely seconded, makes a huge difference (I also have a LED bar with 4000K + 4800 lumens in my office room) How does the cool light work? I am concerned that some fluorescent or LED bulbs give off that Safeway/grocery store yucky ambiance, but I want to feel more energized at work. Can you link to any models you bought, just simply light bulbs? I lack lighting desperately. Xiaomi Mi Air Purifier Pro. Since I have it running in my sleeping room, I don't have a clogged nose at night anymore. This model was among the best air purifiers in a Stiftung Warentest comparison. I was hesitant to get it because of Xiaomi and internet connectivity, but I've set up my cable router to block all outgoing traffic from the device. It also integrates nicely with Home Assistant, so I have Realtime and historical particle and temperature data for my smart phone. Is there a router you use that makes this easy and isn’t just as compromised as the air filter? Doesn’t your phone send out anyway the data that the air purifier couldn’t? OP used home assistant [0], which is a FOSS you run on your own server directly talking to the purifier over LAN. I rarely buy anything nowadays. It's rare that I find something that really enhances my quality of life. That being said, a few years ago, I bought noise canceling headphone, and it's very useful in noisy environment. Also commuting by bike made a huge difference in my quality of life: a 150 euros bike served me well for almost a decade! Unfortunately, it's not possible everywhere. I recently moved to a new city with barely any cycling infrastructure and I find it too dangerous to share traffic with cars. Books. Every year the "thing" that most enhances my life is culture. I read voraciously, read to calm myself, my brain, and to generally shut off technology. Can you give some more details on what you consider culture and what kind of books you read to that end? My Celestron NexStar SE6. Initially, I felt nervous about such a big purchase for a hobby that I was still only exploring (especially living in NYC). Even though I have yet to capture a really good photo of Jupiter or Saturn (I’ll get there eventually), it’s really been worth it. It’s given my wife and I a really good excuse to get out of the city regularly (we were married last August, though a wedding doesn’t seem appropriate to call a “purchase”, otherwise that’d have to be my answer). During the summer I actually started looking forward to the longer winter nights. A good solar filer will let you see sunspots up really close. It's sounds silly, but the sun itself is fascinating. A used manual typewriter. So far, I have written ten three-page letters to friends and family, including a few people I hadn't written to in maybe 40 years. I love the noise, the unavoidable mistakes, the way the finished letter looks, and the low cost of sending international mail from Japan (~$1 USD). What year was it made? Do the hammers get jammed? It's an Underwood 315, made by Olivetti … looks like '70s. No problems yet. Luckily in excellent condition, and it was refurbished by a shop before I purchased it. One thing that surprises me: no exclamation mark/point. Another is that there is no "one" key – you use a lowercase "el" for that. Boiling water tap. Amazing to make tea instantly without boiling the kettle, it’s also brilliant for cooking (boiling pasta or veg) and filling up hot water bottles. Amazing to have boiling water on tap (ha) cutting lots of time and no noisy kettle. Even free up worktop space by removing the kettle! Interesting, does it just heat instantly on demand, or does it keep a small reservoir? How is the energy efficiency compared to a kettle? It has a tank - you can get different sizes, mine is 4 litres (though usable is 3 I think). Energy efficiency is about the same as a kettle - the tank is super insulated, and you only use what you need rather than boiling more in a kettle (and that then cooling down), that balances out the small tank losses. If you have solar it’s more friendly for that as it’s lower peak wattage so more likely to stay within your solar generation. That comment got me curious so I went searching, looks like one supplier is called QETTLE and they have many videos on YouTube. And a FAQ that mentions energy use: https://www.qettle.com/support/faqs , although the prices are probably from before the 2022 UK Government Omnishambles. Here's another brand's innards of the reservoir: https://youtu.be/Q7TV73Y5kmo?t=614 . If I had to guess they keep it under high pressure so the water can be hotter than 100 deg C but still remain liquid. I guess it uses steam pressure to push the water out of the tap anyway. I see several examples where the tap seems to be integrated into the sink or actually just another setting on the regular tap. That seems dangerous to me. You should not use boiling water for tea as it will burn the leaves. It’s good for herbal tea and infusions but not for tea. As a rule of thumb, you should never go over 80°C for green tea (preferably 75°C), or 90°C for black tea. If the instructions on your tea say 100°C, it’s either not tea, or very bad quality « leaves » (more like scraps) Black tea is what most of us kettle owning Brits drink, and apparently 100c is what you want. In fact it's a selling point of some boiling water taps that do true 100c rather than 98c of competitors https://www.billi-uk.com/perfect-temperature-hot-cold-drinks... I don't know what you should or should not do, but I can tell you this: I drink black tea a lot, and I can easily tell whether one was made with water taken straight from the electric kettle after it automatically disengages, vs. one minute later, vs. from "hot" water from a coffee machine or a watercooler. The first one - straight after it finished boiling - is what tastes best to me. Active noise cancelling earphones. It's actually not a gimmick at all and perfectly safe and healthy.
Passive earphones that have strong isolation like the Etymotics are just not comfortable for me and the isolation doesn't work as well with bass which can be incredibly irritating in some situations. I'm just annoyed at the disposable aspect of the object. Theses rarely last longer than a couple of years from what I understood. A stent for one of my heart arteries! Perhaps this may be of interest to you: https://nutritionfacts.org/topics/heart-disease/ I find this site one of the most well-referenced sources on the web. Each video has a "sources" tab that takes you to studies. Glad you could share about it :) A cheap hand-cranked coffee grinder. I usually buy pre-ground coffee and have zero desire to switch, but (because reasons..) I happened upon a pack of unground beans and was convinced (still am) that it would be much less bad for the environment to dispose of the beans than getting a grinder for just one pack and then dispose of that. Until I stumbled upon an Amazon page (yes, that Amazon :( ) for a cheap grinder where some reviewer mentioned using it for pepper. Got a grinder, enjoyed the coffee (really good! just not enough difference to switch), then redeployed the grinder to pepper duty. Puts a smile on my face every time I put pepper on something. My regular pepper grinder wasn't exactly bad, but also not stellar. The coffee grinder, with its dedicated crank, is so much better than any "twist knob head" pepper grinder could ever be. Feels like using a potent power tool, just without that nagging thought of "am I really too weak even to grind a few peppercorns?" that would grind my self-respect faster than the spice if I used an electric. I bought a hand cranked coffee grinder several years ago. After a while I got a little annoyed by the work it took to grind some coffee, so I made an adapter for my cordless drill. This made grinding coffee a lot easier when I needed a quick cup of coffee. Interesting. I also got my first hand grinder like a year ago (Hario) and I need about as long as the water in the kettle boils, so about a minute for my one cup. I thought it might annoy me, but so far it didn't. Hey, don't tempt me into buying a cordless drill! (I really like that approach of extending the utility of that device, but I think I can resist) There's nothing like the face of your friends when you pull out your Makita drill, connect it to the top of your vintage style coffee grinder and start grinding at 200rpm. This alone is worth purchasing a cordless drill (the bigger the better). Humidity meters. It's crazy how humid it can be in the apartment, and how big the effect of airing for 5 minutes is. A portable coffee grinder. It's small and grinds enough coffee for exactly one mocha pot. I had been using a manual grinder before that, and it was like 2-3 min of tedious work every morning. CO2 meter - small appartment, both of us working from home since COVID, windows shut at all times because of air quality / heating, found out we were living at very high average CO2 levels, instant fix for weird mental fatigue opening the windows whenever the levels are too high. Do you have a model that you can recommend? Fitbod app, I love this one as it helps me change up my workouts and stay fit (a back injury that I do a lot of rehab for). The visuals are good for knowing how to do the exercise properly. I am trying Copilot now, which brings in a trainer to help do everything. So far, so good, but only in my 3rd week. 1Password for families is so helpful! I've been on it for a long time, but getting my wife organized and on it was a huge help in so many ways. Every single book I bought :) (plug for https://shepherd.com, a book discovery project I launched on HN last year) Patagonia boxer briefs, I ordered 21 pairs. Best underwear on the planet, and happy to re-up as the new version is even comfier. 1Password password manager. The single best purchase. Should've done it earlier. On that note: my best “purchase” was moving from 1password to bitwarden. Every interaction I had with 1password support over the years left a sour taste in my mouth. It was gaslighting in the purest corporate sense. I finally broke the shackles and moved to bitwarden. Now I’m paying 10 usd for their premium service and that’s because I want to support the product. I don’t even use or care about any of their premium features. It's probably better than the competitors, but still too often, especially on iOS, the safari extension and the share extension, and the app seem to be out of sync. I've been using the old v4 "standalone" edition for a long time. About a month ago I finally allowed myself to switch to the SaaS model on a 'family' plan. Its amazing, and more importantly I can now help manage my kids security etc. Loving it. Just curious, is it better than keychain (for Mac users) Yes, it's cross-platform and the app is quite polished. Keychain doesn't even have a proper app on the iPhone, never mind other platforms. LastPass was broken into this year. I will never use an online password manager. I use and recommend KeePassXC. The passwords in LastPass were still kept safe and the breach could never impact that because of how it's stored. When cloud suppliers can update the proprietary software at will, there is no guarantee they won't add a parallel sync mechanism that is not E2EE. A Herman Miller Embody. It was too much money for me, but I can’t go back to cheap chairs now. My back is messed up after diving off a boat many years ago. I could sit in my old chair for about ten minutes before it started giving me searing pain. I can sit in the embody for about an hour before I need to get up and stretch, but my back doesn’t hurt from sitting in it at all. It was a pain to configure, plus it needs RMA work, but I can recommend getting a nice chair if your back pain is interrupting your work. Just curious if the work yours needs is related to the armrests? I began having issues with the ones on my Embody after a couple years and upon researching it seems to be a common issue. Not being flippant, but some MDMA. It makes a huge difference to my quality of life if used occasionally. I personally don't like what that drug does to my blood pressure. I have had better luck with 2c-b but the best positive long term effects from magic truffles (a specific version of magic mushrooms sold fresh in Amsterdam). They were all fun but only the magic truffles had this long come down period of laser focused introspection that drove meaningful and positive long term changes in my life and lifestyle. I've been struggling with insomnia for a couple years now and discovered sleep podcasts. They're typically people reading stories or talking for anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour or so. They've truly helped me get back to sleep easily when I wake up in the middle of the night. Also bought a pair of Bluetooth headphones in a headband. I had to add a little foam for better cushioning.
Another unexpectedly helpful item was covering the top of my head with a small blanket. Two inexpensive G-Shock watches: the DW5600 and the DW9052. I’ve had a fair share of broken wristwatches over the years, so much that I began to “babysit” them. It’s comforting to know that the G-Shocks can take a beating and keep working as intended. There is no need to take care of them and, if you get a model with solar power, you don’t even need to worry about the battery dying. I’ve chosen two non-solar models because their modules display the time even in stopwatch or timer mode, and I alternate between them so as to extend battery life. Cordless leaf blower. I derive a lot of personal peace from seeing my backyard in order. The corded blower I had was painful enough to use that I always put it off and spent more time than necessary looking at mess. Also switched from using a hiking backpack to a $350 camera bag for my drone/camera gear. Keeps everything in order (3 drones, DSLR, 14 batteries, action cameras etc) and is much more satisfying and quick to use. Felt a bit expensive at the time but haven’t regretted it for a second. U got 3 drones? I guess that is for professional use? I have 5 but carry 3 on most shoots. I don't think I bought a "thing" outside of replacements or necessities. Maybe a pair of tongs to make frying steak a little more pleasurable. A cheap 4k 50" TV mounted on the wall over my desk to replace my multi-monitor setup. This was an epiphany I had not long ago when I noticed the price of these cheap 4k TV's. I was running two 27" monitors previously, but the large 4k is a game-changer because it's large enough that I can actually take full advantage of those pixels and nearly double the usable screen space of my old monitors. Does it cause eye strain staring at the tv screen so up close for long periods of time Built myself a good and proper mechanical keyboard.
Took some hours and some money, but the pleasure I get from using it at work everyday is amazing. A bigger bed with a harder mattress. It's silly I spend around 1/3 of my life there and hadn't thought to improve it for several years before that. Guitar lessons. I’ve owned a guitar for 15 years and could play maybe 2 songs if I’m generous. Could never make myself go through Justin or Marty guitar. Being accountable to a Real instructor who had a whole lesson plan worked very well for me, and now I have a few dozen songs in my repertoire, including a few that are way harder than I ever thought I’d be able to play. Not driving my car has got to be the biggest improvement to my life. I walk to nearby shops and take an Uber or public transit for longer trips. This more than makes up for the passive exercise that I'd lost when started WfH. A 60W gallium nitride (GaN) dual USB charger--it's tiny and charges practically/everything I own. Dehumidifier. I live in the UK and keeping my space at 50% RH feels a lot better. Steam Deck.
Videogames are my hobby, but I didn't want to sit more in the same chair after working there all day. Playing on the couch is hard with 2 children, and we go to bed early, so I didn't have any way to play that didn't involve sacrifice. With the steam deck, I can play 1 hour in bed before sleep, hug my sleeping children and my wife and then sleep. Really helps relaxing Nothing. The freedom from being sold something enhanced my life. Wall/Desk monitors holder With a bread making machine, I have reduced my bread costs by half. It will pay for itself in 50kg of bread. We make a 750g loaf every 2-3 days, and pizza dough, kids sweet breads, etc. It pays for itself in just months, and the early morning fresh bread smell is priceless. A good winter jacket. I live in a place where winter lasts for at least 4 months and always wore bad insulating jackets. Now I can stay outside with just 1 jacket and be comfortable, not sweating or freezing my a* off. Bitwarden password manager software and a refurbished Kindle (10th gen, basic model). A new comfortable mattress, I have a lot more energy and focus in the mornings now. Logitech G903 mouse. Using a responsive mouse made computing more pleasant. This is a personal nitpick, I'm glad this mouse works well for you & that's all that matters, but I hate the light on the "G" mice. When I was using one I covered it in electrical tape because the light was really bright and hurt my eyes when my hand wasn't resting on it (eg I was typing). You can change it/turn it off. There's even a free software app to manage logitech mice: Oh really, sorry to hear that! Wonder if it’s a setting in the Logitech macOS configuration app? It doesn’t bother me fortunately An induction stovetop. It really does boil water as fast as they say. Aerostich R3 riding suit. I’m touring Upstate NY and the (motorcycle) riding suit is great for spring and fall when rain can find you unexpectedly. Steam deck. Same. Gaming aside, it’s now also my main device for any dev stuff - that I can take anywhere. I’ve got a third-party dock and a portable USB-C hub with HDMI port, to literally carry it everywhere. What’s the best thing about it? The best description I've seen is, it's not for people who want to play more games, but those who want to play games mores. With all the other things going on in life, been able to just press a button and resume where you left off in 5 seconds is such a game changer compared to the rest of the ecosystem. Switch nails this and the PS5 absolutely does not. - You don't have to rebuy games for a premium if you already used steam before - Synced saves with your PC if the game supports it - Great performance for a handheld with a solid battery - Great variety of inputs, and almost everything can be customizable (if you don't fancy the official button layouts there is a community coming up with custom ones) - You can turn it into a regular computer if needed - It is big enough to hold for my hands. With Switch or iPad my hands hurt after a while, not with steam deck. - Repair-ability it is actually easy to fix - You can download emulators for switch, gameboy and all the other older consoles - I enjoy some games more on the deck then on the desktop I love mine and I consider it to be the best purchase I made this year. By far. Wonderful - mine’s just over a week away :) Been waiting months! Heavy duty socks. Baby brezza. It's like a coffee machine but for baby formula. It really improves my family's night sleep! A Google Pixel phone instead of an iPhone. I got an Apple Watch and iPhone instead of a Fitbit and Pixel. Sequential Prophet-6 synth,
Etekcity smart scale,
Ultraloq U-Bolt Pro lock,
2023 Subaru Outback RO Waterfilter and chiller Coffee Grinder (Niche Zero) Gym Membership A TRX clone (for strength training, these are very cheap!) Standing desk. It's such a game changer. A Yogateacher course. Very helpful for both - work and personal live - I purchased a bunch of online history courses at Cambridge. I didn't think at this point in my life and career I could wholly fall in love with a new subject from scratch, but it's been extremely enjoyable and stimulating. This was part of a more general attempt to wean myself off social media and too much technology (I mean, online courses obviously, but slower moving subject matter at least). That's also been coupled with reading more physical books, and subscribing to a newspaper and some magazines. I would say that this has had a very positive effect on my mental health. I'm delighted that the entire Elon Musk/Twitter saga has largely passed me by, for example. a Snoo bassinet for the child I am always a little surprised when peers who have newborns _don’t_ go the Snoo route. It’s expensive but a) can be rented or b) resold for much of its value. We tried the snoo with our second kid and ended up giving it back to the friend we borrowed it from after trying to like it for two weeks. It did keep the kid asleep marginally longer but that seemed to negatively affect feeding more than provide any real quality of life improvement for us. Regular bassinet plus a standalone noise machine was almost as good for sleep, better for feeding and saved us a ton of dough.