Ask HN: Most life changing things that you bought?
Just reading about air purifiers and wondering what other things like this I completely missed in my life.
Personal recommendations: kindle, rice cooker.
Edit: It's so obvious to me now (and to most people I guess) that I forgot about my washer dryer. To other young adults reading this, if you can afford it and have the space in your apartment, just get a washer dryer ASAP. Even if you live 5 minutes away from a self-service laundry. It'll actually change your life.
164 comments
[ 3.7 ms ] story [ 210 ms ] threadOne thing is the non user replaceable battery, even if it fails during warranty Bose will try to get you to pay up.
https://remotivo.com/gear/product/headphones/
Doesn’t it get tiring to listen to music all the time? It’s not that I have anything against music, but I can’t imagine myself listening the majority of my days from waking to sleeping.
most ereaders have bad PDF support, and this device seems perfect as a device for study.
- Trash poker (Neighborhood/hiking trails are so much cleaner now, since I bring it with me wherever I hike and pickup trash)
My usual routine is to fall asleep while reading my Paperwhite at night. It is small enough to carry in my pocket when traveling or doing anything outside the home.
Yes, I could do all those things with my phone, but the e-ink makes reading all so, so much more pleasant.
WinRAR isn't losing much sales because it's easy to use without paying; if it was harder to use without a license, people would simply use alternatives such as 7-Zip and it would become the mainstream archiving software and WinRAR wouldn't have the brand awareness they have now. I'm assuming RarLab knows this because otherwise they would've patched the loophole long ago.
It's such a revelation that I can't imagine raising a newborn without one.
They should probably make an adult version of this
We're renting ours through their new rental program.
I still love the air purifier though!
You're most likely better off anyway.
The gut answer, though, is a pair of snowshoes. Much of the best of my life can be traced to that decision.
- Cordless drill/screwdriver.
The original ones were awesome, but these ones are even better. Absolute game changer.
1 - If you put regular non-Apple earbuds in your ears and talk, does your voice sound different and off-putting?
2 - Do the Airpods Pro do this, and how are they for phone calls in general?
I'd really like to have them for phone calls and Zoom meetings, but regular earbuds make it hard for me to talk without being super conscious of how it sounds. Regular Apple earbuds don't have this effect, but they hurt my ears so I don't think regular Airpods would work for me. I don't think everyone has this problem though.
They work great for phone calls, music listening, noise cancellation is great, too.
Maybe not as good as Sony, but as an overall product, I love them and would buy them again in a heartbeat.
1) Are you familiar with the effect where having your ears sealed off makes your voice sound weird to yourself?
2) Do the Airpods Pro have this effect?
Books - some of them were free, some of them bought, about mathematics, physics, chemistry, programming that got me hooked on these subjects.
Computers. Sinclair ZX Spectrum clone when I was in secondary school and my own PC that I assembled myself in university.
Contact lenses. I am myopic and used glasses. Contact lenses required some time to get used to, but ultimately gave me the great feeling of freedom.
Anything to support shared experience with people I love. It could be a ticket to the movies or a museum, meals in restaurant or for a picnic etc. The exact expenditure is not really important and it may be a good movie or not, but what matters is time spent together.
Have you thought about LASIK? (I am myopic too but it's very recent, about 2-3 years)
Edit: there are 2 other comments about it here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23669299
As for LASIK - I read that they essentially cut the top layer and just put it on top and that strong head impact may separate it from the eye. Not sure how true or relevant it is for modern methods - need to do my research.
- Crockpot (cook while you work)
- Good mattress (you spend 30%+ of your time there)
- Roomba (clean while you work)
- Ninja blender/food processor
- Noise Canceling air pods
- toaster oven (cheap and you can cook everything)
I see this quite often with people using smartwatches. "Oh I've hit my calorie burn target for the week, I can skip workout today". It's not just about calories but also about toning and stamina and establishing daily routine.
Having hard data in my wrist and setting up reminders and gamification helps me to remain on track.
I have daily goals that reset at midnight, so when I walk twice as much yesterday, I still have to walk my daily quota today.
It was very effective for me.
Now I'm wearing the Garmin Forerunner 935: It is more feature complete but a bit less discrete and it shows that you're wearing a sports watch.
One day one of my friends told me what it actually does and taught me how to use it.
Mind. Blown.
That's a euphemism for bad cooking, isn't it?
Kidding. We have a dish washer, but actually use it as storage space for things that need to be kept cool. You're supposed to rinse things before putting them into the dish washer. We just figured, if you have to do that, you're already half-way to the drying rack. And it's always cooler than any cupboard space that we have. Even in the summer.
I think this is a popular misconception from many people's experience with bad dishwasher soaps. With high quality detergent and rinse solution I never pre-wash dishes and they virtually always come out clean. I use the Cascade Complete brand which is definitely on the more expensive side, maybe the most expensive, but it's still very cheap accounting for the amount of time in your life it saves from never hand-washing dishes. I also use their rinse aid which makes a big difference too.
Smartphone
Smart watch for step tracking
QC35 noise cancelling headphones
Kindle paper white