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Ask HN: Life-changing purchases since 2020? (Under $100 and under $1000)

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Re: Ask HN: Life-changing purchases since 2020? (Under $100 and under $1000)

#541

Post by hiyer »

Under $1000 - samsung washing machine with included full drying. I live in a small home, so didn't have space for a separate dryer. This completely eliminated the "hang clothes out to dry, then collect them back" cycle for me.

Under $100 (actually just over - $106) - instant pot.

1. Eliminated the need to count whistles while cooking rice, and as a bonus, I can also reheat something while cooking.

2. I use it to slow cook overnight as well, which dramatically improves the taste of some dishes like Dal Makhni

Re: Ask HN: Life-changing purchases since 2020? (Under $100 and under $1000)

#543

Post by nixosbestos »

dyauspitr wrote: post #538
nixosbestos wrote: post #487

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh I don't know. Go read a single article about women's birth control and the extreme effects it has in a woman's body and often personality? Also, self empowerment? Also, casual sex and condom use is notoriously not perfect. Curing many STDs is easier than, again, the larger burden that women carry when contraception fails.

Women this and women that. I’m not going to have surgery and close off a bodily function permanently and irreversibly (essentially) when the woman can just stop birth control whenever she wants. Not to mention extreme responses happen in a small fraction of women. Around 30% have mild reactions and around 4.5% have extreme reactions.

>Women this and women that.

Ah, I see, this isn't actually a remote concern to you, for obvious reasons.

> I’m not going to have surgery and close off a bodily function permanently and irreversibly (essentially)

Oh, dear, could you be more ignorant?

> In addition, nearly eight out of ten women who used contraception said they had experienced two or more side effects.

literally first result

> Overall, one quarter of females who are using contraception are not using their preferred method. The leading reason for this is concern about side effects, a theme that comes up in many aspects of contraceptive care. Almost one-third of contraceptive users (31%) say they are experiencing side effects from their current method, and just over half (52%) say the side effects are more severe than they expected.

literally second result

> In the KFF survey, about a third of women using contraception said they currently experienced side effects such as weight gain, headaches, bloating, nausea, mood changes, and menstrual changes. While these issues are usually not severe enough to be medically concerning, they can have a significant impact on quality of life. Studies show that many women who stop using birth control do so because of side effects.

And on and on.

Re: Ask HN: Life-changing purchases since 2020? (Under $100 and under $1000)

#544

Post by kortilla »

slater wrote: post #534
Hikikomori wrote: post #533

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can freeze bread?

Yep!

The ice crystals do change the texture though. Depending on the type of bread and how you’re using it, frozen bread can be very obvious

Re: Ask HN: Life-changing purchases since 2020? (Under $100 and under $1000)

#545

Post by scruple »

fiatpandas wrote: post #531
scruple wrote: post #406

Under $100: Gymnastics rings and straps. A Lebert Equalizer. Under $1000: A squat rack, barbell, iron plates and bumper plates. Adjustable bench, adjustable dumbbells. A collection of kettlebells. I started taking my strength and body composition seriously in 2018. To that point, I had been a (ultra)marathoner for the previous decade. Prior to that, I was in the military and trained in a hybrid fashion. But I had got…

What do you do for endurance training?

A lot. Mostly zone 2 running but also quite a bit of hill work and some rucking. An occasional mountain bike ride if/when friends ask and I can make it work. Some swimming in the summer. And I walk a lot, like 15k steps daily on top of the running.

Specifically, I follow the Tactical Barbell hybrid training system. Most of my training these days can be lifted directly out of the Tactical Barbell Green Protocol book, but I also incorporate training from the original Tactical Barbell strength book, the conditioning book, the Mass Protocol book, and the Ageless Athlete book.

Re: Ask HN: Life-changing purchases since 2020? (Under $100 and under $1000)

#546

Post by FireBeyond »

camgunz wrote: post #460
aitchnyu wrote: post #433

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ill pay the nearly 3x markup in India just for its db meter. I enter the headphone impedance and sensitivity (dB/mW) and it shows the real time (estimated) volume. Also I converted the frequency response to V-shape so my open back headphones sounds good at lower volumnes. I moved from "25 hours a week" volume levels to "168 hours a week".

I would guess most people who listen to music while they work have the volume way too far up for that amount of exposure. Anyone on an iPhone should go into Sounds -> Headphone Safety and reduce loud audio to 75 dB. You'll probably be shocked by how quiet that is.

I wonder how they determine that? Especially with Bluetooth, you have no idea how much sound energy is being put out, and can't infer it from power draw or anything similar.

Re: Ask HN: Life-changing purchases since 2020? (Under $100 and under $1000)

#547

Post by kortilla »

voisin wrote: post #110

Under $100: I think it’s $89/yr for Walmart grocery delivery. We were doing app orders + self-pickup, and the time savings of having them deliver for no added cost on every order over $35 has been amazing. Under $1,000: I bought an Olympic bar and plates from Facebook Marketplace ($250) and the Bells of Steel Light Commercial power cage ($700) from Amazon and started doing StrongLifts 5x5 consistently beginning in Ja…

>no added cost on every order over $35 has been amazing.

You don’t tip?

Re: Ask HN: Life-changing purchases since 2020? (Under $100 and under $1000)

#548

Post by kortilla »

alpaca128 wrote: post #376
7373737373 wrote: post #321

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've encountered many conflicting opinions about this topic (of course sellers will say it's perfectly safe and health advisors/bloggers the opposite), so i'd really like to see some well-sourced neutral information on this Polymer fumes do seem to be a thing at high temperatures apparently https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/nonstick-cookware-safet... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polymer_fume_fever

In our household the by far oldest pan is made of glass. It's also the only one that still looks like new despite having been used for 25+ years. It isn't non-stick but it also doesn't scratch just from looking at it. In terms of health, I'm not sure either but you should never use non-stick pans if you have pet birds. As I understand it the way their breathing and lungs work makes it deadly for them. Aside from that…

What does “proven safe” mean? Even stainless steal cookware is a very recent invention.

Re: Ask HN: Life-changing purchases since 2020? (Under $100 and under $1000)

#549

Post by EasyMark »

shiroiushi wrote: post #390
caseyy wrote: post #94

Under $100: - A dumbphone. Even if I’m not using it anymore, it has shown me what life I could be living without distractions. My anxiety and stress levels went down from about the second day using it, I became much more aware of my emotional state and the environment around me, it was a noticeable shift. I no longer buy the arguments that we can control our smartphone addictions with will. The technology is too opti…

I really don't see the point of a dumbphone: it seems a lot like buying a ham radio and trying to use that for your daily life. Who am I going to talk to with a dumbphone? No one actually does "phone calls" any more using voice calling, at least in my corner of the world. (They do for work, but I'm not in a customer-facing job so I don't.)

In the USA -lots- of people use SMS only, and it’s their main communication. You can do that on a dumb phone, and if you tend to get into doom scrolling or TikTok dance scrolling it can allow you to recover a lot of free time back. No SM? Count me in.
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