1. A good backpack [1]. I bought one in such a way that it is technically too big for aircrafts but in such a way that aircrafts won't bother you with it. Mine has 45L and expands to 55L. I got in trouble for it twice. I've flown like 50 times. When I got in trouble for it, I just put everything in my pockets and I'm good to go.
2. A Quikflip rain coat [2]. It's a coat and can transform into a big. Sometimes you need both at the same time, which is a bit iffy but it's harder to forget this raincoat and it is harder to forget this bag compared to other bags/raincoats.
3. A long coat, cut out the pockets so that the whole coat becomes a pocket. I put stuff in here when the airlines are being annoying. I bought mine at a second hand place for $25.
4. Airtags: "where did I put my keys?" BEEP "oh there!"
5. Merino whool socks, underwear, shirts and sweaters. Only got one sweater? That's like 4 days worth of sweaters! It down regulates temperature when it's hot and up regulates temperature when it's cold. Only downside: you need to take good care of them.
6. Tinder: to be fair, I needed to get my hacker mindset to go from 1 match per month to 100 matches per month (it took me a few months to figure out how to get good pictures - average people can look photogenic!). I met my wife on the app, best $120 ever.
7. A dating coach. 12 years back I went to a convention for $100 and a dating coach that wasn't really commercial charged me $400 for being a full week with him. He took me and another person. He just wanted some pocket change while traveling. He changed my life. I've had other dating coaches way above $1000 that didn't help so much. It's about the click first and foremost.
8. Getting diagnosed by a psychologist. This happened quite recently. I knew I was neurodivergent, now I know how I'm neurodivergent and how it screws with my sleep. There's a very big chance I have a melatonin defficiency. I need to test that. In terms of social skills, I've been thriving thanks to #7 and #10. I now see what kind of support I should ask at work (in my case: the ability to work flexible hours is huge).
9. Dutch time-released Melatonin (0.1 mg per tablet) - see #8. I take 0.3 mg two hours before going to bed. My sleep has gone from a 3.5 to a 7 out of 10.
10. meditation retreat [3], it's on a donation basis and I've paid less than $1000. My first retreat was 14 years back. Related the Search Inside Yourself book from Chade-Meng Tan to learn more about meditation. Meditation has allowed me to deal much better with neurotypicals, without realizing as I started meditating 15 years ago whereas my diagnosis is new.
11. Some ear protection blockers that construction workers use for sleep (also for in the plane). I have tinnitus so can't use earplugs well. I could use earphones with noise cancellation but they run out after 4 to 6 hours, waking me up (and it's hard for me to fall asleep). You need to get used to it but afterwards it works fine. An eye mask too. I've slept in the loudest, brightest places and got to sleep well.
12. Spotify: my music listening is much more varied now and it's an automatic mood booster if I don't listen too much. So I use it as a pick me up for when I become gloomy. It took 2 years to get good enough curated playlists for that though.
13. A curated list of downloaded cooking videos from YouTube from recipes that I love that are now linked to in an google spreadsheet that I share with my wife. "What should we have for dinner?" 3 suggestions from the spreadsheet works, videos are there.
14. Traveling and because of it feeling more free to meet people. I met my wife in Valencia, for example.
15. Macbook M1 2020, I have 2. I use the 32 GB version as my "always on computer" and it is with some family members of mine. It sometimes runs certain scripts, I can always use it as a server, etc. The 16 GB version, I travel with. Downloading an LLM on the 32 GB is also more easy and the LLMs are more useful. I've saved my friends a lot of time with the scripts that my "always on computer" has been running (chrome plugins that monitor certain websites and sends push notifications to them).
16. Nothing Ear earphones [4]. If you're in a loud cafe, these are the only earphones that give you a good chance that the call quality is still good. They're better than whatever Apple offers (I have every Apple product).
17. Gyokuru green tea: good nootropic. Ceremonial grade matcha: same. Coffee hits too hard. This is more smooth.
18. A $300 chef's knife from a Japanese brand. I think I could've optimized a bit more, but it is really useful to know how a sharp knife "should cut". My knife is an Anryu Knives Aogami Super Walnut Gyuto 21 cm.
I'll leave it at this. I've noticed quite a few of these entries weren't in there, so I figured I'd share my list and view. If you like it, feel free to reach out!
My email is in my profile.
[1] https://www.snowcountry.eu/lowe-alpine-airzone-camino-trek-3...
[2] https://www.quikflipapparel.com/products/dryflip-rain-jacket...
[3] dhamma.org