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Ask HN: What tiny purchases have disproportionately improved your life?

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Re: Ask HN: What tiny purchases have disproportionately improved your life?

#361

Post by cm2012 »

kaczordon wrote: post #167
mettamage wrote: post #53

Some that come to mind. __Health__ Melatonin. There is no other way for me to go to bed and this knocks me right out (I use 0.2 - 0.4 milligrams). Sleep mask (no more waking up because a stray light hits my eye) I'd say sleep earplugs but I have a sound in my ear, but otherwise earplugs Mosquito repellent scent (for sleep as well). Silicon earplugs when going out, I never thought I'd get ear/hearing damage because I…

Melatonin is not recommended for sleep. A better combo to take would be 200mg L-theanine and 500mg Magnesium Threonate. Melatonin can disrupt your natural melatonin production and those supplements are also notoriously inaccurate in terms of dosage some containing anywhere from 0.2x to 2x the amount listed. Melatonin is probably acting more as a placebo for you now.

I'm sure it doesn't work for everyone but we blind tested it for my wife. Nights with no melatonin, but an identical pill, meant no sleep.

Re: Ask HN: What tiny purchases have disproportionately improved your life?

#362

Post by WheelsAtLarge »

Amazon's Echo, I use it every day. It cost me less than $100 in 2014 and so far it's given me 7+ years of constant use. I never thought it would be so handy. I've bought lots of 1st generation devices and most of them get used for a bit and end up in the closet just before they get taken to the recycler but my 1st generation echo is still running strong.

I listen to streaming radio, music, podcasts. It reads my kindle books. I can ask it for the time, news, timers and to turn lights on. The list goes on and on. Yup, Amazon is the current boogey-company but they sure know how to keep a customer happy.

Re: Ask HN: What tiny purchases have disproportionately improved your life?

#363

Post by throwaway128374 »

sergiomattei wrote: post #166
DrJones1098 wrote: post #27

A dog. Overall for around 100 bucks a month in food/trifexis the value a dog brings to your life is massive. People will constantly talk to you so youre socializing. There's a creature that loves you unconditionally which is a really cool feeling. Theyre a ton of fun so it's hard to be bored. They're good for getting exercise as they always want to play. And more. Theres studies that say owning a dog increases your l…

God, I've low-key been wanting to adopt a husky...

They were bred for pulling a load for many hours, day after day for hundreds of kilometres. So, they need a lot of exercise or they get bored and will find their own way of getting stimulation (i.e indulging in what we could consider mischief). They are also excellent diggers and can jump over surprisingly high fences/walls. So, they are excellent escape artists too.

If you are experienced with dogs, it shouldn't be an issue and it will be a lot of fun as they are clever and to a degree independent too. On the other hand, if you aren't really clear about what you are getting into, it might spell trouble.

In any case, I wish you luck and hope that you find a suitable canine companion.

Re: Ask HN: What tiny purchases have disproportionately improved your life?

#364

Post by smsm42 »

amin wrote: post #8

My second hand Netgear Nighthawk router is the best $100 I've ever spend. Never had connectivity issues ever again.

Model would be nice, I have Nighthawk too - R7960P - and it's buggy as heck, refuses to upgrade and very flaky. Very disappointed.

Upd: I see you specified the model below, didn't notice that, sorry. Will check that one out, maybe it's better?

Re: Ask HN: What tiny purchases have disproportionately improved your life?

#365

Post by Kosirich »

Yes2020 wrote: post #217

Bolt-on forks and trailer ball receiver for front loader bucket. I use these just about everyday, to lift, move, and position stuff. Would not be able to live where I live at my age without them. Wood door shim to scrape food cooked onto pans. Free and gets off stuff scrubbies won't, without scratching the s** out of a pan using a metal one. Saves ruining wooden spoons doing the same thing. Battery powered, brushless…

Is it Ryobi? I'm looking into buying the set of weedwhacker, hedge trimmer ect.

Re: Ask HN: What tiny purchases have disproportionately improved your life?

#367

Post by thorin »

Wireless phone charger in the home and in the car. My phone usb socket is really unreliable and this seems to happen with every handset I've had so rather than worry about that you just put the phone down on the charger. So much easier!

Guitar. Not a tiny purchase but I realised that my last one costing about 100 pounds had lasted for nearly 30 years of heavy playing, so I bought myself a new Mexican Strat as a treat.

Kayak. Can be had cheap and if you live near the river it's a great activity, especially as we couldn't go far from home in lockdown.

Re: Ask HN: What tiny purchases have disproportionately improved your life?

#368

Post by throw3434053 »

sergiomattei wrote: post #161
bluewalt wrote: post #104

- A sneaker cleaner kit, to keep my sneakers clean with no effort. - A 15000 lux day lamp, because my apartment is pretty dark, why causes some sort of depressing feelings over time - A Brita Water Filter Pitcher, which replaces all the bottles of water I needed to buy and carry. - Magnet app (mac OS) to organize windows quickly with keyboard shortcuts.

Ex-Magnet user here, try Rectangle. It's faster than Magnet, doesn't cause weird bugs, free, open source AND has more features. It's the whole package.

These were all a bit limited for me. I've settled on yabai[1] (window manager) and SKHD[2] (hotkeys), cannot recommend it enough. [0] https://github.com/koekeishiya/yabai [1] https://github.com/koekeishiya/skhd

Re: Ask HN: What tiny purchases have disproportionately improved your life?

#369

Post by itzprime »

Arete314159 wrote: post #315
kingkongjaffa wrote: post #299

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This but building your own ala bullet journal.

I LOVE bullet journals, and all of the youtube videos on different layouts are a wonderful rabbit hole to fall into! However, I'm finding that I like a daily layout and at present I don't have the energy to re-draw 365 days. Also I like to write in appointments months in advance and I can't do that if I'm drawing just a few weeks ahead.

For this I have the months written on 2 pages where I can set appointments. I also dont write out daily things in advance. Just the date and what i have to do that day

Re: Ask HN: What tiny purchases have disproportionately improved your life?

#370

Post by blandflakes »

moistly wrote: post #124
is0tope wrote: post #62

Two things: 1. Ultimate Ears Wonderboom 2 Bluetooth speaker. Compact and very loud, also has good battery life. Handy on hikes and similar. The waterproofing is excellent and I use it in the shower to listen to podcasts, etc. 2. Sony WH1000MX4 Bluetooth headphones. I was skeptical in getting a full set of headphones as I always preferred earphones. These things have amazing sound quality and noise cancelation which m…

> Handy on hikes Are you aware that other hikers hate you for this? I suppose you don’t care.

It's disappointing that the lack of self awareness translates so faithfully from the trail to HN.
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