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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?

#371

Post by approxim8ion »

davchana wrote: post #247

Casio $12 & $22 watches. I get to choose which watch I wear, no battery problems, not heavy, simple resin black straps, rather smaller face. $4 Car Lighter USB Charger from Walmart auto elec section with two ports. One for my phone, cable always attached, one for occasional passenger. Same in Electrical section is $11. $20/year Google One storage 100GB. $120/year Dropbox 1TB. Finally having a offsite backup. $2.04 Pe…

which casios? I have a silver F-91W, swapped out the strap for an 18mm grey NATO, it's been superb.

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

#373

Post by mod »

nicbou wrote: post #160
laurensr wrote: post #152

Custom fit earplugs that even allow sleeping on your side. They don't pop out by themselves and greatly reduce traffic noise (and fan noise during hot summer nights).

Could you recommend some? This would be very useful inside a motorcycle helmet.

I bought some for the motorcycle called eardial, about 30 bucks and come with a Keychain case.

They reduce volume but you can still hear pretty well. I use them to reduce wind and road noise, but still hear music through my Sena.

I'm very pleased with them.

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

#374

Post by davchana »

approxim8ion wrote: post #371
davchana wrote: post #247

Casio $12 & $22 watches. I get to choose which watch I wear, no battery problems, not heavy, simple resin black straps, rather smaller face. $4 Car Lighter USB Charger from Walmart auto elec section with two ports. One for my phone, cable always attached, one for occasional passenger. Same in Electrical section is $11. $20/year Google One storage 100GB. $120/year Dropbox 1TB. Finally having a offsite backup. $2.04 Pe…

which casios? I have a silver F-91W, swapped out the strap for an 18mm grey NATO, it's been superb.

F W-96M with default straps. & The other famous cheapest casio. Gonna look into nato straps.

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

#376

Post by mleonhard »

bxparks wrote: post #71

A Fujitsu S1500 ScanSnap, dual-sided, document scanner (now discontinued, replacement might be the iX1600). Completely changed how I manage my personal documents (e.g. financial, invoices, receipts, product manuals, medical info, business docs, recreation and hobby stuff, etc). Anything remotely important, I scan to PDF, which triggers automatic OCR that is reasonably accurate, then I upload the PDF to Google Drive,…

I followed the techniques in Marie Kondo's book "The Life-changing Magic of Tidying Up" and shredded most of my documents. It was satisfying and I haven't missed any of them.

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

#377

Post by mleonhard »

SamvitJ wrote: post #191

Not a tiny purchase, but I use this 250W corn bulb lamp all the time for lighting up my office room in the winter months: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07W5DGBJZ/ . Amazing amount of light (35k lumens) and does not overheat.

Which fixture do you use for the corn bulb?

I use $30 "FEIT" 55W PAR38 5000-lumen flood lamps, pointed toward the ceiling in $10 "IKEA NOT" floor lamp stands. I also use multiple $11 "FEIT OM200" 25W 3050-lumen LEDs in a ceiling fixture. Since brightening my workspace, my productivity and mood have been better and more stable.

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

#378

Post by mleonhard »

unixhero wrote: post #262

Robot vacuum: Ecovacs Deebot T9 Plus, paid about USD1300. Not a minor purchase, but if you've got hardfloors and no clutter in the floors: get a robot vacuum! I for one have been really really happy with the Ecovacs Deebot T9 Plus. It even mops the floors in the same operation and doesn't get easily stuck due ti AI and LIDAR scanning. So far it has worked for about 50 hours. That is time I have gotten free up to do o…

I got a used Roomba 614 for $135. It has worked well for 8 months so far. In the future, I will purchase only furniture which the robot can clean under.

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

#380

Post by kypro »

For me it’s been a carbon steel wok.

I cook fried rice a few times a week so recently I decided to upgrade my non-stick wok with one made from carbon steel as I’ve heard good things about them and the non-stick coating of my wok had started to wear away.

I’ve been really impressed with how much better it is to cook with and honestly given how often I cook rice I couldn’t live without it anymore. I’ve found it has far superior non-stick properties compared to my old wok, it can be used at extremely high heats, and it’s basically indestructible. It also gives my rice a much stronger fried taste which I personally love. I wish I’d brought one years ago now. Would definitely recommend if you enjoy fried rice as much as I do.

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