There’s 3 things that really stand out for me that I would say made a massive difference to my life:
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Cordless screw driver. Bought the day after building a flat pack bed with a crappy screw.driver that just shredded my hand. Thought it was frivolous at the time, but I’ve used it so much since. It’s light, small enough to fit in my pocket and good for 90% of DIY tasks.
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Tassimo coffee machine. Bought it 9 years ago, use it every day. Nice quick easy coffee. What’s not to like.
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My first DSLR camera. It was a Nikon D50 back in 2005/6 and it sparked my interest in photography to this day. It gave me a hobby I can take lots of places and do it alone or with others. I never loved the D50 camera itself, but I did get some really nice shots with it
A computer — no other item I own has changed the course of my life as much as owning my own computer has.
Back when eBay still had plenty of individuals selling instead of just storefronts for counterfeit crap, I bought a really nice road bicycle, gently used, for about 10% it’s original cost. I have put thousands of miles on it.
A wok. I cook half my meals in it and it cleans up so easily.
A password vault. I sprung for paid-tier Bitwarden so I have vault sharing and emergency access that gives me a lot of peace of mind while traveling.
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Smart vacuum cleaner - you pay a reasonable amount once and don’t have to vacuum anymore
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Vaporiser - switched to vaping weed instead of smoking joints which is not only nicer in many ways but also allowed me to quit smoking cigarettes
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PlayStation - after sitting 8h by the desk moving a mouse for work, I didn’t want to sit in the same position another few hours playing games. With PS I can comfortably sit in my armchair and play on a big tv scrreen using a controller
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Ergonomic mattress - healed my hurting back. This should be on the top of this list.
What vaporizer are you using?
Pax 3
What vacuum are you using?
Xiaomi Mi Vacuum Cleaner. I’ve had it for almost 5 years so there are likely better/cheaper options.
Me too! Over 6 years here. Damn fine vacuum.
And interestingly, I haven’t replaced a single brush or anything else despite notifications.
How often do you have it vacuum?
How bad are the privacy concerns?
I’m sure china is super interested in you lol
The app doesn’t have much information about you. The vacuum does map the area as it goes so I guess worst case China might have a rough sketch of my house layout. It uses lasers to map so there’s no camera to worry about. I figured the benefits outweighed the risks with this particular purchase.
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- Noise cancelling headphones and earbuds. By far the best quality of life improvement I have ever gotten from a single product.
- Whet stones for sharpening knives. It’s a fun process and my knives are in perfect condition.
- Mobile phones.
1: My motorbike - hands down my best purchase. That has single handedly done more for my mental health than the last 9 years of various anti depressants.
2: My PC - the same as others. It’s just nice to be able to have the option to do just about everything.
3: A car - I didn’t really buy this. My mum gave it to me as a first car. It’s not the flashiest. It’s just the most basic type. But I love it. I spent 23 years just putting off getting my licence until I just decided to get it just to get it out of the way. And I have missed put on so much by it. The sense of freedom, not having to rely on getting lifts, or getting public transport. (Not opposes to public transport. It’s just that where I live, it’s a pain for commuting)
Out of curiosity, how does the motorbike help your mental health? Is it having transportation in general, or the feeling of riding a motorbike specifically?
I’m gonna be honest. I find it really hard to describe the feeling. I’ll try, though, but I’ll try. Sorry if it doesn’t make sense.
It’s not just a mode of transportation to me, at least. There’s an insane sense of freedom to it. The adrenaline from having sports car acceleration speeds just straight between your legs. It’s like when people say to play music as a coping mechanism. Only this mechanism isn’t just sitting around. It actively forces your mind off those things. Like, yeah, you’ll think about it. You may still have those megatove thoughts. But they just sorta melt away and get blasted away, almost. The raw sounds of the engine, only adding to it. Ot drains it all out, (If you like the sound, I personally have a stock exhaust, as thays more than enough, I really enjoy the sound of just amy exhaust, well, except the shitty tinny ones thay oiss everyone off. Or the unnecessarily loud ones)
And the fact that you are sat on top of a solid block of steel, with thousands of explosions happening right there. Woth a fuel tank just above it. Kicking out insane power, even a 67hp 650cc. With pretty much nothing protecting you. One slight mistake, and it all goes tits up. But you’re in control of it. And it’s gonna keep you upright if you handle it. It’s relaxing. I also think it helps because you can feel what the bike is doing. Even with slight inputs.
Keanu Reeves said, “If you ride a bicycle, you can kind of understand.”
Sorry if thays too long and doesn’t make sense. And sorry if it’s kinda cringe. But, I truly do love the bike.
(Also, from what I’ve seen, the biker community is insanely inclusive and nice. Even just riding past another rider. Just that simple gesture of “Hey man,” it makes you feel like you’re somewhere you belong)
I think you described it very well! Thanks for that. It makes me want one. Sometimes you just want ant to zen out and it sounds like it’s perfect for helping with that.
Oh, good, I’m glad it helped.
I will always suggest that if it’s not gonna cause other issues, get a bike.
I won’t lie, I’m one of the types that does little dances on ot when the right songs come on. And singing. But somehow, I can still concentrate on it, it is really relaxing.
You don’t even have to jump straight to the big ones. Even a 125, whilst it won’t give the full experience, will be more than enough to see if you can get on with them.
Very good writeup.
It actively forces your mind off those things.
That’s the biiiiig thing for me. It’s incredible meditation. The road demands the rider’s full attention for short-time planning, spatial visualization, sensory inputs, and muscle control. It’s literally a matter of life and death. At the same time other parts of the brain aren’t required, so the mind wanders, but in a much subdued way where stormy thoughts turn into a calm flow.
Stay left, look in, lean, apex, watch out for the pothole, left again, shift down ahead of the intersection, ok they are yielding, back on the throttle, shift up, don’t lean over the manhole covers, wow view’s pretty, hey pedestrians looking to cross let’s come to a smooth stop…
Haha driving a motorbike is very different in your country :D
Here I average 15km/hr or less, due to heavy traffic. It’s fairly stressful, and it sucks in the monsoon. I’ve got scars on both legs where I’ve been burned by unprotected exhaust pipes. You can smell the meat cooking when it happens. All working class people here have these scars. When I need to relax, I take the bus – it’s a luxury!
Still, it beats not having a motorbike by a lot, so I can still relate :)
Oh damn, yeah thats a lot different here. Especially the monsoons. This may sound dumb, but how does the bikes hold up in that weather condition? And another dumb one, how do you get burnt by the exhausts?
Thay sounds peaceful though, with the bus. Especially compared to the bike.
Bikes are just wonderful, stay safe, man.
Roomba. That is all.
I’m sorry but your roomba has decided to stay with me for a while
Boring answrs but… A computer. It’s the 2nd most expensive thing I own and it’s provided me thousands and thousands of hours of entertainment and use as tool.
A car. The most expensive thing I’ve brought and very useful. I’ve been able do a lot more with my time and get into many new hobbies.
Power rack. 3rd most expensive. Having a power rack in my garage allows me to safely lift heavy by myself which is awesome.
Bonus cheap thing. Screw driver set. Allowed me to fix many things around my house and easily saved me 10x the cost.
Kindle - all the books, all the time.
Sony WH1000-XM3 (I guess newer models are still good) - excellent noise cancelling, perfect for flights
Steam Deck - play almost any games, anywhere, and with a full desktop mode too.
In the past I’d have put the Acer Aspire One, I loved the netbook form factor, now I use either the Vivobook or Steam Deck like that.
The Aeropress is also great for quick, simple coffee.
Haaaa yeah the kindle. Both loved and hated in my case. Love the form factor, allowing me to indulge in new books. Hate it because I don’t get new physical books anymore. Not that I have any room left for books; that’s the reason I bought the kindle in the first place…
Yeah, it’s a shame for passing on books I guess - like my dad had loads of books by Hugh Cook, an obscure fantasy / sci-fi author, and they’re out of print completely now.
At least in the future digitisation should stop that completely though.
My daughter got the steam deck and she does use it mobile however it has eclipsed the switch as our go to living room family/party/multiplayer console. Family library sharing works very seamlessly in steam.
I am regularly impressed how well PC titles run on it regardless of if they windows running under proton or Linux optimized.
There are also an impressive number of titles that have native or at minimum controller support to the point the onscreen prompts all show the correct buttons. We have a number of Xbox controllers now for up to 4 player multiplayer.
We regularly hook it up to hotel TVs when traveling as well.
I guess newer models are still good
Nope. The WF1000-XM4 have battery drain issues, and there is at least one explosion recorded…
Got XM5 and the battery seems endless. Noice cancelling great, sound quality too, comfortable. The only con is the fact they are not suitable for conferencing at work via Teams etc. - you either can’t hear what you’re saying or can hear youself with an annoying delay.
I haven’t had any issues with my XM4, in fact the battery is great
Had the XM-4, battery life was shit and I will now never ever buy another set of headphones without physical buttons. They were truly dreadful when you put them round your neck
Changed for Bose QC45 and will never buy Sony again
I never tried the Bose ones, they have great reviews too though.
A bit too bass-heavy, but far more comfortable. The Sonys had slightly better noise cancelling, I have to admit, but the touch sensitive ear cups is a fucking stupid idea
My recliner that I bought with one of the first Covid check. I have horrendous back issues (3 major surgeries and constant pain) and having another resting/sleep area has been a lifesaver many times. Currently pregnant and it’s one of the only places I can sleep.
This set of 2 grabbers from Amazon. They weren’t super expensive but nicer than other grabbers commonly bought by others. They have been used daily by me, my toddler plays with them, they get dropped, etc. and they perform so well. I can pick up the tiniest item off the floor, a piece of paper, etc. with no issues. Had them 3 years. I keep one on each floor of the house and they save my back so much. It’s one of the only ways I can do chores and keep the floor clean from a toddler.
Silly, but this last year I really appreciated having a laminator at home. It’s nothing fancy- just a simple one from Scotch from the store. I’ve laminated different rules for games (card games where we wrote out the rules) and my son absolutely LOVES when I draw him characters and items from his favorite shows, laminate them, and then he plays with them for months. It’s saved us a ton of money buying toys he doesn’t need, stores easily, and he loves it. It also gets out some of the creative side that I kind of lost the last few years.
My Steadicam rig and given how much it costs it counts as 3
Are you in video production?
I’m a camera/Steadicam operator and camera accessories engineer.
HP48GX scientific calculator, damn old, still works great still use it a lot
Steam Deck, handheld gaming computer, barely use PS5 anymore, this one is so quick and convenient to just pause and resume games and take gaming everywhere and the SteamOS Linux is awesome. I use the desktop mode with full KDE Plasma desktop as my portable computer a lot when on the go. Also with the dock station I can use it as a gaming console when going on holidays.
And the flat I live in. Good thing as I bought it quite a few years ago since the home prices are just criminal and highly unjust now. This stuff does not belong on markets to be sold for profits or some criminal short-time renting crap like AirBnB
The best calculator ever made
As a fellow PS5 owner, and someone who would like to game on the go, the Steam deck interests me, especially as Sony refuses to release a proper handheld, but I’m finding it hard to pull the trigger on it, as the majority of my game catalogue is on PS5, and what games I have on PC are mostly not on steam platform. I have some games that are on steam that could be played on the go, but what is the Internet connectivity requirement like?
You can play non-steam PC games on it. It’s just a little less straightforward. You don’t need to be connected to he Internet to play most games. Some might require you to be connected when you launch it (I think RDR2 did that), but then you can just keep it running and put the steam deck to sleep.
Are steam library’s also shared? My wife shares her steam library with me on PC, would that still be accessible?
And the flat I live in… This stuff does not belong on markets to be sold for profits
But markets are why you were able to buy it.
Here in Sweden they do rent control with the first hand contracts system and it just leads to extreme corruption. So a few lucky people pay ~400 EUR a month in the city centre, meanwhile normally you’d pay 1800. They sub-let them illegally, and anyone moving in from outside the city (no 10 years on the city housing queue) faces an extortionate, unregulated black market.
Markets are the solution, not the problem. We just need freedom in construction too, so supply can match demand.
- usb kvm. Had to often switch my usb devices between my PC and laptop.
- external wifi antenna. Useful for when my laptop’s antenna is not enough.
- electric screwdriver. Saves a lot of time.
Although I don’t really like it, I’d have to say my house is my best purchase.
-swinging couch -puppy -AAPL stock in 2008
I bought a 97 Ford Taurus off a friend for $800 back in 2008. Her dad thought it was on its last legs at 155k miles so he wanted to sell it. I drove it for four years. It was running fine until someone blasted it out in front of my girlfriend’s house and drove off. At the time it had 206k miles. 50k miles for $800 was certainly one of my best purchases.
All my cars have been sub-$5k rust buckets or on their last legs.
$600 - 1993 Honda civic
$1300 - 1994 Volkswagen Golf
$3000 - 2003 Mazda 3
$1000 - 2007 ford escape
$2000 - 2012 Kia Rio
$3000 - 1994 Chevrolet s10
$4000 - 2009 Volkswagen rabbit
$4000 - 2009 Toyota Yaris
Almost all of them sold for what I bought it for. Im mechanically inept so probably could have kept them longer if I was good at that.
Good purchases, some adventures, but cheap cars that work out and are in that sweet spot of not dead but still cheap are great.
