Money, makes life easier (as in surplus to your immeadete needs)
I was always frugal and started investing small amounts in the stock market when I was 19 , started reading the financial news when i was 18 and never stopped doing both. Still invest my surplus income now (still live a frugal life) and still read.
Quit work at 35, been mortgage free for decades and am 58 now. Allows me to live where I want, which is a quiet small rural town well away from everyone.
PlayStation 3. Yeah, it was a games console, and had lots of awesome games (such as the Uncharted series, LittleBigPlanet, Ratchet and Clank, Journey, Warhawk, I could be here all day), but it was the extra features that really made it appealing in my opinion.
This was the cheapest and best Blu-ray player you could possibly get. It even stores media files on the internal storage, rips CDs too, upscale DVDs to 1080p resolution, not to mention the XrossMediaBar user interface was just so easy to use, and aged quite beautifully. It even has funky themes. It can play your PS1 games (some models can even play PS2 disks, but all models have some PS2 games downloadable from the store), you can manage files on your PSP or Vita. It had remote play, but it was… pretty limited to say the least.
It quite literally only does everything.
Electric wire strippers (I do a lot of electronics).
And a low power large work height microscope
The Lance of Longinus has its uses.
My wife really likes the beach, but I hate the sand and I find laying flat in a towel very uncomfortable.
This thing fits in my backpack and folds out to a very comfy air filled bed. It does lose some air over time, I expect to re-fill it every 2 hours or so, but filling it is just a matter of catching some air by moving the Lamzac around. It only takes a couple of seconds and doesn’t require a pump or anything.
Linux.
Maybe not Linux per se, but certainly learning how to write scripts and other technical stuff, to automate boring tasks or alert me of things, or writing applications to do things I need, has been a massive time saver - but also a time waster as I enjoy it, and probably spend longer on these things than the amount of time they’ve saved.
And as footnote, it’s always easier to do this stuff on Linux than Windows… plus you can stick things on a Pi so it’s cheap and quiet.
Scripting is the closest thing to magic I’ve seen in real life. Wave your hand over the script and poof, a job is done.
I automated so much at my last job I usually never “worked” more than a half hour a day. I am not a programmer, but I slowly learned enough Excel functions and VBA, then simple batch files and some AutoHotkey. Since it was only stuff for my job I needed to learn to program for, it took much less time than learning to program for any situation. Also much of your work is going to be relatively the same as many others’ work, so there is a lot of code out there you can lift from and tweak until you learn to build it from scratch.
standing ovation
Linux got me a job later on in life. Made my life a breeze honestly.
I know most people will talk about how Linux/Windows/Mac but one of the not often talked about benefits to learning an OS really well is that it can lead into a high paying job. And Linux allows you to see under the hood as deep as you want…so more likely.
🙄
😆
(I wasn’t really sure if I was going to be upvoted for that answer… Really, though. The whole culture and philosophy also influenced me. And gave me a lot over the years. I think it’s alright fulfilling the stereotype every now and then.)
My god you people are annoying.
Every single goddamn thread
A lot of things could go there i guess haha, here’s some things I’m thinking of at this moment:
- a dishwasher. I will never go back this is the best invention humans created since the wheel
- AC. Same as above it changed my life
- keybar. This is a nice tool to manage keys and some other tools in a swiss-army like format.
- a good usb-c docking station. I need to jungle between multiple laptops for work, this really helped doing that.
- Going full public transit, bike and carsharing (communauto). Less traffic, and between these options it’s rarely more difficult than a car. And muchhhh cheaper, with gas, maintenance, taxes and depreciation it’s a bit crazy how much you put towards a car. It really helps to live comfortably with my budget.
Seconding your 5th point. Getting rid of my car (NO, autocorrect: not my cat!) massively improved my life. Even if I don’t factor in the fancy restaurant visits and weekend vacations I take with my “car budget”.
Where do you live that public transit is a viable option?
Montreal
Not OP, but in Berlin the situation is the same. Most of my daily ways are done by cargobike, as it is even faster than public transport and public transport is faster than a car.
No car/public transit was going to be my answer too. Sold my car about 9 years ago and switched to using the bus, carpool, or walking. At first it was a financial decision because I figured it would save me lots of money, and it did. I was surprised though how much more connected to the community I felt. I made friends and talked to people on my commute instead of sitting alone in the car. It also makes me feel more free to move around the city instead of just going from point A to point B and then home again.
Walking/biking is really the best for this, I feel like i live in a city with a community instead of living in disconnected “places”.
AC also changed my life. My doctor thought I was dehydrated, but I also had symptoms of over-hydration. Not only did everything about my time at home improve significantly, but I also started sleeping better than I ever had in my life.
Yes for me sleep is the big one. I really struggle sleeping when it’s too hot
What docking station do you have?
a bit crazy how much you put towards a car
Recently these numbers are hitting over 1k usd pretty easily… i don’t know how this is sustainable longer term as most young people’s income are too low for rent and student loans as is.
How are these people supposed to get to work? I guess boomers did always say you can’t drive a house but you can sleep in a car…
Solitude.
I appear to have had extraordinarily bad luck in my life, as nearly every significant friend or lover or family I’ve ever had is consistently some.combination of abusive, exploitative, duplicitous, violent, criminal, hypocrite, never willing to hear my side of any story.
Been by myself with a new phone number in a new state for some months now and I’ve never been less stressed out, never felt less burdened, never felt more free.
Took me 35 years to figure out… wait, what if I did what I wanted to do, enjoyed things because I enjoyed them instead of pretending to like some other thing because someone else does, what if I stopped bending over backwards to solve everyone else’s problems when they usually just go out of their way to cause more problems for me, and never give anything meaningful back, and in fact usually blame me for things I have no control over, and then spread unfounded rumors about me due to their own massive neuroticism and guilt complexes?
I am quite happy now. I’ve never needed much to be happy, and nearly no one who has ever claimed to care about me has ever once been able to handle my honest opinions about what they have put me through.
Its been astounding to realize that actually, I make friends quite easily and get along with most people I meet great, whilst everyone I used to know has spent decades convincing me I am an unlikeable asshole who is merely to be tolerated.
I am going through setting strict boundaries and getting those people out of my life right now, so glad you managed the same!
Well, the final straw was when a number of them made me homeless, and the rest were either too busy or too emotionally burdened to help right now.
So after losing all my possessions, losing my job, being homeless for nearly a year, getting the shit kicked out of me regularly by fentanyl addicts uh… well, I should not have survived.
But despite nearly being killed more times than I can count, being held hostage by madman (who the police held for 30 days and then let loose), and witnessing a number of people I’d met along the way die…
It was not exactly easy.
But, by basically dumb luck, I survived.
And, being alive, having not only hit rock bottom, but having been dragged and kicked along its jagged ground… well, now I am free.
It is only after you lose everything, that you are free to do anything.
And for me, that means not having to deal with anyone while I do a whole lot of PT on disability.
Also, I now have a great deal of self confidence, as I am 100% certain any of those dumbfucks would have died going through a tenth of what I went through, yet I persist.
What is pt?
Also, amazing story and glad that you’re doing better
Physical Therapy.
Whole lot of my tendons and muscles got torn, shifted into the wrong places and misused as I had to keep moving with the muscles that were not completely fucked, bones broken, etc.
I still can’t really walk for long periods of time without massive pain, but it is slowly getting better.
Thanks for the well wishes =)
PT stands for “physical therapy.” They’re trying to improve or regain mobility, likely lost due to injury.
Got rid of (most) social media. Even only reading about its toxicity makes me uncomfortable.
Same here, only LinkedIn is left and that is pretty boring so it doesn’t cost me much time to check. Sometimes there is a hint of FOMO, but in general I’m really glad I’m not comparing myself to fake happy people or being targeted by crappy ads. Also, there’s all the time I get back. I love it.
Electric wheelchair. After my 2nd heart attack, it became harder and harder to do things in the world. Grocery stores were impossible unless they had scooters of their own, which were usually in use or out of service.
Now I just bring my own.
I use a wheelchair part time, and it’s unbelievable how much starting using one can help when you’re partially ambulatory. I find it funny how able bodied people use phrases like “wheelchair bound”, which perpetuates this idea of wheelchairs being like prisons, but at least for me and a few people I know, finally getting a wheelchair was hugely freeing.
Same, I hadn’t really left the house since 2018. Once a week for groceries and prescriptions and that was it.
Jesus, just being able to go to a movie theater was huge.
And do you feel like a king/queen in it?
My sister made stickers for the sides so now it says “Majestic AF”
That’s the most aliexpress wheelchair I’ve ever seen
It works great! 17 mile range, automatically folds and unfolds. Has a remote control.
God damn I can walk perfectly fine but I might have to get one.
No joke, implementing automated MMO style daily quests on my smartphone harnessed my brainrot for productive means. I struggle with depression and ADHD among other things, so before l pretty much never made my bed or worked out, etc. I do all of that consistently now, and I feel all the better for it.
I’ve been looking for a way to invert that and make a number go up instead, and maybe implement gacha, flashing lights and FOMO into my daily routine to really exploit my busted psychology to its maximum.
How do you do that, is there an app?
Plenty, IFTTT for android, Shortcuts for ios.
I’ve got a setup where all reminders with the Daily tag get set to incomplete at 1AM, and all with Weekly tagged get set up on Sunday, etc etc
A NAS. Godsent when you’re dealing with multiple machines.
Selfhosted VPN, another godsent for bypassing network restrictions or using public wifi.
Password Manager. I use Bitwarden, which is open source and free.
It’s probably the single most significant quality of life upgrade I’ve had since I started on ADHD meds 5 years ago. I wish I had started using one sooner.
+1 for Bitwarden. My Dad’s password manager actually made taking care of him in the last years of his life alot easier. I essentially had to “wind down” his life (pay bills/debts, close accounts, stop subscriptions, etc), and as his memory was going it would’ve been impossible to get that information from him. With myself too though I’ve got so many dumb accounts all over the place, having a password manager is the only thing keeping me sane half the time when having to log in to everything to pay bills and such.
Forgot this one! Using bitwarden is indeed so much easier and also more secure than tracking password. Truly makes my life easier
A longer cable for charging my phone
Got a dishwasher after I bought my house and it is incredible.
Also got one of those fancy self-scooping litter boxes which is great.
Got my yard fenced in too after I broke my ankle/leg walking my dog and had to have surgery. Now I can just let the dogs out whenever and not have to worry about them running off or me breaking my bones.
Which litterbox did you get? A brand would be appreciated.
Not my comment, but we have a Litter Robot 3 and we love it. Cats like it as the box is always clean, filter does a good job of keeping the smells down… And its easy to repair…
I got the PetSafe Scoop Free litter box. It’s expensive, as is the refill litter, but it’s so good.
I looked into litter box robots and decided to try a low-tech solution first. I got an Arm & Hammer sifting litter box for under $20.
Basically, you dump the whole litter box into an equal sized sifter, then lift the sifter and give it a little shake, then dump the waste.
I can completely clean each litter box in 10-15 seconds. It’s not fully automatic, but I have no need for a robot anymore.
Next up, doggy door.
I’m hesitant with those because I have a gang of crafty raccoons hanging around. The 3 little shits cause so many problems and I don’t wanna wake up to raccoons in my house.
Locking dog doors are available that are opened by a tag on the collar or by your dogs microchip if your dog is chipped. Racoons won’t get in unless they steal your dogs’ collar.
Fair enough.
