Ask HN: What is your favorite daily-use object? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: What is your favorite daily-use object?

27 pointssbolt40 comments

My Yeti insulated coffee mug makes every morning a little bit better

I live my material life out of a single piece of carry-on luggage, so I guess I am well disposed to answer this question. I am always making tiny tweaks to what I carry to reach that one-bag global maxima. I'll excluded the electronics, which are all vastly more useful than just about anything that's ever existed before and are all 1-10 of my top ten items. Otherwise, I'll cheat and list 3:

1. A nice sleep mask. Light is terrible for good sleep and popping one of these on can help me get good rest no matter where I am. Currently: whatever I found at the last CVS I visited.

2. Wool socks. They don't smell and stay warm and comfortable no matter the weather. Currently: point6 merino lightweight ankle.

3. A wind and water resistant jacket that packs into an Avacado-sized pocket. Currently UNIQLO Pocketable Parka.

Do you find the wool socks to be too warm in the summer? Or do you switch to sandals for the summer?

What causes you to live out of a suitcase? Constant travel, or more just a minimalist lifestyle? Do you exclude all the kitchen and bathroom and cleaning things that normally come in an AirBNB?

Everything in an Airbnb or furnished rental is excluded. I do tend to wear sandals when it's hot, but think wool socks can still be comfortable in the heat if you get the light or ultralight versions. I am a minimalist and travel a lot from 2 home bases.

> A nice sleep mask

Try Cabeau Midnight Magic Sleep Mask. Bought it randomly 7-8 years ago and never looked back. Very comfortable and soft, very different from what you get on planes or random shops.

Great suggestions, everyone!

Here are mine:

1. Woolpower Zip Turtleneck, 200 g/m^2 version. Merino wool but unlike others it is made using a circular knit, which makes it light and stretchy. Great in the house in the early morning. Canadian Outdoor Equipment is a great source if you're in North America. Made in Sweden I think.

2. Pentel P205 0.5 mm mechanical pencil in green.

3. Letts Icon 5 year diary. Made in England. They invented the diary.

4. 9x12 dry erase whiteboard lapboards. You can write on them like a regular whiteboard, but I use them as little lap desks. 3 for $10 at Amazon.

5. My one inch tungsten cube from Midwest Tungsten (via Etsy). What can I say -- it's an objet d'art that is always a pleasure to pick up.

My Bose QC35 headphones II were a big upgrade to my setup. Super comfortable, great battery life, great sound quality.

I like my Sony's. So addicted to them for getting into zone that I use it even when no ones home.

My dishwasher. Saves me a bunch of time washing dishes and has eliminated a long-standing unresolved argument between me and my wife.

My venerable "Mr. Coffee" drip coffee maker. This thing is 15 or more years old now and still produces coffee for me like a boss. When it finally dies I will be heart-broken.

I would enjoy one of those, except my wife doesn't drink coffee, so I can't justify making an entire pot at a time. At home I use a Clever Dripper instead, which I like, but I find myself missing lousy office coffee.

My equivalent object would probably be my parents' old 70s-era Crock Pot, earth tones and all. I've heard that the newer ones don't conduct heat as evenly.

> I find myself missing lousy office coffee

What do you miss about it? It sounds very contradictory :)

Not OP, but I get what they mean..

In a world of Americanos, Flat Whites, and Espressos, I often pine for a cup of "plain old coffee", something having likely stewed for hours, to hit that spot.

The ability to drink it by the mug, not too strong etc..

Bad coffee is just nice in its own way. Like ordering coffee at 3 AM in a diner.

Airplane coffee falls into that bucket for me. Back when I was traveling a lot for work, there was something about getting on a plane from Chicago back to Raleigh, late at night on a Friday night after a long week of work, and getting that first cup of coffee on the plane after takeoff.

Home workout equipment - kettle bells, dumbbells, weight plates, barbell and a pull-up bar but most especially the squat rack

Assuming this excludes “modern-necessities” like an iPhone?

I have a hard time picking just one. When I was working in the office regularly I would’ve said my AirPods Pro or Sony noise cancelling headphones.

More recently a new mattress has made a huge difference in my sleep quality and I can’t believe I waited so long.

My Canyon Commuter 7 bike which is my primary mode of transportation to work, shopping and short trips. It has a belt drive with built in lights. Very low maintenance unless there is a flat. It saves me a lot of time and keeps me fit.

I had a folding bike with a belt and the belt would slip if I torqued it too much. Have you had that problem?

Never had problems with belt. I have been using it for 4 years now.

1. Knipex 12 40 200 automatic wire strippers. They strip 30 gauge stranded wrapping wire without cutting the strands. And 18 gauge speaker wire. And everything in between (in theory they can strip from 32 to 7 gauge (0.03 - 10mm^2) but I don't have any wire that big to try.)

2. Knipex 86 03 180 pliers wrench. Basically replaces a full set of inch & metric wrenches for anything below about 30mm (a bit over 1").

3. Bus Pirate. It's a little 2-way USB-Whatever serial protocol you want device. UART serial? It does it. I2C? Got that. SPI? Sure. OneWire? Of course. Etc, etc.

My Glerups slippers are the absolute best item I own. Extremely warm and comfortable, good-looking, and the wool never smells despite using it every day with bare feet.

DeLonghi bean-to-cup coffee maker with auto start.

Stumble into kitchen. Place mug. Press button. Massage beans*. Wait a few seconds. Consume perfect coffee (in my case, black and strong).

*Massage? The machine’s only flaw: the shallow hopper is too gently sloped, the opening to the grinder too small, so some massaging is necessary. But even I can handle that first thing.

Bought at CostCo on sale, pricey but worth every penny. Gets a lot of us, still going strong four years later.

Roomba, changed my life especially having two cats

I love my Apple Watch. I have a bunch of bands for it; changing them is a nice way to start my day.

My Snow Peak H450 titanium cup. It’s light and well insulated. It feels wonderful to hold and drink out of. I drink water and tea from it all day, every day. It’s entirely unnecessary but sparks a little joy every time I use it.

Outside of laptop & phone & earpods:

Fjall Raven KANKEN LAPTOP Backpack - Minimal laptop backpack that is comfortable and multifunctional

Apple iPhone Wallet - who needs cash anymore?

Hydroflask Bottle - which fits nicely in the backpack

A bit of a weird one, but I got a set of collapsible silicone funnels and found that they are excellent fidget toys. Gives me something to do with my hands so I don't touch my face, etc.

Air Circulator (Vornado)

Leatherman tool. I use it for something just about every day.

I've had it for about 20 years, and (modulo occasional sharpening of the large blade) it's still as good as new.

Karas kustoms fountain pen with blue ink and jabra Bluetooth headset (I have 2 bc I'm on the phone all day)

The IKEA office chair. e.g. MARKUS

Has been using one for 8 years now. Planning to buy another one for the secondary office.

Second that, tried many even more expensive ones. Stuck with that model, pretty great especially if you are taller than average (190cm).

Anyone tried their new lineup JÄRVFJÄLLET?

Yes, I loved the new one. I am heavy close to 100kgs and 5 11.. I feel comfortable. Then my wife tried. she also feels comfortable with it. So we are planning on getting new one. In the meanwhile I got HAG capisco but have love hate relationship with it

Philips LatteGo 3200 Espresso Maker (I affectionately refer to it as ‘Coffee Robot’)

Wool duvet inner

Cabeau Midnight Magic Sleep Mask

Merino underwear and hoodies (Icebreaker)

Airpods Pro

Sony wh-1000xm3

10ft braided usb-c and lightning cables

Nvidia Shield TV, Amazon Kindle Paperwhite, or Amazfit Bip

Objects: Pencil & Paper.

Shoes

My ereader

Ohm Walsh speakers, for music, but also watching anything like lectures, random videos, and movies.

This company has been making the same omnidirectional / omnipolar speaker since 1971! Refining the same design!

It's a little frustrating because they have a great product, but not much advertising. It takes about 3 months to get them, since they are made to order. And it's mail order only, with a home trial of 90 days I believe.

But they are cheap as far as floor standing speakers -- $1000 each, which is less than you pay at Best Buy for similar products.

It seems like this is for audiophiles, but everyone who's visited my apartment has been able to tell the difference. Their eyes light up: "wow". You hear more things in songs you've listened to for years; they can be turned up loud without hurting your ears; vocal quality/timbre is unmatched IMO. (downside: they do reveal that some recordings are much better than others)

Anecdotally it feels like less effort to watch a long lecture on these speakers because the human voice is so clear; all frequencies are reproduced. IME listening to lectures on small tinny speakers produces a mild strain because your brain has to fill in the gaps of "missing words" (which it's very good at, but takes effort).

https://ohmspeaker.com/

I heard about them through Don Lindich, who previously recommended Mirage Speakers (now owned by Klipsch I believe):

http://soundadvicenews.com/2015/12/20/week-11-2015-the-incre...

Review reprinted on their website: https://ohmspeaker.com/reviews/walsh-3000-don-lindichs-sound...

If you have the room in your house, are patient, and have $2K, these are a no-brainer! It's a tremendous value. I use them every day, and put in an order for a second pair recently. I wrote this comment a year ago: https://lobste.rs/s/nt9kfo/writing_software_last_50_years#c_...

History: https://ohmspeaker.com/about/#history (again their advertising and web presence leaves something to be desired; they put all the effort into the product)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lincoln_Walsh

Reply on news.ycombinator.com