Ask HN: What are some great items you own or want?
Is there anything you have that makes life better, or work easier?
Now I was never really a car person. I see all these people buying fancy cars. I tell ya, they’re money pits. Especially the German vehicles. I have family members that trade in every few years, rolling in their negative equity to the new car, and making car payments in perpetuity.
Yes sir call me an hypocrite, but after a friend picked me up in his Lexus, I want one. This was a Lexus GS sedan. Very comfortable, quality ride. Night and day different than my Corolla. I want to buy one and take it with me beyond my retirement and to the grave. And the Lexus is just a souped up Toyota anyway, so figure I can splurge for once.
I spoke with a Lexus dealer about purchasing a new IS, since it’s all they had on the lot. Despite a very high credit score and my house being paid off, they quoted me a > 7% interest rate. And they wanted me to pay $3000 for paint protection and some other useless stuff. No thanks, bunch of clowns. I got up to leave, and I couldn’t! I had given them my car keys because I thought about figuring out what my Toyota might be worth. But god damn they didn’t want to give me the keys back. The sales manager also came out trying to convince me why a 7% rate was more than good enough and how some stupid plastic film on the door that they’re charging me $800 is worth it (it’s not).
I haven’t made time to talk to a different lender. Might just wait a year and see if there’s more vehicle inventory with this god damn recession everyone keeps talking about.
I’m waiting for the stock market to crash so I can hopefully buy a fewer things for cheap. Where I live, cost of housing and goods is insane because of big tech companies. The bubble starting to burst is music to my ears. My former employer is one of them, and I pray they crash and burn with what a horrible work environment they’ve created. That’s another story.
2. The story about them not letting you leave is creepy af, sounds borderline illegal to me.
Get an account at PenFed, apply for a used car loan through them, and you can use it to pay for vehicles from dealers or independent third parties. PenFed is a credit union that anyone can join with a donation - you don’t have to be a former Pentagon employee.
Don’t use them for your primary banking needs though. Their tech is a dilapidated nightmare. Just use them for auto and home loans.
>Where I live, cost of housing and goods is insane because of big tech companies.
>My former employer is one of them,
This has real "you're not stuck in traffic, you are traffic" vibes
I live in the same house I bought in 1997. My vehicle is over a decade old. I save, sometimes invest. Im definitely not someone driving over bidding $100k-$500k on houses and paying in cash.
That being said, I am certainly not proud of where I used to work.
This is wishful thinking. It's next to impossible to buy at the bottom because you never know when the bottom is hit. Your best bet is to to average your costs over time. Pick a period, monthly, weekly, or whatever and buy a consistent amount of an index or your favorite blue chip stock(s). Over time you'll do better than trying to time the bottom or the top.
This is wishful thinking. It's next to impossible to buy at the bottom because you never know when the bottom is hit. Your best bet is to average your costs over time. Pick a period, monthly, weekly, or whatever and buy a consistent amount of an index or your favorite blue chip stock(s). Over time you'll do better than trying to time the bottom or the top.
First, bank line of credit, or credit union loan to cover the cost of the vehicle. Usually far better rates, no early payoff penalties, they cannot repossess the vehicle if you stop payments because the loan/credit line isn't secured against the vehicle. And a line of credit can also be used for other purposes.
Second, Hertz fleet sales. Two or three years old. Top notch quality. Aim for the higher end or boring vehicles (higher end Audio & BMW, Lexus, Toyota Avalon, Range Rover) and they will have low mileage. Kia and the budget cars always have high mileage even on the newer vehicles.
In forty years we have only ever bought one "new" vehicle, and that was the off-lease company car that my wife had through her job - so we owned the vehicle for five years, then bought it for a song.
We purchased 2018 Toyota Avalon with all the optional extras at the tail end of 2019, under 20K miles, for about $18K. We just paid it off last month. Our credit union was happy to give us the loan and very happy for us to pay it off early, and there was no early payoff penalty.
I don't own a laser cutter but I really want one so can experiment with lasering 3D prints.
I don't own a CNC machine but I really want one that can cut aluminum so I can make really strong structural parts and injection molds.
As for things that make life better or work easier ... I carry a Swiss Army "Climber" multitool. (In his Last Viridian Note writer Bruce Sterling eloquently describes a multitool as "a set of possible creative interventions in your immediate material environment"). When I go hiking I'll also take my Opinel #6 pocket-knife - it's light and has a really nice locking mechanism. It's great for quartering an apple or stripping the bark from a branch.
Also something I have 0 regrets buying and miss when watching anywhere else. Any sound system is also non my list (vs built in)
If burn in happens, which takes an incredible amount of hours with the same elements always on the screen, I’ll probably have gotten a lot of fun out of it anyway and won’t mind upgrading to the new model.
I want more plywood. So I can build more cabinets.
I want a new Jura. Because my current one is approaching 12 years.
I want to find a cheaper source of IPA. Because a Form3 WashL drinks more alcohol than an Irishman at the bar on payday.
I need every job I've ever had to understand that more management of my time, or more meetings to discuss the issue, doesn't get the problem solved any faster.
I need my dog to not have terminal cancer.
Great items we want or own are not necessarily the things that make life better or work easier.
Over a decade ago I was given a Rolex by my work. It doesn't make my life better or work easier. I actually need to get it cleaned because it doesn't keep great time. But it is a nice piece of design, and caused me to recognize quality and balance.
I love my bike, a 12 year old (maybe more) Kona Honky Tonk. It fits me perfectly, I love the timeless look of it. Does it make life better than any other bike? Probably not, but I have a strong attachment to it because it is unique and mine. Same with my mountain bike, but that's a custom job made for me, so a bit difficult to compare.
Artwork, stuff that I've made, or stuff I've been given.
I guess what I'm saying is that I don't think we can take the "life is better" without the attachment, which is often post-rationalized as to why we like something.
It's something that is front of mind for the work we're doing at https://soundmind.co - we're creating a sleep headband that improves the function of your brain during sleep. The design of something somebody is going to wear to bed is more important than many people initially think it is. In order to be successful, you have to create something that doesn't only work, and do the job, but also makes people feel the right way about how they put it on, what it feels, like, and how they become attached to it.
Between work, two kids and all the chores, life is just flying by. The days are long, but the weeks are short. I wish I had more time to enjoy life. To travel, to write code, and to do what I want, instead of doing what other people want or need.
That's all I want. Is that too much to ask for?
Not as good as my local barista, but damn close, and a hell of a lot cheaper in the long run. Great for dinner parties too where folks want a cappuccino or something after dinner.
https://ember.com/products/ember-mug-2?variant=3084397782638...
The Ember is ceramic, and apart from being a bit heavier, feels exactly like a normal mug.
Absolutely agree when I first got it as a gift it seemed like a solution looking for a problem, but actually using it has completely changed my perception of it.
I agree, the Thermos equipment is typically functionally rather than designerly, which I think the Ember is.
Not a fresh piece like they brought back by the Apollo missions, but it’s a verified lunar Meteorite nonetheless…
Northwest Africa 11444, melt breccia found in Mauritania in 2017
https://www.cassina.com/content/experience-fragments/cassina...
https://www.cassina.com/ww/en/products/lc4.html
Apparently it's a $6k lounge chair.
Looks like it cost $50-80 to build.