Recommendations
There are a small number of products or behaviors in my life that, in little ways, are life-changing. These are them.
5.11 Belt
I wear a belt every day. I used to replace them every 1–2 years, then I got this belt. That was 10 years ago. I have worn it > 95% of days since then and it shows nearly no signs of wear. I expect I will never buy another belt.
Micro Four Thirds
Micro Four Thirds is a camera + lens conector and system (like Canon EF or Fujifilm X). It's an open standard with many companies participating, although the de facto flagships are OM System (formerly Olympus) and Panasonic.
Its biggest advantage is its high photo quality : bag space required ratio. My general
photography archenemy is not having my camera with me; every time I have to settle for
my phone camera I question the point of continuing my photography hobby at all.
Since I switched to micro 4/3 I can bring roughly 2x the gear per bag volume. Or put another way, I can travel with half the bag volume. For me this means a larger setup fits in a 20L backpack, a camera + couple lenses fits in a 6L sling, and a camera + lens squeezes into a 2L chest pouch.
I'm using the Olympus OM-D E-M5 Mark III (Amazon / OM System)
Any Giant Mountable Power Strip
Mounting one of these on the bottom of every desk in the house, paired with any cheap cable basket, was the easiest form of cable management I've ever leveraged. Using a skinny frame and allowing for ~double the number of outlets you actually need means every cable can plug in where it is, instead of routing all cables to a central rat's nest whose residents constantly play musical chairs.
Noctua Fans
As a noise-sensitive person whose major hobbies are mostly in front of computers, silence is important to me in a gaming machine. Noctua makes giant, silent, brown fans. That's it.
Once I got one I could never switch back. My next build was centered around the giant fan-based heatsink. That build in that exact state has been purring for six years now. I haven't even opened it up for cleaning in three. I expect to reuse the same fans for my next build, whenever it is.
Jetz Scrubz Sponges
These lil buddies are easily a 10x–100x improvement over your traditional yellow and green sponges in all of these categories: lifespan before being damaged, lifespan before being permanently gross, tendancy to get temporarily gross, ease of cleaning once temporarily gross.
They're pricier, but I've found in the long run the life span makes them cheaper.
In Search Of
I'm in search of a life-changing product for these categories. Please email me if you have recommendations.
Water Bottle
I am in search of a reusable water bottle that can last 10+ years with the following qualities:
- Can last a week of no washing without getting funky
- Is less than ~9cm in diameter (i.e. a comfortable size for a Peak Design Everyday Backpack V1 20L cup holder)
- Holds about 1L
- Unlosable lid (i.e. attached to body, even when off)
- Ability to stay cold ~1 day preferred
The closest I ever came was the Thermos Element 5 32 oz, but I lost mine and the product has since discontinued.