this post was submitted on 04 Jan 2024
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Kitchen knives, definitely. A good knife is a fucking godsend.
Quality underwear (once you're an adult).
A good office chair (not necessarily one of those expensive as fuck mesh ones - I hate those... But something quality).
Also, I'd distinguish between pointlessly expensive and quality.
Idiots buy expensive gaming chairs. They feel like you're sitting on plywood. I don't care how many colors it has im going to be sitting on it for hours a day.
Put that into a good office chair, where they put research into making sure you're comfortable for that entire time
You can get open box, unused steelcase chairs on eBay for cheaper than "gaming" chairs, BTW. There's no reason to buy those abominations.
And, let me tell you, those chairs are worth it. I paid about $1200 for my Leap (I needed an extra tank one for a drafting table desk) and have had it 15 years now. 8-10 hours a day my job is to ensure that my chair does not float away using only my 200lb body mass. Not only is it still in good shape* I never have a sore back even after a long day of ballasting. Prior to owning the Leap I’d go through a $100 office store chair in a couple of years.
*the seat cushion was a little worn at the edges and the cushion not quite as supple so I replaced that this year.
I paid $230 for an open box Think v1 like five years ago, still use it everyday. I tried to upgrade to a v2, but the wife ended up with it instead.
I bought a boring looking office chair from an ergonomic furniture store about 10 years ago. I spent about $600 and it’s still just as good as it was when I bought it.
That’s a sharp contrast from the shitty $150 chairs I would keep buying from Costco and having to replace because the foam or seat started to collapse after a couple years.
When I started working at home due to COVID, I decided to buy a new chair. I was tired of having shitty chairs with "genuine leather" (aka leather spray paint) that would peel off over time. So I looked into chairs and landed on a nice gaming chair. Sure, it's ugly, but it's gotta be comfy right? Nope. Sitting in this thing for hours at a time has quite literally translated into a pain in my ass. I had to eventually get a seat cushion to sit on, because it was killing me otherwise.
In hindsight, I should have just gone with a traditional office chair.
Plus gaming chairs seem intended to be as uncomfortable to sit on as possible. They're horrendous. The cheapest Ikea office chair for 130€ is worlds better than the priciest gaming chair you can find, since they all share the car seat form which is supposed to protect you during impacts, not be good for your back.
Ironically as someone who is physically very large, (I’m well over average height, and like 250lbs) gaming chairs are some of the only chairs that I can comfortably spend hours sitting in. Every single ergonomic chair I’ve tried has been garbage, and I’ve tried the ultra expensive ones through my job. Hell, I’m sitting in one right now as I type this. But ergonomic chairs all suffer from the same issue, that they’re built with the average body size in mind.
I far prefer my Arozzi gaming chair, because it’s one of the only chairs I’ve used that has actually been comfortable for extended periods. The seat cushion is foam, but it has a mesh “sling” underneath which stretches. So I get the firmness from the foam, but the flex of the sling. So it doesn’t go flat over time like cheap foam-on-plastic/wood chairs, and it doesn’t fit my ass in weird ways like mesh ergonomic chairs. And the entire seat is designed with bigger people in mind, so the armrests are a little bit wider, the back is taller and actually reaches my head, etc.
Anything OXO is tops in the kitchen
I wouldn't buy their knives, though. Victorinox makes great knives for a reasonable price. I've had mine for ~5 years and I haven't had to sharpen it, although I do hone it every once in a while.
Victorinox are literally professional-quality knives. They’re used in restaurant kitchens around the world. They’re that nice middle ground between “so cheap they’re almost certainly made out of pig iron” and “so expensive that only niche hobbyists will pay for them.” They strike a nice balance, where they’re quality knives and they’re cheap enough that a restaurant can afford to keep dozens of them on hand without going bankrupt.
Man, I get they're not for everyone, but after having a mesh chair, I will never go back. Currently on my second one in about 8 years, so it's not exactly BIFL material but the first one lasted longer than a 'normal' chair ever did, and neither were particularly expensive, as quality chairs go (I paid ~$150 for the first and ~$225 for the second, got both during sales, so I'm not sure what the regular price would have been but I'd guess $300 or so).
Yeah, I get so uncomfortably sweaty on my back if I sit on leather for long
It's absolutely a choice of personal preference - I just wanted to be clear that the super trendy silicon-valley office chair company from a few years back isn't necessarily best for everyone.
Mesh chairs can be extremely comfortable if you run hot.
I agree that it's possible to not like the style of a Herman Miller Aeron chair, or to not find it comfortable (if it's the wrong size or not adjusted correctly), but you can't deny that they're incredibly durable (especially for mesh!). I've been sitting in mine daily for over a decade, and the mesh is still as tight and un-torn as it was the day I bought it -- and it had probably spent years in a trendy dot-com company office before that!
Shaving razor. I don't mean the big brand stuff but getting yourself something that isn't the cheapest available is a godsend. Stuff lasts you an entire month or two instead of going dull after 2-3 uses.
I actually say the cheapest option is buying a good quality Safety Razor, and then packs of blades for pennies each.
It's how I've shaved for years, and I'm never going back to the multi blade bullshit disposables.
I’m actually looking at going back as the safety razors don’t work as well for me as the multi blade stuff. I’ve been using double edges for probably 7-8 years now and when I have to use a disposable when traveling it just works so much better for some reason.
I'm actually surprised to hear this. To confirm, you mean the shave cuts closer with a multi blade? I can understand it being faster or easier to do, but I don't usually hear that the shave is better compared to a DE
Yup. I’m trying to figure out what I’ve been doing wrong. It may be a time thing. I don’t have a lot of time to shave, but I can go over an area multiple times in the same direction and a disposible will work better. I usually don’t go against the grain as it irritates the hell out of my skin so it’s with the grain and the disposable cuts closer.
It’s most likely a time thing since I only have time to do a single pass and quite often with no extra oils, creams, etc.
It could have to do with the make and model of the razor. Some have a more aggressive angle than others. There’s also the blades. Have you tried feather blades?
Yeah I usually do 2 passes as well using only a staging soap(no pre shave oil). If you prefer to do things faster, I will say a fixed blade is usually faster. I personally don't mind the extra time, considering it's cheaper and better for the environment to use a DE (so long as you don't give in to the urge to keep buying a bunch of razors, soaps lol)
I'd highly recommend the Leaf razor. It's like the best parts of a safety razor and a disposable razor combined. No guesswork on angles or anything.
Oh I'm pretty good with any razor just because I learned how to use cheap garbage razors.
This is big RE: the kitchen knives. Science/engineering has figured out how to produce good steel, so it actually does not cost much to produce a very capable, good knife. Maybe you had to spend a lot for a good knife 200 years ago, but not now.
I got a Mercer chef knife from a restaurant supply store years ago. Just looking it up, it costs <$25, and it's designed to be used all day by professionals. The often recommended victorinox fibrox is similar. They are easily sharpenable, and can do whatever you need.
I also have a ~$200 chef knife I got as a gift. It's super nice, but the only real non-cosmetic differences are that the edges of the back of the blade are rounded over to make it a little more comfortable to hold while choking up on it, and it has a long warrantee that includes sharpening.
But now is the question about longevity:
Will it hold a year of kitchen work and then be basically done or will it have near/equal/better resiliency than a proper forged non-mass produced knife?
Forging really isn't necessary for a good knife. What matters is the heat treatment, which isn't all that difficult.
Eh, it's really not that much money to get a half decent set. Learn to sharpen/hone a knife and learn how to use a knife properly and you can make even cheap knives last basically forever. Babish has a <$100 knife set that's serviceable as a professional set.
I'm very into cooking and have a $700 set of Wüsthof knives and they're awesome to use, but 100% unnecessary. They'd be no better than a dollar store knife if I didn't learn to take care of them. So many people drag knife edges sideways on cutting boards, cut on improper surfaces, cut in ways that dull the edge quickly, and then throw them in the dishwasher. Then after a year of not sharpening them replace them for more than the cost of a good sharpener.
With proper care/use and almost daily cooking I sharpen my chef's knife once a month, and my other knives once every few months. For $50 you can get a sharpening system with a guide that makes it almost impossible to fuck up and you'll never pay for knives again.
I mean, it's not going to break on me. I think there's enough debate on the "stamped vs forged" issue to show that it's not a huge difference that would be noticeable to most non-professionals. Maybe if I used my knives all day every day, I'd notice a difference in edge retention or ease of sharpening, but just making dinner ever night, I don't notice a difference.
Some of it is also going to be experience using it.
Like I have Rada and Cuisinart and Wustoff knives. The Rada is super cheap, and very sharp and holds an edge well. But its handle is pretty uncomfortable, and god forbid you're trying to chop a large cabbage in half, you'll hurt your hand on the top it's sooo narrow. But I can hit it with something and it's going to cut that cabbage the easiest because it's a narrow blade. The Cuisinart were a gift long ago, and really were just overpriced worse Rada. They have thin blades and don't hold an edge as well as the Rada. The Wustoff have the most comfortable handles to hold IMO, and nice thicker backs that make them hold up to lots of abuse - you can chop bones and such without worry. They also hold an edge pretty well, but also sharpen nicely. People also seem appreciative of Wustoff so you get some status when using them FWIW.
I actually think there are things that the cheap versions can work as well as the expensive ones, but in such a PITA way that you'll infrequently use them. Cameras are one of these things - pretty much any camera can take a picture, but try a low end Motorolla phone camera vs a mid range OnePlus or high end Samsung / iPhone and you'll have so much more frustration with the Motorolla you'll get a different phone to get a "camera that works". Same with ILC - you can get a Canon 4000D and it'll be capable of taking better technical shots than the high end smartphone. It'll just require quite a lot of skill. Put it next to a high end Canon R5 and you'll see how the quality of life improvements and everything else will make it a lot more fun to use.
I second the desk chair as a fat crippled IT worker that spends 10+ hours a day in a desk chair. I used to get a new $500ish chair every 3 or so years when it fell apart. This last time I saved up and dropped about 2.5k on a really nice chair rated for 24/7 use by someone much heavier than I am and it’s a life changer for my back, and this thing should last a lot longer
Really depends on what you need. I've been using a $500-600 24/7 rated office chair daily for over a decade and it's still as fantastic as the day I sat in it on the floor.
The $700 one I have at my other desk is good, but not quite as good as the cheaper one, but I didn't sit in it at the show room before getting it either.
Do you have a brand recommendation? I really need to replace my office chair
Yeah, the brand I went with was concept seating. I’m about 6’7” around 400 pounds - fat gut, big bones, decent amount of muscle - was a lineman before I got crippled. I am 100% a fatass, no excuse, but also big in other dimensions as well. Most chairs, even the big and tall ones from staples and the like, will get a bit of a gangster lean after a year or so of use as the chairs base plate slowly warps and tack welds come loose. You can grind it down and patch up the welds, but not much to be done about the plate warp. The concept seating chair I got has a massively thick base plate that seems like it will hold up to a lot more. One other thing I really like about the one I got is that it doesn’t have the most common failure point, the piston. Instead it has a fuck off huge solid threaded shaft that you use to screw the chair to the right height then lock it with a massive lock washer. Additionally it doesn’t recline or move in any other way other than to spin and roll. You can loosen bolts to adjust the fit then tighten them back up, but nothing is easily adjustable with levers and stuff which I love because those are just failure points and I’d much rather spend the time to set it up once Ave never worry about it again
Herman Miller or Steelcase.
I bought a pair of used (probably dot-com-era surplus) Herman Miller Aeron chairs for me and my wife over a decade ago for like $350 (don't remember if that was for the pair or per-chair; either way it was a bargain) and they're still going strong.
I bought a nice sharp knife for my Mom because hers were dull. She has a utensil drawer she throws all the knives on.
From the drawer, into cutting the cardboard box, then the veggies, and straight into the dishwasher. And people wonder why their knives go dull so quickly.
Tbf, I keep my crappy box-cutting, hole pokinng Ikea knives in the kitchen drawer too. But if you do that to my good knives, I will stab you (with the Ikea ones).
Absolutely, growing humans will almost never wear through clothing.
They're just going to grow out of them.
Your kids should absolutely suffer the indignity of uncomfortable and itchy underwear.
It's definitely that important. /s
What's special about quality underwear? I bought a bunch of fruits of loom ones which is pretty cheap but I never noticed it being and issue.
More comfortable and better able to wick away moisture... Even after a fair amount of exercise your underwear shouldn't feel damp.
Any brand recommendations to look in to?
For men's, blue sky and step one are both good options.
Thanks for this! I’ll look into it
Quality knives do not have to be super expensive. The trick is to maintain them. Honing of course, and unless you are a super enthusiastic home cook, a proper sharpening by a pro on Japanese wet stone twice a year is all it takes. That's like at most USD 20 in most places, probably less. Even mid range knives are fine, so long as you keep them sharp.
And you don't need a lot. In theory a good chefs knife and a good paring knife will do. In practice, you also want a bread knife and filleting knife, but you can start small.
As to kitchen knives....you don't need a big set with 10 different knives. Just buy a good chefs knife and a boning knife and a pearing knife and you're good for damn near everything you need.
Beyond that you can get a bread knife if you ever do up bread you'd need one for, and a cheese knife if you slice your own cheese. I highly recommend you get knives that the blade goes from tip to heel, and avoid ones with an unsharpened/flat heel area.
Then you want a decent wet stone to keep em sharp and learn to use it. Just get a combination 500/1000 (ish) grit and a 2000 grit and that's plenty for a kitchen knife. Then get a honing steel and you'll only have to sharpen your knives a couple times a year.
Also, if you're a home cook with no aspirations of becoming a professional chef or hosting huge meals all the time, no reason to break the bank buying something like a $200 chefs knife. Victorinox makes a perfectly fine dishwasher safe chefs knife for like $40. If you're happy with hand washing and drying a knife right after you use it, go for a high carbon knife instead. They get sharper and stay sharp longer but the added care may not be worth it to you.