Material goods:

Ear plugs (silicone). Don't waste your money on noise-cancelling headphones, I have $200 ones and they don't compare to simple ear plugs. If you live in a moderately noisy area and you want peace and quiet, get them. They basically just make everything quiet. 24 from CVS = $10.

OpenMove by Aftershokz - Bone-conduction headphones. Perfect for running and just good for listening to music. They work, they're way easier to wear and more comfortable than earpods, I haven't had any issues since I got them about 8-months ago. Plus, you can wear them with earplugs for music + noise cancellation. $99

Cast iron skillet. This is more of a personal preference. I hate getting new kitchenware and then worrying about breaking it or getting it all stained. But these are super easy to clean and AFAIK practically never wear out. Also very cheap (iirc $15).

Software:

JetBrains tools. Basically the only software I can imagine spending $250 a year on, and it actually being worth it.

Patreon and Github sponsors. Not much (I think $15 a month total). It's sad how few sponsors a lot of these projects have. I'm not rich, but I can afford donating $5/month here and there. I really think the world would be a better place if more people donate to open source and content creators they like.

Second cast iron. We use ours daily - and it's a handmedown from my grandmother who also used daily for 20+ years. Once seasoned properly, it is non-stick, cleans easy. We just be sure to put a little oil on it after each use. Really the only skillet you need.

I would like to throw in a strong rec for carbon steel.

I was (and to a degree still am) a big cast iron guy, but I find that these days I use my carbon steel pans much, much more frequently. They share many of the benefits of cast iron in terms of durability, oven safety, high temp cooking, natural non-stick, etc. However they can be much, much lighter and their heating properties make them superior for many, and I would argue most (but not all!), applications.

These days if someone said they needed 1 quiver killer pan, I would unquestionably recommend a carbon steel skillet over a cast iron one.

If you're someone who likes using cast iron, I think you are doing yourself a major disservice by not trying carbon steel.

I bought a set of carbon steel pans and my cast iron ones fell into complete disuse.

Especially carbon steel crepes pans (https://www.debuyer.com/en/poele-a-crepes-mineral-b-1472.htm...) are completely unbeatable. I have two of them and I can feed a small crowd of family and friends faster than they can eat. Nothing sticks if you take proper care.

The best thing, they are dirt cheap.

Same here. After getting rid of our scratched teflon pans, we bought large and small de Buyer carbon steel pans. We have 2 cast iron pans also, but barely use them anymore. The lighter carbon steel ones are much more versatile.

We do, however, still use our cast iron griddle for making bacon in the oven. Comes out perfect every time.

For anyone reading who is new to carbon steel, the trick to non-stick cooking is making sure the pan gets hot. And if something does stick? It pretty much wipes right off while the pan is still hot.

Another trick is to use sharp metal utensils. If you use wood it will just smear stuff on the pan, not helping at all.

By complete accident my spatula is also from DeBuyer (https://www.debuyer.com/en/flexible-turner-slotted-fkofficiu...). It is very sharp and it easily scrapes anything that dares to stick (due to my mistake of not getting it hot enough), without smearing it.

I am not very experienced in the world of cooking but don't most chefs recommend _not_ using metal utensils on metal pans? I've never heard of carbon steel prior to today so is it special in some way?

Almost all woks and sometimes flat top grills in restaurants are made from carbon steel. Flipping burgers with metal spatulas has never been a problem for cooks. Same thing here. Although I've never really had to scrape mine with a metal utensil before. Just turn food. Seriously things rarely stick, unless I'm impatient about preheating.

Pros are they can take very high temperatures, you can be rough with them, are non-stick when seasoned and at a proper temperature (like cast iron), and much lighter than cast iron.

Cons are you don't want to cook liquidy acidic foods in them that often (removes the seasoning off the pan), they can rust easily if not seasoned, and require slightly more maintenance then stainless steel or Teflon pans. Basically you're not washing these with dish soap. Just a rinse, maybe some scrubbing with kosher salt, and heating it on the stove to dry and sterilize it.

Keeping it lightly oiled when cooking or storing it helps too. They're a great work-horse pans. We got ours after having to throw out our last scratched Teflon pans. Making scrambled eggs in carbon steel was hard at first, but over time as a better seasoning developed and figuring out the right temperatures to use, I now get the same results as I use to in Teflon.

I've always heard to not use metal on Teflon. I think metal on metal is OK.

This sounds good, but I think I need to recalibrate my cheapness scale. $75 for an 8" fry pan isn't what I'd call cheap.

Maybe this one? https://debuyer-usa.com/collections/blue-steel/products/blue...

Aha. Thanks.

The big win for cast iron is its higher heat capacity. It takes longer to heat up, but once hot, the temperature drops much less when you add cold / room temperature food to fry, resulting in crisper and less soggy output.

Heat capacity is not a straight win, it's a double edged sword. Like you said temp drops less when food goes in, and that can be great in certain applications. However, you also lose a lot in the way of temperature control. The slow rate at which it heats up and cools down means finer temperature adjustments are much harder to do.

In my experience the searing/frying performance of carbon steel is not an issue for the overwhelming majority of things I cook, ergo I don't really care that cast iron has a higher capacity. The tighter temperature control, on the other hand, is always nice.

I still use my cast irons sometimes for things where that heat capacity is really nice (searing a huge steak or something like that), but I use carbon steel much more frequently.

It also depends on your stove. Mine’s electric and alternates the heating element on and off to try to maintain the desired temp. The heat capacity helps to smooth out temperature fluctuations but if I had a nice gas stove I’d probably switch to carbon steel.

Which is also why a good carbon steel wok is a nive tool to own. My son bought me one a couple years ago, it gets used for more than just stir fry.

I'm a recent member of the carbon steel club, and I like it so far. I'm really loving the carmelization on my cheese omlette!

They also have better compatibility with glass cooktop’s as they are much smoother and less likely to scratch.

I bought a cheapy Lodge skillet -- 12", I think? -- a while back because I succumbed to the cast iron craze and really wanted to try cooking on induction. I figured I'd just upgrade to a bigger skillet when necessary.

It's now like 7 years later and my skillet shows no signs of giving up, and I don't think buying yet another kitchen device would make my wife happy. Should have gone with a bigger skillet to begin with.

Also, induction cooktops are amazing.

7 years? It's still brand new!

Just wait until your kids get their hands on it. Mine is literally inherited from somebody's grandmother and it's awesome. Though sadly, its sibling died doing what it loved -- making bacon.

Also got a Lodge (two now, as you say, needed a bigger one as well). Took an angle grinder to it with an abrasive pad wheel installed. Smoothed it right up.

Why did you need to grind the Lodge?

I did the same thing to mine. They have a rough surface when you buy them unlike old cast iron pans, apparently - though I don’t know if they’re smooth from use or came that way.

In the glory days, cast iron pans were milled perfectly smooth on the cooking surface.

Lodge casts their pans without surfacing, so you have a porous surface. I have a lodge and it's okay, but I prefer my antique Wagner when I can. It sticks less and it also has been in my family a really long time.

What do you like about induction cooktops?

Everything! Boiling a pot of water is twice as fast if not more. More control over temperature. No risk to burn yourself, kitchen towels or other unwanted items. They never need deep-cleaning due to spilled food being burned onto the glass, one wipe with a cloth and it looks like new.

One drawback is they are often bundled with ridiculous touch-controls rather than knobs, even though that shouldn't need to be the case. You can find those without.

I don't own one, but from what I've seen from friends the major benefit is safety.

Youll probably want stainless steel or enamled cast iron for anything with fond.

Anytime you are cooking something acidic, tomatoes, vinegar, wine. I try not to deglaze meat brownings into sauce in cast iron.

A stainless steel dutch oven is a great universal pan as well. For a "first pan" I'd probably suggest tri ply stainless over cast iron. The main thing I like about cast iron more is the pan temperature not dropping when I put something on it, so its great for reverse searing baked steaks inside the house. Most other things I find functionally equivalent in stainless and cast iron, including browning meat before I cube it or break it apart. (brown cuts of meat and ground meat whole!)

https://www.target.com/s/tri+ply+clad?Nao=0

https://www.walmart.com/search/?query=tri%20ply%20clad

> Anytime you are cooking something acidic, tomatoes, vinegar, wine. I try not to deglaze meat brownings into sauce in cast iron.

I wouldn't simmer an acidic sauce in cast iron for hours, but this is poor advice. Deglazing will not damage the seasoning on cast iron pan once it is properly seasoned (and maintaining that is easy, contrary to lots of what you hear).

Unlike to your experience, I don't find them functionally equivalent for a number of things, which is why I have both (and enamel cast, much better than almost all clad steel dutch ovens that aren't really expensive, as most of them don't clad far up the sides)

I've had one dish, with multiple deglazings, that tasted funny after. Ill admit it may have been in my head, or the pan was light on seasoning. Tasted almost like the metallic taste of Hoegaarden.

I have both, and I use 5-ply fully clad more than I use cast iron. My 9 qt is bottom clad only, but the lack of clad up the sides hasnt been an issue. The bottom surface is hot which is what needs to be hot on the stove. The sides arent getting hot spots in the oven, during brazing and stews.

https://www.calphalon.com/cookware/cookware-by-product-type/...

YMMV obviously. I've got a 12" cast skillet that has had literally many hundreds of deglazings done in it, never once an issue. I suspect mostly when people have a taste issue in a cast iron pan it's because they've read nonsense about never using soap on it or whatever, and haven't cleaned it properly.

I did once ruin a seasoning making a tomato sauce, which was a way to learn about acidic interactions - but that was over hours.

FWIW I had a 5 qt like that calphon but found I was always using my enamel cast one instead, so gave it away.

One thing I really like about the cast iron skillit is you can treat it roughly and use it anywhere. Mines been in fire pits, on bbq, stovetop, oven, even a bread oven. Handles temperature changes without issues (unlike enamel and some clad) is unbeatable to sear things. Doesn't care what tools you use in it. Nonstick property is pretty good (better than steel pan, worse than teflon) and will still be pretty good in 20 years.

It could have been over a long period of time, more than an hour. Im not trying to spread misinformation, ive just "ruined" (I still ate it) a dish before, or imagined it.

I'm not discounting your experience, I was pushing back on the idea that you shouldn't deglaze in a cast iron pan.

Deglazing itself is a very fast process, usually seconds. If you are doing something over an hour, it's likely simmering. If you did that in a sauce that was still acidic (rather than had some acid thrown in to deglaze or whatever) then I could see that being a problem.

I gotcha. Honestly, I mostly like deglazing in stainless steel because I can see what I'm doing. I can tell I've scraped the brown off. And I prefer deglazing in stainless to enameled, because it feels like less effort.

I'm not super careful about not using acidic things in cast iron, and I do deglaze in it on occasion, it's just a little harder imho. I can see how my original comment reads.

Slightly off-topic, I’m very interested in your “metallic taste of hoegaarden” description.

Metallic taste/smell in beer is a pretty significant fault traced to untreated wwater, old equipment, or lipids in the malt.

There’s lots of stuff in Hoegaarden (and witbiers in general) that can be unexpected or off balance (e.g. coriander, lactic acid, orange zest).

Metallic, at Hoegaardens scale, would be quite unexpected

It has to be one of the ingredients. Maybe only cilantro people can taste it? It's a beer I like that leaves a strange taste in my mouth afterwards.

I'd second this. I've never tasted anything metallic in a Hoegaarden

Sounds more like dirty lines...

out of a bottle

huh. well then I'm also in the camp of never having experienced it. It wasn't skunked?

It's a very faint aftertaste, and its all Hoegaarden. One of the flavors leaves a "just had metal in my mouth" sort of feel after drinking it.

I put quite a bit of effort into doing things "right" when I tried to board the cast-iron train. Pan was pre-seasoned, but I did one of those elaborate multi-step seasoning rituals online, using the expensive oil they recommended and everything, just in case. Horrible, smoke all over the house, smelled for a couple days. Everything sticks anyway, like I've never seen on any other kind of pan. Suitably-gentle cleaning (according to cast iron fans online) takes forever because there's so much crap on it after every use. Re-seasoned it again after a bit, thinking I'd screwed up. No improvement, everything sticks. My wife refuses to cook with it at all, and I'm pretty sure just seeing it in the drawer annoys her.

Oh, and if a tomato or anything else somewhat-acidic touches it then the entire dish will taste like blood. So that's fun.

It's alright for cooking steak (preheating for a few minutes on high is a must, though, it's gotta be terrifyingly hot or everything will stick, including steak), and if I drown things in scorching-hot oil or fat (say, from bacon) they they don't stick much, but that sure isn't healthy. The pan has zero inherent non-stickness, only what it acquires from whatever lake of oil I put in it.

They never get as non-stick as a Teflon coating, but over time they’re usable for pretty much everything.

Screw babying it. Get a chain mail cleaner for it (and you definitely can use soap), use the pan often and especially when you’re doing something oily, and soon enough you’ll use it a lot.

I'm going to second this. I don't understand why people keep buying cast iron when steel has the same core traits(durability primarily) but so many more upsides. Thinner, lighter, heats faster. Steel is where it's at IMO. Enameled for anything acidic otherwise your seasoning is gone.

>otherwise your seasoning is gone.

And iron leached into whatever your eating. I know thats considered in the myth category, but I have at least one dish Ive prepared that ended up tasting pretty metallicy. Could be expectations manifesting reality.

I think people get turned off to steel when they put a new pan on the stove, dont let it heat up, bake something to it, and its an arm and a leg to clean the first time. Unlike nonstick, it has a bit of a learning curve. Cast iron doesnt show stains the same way, and you can use a chain mail scrubber. Scratching steel does slightly change its nonstick properties, so dont use steel wool.

I have a cast iron skillet and a stainless steel skillet, and I almost always use the stainless. The cast iron almost always only comes out when I need a second skillet.

When I'm searing something, I even prefer that it sticks slightly more to the stainless as it typically releases when it's done anyways -- and my anecdotal experience is that I get a better sear from the surface of the meat sticking to the skillet more firmly.

Agreed on the stick, I prefer it.

Cast iron gives additional radiant heat because it's black, so if I am cooking steak in the oven I pretend like it gives me more uniform temperature increase than depending on conductive and convective heat. If I am browning meat and not baking it after, Ill use steel.

I like cast iron for potatoes too. Hashes. Not sure why. Holds temp better?

Professional cooks swear by carbon steel pans and they're surprisingly not that expensive.

Professional cooks use a ton of stuff, and not all of it would be what they choose at home.

Carbon steel is great, requires a little upkeep, but part of what makes it great is how it works with a really high heat source; the stoves in a restaurant behave very differently than your home one.

An extreme case of this is woks. There is very little you can do at home to reproduce the effect of an 80k BTU burner and a carbon steel wok.

I agree, 15k BTU is not 80k, but with a little patience on preheating (I don't have waiting customers) I still enjoy working in the wok I own. Also, it is not a restaurant sized wok, but for flash frying chopped food, or getting a nice quick sear, it works great.

not a perfect solution but, https://www.wokmon.com/

Yeah I bought one during lockdown and it's great and lower-stick than stainless steel. Better in every way basically.

I tried cast iron but gave up on it. Too bulky and heavy to lump around and a pain in the ass to clean.

Food stuck to the (Lodge) pan no end as well, even when I spent money on all the seasoning oils and seasoned it.

I'd rather just buy a new cheap modern pan every year. Chuck them in the dishwasher, job done.

I received a Griswold cast iron skillet from my grandmother, who received it from her mother (my great grandmother) many years ago. True heirloom, I cook with it nearly every day and it still looks and performs beautifully.

We have a couple cast irons. When I was first introduced to them I was pretty turned off by the idea of not doing the same soap and water scrub process I do with everything else.

But handling them now is just part of the ritual.

The biggest change I’ve had since starting using them a couple years ago is moving from the ball scrubby disposable two a Chainmaile ringlet style scrubby.

Using the chain mail has a different feel it slides easier and it washes clean much easier.

I recommend checking out the chain mail style scrubbers for cast-iron.

> I was pretty turned off by the idea of not doing the same soap and water scrub process I do with everything else.

You can mostly do the same soap and water scrub as everything else. Assuming you use a reasonably modern dish soap an not something harsh, if you don't leave it soaking in the soapy water it will be fine.

Yep the “don’t use soap on cast iron” is a holdover from older soaps that had lye in them that could strip the seasoning (hence why you can use lye to reseason your pan).

If your seasoning is perfect (it isn’t) you could in theory leave it to soak too since it would be completely encased in the polymerized fat.

Yeah, the "don't soak it rule" isn't because it will explode if it's underwater for long, just that there are inevitably gaps and it doesn't do you any good. Just get it in there, have a good scrub, and rinse off.

Ah okay. Thank you those in the chain.

Staub iron cookware has an enamel, so it does not require seasoning nor does it have issues with tomatoes or other acidic things. I use their cocotte, since I often put things in the oven but it's also good for e.g. steaks at max temperature.

Enamel cast iron e.g. Staub/Le Creuset or their more reasonably priced alternative is great ... but it does not function the same as raw cast iron.

You don't get damages on the enamel when cooking a steak?

Same here. In addition I like the fact that if some of the materials get absorped in the food for some reason, it's just .. iron.

Contrast with fraying teflon (which you should immediately discard, of course) that we ought not ingest.

Alright, just got some of these cast iron skillets from costco. How am I supposed to use (or not use) them?

I used to think noise-cancelling headphones were a gimmick. I'm also pretty indifferent to audio quality, so I never expected to buy expensive headphones. But I had an opportunity to try out one of the best options available right now, and the noise cancelling performance blew me away.

With the closed-back cups sealing over my ears, and the noise cancelling active, I can only just hear normal-volume conversation next to me. When also playing music, I can't hear any normal sounds around my house. With white noise and earplugs as well, I literally can't hear a baby screaming.

5 years ago, I got a pair of Sennheiser over-the-ear noise-cancelling headphones for long flights after realizing how loud I had the volume turned up on earbuds. I'm happy enough with them, but they're too plasticy for the price and rather bulky for traveling (so I'm considering Airpods Pro), but on a flight, noise canceling is absolutely not a gimmick.

I wouldn't give up on Sennheiser without looking at their new offerings just quite yet. I just bought a noise cancelling over the ear pair from them (after returning my XM4s) and their build quality is excellent - metal, leather, high quality plastic.

Just an FYI here for those unaware, but Sennheiser recently sold off their consumer headphone division [0], so the future of Senn's great headphones is very much a mystery at the moment

[0] https://www.theverge.com/2021/5/7/22424367/sonova-buys-sennh...

The model I have is the PXC 450. It does look like recent ones have gotten better.

Have you looked at Audio-Technica noise-cancelling headphones? Better sound than the popular Bose ones, but with a cheaper price tag.

I had AKG headphones. I noticed a difference when noise cancellation was on, but there was a weird humming sound and they didn't work very well for me. Also, they're very bulky and you can't wear them while sleeping.

> With white noise and earplugs as well, I literally can't hear a baby screaming.

That's one benefit of headphones: if the earplugs aren't enough, you can do earplugs + headphones for ultimate noise-cancellation.

Got some Sony XM4 noise cancelling. Totally worth the $200 for them and they work great with zoom.

Which headphone did you try? That sounds amazing

Can't speak for OP, but I recently bought a pair of Sony WH-1000XM4 headphones and I'm pretty impressed. They don't make me feel the pressure in my ear like some do, and the noise suppression is just about magic. My wife has to text me from downstairs to tell me my kids are fighting even when it's just outside the door to my office, because I can't hear them at all (and I don't turn up the volume on my music). Just turning them on without any music makes it hard to understand someone talking in the same room.

I have these same ones and AirPod Max as well. Both really amazing for focus, deep thought and traveling.

Which do you prefer? I’ve been rocking the Bose QC35 II’s for years but am wondering if in-ear solutions can compete now for commuting on foot (metro, buses, etc.)

I loved my XM3. They eventually broke, and I replaced them with the AirPod Max as I’m all-in on Apple gear. Returned those within a week. The weight, the size, and the ANC side effects made it unusable for all-day wear. Some people love them, but I was disappointed. I’m back to XM, with newfound appreciation.

You can try both for a week, and return the set that doesn’t fit into your life. Both Apple and Sony can handle a refund.

> traveling

For sure, that moment when you power them up on the airplane it's heavenly.

What's the magnitude of improvement over the standard option (bose quietcomfort)?

XM3, my understanding is that the noise cancelling performance is similar to the XM4.

AirPod Max noise cancellation is pretty stellar.

That kind of headphones really was a significant upgrade for me. Being able to listen to something while still having environmental awareness is awesome.

I do wish the max volume for the aftershokz where higher, and they didn't have the play/pause button trigger a redial when double pushed. I've accidentally done that multiple times (Including scaring my parents with a middle of the night call, due to 9 hours time difference.)

If you never use them for calling, you can go into Bluetooth settings and disable Calls/Phone access for that device. At least, this is possible on Android.

Silicone earplugs will increase the volume of the Aftershokz.

But remove the advantage of having situational awareness :)

A pleasant property of the cast iron skillet is that I can preheat it to an exact temperature in the oven. To make popcorn I drop some ghee in it and put it in and set the preheat to 450. The second the oven comes to temperature I pull it out, put it on medium high add the corn and cover and shake occasionally. Usually have from zero to at most five unpopped kernels this way.

The preheat in the oven trick is good for steaks too.

Aftershokz have transformed my relationship with cycling. I've always been hesitant to cycle with in ear headphones for safety reasons.

Aftershokz are perfect.

I agree. Aftershokz changed my running completely. I pair them with my garmin fenix and no longer have to deal with wires or being isolated from my environment.

> I hate getting new kitchenware and then worrying about breaking it or getting it all stained.

Cast iron is awesome but I now have the reverse problem, constant fear I’m going to crack my counter top.

> cast iron skillet

Personally I think these are a waste of money unless you live in a house. Trying to season one of these smoked up our apartment for hours. Apparently we didn't do it right because it's still sticky even with oil, but there's no way we're going through the headache again until we have a house.

I used cast iron in my apartment for five years. My range was even electric.

The cast iron community of the internet overthinks its care and usage. To season, just use it. To use it, don't restrict yourself (some recommend against tomato sauce because of the acidity, for. example). To clean it, get yourself as scrubber [1] to remove the high spots and wipe the remaining residue with a paper towel. Done.

It's a hearty hunk of metal that's been in kitchens for generations. It can withstand a lot.

[1]: https://www.amazon.com/Cleaner-Stainless-Chainmail-Scrubber-...

This is so true. I guarantee my ancestors out in the woods of Pennsylvania didn't spend any time deliberately seasoning their skillets. They were tools to be used, not decorations to be delicately and painstakingly maintained.

So much this. Forget all the weird voodoo rituals and what-not. Clean the skillet, and fry a pound of bacon (or two) in it. Now it's seasoned. It isn't much more complicated than that.

Animal fats are better than vegetable oils. Vegetable oils polymerize into a sticky substance. You don't really need to season a cast iron pan. Just keep it oiled, use a metal spatula, and wash after use(deglaze if needed). The metal spatula helps keep the cook surface smooth.

Flax seed oil works great for seasoning. http://sherylcanter.com/wordpress/2010/01/a-science-based-te...

There's unfortunately no published scientific research on what oil should be used for seasoning, but this source is pretty convincing to me that flaxseed is bad:

https://www.reddit.com/r/castiron/comments/5owtnm/why_i_dont...

I am about to move into a new-construction apartment in California which means no gas stove.

Ditched my cast iron in anticipation because the one I have has a rough bottom that would definitely scratch up the glass cook top of the electric stove.

Since I ditched the cast iron, honestly haven't seen much of a difference in how well I can cook things using a regular nonstick pan - my main use is cooking/frying up chicken thighs so the skin is nice and crispy.

Buying the cast iron did give me the original inspiration to start making these recipes though.

Really the only advantage of cast iron is it is cheap, lasts forever, and you can bake with them. Other than that any pan works about the same. Your choices are about a compromise of weight, how long it lasts, and price. I do once make in my cast iron once in a while, but other than that any pan I have works. I keep the cast iron on the stove though because it is my favorite.

Regular non-stick works just as well for about 3 years or so (very much depends on how much you use it, and how careful you are), then the non-stick wears out and they stick worse than anything else.

I have stainless pans that work just as well as cast iron, but they cost more. They end up spending most of the time hidden away but I do use them and won't get rid of them.

Yeah—-I bake sourdough and cornbread in our skillets, sometimes one upside down over the other for steaming.

I cant recommend this enough for great heat in small spaces. Extremely portable as well.

https://www.ikea.com/us/en/p/tillreda-portable-induction-coo...

We use a couple cast-iron skillets on our glass-topped electric-coil stove (likely from the 90s?). One skillet has a bump on the bottom that I haven’t filed off yet. The glass surface seems fine, but if you’re renting it makes sense to be cautious.

> would definitely scratch up the glass cook top of the electric stove.

I'm imagining the size of your phone case right now.

You can just use it like a normal, heavy duty pan. The difference in use and flavor between seasoned and unseasoned is pretty minor, IMO.

The real advantage is that they're so cheap relative to their utility. They heat evenly and stand up to incredible abuse at a fraction of the cost of a normal pan.

Note that seasoning cast iron has nothing to do with flavor. It refers to the coating that develops after seasons of use. The primary benefit is that it prevents rust. A very nice side effect is that food tends to stick to it less. Seasoning is best accomplished in a controlled environment, but it's also fine to just start using it (with oil) and lightly clean without soap after use. Eventually, it might start to develop a useful coating in key areas.

I steam clean it (hot water + hot pan + stiff brush), then back on the stove to dry off and apply a light layer of avocado oil.

Leave it shiny on your stove and ready for next use.

The important thing with cast iron is to clean it immediately, before you've started eating. But this is actually pretty easy because steam cleaning is so effective and cast iron is really durable.

It takes about 30 seconds to clean it and rub with oil.

Or let it cool down, and use chain mail.

For seasoning to form the oil needs to turn into plastic. A wet layer of oil that isnt heated wont do that.

Heating evenly is a benefit of aluminum not iron.

Clad steel is a nice middle ground, either with aluminum or copper. More even heat distribution, long lasting without the care regimen of cast iron. They arent expensive either.

Huh, TIL. I had assumed the thickness of the iron would have lead to better heating, but it looks like both aluminum and steel heat much more evenly.

I still argue that the care regimen is overblown, you can scrub with soap and a sponge and as long as you're not just grinding at the surface it will be fine. You can soak it, it's fine. We treat our cast iron like any other pan and it's really not a big deal - we just add appropriate oil if we took off too much of the bonded oil the last time we cooked.

Totally agree. They are not easy to clean and need to season properly with a bit of oil and mine always smells of cooking oil that is stuck on it and never comes off how much I wash it.

Edit: The cooking oil we mostly use is Ghee (clarified butter) to cook vegetarian dishes on our cast iron skillet.

Baking soda will remove the polymerized oil. What type of oil you use is important. Animal fats don't polymerize like most vegetable oils do. If your pan smells like the last thing you cooked wash it, dry it with heat, and wipe a thin layer of oil to store it.

A metal spatula is necessary as well. Plastic and rubber aren't stiff enough to scrape the cook surface smooth.

I also use salt as an abrasive for stubborn bits.

I love my cast iron skillet for some things (and have a house), but I can’t see how having a house made the seasoning process any different than if I’d done it it my old apartment. It smoked the same and the kitchen exhaust fan did an OK-not-great job of pulling it outside, just like it would have in my old apartment kitchen which also had a range vent that went outside (and frankly worked better than my house one which is downdraft due to fancy-kitchen design shenanigans).

I think the main difference might be that in your house, if you season a pan and end up with lots of lasting smoke everywhere, or even an errant fire alarm, you own it so you can elect to not care. In an apartment, neighbors might complain.

> my old apartment kitchen which also had a range vent that went outside

Not everyone lives in an apartment with a range vent that goes outside. I've personally never seen that in my life.

Not everyone’s house does either, though (making it not a house vs apartment thing).

You can get enameled ones you don't need to season. Le Creuset makes expensive examples. I love mine. I like that works well in both the oven and stove.

I'm guessing it is a vent hood over the stove you are missing in the apartment? That allows us to season our cast iron skillets without any headache.

Picked up a chainmail-like "dish rag" (it is truly just a swatch made up of links of metal) that beautifully cleans the skillet after meals but preserves the seasoning.

Yeah, iron skillet is our go-to now.

Do you not have a standard hood over your stove? Seasoning has never caused issues for me in the 4 or so places I've lived and done this. Usually keeping the oven door shut fixes 98% of the issues, and the fan above on high sucks up anything else.

Live in an apartment and it’s not been a problem, if it was still sticky you probably used too much oil. And once seasoned you can just quickly wash with soap, dry, very lightly coat and with oil and toss on the burner till it starts to smoke.

> Personally I think these are a waste of money unless you live in a house

They’re not, and if seasoning is a concern, you can get preseasoned; you should almost never need to reseason with proper care.

How does the ownership structure of your residence affect your ability to clear smoke from a room, or your ability to effectively season a cast iron skillet?

The apartments that my friends and I live in have small windows and only on one side, and one door. Not to mention that venting smoke out into a hallway can just trigger hallway smoke alarms.That's not really a scenario where I want to deal with a lot of smoke.

In houses (notice I never said anything about ownership, don't know why you brought that up), you can open up windows on all sides and generally have at least two doors, which allows for much better ventilation than what's possible in the apartments that I've been in recently.

Apartments are leased - this is what I was responding to. You're right that I created a false duality of apartment=lease vs house=owned.

Some apartments you can't open the front door or the smoke will set off the whole building. You also have a harder time turning off fire alarms since the building doesn't want people disabling them as they are all entwined.

No it's not. It's not that easy. It's actually hard and annoying to evict someone. You can stay in an apartment for months in California while paying no rent.

Three days of non-payment does it in Iowa. Not suggesting it's right, but that's how it is.

Depends on the state

I never heard of bone-conduction headphones. They seem very interesting and I'd love to try them. Are they OK for calls, or only music? And also - is there any health issue I should be aware?

Just in case the word "conduction" triggered the question about health risk: in this case it just means the sound is transferred by direct contact of the resonator on the speaker with your cheekbone (well, as direct as going through the skin can be). There's no electrical signal going into your body, just vibration moving through your skull directly to the inner ear, rather than via air into the air canal.

Music is actually pretty unsatisfying at any volume above background levels in an otherwise-quiet room, since any significant bass through the conduction 'phones actually makes them jump out of contact with your head, resulting in a buzz you can feel + hear. Calls, podcasts, YT videos, etc. all work great.

Yes, I understood that is through direct contact. My question is: doesn't the vibration affect your bones?

How are they for tinnitus, I wonder. Tinnitus doesn’t really like closed back headphones, or generally pressure on your drums.

Got massively worse after a few days of use for me. I also used them with earplugs because I didn't understand tinnitus.

What do you do to listen to music? I try to use some Edifier desktop speakers during the day for most things, but seem to be okay with some airpod pro use. I kind of need that for walking the cat and sometimes to distract myself doing chores.

I sometimes allow APM's but I have to keep the volume really low and the duration short. I probably shouldn't use them at all but I miss the richness of music too much.

I really liked the Airpod Pros until I started to associate their use with worsening tinnitus. Now I'm trying big headphones with no ANC. But I definitely don't have any solutions.

Why was the earplugs + bone-conducing headphones bad for tinnitus? Sounds like a good combination on paper - block out external noises with the plugs and play white noise on headphones to cover tinnitus. I currently use noise-cancelling phones for that, but of course the earplugs will do better for noise cancelling.

This is just conjecture, but I think tinnitus is caused by vibration of the inner ear that doesn't come from the eardrum. The inner ear is designed to be resonant for audio frequencies, and the earplugs contain them, maybe too much. Just N=1 longitudinal study involving an early stage career and now way too much podcast listening. Covering tinnitus doesn't make it better. Covering the 'noise' is futile. The best you can do is try not to make it worse. You'll never get relief. But you can achieve surrender.

I have been (just barely) covering my tinnitus for the past ~9 years and I'm better off for it. The sound that I replace it is much less annoying than the tinnitus sound. I believe Tinnitus Retraining Therapy is about doing something like that.

This was actually the intent of my question, my initial phrasing was confusing.

I was asking if by not exposing the inner ear to sound pressure, but instead vibration through the bone, it would do less damage.

I wasn’t looking to cover tinnitus, but to avoid making it worse.

What I’m saying is that bone conduction, including tight seals of earbuds, or even use of earplugs in certain environments (roadies etc), might actually be far worse than the sound coming into the ear canal by air conduction. This seems to be my experience.

Bone conduction headphones are kind of like the opposite of noise cancelling. I like them primarily for sport use. Whether trail running, MTB, or in the gym, bone conduction headphones do not block outside noise. So wearing them I am more aware of my environment, which is important if people are coming up behind me on a trail.

They are better for calls than music. I didn't find any health risks when i looked into them. Anecdotally my ears feel better since switching to them

How do they work for audiobooks/podcasts in noisy environments? (traffic mostly)

Not always great. A good rule of thumb: could you easily hear someone talking next to you at a normal speaking volume? If so, you'll be able to hear with the headphones just fine. If not, you probably won't.

My Aftershokz are good for spoken word in noisy/trafficy environments unless I'm inside a car at freeway speeds, or operating a lawn mower. They could work in a car if they got a little louder.

Just be aware that they make it practical to tell that something is happening around you, but with spoken word you'll usually have to pause to tell what is happening around you. I.e., I can't understand what someone is saying to me if a narrator is already speaking into my ear.

Cast iron is so extremely versatile and durable. I’ve had this one iron skillet for 23 years and it just seems to get better with age. I would also highly recommend enameled iron cookware like pots and pans from Le Cruset (it doesn’t have to be that brand though, there are plenty of excellent off-brand alternatives that are just as good and a lot cheaper).

As for headphones, I obsess over the Sony MDR-7506s, which to my ears are the best sounding headphones ever made. These are old-school wired studio monitors and they outperform any hyped “high-end” overpriced headphones. They have a neutral, accurate sound and are surprisingly inexpensive. You can still get then new for about $100. They are my secret audio weapon.

Oh and I love Jetbrains tools. I specifically use RubyMine quite a bit. VSCode (with the Ruby and Rails plugins) is great, but RubyMine is just very mature and polished, and it feels professional.

What brand ear plugs do you recommend? I bought some just last week on amazon (some foam ones from Howard Leight) and it was a toss-up which were good and which were bad according to the reviews and descriptions.

Earplugs are fussy things. But usually as long as they're not 'corks'(the old yellow foam cylinders)you should be fine.

Least with Howard Light it's Greens<Pinks<Oranges. Greens should be more than enough and are 'softer' if you've got a smaller ear canal. All of them work well.

You have to ensure you're putting them in correctly. Read the box. Roll the plug in your fingers, reach your other arm over you head to grab the top of the opposite ear, gently pull on the top of your ear, and insert the plug. You should feel & hear it expand forming a seal.

You can reuse foam ones a couple of times(can even get them corded), but be very, very wary of infections. And always put the same earplug back in the same ear(thus you don't spread anything).

Thank you!

I've tried just about every musician earplug on the market, including custom molded electric ones. For any amount of money, the best results I've had were with https://www.earasers.net/products/earasers. If I were to re-purchase these, I would consider the EU rated ones, which have a few extra DBs of protection.

If you aren't singing or don't need to hear your own voice as well, you can also get away with cheaper percussion earplugs like these: https://www.musiciansfriend.com/accessories/vater-earplugs

I would say these are both good enough for the casual musicians / audience members. I would only upgrade back to electric ones if I were buying actual in ear monitors, but I doubt any of my bands will get to that point.

If you've got some money, get custom molded earplugs made for sleeping. Places selling hearing aids sell them. They spray some foam in your ear to take the print, and you get the custom plugs in the mail a few weeks later. €140 is a lot for earplugs but it's amazing that they just slot into place in your ear, they're easy to pull out, and they're so small you don't feel them wether you're lying on them or wear headphones over them.

Plus you can adjust the sound absorption in some models and get specific decibel reduction out of the gate and overall it will be higher than foam.

Expensive but also helpful for in person concerts.

I recommend etymotic research ones. They cut frequencies more uniformly. The typical foam ones are slightly better at noise reduction, but they make everything sound incredibly muffled. I haven't had issues with any particular brand of foam ones though, if just cutting out noise is your goal.

The best would be custom molded earplugs, but those are fairly expensive.

I'm glad you recommended them because if you hadn't, I would have. Like you said they're particularly useful for preserving your hearing at live music venues without muddling the audio. As someone who didn't have hearing protection and attended some really loud venues, the hearing damage I have is a real pain the backside. There's a deep notch in the middle of my hearing range so going to a pub means I hear shuffling of feet and clinking of glasses better than I hear people talking to me even though they're closer and louder. Similarly cranking up the audio on a conference line means getting a painful spike of noise from join/leave beeps when the levels are right to hear speakers clearly.

Can't recommend that people wear hearing protection enough in general and at least for me etymotic make for a pleasant experience.

You could try using Equalizer APO and making a reverse of your notch for PC audio.

I just get basic CSV silicone earplugs. Nothing special, but they work surprisingly well and only cost $10.

Foam earplugs are supposed to me more effective, but apparently harder to wear and sometimes less comfortable.

I’ve been extremely satisfied with Happy Ears. They are tiny and unobtrusive, and very comfortable.

I love the Etymotic Research ER20

I also think they make the best earbuds on the market as well.

How easy are they to put in? Also are you meant to clean them from time to time?

As easy as any other ear plug; yes, you can and should clean them with a mild soap and water every so often.

The amazing thing about them is that they let you go to a live concert and hear all the music properly, without pain.

Disclosure: I don't get "loud live concerts" really.

But your last sentence makes me wonder WTH is going on. Why would so many people want this experience?

It's a complex answer, but I'll see what I can do to simplify it.

First, humans associate louder sound levels with higher quality, up to a point. Frequencies which can't be heard at lower levels become audible at higher levels.

Second, human ears adapt to a reasonably large range of sounds.

Third, sound levels decay with distance, which is why in ear phones use tiny amounts of power (a few milliwatts) and speaker systems for arena concerts can use megawatts. They also decay unevenly by frequency.

A classical Western concert with a full orchestra, unamplified, often has peak levels around 90 dB in the first few rows of seating. An amplified rock concert is trying to provide body-stirring levels of sound for people a hundred meters or more away from the stage.

That's the technical why. The personal why? Loud music literally moves you. It's not something I want every day, but it's fun on occasion.

While I understand the other parts it is your last sentence that explains it really. People will go to great lengths for a moving/fun experience.

Thank you.

Check out the wax ones by Ohropax

> Patreon and Github sponsors.

This was a big one for me. I donate ~2 to not just projects I happen to like, but to ones that I've used and have given me a good return on investment.

Honorable mentions: Vuejs, Bootstrap Vue

Fun fact, you can put bone conducting headphones on your mouth and hear through your teeth :)

I did ear plugs for a long time but really disliked the discomfort (to me at least) of inserting them in my ears. I found hearing protectors, typically made for industrial purposes, to be much more comfortable and effective.

Just do a search for "noise reduction earmuff" for this option. They're obviously not a good solution for sleeping but work well for working.

There are also my favorite, which go over the ear canal rather than inside: Mack's Pillow Soft Silicone Earplugs

I think some people have narrow or more sensitive ear canal. Give a try to kids' ear plugs and also see instructions how to insert them correctly (effortlessly by pulling the ear up). I had a issue with foam ear plugs due to the pressure, but kids' foam ear plugs are perfect for me, even for side sleeping.

I dislike the ear plugs that I bought. I really like my noise cancelling heaphone and use it most of the day but unfortunately they are not ergonomic for sleep. 1- headphone plastic rubbing against cloth is noisy; 2- I sleep on my side and that puts unbearable pressure on the head.

I got some bone conducting ear phones lately and really hate them ... both the 30€ and the 120€ versions I tried.

Super cheap sound ... basically no bass response.

My brain got used to it thou and I still use them daily, listing to (mostly speech) podcasts on the (bike) commute.

tbh the sound quality is not the best. Although it is a lot better (especially bass) if you wear earplugs or you're in a quiet area.

It's the comfort + durability + awareness + good price + still decent sound quality imo, which makes them worth it to me.

Yeah ... but if I wear earplugs I prefer my 5-way [1] in-ears ... ;-)

No idea why people need noise-canceling, those (and my drumming headphones) seal pretty well against the outside ... once I put music on I don't hear a thing anymore.

That said ... I use the bone-conducting ones pretty regularly on the bike and while running.

[1] Not really 5 way ... 1x low, 2x mid, 2x high balanced amatures.

Do you listen at >1x speeds? I would also like these for biking but would like to know if quality would be enough for 2-3x

Nah ... I don't. But I would guess that speeding up 2-3x doesn't make too much of a difference. Everything sounds thin on them.

You really liked the OpenMove for running? I've been struggling to find really stable BlueTooth phones. (I liked the Pixel-branded wired phones, actually, but for stupid reasons they no longer seem to work with my phone.)

I run a whole bunch, so it matters a lot. My favorite thus far have been surprisingly cheap ($20) "retro" JLab phones that look like the kind I used to run with before everybody switched to earbuds. Build quality is mediocre but I just want to be able to hear stuff.

I'd be willing to spend $79 on the OpenMove (that's what I see on their web site), but it's a very different approach so it's good to know that it works for you.

my iPhone 6S+ Bluetooth works well with the headphones. Although it has a different problem, it's very bulky when I run.

I'm looking into getting a new watch, so maybe I'll get one that can play bluetooth audio to fix the bulkiness.

FWIW noise-cancelling headphones and earplugs are not mutually exclusive, and are actually a pretty good combo for living next to a train track.

If you're a regular ear plugs user, look into getting audiophile noise dampeners.

They're designed to be reusable and tend to be really comfortable. Some of them don't stick out of your ears like the plugs.

Can you give some suggestions?

"audiophile noise dampeners" googled just give speaker isolation products, etc.

For sleeping or other extended use at home, wax earplugs like those from Ohropax work well and are more comfortable than other materials.

Yeah I order 100pc boxes of Howard Leight’s for iirc $50 or so once a year. They are awesome.

Ear plugs are really important for being a nomad and traveling. You never know how noisy a place might be and the noise level could actually change during your stay. I typically bring 30. But more is always better.

Unlikely to get upvoted here but a used Porsche Panamera with an extended bumper-to-bumper manufacturer warranty. As Doug Demuro says it's cheap, really cheap.

There's not a single brand new car costing, say, 75 K EUR or less that I'd have rather than that because the quality simply ain't there.

The ride comfort, soundsystem, sound insulation, interior quality, how it drives superbly (and can yet be used for some spirited drive if you fancy that), etc.

Best car I ever had. Next one is going to be another used Panamera, probably the plug-in hybrid. I tried the Porsche Taycan (their 100% EV) and it's amazing but I'll wait a bit until you can find used ones at bargain prices.

I'm a big fan of Tesla but, to me, the build quality simply ain't anywhere close: as in... It's not even remotely comparable. They are worlds apart. And as I don't rice at the greenlight, I don't care about the 0-60 perfs.

There's nothing better to cruise at 110 mph on the autobahn or to go pick up the kid at school.

It's high-end luxury with quality materials for less than the price of a new Camry.

https://youtu.be/EAezax2ugQU

By very far my favorite purchase of the last two years+.

Similar, I got 2014 BMW 535i Touring. With everyone buying EVs and nobody wanting wagons, it was a steal. I haven't had many cars in my life, but this thing is just astounding, and I'm always afraid when I take it in that BMW is going to try to upsell me on something or tell me something is broken, but everytime I go in they just say "oh my god! we never see these. You're cars in perfect shape!".

You paid less than $30K? I've owned used-luxury cars before and everything's wonderful until you have to get it repaired. I guess with a warranty it might make sense, but what's that payment?

The video he linked was from 2020 and reviewed a 2012 Panamera. The title of it is "Here's Why a Used Porsche Panamera Is a Sub-$30,000 Bargain" and he says that it's cheaper than a Camry within the first 60 seconds.

my bad, I didn't realize OP was actually Doug Demuro.

maintenance on a used Porsche can easily cost more than the car over its lifetime. I remember going in for an oil change and finding out I needed new breaks. That was a mortgage payment.

Best thing you can do is to source the parts yourself, from Pelican or other online stores. Get an invoice, then you can find the exact parts online. Very easy for consumable parts like brakes, rotors, oil filters, etc. Mobil 1 is super cheap at Wal-Mart. To be honest, once you look serious about sourcing yourself, lots of mechanics will lower the price so the parts are at/near wholesale.

Biggest Porsche ripoff is the brake pad sensor - $70-80 that you can buy for about $8. It's just a sensor, doesn't affect brake performance.

I did not know about Pelican, thank you. My tail light just went out, the parts are very reasonable.

The wear sensor? My car (a VW) has that. It's literally just a loop of wire embedded in the pad that wears through and breaks the connection once the pads get too thin. I would hesitate to even call it a sensor, because that implies some level of sophistication.

Yes exactly. I have very, very few negative things to say about Porsche but the price they charge for that dumb loop is one of them. I'm sure VW, Audi, BMW etc also overcharge for the same part but likely not to the same extent.

It's not a separate part, it's part of the pad itself with a 2-pin connector. I've never bought brake pads from the dealer, but aftermarket pads include it, effectively for free. And it's a pretty useless feature that my old car didn't even have (same model), so I just cut the plug off before installing the pad. You can just manually close the circuit if you don't want the dash light to light up.

Similar story here! Got a used 1987MB R107 560 SL. Paid slightly under $20k with less than 80k miles on it with only one previous owner. It’s mechanically in excellent condition with not so great interior. But hey, it’s totally fun to cruise around top down, and can be serviced in a variety of places at somewhat reasonable rates. And when you pull up to Alice’s Restaurant (well haven’t since last spring...) on Skyline blvd, it gets almost more attention than those Lambos and Teslas that ‘everyone’ is taking there! See son, that is class! ;)

Anyways - your mileage may vary, but I’ve been totally happy with this purchase. And driving and tinkering with it has offered great distractions from the otherwise gloomy year.

Is there any way to figure out what the maintenance costs of a car is? For example, for an 8-year-old Porsche Panamera? Otherwise, I've always just come across anecdata on message boards.

Edmunds has a "Cost to Own" calculator here: https://www.edmunds.com/tco.html

Sadly it does not go back 8 years. You could check the numbers on a 6-year-old Panamera vs a new Camry though: https://www.edmunds.com/porsche/panamera/2015/cost-to-own/?s... https://www.edmunds.com/toyota/camry/2021/cost-to-own/?style...

I had a Porsche Cayenne S for a while. It was a great SUV. Fun to drive and could actually get 31 MPG on long highway trips.

I bought a second hand Tuareg which is pretty similar under the covers. Nicest car I've ever owned and it makes me happy to be in it.

Interesting you say that. Used Panameras in my area are more expensive than Cayennes.

no way this is cheaper than a used prius

You joke but I’m with you. A solid Toyota does the A to B thing in reasonable comfort! Not sure why I need a Porsche.

Airpods Pro.

Not traditionally an apple guy so didn't expect to like them, but the guy talked us into them while we were upgrading my wife's phone.

Wow. These things are just way better than any other earbuds and so much more convenient and comfortable than headphones. The Bluetooth just works even when switching between my Android and MacBook. The noise cancelling is great as well, way better than my Sennheisers.

They were such a game changer for me. I used to be a big “audiophile” and spent more than I’d care to admit on headphones.

AirPod pros sound very good. Not as good as a really good audio setup, but good enough for pretty much everyone out there. The noise cancelling is really good. And best of all they are so comfortable.

Idk if I’m gonna have some weird cancer in 40 years from wearing these all the time, but I love them so much.

Can you elaborate on your previous auditory experiences? I'm checking for Steve Jobs/ Apple's reality distortion field. I've seen many recommendations from people who have upgraded to Apple from bad products (e.g. This iPhone 12 is so much better than the Android phone from 2017 which I paid $300 for), as opposed to a fair competitor. In this case, have you used other high-end headphones released recently?

I’ve owned and tried many headphones from different high end companies. Sennheiser HD800 were my staple for a while. But I’ve also had grado, Hifiman, and some “boutique” options.

Airpod pros don’t give you the same experience as a high end setup. But you come to realize you’re enjoying the headphones more than the music itself. Or at least I did.

With the airpod pros the quality and the overall experience is good enough that I don’t even think about them, just whatever music or audio I’m listening to.

Check out the frequency response curves yourself of the airpod pros [0] and say, an open-back sennheiser hd650 pair [1]. The airpods have a huge bump at about 1.5kHz to 3.5kHz (mids), while the sennheisers are more neutral in low frequencies but also have a bump at ~3kHz to ~7kHz.

Nothing will beat open-back headphones on a good system, but apple's stuff as of late is plenty good.

[0]: https://reference-audio-analyzer.pro/en/report/hp/apple-airp...

[1]: https://reference-audio-analyzer.pro/en/report/hp/sennheiser...

Not OP but I have a pair of nice IEMs, open and closed back headphones and a headphone amp on my computer.

For serious listening sessions I will still plug my IEMs into my phone, but the Airpods Pro are just really convenient and sound good enough that at this point, 90% of my mobile listening is done through them. The sound cancellation is nice and better than my sennheiser momentum m2s (audio quality on those is better than the airpod pros but they have apt-x which is the difference maker, but does not exist on ios yet)

Same. 90% at ... 5x/10x the cost delta is more than good enough to prefer the AirPods.

I had a similar experience, having used EarSonics IEMs and own a pair of custom Noble Audio ones too, alongside Hifiman open headphones with a nice DAC/amp. The sound doens't compete at the same level, but it's so convenient, feels way more comfortable than any of the above, and quality is adequate for me to enjoy the music I listen to, so in practice I've barely touched all the other cool audio gear I have since I bought the Airpods Pro.

I am a traditionally an Apple guy. Sure some VMs for linux development, but the gear is all Apple stuff.

I had Beats Pro headphones that got damaged after a good amount of use so I replaced them with non-Pro Airpods and have hated it. I have to constantly worry about them falling out while I'm exercising and the case gets all gunky. The handoff between the MacBook Pro and iPhone isn't reliable enough for me to trust it, so I always have to reconnect it if I'm at a quiet place like a co-working space. Also, within the first year one of them just randomly died and I had to send the whole thing back to Apple. Apple care covered it, but still.

I miss being able to do more with what's on my head. With Beats I could easily change the volume, pause, skip, rewind and they almost never came off. The only thing that kinda sucked was in the summer the skin around them would sweat.

Shrug. At least my MacBook Pro has been great.

I started with the AirPods and upgraded to the Pro’s. having used both I find the pro models fit and stay in my ears much better. You can also set each one to behave differently when clicked, which might help with all the play, pause, rewind etc. But I’ve gotten used to using Siri for anything more complex than play/pause. The Shortcuts app also makes it relatively easy to add custom commands. “Hey Siri, silence” will pause, invoke noise cancelling, then play again. “Conversation mode” will pause and turn off noise cancelling.

Thanks for the reply. I do have each AirPod set to different things, but I find it just doesn't work as well as the interface that I had with the Beats headphones. The tap-tap on my ear is much more distracting than the click-click on the Beats, and so often I have to pause and think whether I can do something. For example, I used to be able to fast forward 30 seconds at a time through podcast ads then rewind 15 seconds once I went into the content. Now I can only do the fast forward part, since the other ear is set to pause. And of course I can't quickly turn up or down the volume.

I know the answer to this is "use Siri" but I dislike using Siri. Even if it worked perfectly, which it doesn't, it would still be annoying to be that guy in a coworker space or cafe that's talking to his phone.

Thanks for the feedback on the Pro's though. Maybe they will help, but I'd like to test them before I commit, which is admittedly a little difficult because of the yuck factor.

I rarely jump back and forth when listening to audio.. so I went digging. In Apple's docs: • To skip forward, double-press the force sensor on the stem of an AirPod. • To skip back, triple-press the force sensor. https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT207010

So the only issue left is volume. Hey Siri.. how do we change the volume without talking to you?

You may want to check if you are cleaning your ears properly. Getting AirPods was a wake up call for me to actually dig around my ears for the first time in my life. Went from falling out at first touch to staying in no matter what.

They didn't work for me. I'm super sensitive to microphonics. With the Airpod Pros, every step I took sounded like someone banging a drum in my ear. It's not specific to Airpod Pro's, most headphones that plug into my ears I have that problem (though not all). I wouldn't have even tried the Airpod Pros except I figured if anyone was going to get that right it would be Apple.

Well, they didn't solve it, I sold them and went back to my non-Pro Airpods

I used to feel the same way, and still do about how good they are relative to my previous choice from 2005-2019 (wired Etymotic passive isolating buds). I bought them on day 1.

But I'm on my third pair of replacement buds now and still experiencing issues. They no longer have the random squeaking issue that the first two pairs had, but still have issues with Bluetooth connectivity, failing to connect 10-20% of the time, dropping their BT connection during Zoom calls, etc. I'm sure some of this had to do with BT itself, but I was hoping that I'd see no pairing issues at all due to the W1 chip.

I still use them all the time, and I presume I'd have way fewer issues if I used them with a single device. I'd actually buy a second pair if I only had a Mac and iPhone, but with work + personal Macs, iPhone, iPad, and HTPC Mac Mini I'd still be dealing with issues on most of my devices.

I have had each earbud replaced once under AppleCare. If I hadn't gotten AppleCare, I would probably be infuriated that I had spent money on them.

The thing about the AirPods is that most people don't own a good pair of in ear or even over ear headphones.

Apple are a widely known brand and one of the first to release a product. In reality there are many other options each with different tradeoffs: https://crinacle.com/guide/tws/

Personally I find their battery life borderline, even with their rapid charge feature. Most of the time when the battery dies I'm in the middle of listening to something, instead of patiently waiting for it to charge I just grab some wired headphones instead.

Plus, they support "Hey Siri". I use that all the time while running with just my AirPods and watch: "Hey Siri, text $friend I'll be jogging past your house in 3 minutes" or "Hey Siri, remind me about this awesome idea I just had". Being able to do that stuff while on the move and without having to look at a phone is liberating.

Came here to say this too. My wife and I both got them and we've been 100% satisfied. Fantastic product.

I was super hesitant to order mine, but for the last year they’ve been in my ears virtually every day. They’re excellent. The sound quality is good, could be better, but the functionality and convenience is what makes them so usable.

Same here. I bought them and figured I'd use them occasionally, but in the past year, they've been used 8-12 hours per day.

From work to chores to workouts, they live in my ears. Incredible value for the use I get out of them.

I was about to write the same thing. I actually didn't like the ANC I had tried with various over ear headphones. The APPs though are great though.

Second would be the M1 MBA. Much has already been written.

Third, I upgrade my home sound with KEF Q series for the L/C/R. Such a huge upgrade from an old set of speakers that were damaged from a move and rattled all the time.

I use mine a lot but have had to do two rounds of replacements due to hardware issues. The battery life is unsurprisingly short (right about 4 hours now) which only comes up on looong calls without a break.

They'd still be on my maybe top 5 list for recent purchases.

Same, I've been android for 10 years but no other noise cancelling airbuds compare in size and performances.

All the android ones look massive in your ears.

Plants. I didn't have many before covid/wfh, but they really make the place more liveable/ejoyable by just being there and this became increasingly important as i spent so much more time at home

Plants are amazing. I have created a small garden all using plants in the pots in my front patio at my apartment and have grown veggies such as tomatoes, bell peppers and lime along with flowering plants. I also keep a bird feeder and a bird bath nearby the bushy plants. Totally worth it as it keeps my and my wife's mood cheerful just by looking at bees, butterflies and hummingbird coming to flowers and birds coming to feeder and bath. It also keeps my engineering mind occupied with processes such as watering, fertilizing, weeding and pruning etc every few days to see outcome of more flowers and more veggies growing from well taken cared plants.

Same here. My better half got into it and now it's green everywhere with so many different species (some images: https://twitter.com/LaurasGarten) including various veggies like salad and tomatoes. Add the birds that visit the feeder I can see from my work desk and it's perfect. In general hiking though nature, which I've never really done before, has probably been the best activity I've picked up during covid.

Cats. They operate on the same principle.

Unfortunately, you can't have both cats and plants at the same time.

I do, you need to train them when young to leave them alone, and provider grass/entertainment so they have better options.

I got dwarf tomato plants this year, my very first attempt at growing tomatoes or any other vegetables for that matter. I'm growing them in containers on my patio. So far, they have sprouted two tiny green tomatoes each and, for now, they don't need a cage to support the growth.

Bonnie Plants Organic Husky Cherry Tomato Dwarf Indeterminate https://bonnieplants.com/product/husky-cherry-red-tomato/

Bonnie Plants Organic Globe Tomato Compact Determinate https://bonnieplants.com/product/organic-globe-tomato/

I also got a Serano Hot Pepper plant https://bonnieplants.com/product/serrano-hot-pepper/.

All three starter plants were about $4 at my local big box store.

Apart from these, I planted some green bean seeds and one of them has sprouted.

Last year, I bought a dwarf Meyer lemon tree which has lived up to its promise of growing well in a container and providing abundant fruit year-round.

I also bought solar-powered garden decor. These stakes look pretty during the day but at night they are absolutely magical. https://www.target.com/p/gerson-international-43-inch-high-s...

Fungus gnats and aphids and making this hobby a living hell for me right now. I’ve been watering my veggies with BTI and spraying aphids with Spinosad(sp?), any tips on ending this infestation nightmare? I’m so close to calling it quits. Have about 12 different veggies going in raised planter boxes.

I had a really bad fungus gnat infestation. I tried sticky traps, BT, and water with Fels Naptha soap. In the end, drying out the soil was the only thing that worked for me. I did it two different ways, but not sure if this is doable in your situation with veggies and planter boxes. For an avocado plant, I let the soil dry completely and then some before watering the plant again. The other was a money tree where I couldn't get the soil to dry fast enough, so I ended up repotting it with cactus mix. Once deprived of water, the fungus gnats disappeared.

Neem oil mixed with warm water and sprayed on the plants works pretty well.

Ladybirds (you can buy larvae which you can release in about 10 days) also works for aphids, they gobble them up.

Try: https://howmanyplants.com/post/bugging-out-tackling-common-h...

Recently, I did too. Being trapped at home during Covid, I wanted to pick up a new hobby. I was looking at fish tank, because while beautiful, they are also very geeky, researching plants and fishes. All those gadgets that go in the aquarium to maintain equilibrium sounded to me like setting up servers and loadbalancers. But margin of error is very small in fish tanks and upfront cost is huge.

So we decided to buy one plant per month instead. Plants are great, they look nice, can turn any boring room into a cozy space, and there is also a lot of geek factor when researching plants, maintaining proper watering and feeding routines but unlike fish tank, plants can survive when you are on vacation or accidentally over-water.

1999 GMC Savanna passenger van (seats removed) for use as a farm truck. It’s huge inside and easily holds 4x8 sheets of ply. Here in Seattle it gets wet a lot so I never have to worry about transporting or storing in the rain. Has 8 cylinder engine that will last forever and is easyish to maintain. I get an surprising amount of sheepish interest/envy from dudes who had the same idea but who bought pickups (which seldom even have full size beds anymore) because the pickups look better.

Shark brand vacuum cleaner. Kind of self cleaning, and mandatory because my wife has thick hair. I have spent thousands on vacuums but this is the only one that lasts an entire floor of the house without stopping to cut out the hair, which I hate doing. Then a second shark vacuum cleaner at the office, which is large and 2 floors. I also like the shark because no bags. I am much more likely to do spot cleanups when I won’t waste time going to the other side of another floor.

Rolling wire laundry basket from the Container Store that we use for indoor trash cans. They look great and rolling them where needed is a huge plus. Bought a bunch of those for house and office.

Former '99 GMC Safari owner here.

Watch out for (common) front axle failures & other wheel problems. Replacements are near-unobtainium now and after two times having to do so in short succession we finally put ours in the junkyard.

Miss the hell out of that van though. Drove it fully loaded across the country 10 different ways a couple dozen times. Ran that thing to dust.

Man, thanks for the warning. Bought off the city at auction with 100,000 miles. Hoping it will give me another few thousand; I only need it maybe 100 miles/week.

Great choice though. My thought processes for lumber hauling are a lot like yours. If it weren't for towing capacity I'd totally be looking at the longest Ford Transit I could find if I were buying new.

Of course the big Transit. That would be my preference. But it feels a little more sensible environmentally for me to keep an older truck going for my purposes. I am simply not that demanding a user.

I bought a barely-used (2K miles, 35% off (year on lot)) high-roof Sprinter on a whim back in 2017 (was a PGA tour shuttle, apparently) and took out all 3 benches, for a truly wonderfully capacious, full-enclosed hauling and moving machine.

We've also used it as a great family country-touring machine with all benches in (8 kids), and the kids have taken it around the country a couple of times with friends.

Can't recommend them more. Just a basic V6 diesel, but Mercedes does build solid trucks.

(The only drawback being that the roof a/c gaskets always break on these things at great expense (1600usd), out of warrantee. They even settled a class action suit about that exact problem, but only up to 2015. I suppose we'll have to start another to cover 2016 and up...)

It's weird to me how Sprinters are everywhere but replacement parts are so damn expensive and hard to come by.

If I get a Mercedes truck though it's going to be a Unimog.

The Unimog is so gloriously impractical you’d swear it was an American vehicle.

Eight kids. What I would give to have eight kids. You’re a living life right, that’s all I have to say.

Ditto on the large vehicle purchase. I've been spending more time out in the wilderness and my 2WD Volvo sedan wasn't cutting it on dirt roads and with little-to-no suspension, so I bought a 2005 Yukon from a good friend. He bought it from the original owner last year for $1100, used his employee discount at CarMax to fix a bunch of small issues, and I picked it up for $2000. It's a beast of a truck, has tons of options even with its age, and the V8 Vortec engines in these cars are known for their longevity. The Volvo has become the long-distance runner while the Yukon is more of a utility truck. With the used car market looking like it is, I could probably unload it for $5k-$6k. Right now it's basically a mini-shop/storage shed/camp site on wheels.

Nice setup you have going. Don’t think I wasn’t looking at the Yukons myself!

That's the reason why so few people buy pickups in Europe. Vans are better in many ways (you can transport 9 people; get more cargo, especially when you remove seats; better weather resistance, you can use it a storage when you live in a flat, better for transporting a dog)

"VW Transporter is not sold in the US market because it is classed as a light truck, accruing the 25% chicken tax on importation." - US is missing out on these.

I always say "the best compact pickup truck these days is a Grand Caravan"

That's what we replaced the GMC Safari with but it really didn't hold up the same and the '12 Grand Caravan fell apart in just a few years.

the GMC Safari is a real body-on-frame truck, with a van body. I have seen Astrovans with half a million miles on them, going strong.

I agree that the Grand Caravan is a bit flimsier, but mine has been in the family since it was new and well-maintained. Still strong 12 years later