What To Buy That Improves Quality of Life
👋 Hey there, Ryan here! I’m excited to start writing again focused on helpful topics for software engineers looking to grow their careers. What’s interesting is that after interviewing many distinguished engs from OpenAI, Google, Uber, and Meta, I’ve seen common patterns across their careers that helped them grow. I’ll share those insights here if you don’t have time to listen to their full career stories on my podcast (Spotify, YouTube, Apple). This week, I wanted to share a gift guide focused on products that will improve your quality of life. As always, nothing I mention includes affiliate links and I’m not benefiting from recommending these products. The list contains things that have improved my life, that I love, and think you will too. If you think I missed something, please share in the comments! I came across a bunch of viral threads (ex1, ex2, ex3) on “what purchase under $X made your life better (or made you happier)?” These inspired me to curate the ultimate list that answers this question. I went through thousands of replies and thought hard about what products have actually made my life better. Here are the best recommendations I have combining my experience with all those replies. Here’s a list for convenient skimming, my explanations for these recommendations are below them: Most Impactful Purchases for Quality of Life
Nice to Haves for Quality of Life
Luxuries for Quality of Life
Why I Recommend These (Most to Least Impactful)An optimized sleep stack: Sleeping well may be the most impactful change I’ve made for my quality of life. I didn’t want my setup to be what prevents me from getting good rest. Here are the most impactful purchases I’ve made to improve my sleep:
Office worker starter pack: These all significantly improved my quality of life while working.
Most impactful lifestyle purchases: These purchases have all improved my quality of life at home significantly:
Notes on Nice to HavesThese are almost as good as the above, but I’d be fine without them.
Notes on LuxuriesThese really aren’t necessary, but they do make life more pleasant.
I hope this list was helpful inspiration in case you’re looking to do some holiday shopping this coming season. When I was looking up the prices of things to link to I noticed a lot of the stuff is on sale now. Happy holidays! |
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