Reading time: 5 minutes

On some material items I particularly like and recommend

[1] Audio Technica Headphones: These are my bread and butter. I mean really, they’re absolutely brilliant. I got my current pair in 2016, and I’ve only had to deal with a flaky head cushion and replaced ear covers. Even after all these years, the headphones keep producing a great sound. They’re definitely not the listening devices to be traveling around with – that’s a role best fit for airpods – but they’re ultra-reliable and are comfortable to wear for hours on end. I cannot recommend these enough.

[2] Kokuyo Campus Notebook: A few years ago, I swore to myself that if I could, I would only buy something from Japan, Germany, or Switzerland because (I think) there’s a cultural inclination towards the practice of being precise, and I’ve already had great success using products from these countries. One such item is the Kokuyo Campus Notebook. The first thing it does well is by being small. I’m a lefty, so spiral or large notebooks make it really uncomfortable to write on; on the contrary, the Kokuyo notebook has just enough pages to still stay relatively flat when opened. Second, the quality of the paper is phenomenal as it’s industrial (I think there’s a tiny layer of some wax substance on each page), and it feels amazing to write on. Lastly, and most importantly though, the notebook is lined, which makes it great for writing, but it also has these tiny dots along each line, which form grids similar to graph paper! My brain nearly exploded the first time I saw this feature because of its subtlety and ingenuity. As I was often dealing with graphs during my undergraduate studies, this feature came in clutch many times. I cannot rave about this product more. It’s flawless.

[3] Kuru Toga + Stabilo Fineliner Pens: To round out the Kokuyo Notebooks, I really love using the Kuru Toga and the Stabilo Fineliner Pens. The Kuru Toga is my ‘daily driver’, and its unusual quirk is that it has a mechanism to rotate the lead every time you lift up the pencil, say, to write a new character or word. The idea here is that the lead will never have a sharp edge and will therefore maintain a consistent thickness, which makes for cleaner-looking notes. My handwriting looks like chicken scratch, so I’m not sure how useful this is for me, but I’m a fan of the idea! Regarding the Stabilo pens, I picked them up during my gap year in Germany, and I love them for their very fine tips and nice colors.

[4] My Bike: I found this old steel-lugged Fuji City Bike that my mom used in her college days during the summer after my freshman year, and I proceeded to immediately fall in love and convert it to a single-speed. A lot of work went into optimizing the bike, and it was the catalyst for me exploring so much of Boston and getting more into fitness. I really owe a lot to it, and I genuinely think it had a significant impact on who I am today.

[5] Overnight Oats: December of 2022 marks the 1.5 year anniversary of me eating overnight oats literally every morning for breakfast. This all started during the summer of 2021 when I wanted to wake up as late as possible and still start work on time with a full stomach. Overnight oats filled this niche tremendously well as its something that you can prepare on a Sunday in under 20 minutes and make enough to sustain yourself for the next week. After lots of optimization, I got my workflow down to making everything in a big bowl and then using a 1/2 cup to scoop equal amounts of the mixture into my 7 mason jars. Then, every morning I’d wake up, grab a jar out of the fridge, dethaw frozen fruits, add them, house everything, eat a banana, and finish my morning routine. The current recipe I favor is 1:1 oats to oat milk, cocoa powder, cinnamon, coconut flakes, chia seeds, flax seeds, full fat yoghurt, and peanut butter. And make sure to add the dry ingredients before adding the wet ingredients!

[6] Nalgene Water Bottle: These things are indestructable and hold a lot of water.

[7] Swiss Army Knife: Actually came in clutch so many times. A great tool.

[8] Stan Smiths: These shoes go well with everything and are timeless. I don’t have to think when I put them on.

[9] Pull-up bar + pushup stands: My current routine is to do 3x11 pull-ups and 3x26 pushups 5 times a week. It takes maybe 10 minutes in total including rest times and has made a massive difference in my physique. It’s really surprising how far you can go with so little. I prefer calisthenics since it’s something you can do no matter where you are and doesn’t require much investment. I think it makes working out much more sustainable in the long run.

[10] Macbooks: It’s probably not as much as the software as much as it is the amazing trackpad, nice keys, and beautiful design. The Mac laptops that I’ve had were also the ones to be the most reliable, last the longest, and have the best battery life. Nothing else has come close.