Suggestions on tech device/gear purchasing?

This might be the most blatant misuse of "rational" in a post title I've ever seen.

Now that's a challenge ...

• Rational snorkeling
• Rational hash brownie preparation¹
• Rational weasel appreciation
• Rational captchaloguing
• Rational cache flushing
• Rational cash flashing
• Rational rasher rationing

¹ Actually there was an article about this in a recent Erowid newsletter. Kinda.

http://lesswrong.com/lw/8wh/rational_wart_removal/

I don't remember what post it was in response to, but at one point someone suggested "optimal" as a much better substitute for "rational" in this type of post, partly to reduce the use of "rational" as an applause light, and partly because it better describes what these posts are generally asking.

I wondered about this. So does my wife. I get lost on my computer enough already. Now we reduce capability to browsing and games, and how might that play out? Thanks for sharing this. I'm not sure how it would work in my case...

consider arranging to buy a prize someone you know wants

This is a very good second-best plan. If your best purchase option doesn't rate more than a "meh" improvement in your life, you may be better off with the cash to spend on whatever you want.

Thanks for the suggestion.

ETA: Back from travelling and re-reading the comments. What makes your more likely to "study anywhere" with the tablet vs. a laptop? Just the lower weight and ~1/3 (or even less) of the thickness? I spend most of my awake time at work, have a macbook which isn't too bulky, but don't take it many places. Do you find that you're more likely to take a tablet and make some small chunk of waiting time useful when you wouldn't have done the same thing with a laptop?

My wife and I get lost as well. It seems infrequent, but unfortunately when it happens it is epic and horrible. This is exactly the kind of thing I was looking for -- something one would never know prior to owning the device, but could share from beyond the curtain. Thanks.

ETA: I don't have data, but in researching this more found a couple of programs that appear not to require data plans and yet still navigate with GPS-unit-containing devices (CoPilot and nDrive are the ones I've found so far). Thus, I may be able to get the use of a tablet, continue not buying a data plan, and also have GPS capabilities.

If you have a modern smartphone with a modest data plan, does a discrete GPS still hold any advantages?

Alas, I can't even follow my GPS's instructions even when the voice bloody tells me "turn left you idiot".

Great suggestion. I'm travelling at the moment, but will review this list. I saw the "don't spend 15-30min" on this and have managed to not really look at the list yet. I plan to revisit it next week and think this will be a good exercise.

A kindle has finally allowed me to stop reading several books per week.

For many years previously I've had: open bookshelves around the apartment, near 1000 books, some unread; whenever I walk by, a 30% chance to randomly take down a book, start reading, and come back to the real world several hours later, having missed work/appointment/dinner/sleeptime/chance to sit down.

Lots of procrastination, although it has given me a lot of broad, shallow knowledge on many interesting subjects.

Today: no printed books left, except for small cache of <100 important ones hidden on upper shelf of closet, which don't have ebook versions; one kindle. Because the Kindle is so bad at arranging and finding books (seriously, no folder support?) it takes around a minute to open a book not read recently. This time-cost alone is enough to prevent almost all of my reading-procrastination. I still read for fun during time pre-set aside for the purpose.

The ability to highlight and have it automatically sync to Amazon servers makes Anki deck making A LOT easier.

How exactly do you use this to make Anki decks?

An ebook reader (+ some other prize combination) has occurred to me. I almost bought an ebook reader when they were on sale around Christmas, but couldn't decide between the Nook and Kindle platforms. One thing that worries me is that I have such a hard time reading paper books at the moment; I wonder if an ebook reader only seems like it would improve productivity when in reality it would shortly due to novelty, but then it would wear off.

Some questions:

• How long have you had it?
• Did you notice any drop in reading time from initial ownership to present?
• How many anki decks is realistic (I'm aware of anki and how it works but haven't used it regularly)?

ETA: Thought of another question -- can you put your finger on what, exactly, allowed you to accomplish your goal vs. when you were reading paper?