What is something really stupid you purchased that turned out far better than expected?

RanchOnPancakes@lemmy.world to Ask Lemmy@lemmy.world – 1032 points –

I bought a piece of 1.5 inch stiff foam to try to fix a sag in a bed. It didn't work but having that thick piece of solid foam around has been a life saver.

Need something flat to put a laptop on? Throw it on the foam. Going to be doing something that requires you to be on your knees for a while? Get the foam!

It went from stupid purchase to something I'd gladly replace if it broke.

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Scooter. Not an electric one. I had a thought once "hey I did ride one in childhood, maybe it can be a bit of nostalgic fun from time to time". Got myself the cheapest Chinese thing I could find, "no point investing too much into a fad".

Turned out a scooter is absolute peak urban mobility. Short distances become much shorter. Mid-long distances become short. Granted, for a longer trip somehow the time gains diminish, probably because it's not as efficient as a bike. But a scooter isn't a long-hauler. It's there to zip through an empty mall. It's there to be folded up in a second and brought into a bus or a shop without being a hassle. It's like 3-4 kg, not too fast for sidewalks but fast enough for bike roads, extremely easy to stop, doubles as a cart when carrying bags of groceries home.

The chinese one broke after 1 season because I was riding it everywhere. Then I got myself one from a better company, I chose it for small weight and portability. It's technically children's thing but I'm well below weight tolerance and also smol so it's easy to handle. It's already like a 5th year and whenever it's not raining or too cold I ride it for shopping, errands, leisure walks, to work... Almost daily.

The wheel turns out to be a pretty good invention for multiplying by pi. For example, bicycling is about pi times faster than walking, with the same amount of effort.

They're absolute shit if you live in a hilly city. Felt like I was going backwards.

Oh I believe. I live in an area that's very flat.

Which scooter do you have now?

The lightest from Decathlon which is large enough to hold someone over 12 yrs of age. They may or may not still have them on offer as it was a few years ago.

I love the concept, tried some and would be willing to pay good money for a kick scooter that folds small enough to fit inside or hang off a big backpack, made of some super light material like carbon fibre

I've lost hours searching for such a thing online and the closest one is the Valor scooter. but unfortunately it's ugly and they only make it for kids and I'm a big guy :/

Unfortunately I think we're not there yet. My one folds into a meter-long bundle of a metal plank with wheels and a metal pipe and while it;s still light and handy it won't fit in any backpack.

I feel it's a lack of appetite. very few adults actually want non-electric. I've seen a much wider range of electrics, including small form, experimental ones and more :/