Things you should know

Oct 15, 2025

Lots of writing is filled with amusing stories and other types of pleasant noise. Not this one – just the facts, ma’am!

Spaced repetition and active recall are the best ways to remember things, and are very useful in studying for exams or for language-learners to help with vocabulary. Anki is the best app to put these ideas into practice.
Buying and holding index funds is the best way for most people to invest, and they should expect real returns of around 6% per year.
It is important to avoid licorice while pregnant because of moderate evidence for deleterious effects on the child’s cognitive abilities.
Timeshifter is a good app for dealing with jet lag – it tells you when you should nap or stay awake or have coffee or melatonin around and during your flight time to minimise jet lag.
ADHD drugs (especially dextroamphetamine) are generally effective for most people for boosting productivity and improving executive function, and the benefits probably outweigh the costs for most people.
Shu La La is one of the most enjoyable restaurants in London to go to in a medium/large group, including for vegetarians and vegans.
Gemini Deep Research is the SOTA model for in-depth research into any topic or question you care to know about.
SSRIs are generally safe and effective for anxiety and depression, and the effect size is meaningful. There are some people who will likely not benefit at all, but many people will benefit significantly.
The Duoqin F21 Pro is a good phone to buy if you think that smartphones are having a negative impact on your life. It is capable enough to use messaging apps or maps apps, but is not capable enough to be particularly addictive. But the Play Edition, which includes the ability to download Google Play Store apps.
The SelfControl app for mac is a good way to effectively block distracting websites, as it cannot be disabled once started, even if you attempt to delete the apps (note: there probably are ways to disable the app if you are determined enough. Please do not leave comments outlining what these methods are).
The three gadgets that have made the most notable positive difference to my eating/drinking habits are my rice cooker, my air fryer, and my buffalo coffee machine.
You can get funding to pursue interesting and important projects from Emergent Ventures and from Astral Codex Ten grants.
Donating to animal welfare charities often gets you the best bang for your buck in terms of reducing suffering, and you can find out how much it costs to offset your diet (or more) by using FarmKind.
If you go to Japan, Tabelog is the best way to find high-quality restaurants at all price points. It is vastly superior to Google maps and also better than the Michelin guide.
It is easy to get books for free for the Amazon Kindle if you buy one, using websites that you can find easily online. Similarly, it is easy to access any journal article that you want to by using Sci-Hub.
1. The Amazon Kindle paperwhite is my favourite device for reading books, and the Amazon Kindle Scribe is my favourite device for reading academic articles.
It is not clear to me if there are good causal estimates of the impact of living near friends on wellbeing, but there are certainly lots of observational studies, and my personal experience suggests that more people should attempt to make sacrifices in order to live nearer to friends and family. There is a good article here on how to do this.
Obese or overweight people should take Mounjaro for weight loss. The average loss (as a percentage of body weight) on this drug is around 15 to 25%. There is some evidence that the drug also helps cut down on alcohol and other addictive substances.
The Vivid mac app lets you increase your screen brightness beyond the default limits on the system, at the cost of losing a significant amount of battery life.
The best quality sweaters I have found are from Bosie, especially the Blue Mogganer line. (They are sadly very expensive, but I think they are worth it).
Granola app for mac is my favourite way to get an AI to take notes.
If you live in the UK and subscribe to the Times (which is very cheap if you’re able to nab a student discount), the 2-for-1 offer on Everyman tickets on Wednesday is a good deal, and Everyman cinemas are lovely. I recommend the honeycomb bites.
The evidence that psychotherapy is effective for anxiety and depression is reasonably strong, and I think that it gets a bad rap from many people who haven’t actually examined the evidence.
If you want to minimise the harm that you personally cause animals but don’t want to go fully vegan, the 80/20 is something like cutting out seafood and poultry.
It is worth buying and using MSG frequently, my view is that it is almost as important in making food taste good as salt is.
Most people should ask others for things more often. A man came to my flat and asked to look around because he was a big fan of [redacted], who used to live in my house. I let him, as did the people on the floor below, as did the people on the floor below that. Asking people for things usually works!
There is reasonably strong evidence that social media is harmful for teenage girls in particular.

Note: I only have experience with around 50% to 75% of the things on this list, so you should not take recommendations here as implying that I have personally benefitted from these tips.