Lifehacker

I have been eating a lot of baked potatoes lately, mostly Yukons. Like most things that hang out in the oven for a long time, they are hot hot hot when they come out, which makes them hard to cut. But waiting for a hot potato to cool before you load it up with toppings is a bad strategy—you need that heat to melt the…Read more...

Chocolate chip cookies can turn even the most dreary day into a cozy occasion. Regardless of whether you like them crispy, crunchy, chewy, or soft, I think we can all agree that chocolate should be heavily involved. Most recipes recommend a reasonable measurement of chips, but there could be more, right? Instead of…Read more...

Everything comes with a price. Pursuing a creative or artistic life often means you can sleep in, dress in weird clothes, and avoid sitting in cubicle like a square. On the other hand, it also means you don’t earn that sweet, sweet cubicle-drone-money. You probably also have to support your fiction…Read more...

Many of us rely on customer reviews of products when we’re trying to decide what to buy or choose between similar items from different brands. Hearing from “real people” can feel much more valuable and authentic than believing whatever the professional marketing language is trying to sell you. But what if you could be…Read more...

Exercise stresses our bodies, which is the whole point—taking on a little extra stress makes us stronger in the long run. But we also need to be able to recover from that stress to make use of it. So what do you do if it feels like your workouts are beating you up? The first step is to make sure that you have your…Read more...

The combination of chest freezer and vacuum sealer is a powerful one. As someone who needs to eat a lot of protein (because of the powerlifting) and hates repeat meals (because I’m a finicky little baby), being able to buy meat in bulk and freeze it has helped me cut down on takeout. Chicken, steak, pork, shrimp—it’s…Read more...

A colleague recently said to me, “Unlearning is the new learning.” I laughed and rolled my eyes given it sounded…well…kind of dumb. But then, we got to talking more specifically about how many of us approach improving or advancing our careers. We layer on. We seek to expand and increase our earnings, our title, and…Read more...

Giant fluttering petals of prosciutto may look impressive on a charcuterie board, but that is the last time it’ll look quite so majestic. Ten minutes later, your friends are still attempting to tear apart slices with their hands, and you’re left with a shambles of stringy fat. Avoid this and cut the prosciutto first.…Read more...

The Dynamic Island on the iPhone 14 Pro and 14 Pro Max might not be reason enough to drop $1,000 on a new phone, but it’s a cool feature nonetheless. What’s not cool about it is its presence in all your screen recordings. Unlike the “notch” on older iPhones, the Dynamic Island doesn’t disappear when you make a screen…Read more...

In the fast food world, mobile app deals have replaced the newspaper coupon inserts of yore, with each offering their own deals to convince you to download them and, hopefully, use them to order more and more food.

Do you know what I did today? I secured a toasted bagel, hash browns, and a medium iced coffee (with almond milk) for $3.03. Why? Because the coffee shop rewards program I use is the best. There are a lot of lists online of the best coffee rewards programs, but they are often incorrect. Here is the best ranking, with…Read more...

Read more...

Planting a tree in your yard offers a host of benefits, from shading your home from the sun (and thus lowering your energy bills), to increasing your property value. Trees can cost a lot, though, so I’m sure you wouldn’t mind getting one for free.

Getting lost is no fun, but getting lost without cell service is downright scary. It’s even worse if you lose your way somewhere remote, like on a hike through the woods. When Google Maps can’t save you, though, you’re not totally out of luck. As it turns out, your Apple Watch might know exactly how to get you home,…Read more...

The new year has kicked off with a slew of negative crypto news. Now more than ever, for every one trustworthy source on crypto, there seems to be hundreds of YouTubers spewing less-than credible “advice.” Videos that appear to be unbiased explainers will end with a segment selling you hard on specific investments. As…Read more...

Once again, I am here to advocate for something small that I believe in in a big way, and it is this: If you’re cold and you don’t have a space heater, it’s time to consider all the things your hair dryer can do for you.

If you struggle to swallow pills—big or small—you’re not alone. Most of us learned how to swallow pills the same way, by tossing our head back with a hefty gulp of water. Despite how popular this technique is, it might not be the most effective way to get that pill down your gullet.Read more...

Look, the Steam app is great, and is likely how many of us browse and buy our PC games. But if you’re not using Steam on the web, you’re missing out on some great browser extensions for the service. These helpful add-ons will tell you if a game is on a subscription service you already pay for, highlight historical low…Read more...

Certain types of renovations call for warm weather and clear skies, but you don’t have to hit pause on your home improvement plans just because the days are shorter and colder. Winter is the perfect time to tackle a wide range of indoor projects—and not just because you’re stuck inside with nothing better to do. In…Read more...

My daughter was excited about the new girl in the mostly male Tae Kwon Do class. After class, I whispered, “Do you want to go talk to her?” My daughter nodded and went over, I thought to say hi. Instead my daughter, who has been going to Tae Kwon Do for exactly one month, gave the girl some pointers and then walked…Read more...

It’s a brand new year, and that means a ton of art and entertainment has gone from privately owned to the property of everyone and no one. In the United States, books, films, songs, and other works published in 1927 are free to be shared, remade, re-mixed, and otherwise used without fear of legal repercussion, as are…Read more...

Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) is back three years after lacerating a rich bunch of assholes in Knives Out, and Glass Onion throws an even bigger anti-wealthy mystery at him, proving Netflix was, er, on the money in shelling out hundreds of millions of dollars to turn the character into the next Sherlock Holmes.

Last week, the FDA announced a change to how the abortion medication mifepristone may be prescribed—one that’s been a long time coming. Before the rule change, you couldn’t get the pills from your neighborhood pharmacy, as you would with any other drug. You still can’t, but that can now change—but the ball is now in…Read more...

Winters can be dreadful. Waking up an hourly early to shovel snow and scrape windshields before your commute to work, only to be welcomed by a pitch dark sky by 5 p.m. can take a toll on anyone. But if free food cheers you up—particularly warm, toasty baguettes—this winter could prove to be a little brighter than you…Read more...

I enjoy collecting vintage kitchen stuff, including beautiful teak cheese domes and serving boards. They look nice, especially the domes, but they do not smell nice. Not at all. The best cheese is a cheese with an assertive aroma, but while I enjoy the funk immensely in the moment, I generally do not wish to perceive…Read more...

The audiobook industry is in the cusp of a major change, with a new technology from Apple using AI-narrated features that promises to make audiobook production more accessible to independent and indie publishers, according to Apple’s website. This means we, as audiobook listeners, could potentially enjoy more…Read more...

A sump pump is an incredibly useful item to have in your basement: Unsophisticated but essential. It’s basically motorized pump in a bucket, buried below the floor of your basement or crawlspace; as the groundwater seeps up, it collects in the bucket, the pump activates, shoots it back outside, and your basement stays…Read more...

A wire rack is a pretty essential baking tool. Beyond cooling cookies, it’s indispensable when decorating. It allows the chocolate on a truffle to drip down and away, creating an evenly coated candy; and it holds your cakes and pastries off the counter while you dust them with powdered sugar or drizzle them with…Read more...

ChatGPT took the internet by storm late last year, proving that AI was a lot further along than many of us realized. You can use ChatGPT to write an essay, plan your recipes for the week, tell you a story, code you an app, really anything you can think of. But you should be using it from OpenAI’s official ChatGPT…Read more...

Foundation cracks can be the stuff of nightmares for homeowners. They conjure visions of excessive repair bills or worse–turning a once-functional structure into a teardown. But not all foundations are equal, and not all foundation cracks are either. There are some cracks that aren’t such a big deal, and some that can…Read more...

Windows 7 launched in October of 2009. Barack Obama was president, Avatar was soon to hit movie theaters, and swine flu was officially declared a global pandemic. The world has changed a lot since then (for example, Avatar 2 is set in the water instead of the forest), and so has Windows. While Microsoft “officially”…Read more...

There was a time I ignored—and even avoided—the rotating cash back bonus categories on my credit card, sure that any rewards wouldn’t be worth the trouble of keeping track of all the categories. That cash back was simply a little extra money each month that I could mindlessly apply back to my balance. However, once I…Read more...

Adulting has never been easy, but since March 2020, we’ve all been struggling with additional stress.The pandemic introduced a slew of new things to deal with, from ramped up anxiety to extreme isolation, and even though we’re all pretending things are back to normal, many of us are still struggling to process the…Read more...

If you have fitness resolutions but would rather stay away from the gym crowds, you might want to browse some deals for at-home gym equipment. Here are some of our favorites right now.

Not all coffees are created equal. You already know this if you’ve been brewing your own for more than a few cups’ time: Coffee beans vary wildly in taste, strength, and even caffeine content. But even how you brew your coffee changes its strength.

These days, iPhones are huge. Aside from the minis (which Apple no longer makes), most iPhones are difficult to properly use with one hand—and some even with two. If you’ve recently switched to a larger iPhone and are struggling to adapt to its size, there are some steps you can take to make your new phone easier to…Read more...

You may have noticed chatter about a new app called Tame. While dating apps keep popping up like weeds—and infesting our social feeds with ads—this one is actually getting buzz...but not all positive.

Almost everyone experiences a layoff at least once in their career. Layoffs almost always feel personal and shake our confidence, but it’s extremely rare that people get laid off because of their performance. More often, company leaders are evaluating that “seat” (aka your job) on the org chart and deciding to…Read more...

If you ordered a “baked potato” at a restaurant and were served a Yukon Gold, you’d probably be a little confused. Baked potatoes—“jacket potatoes” in the UK—are canonically Russets. But sometimes canon is worth fucking with.Read more...

Wikipedia is “the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit”—it says so right on the homepage. But editing Wikipedia articles can be pretty intimidating, especially for newbies. If you’re curious about editing and don’t know where to start, great news: Annie Rauwerda, who runs @depthsofwikipedia on Instagram, Twitter,…Read more...

In an age of fake news and casual disinformation, it’s reassuring, in a sense, to know that we can still be surprised and/or amused by falsehoods. Enter freshman Congressman George Santos, a Long Island Republican who, it turns out, isn’t capable of being honest about even a single thing.Read more...

Glass may be recyclable, but sometimes it’s tempting to keep old wine bottles around for the aesthetic, the memories, or a little of both. If you have a tendency to hang onto your empty wine bottles, they don’t have to sit around collecting dust—they’re actually incredibly useful for watering your houseplants. Here’s…Read more...

Staying focused in a world of nonstop work emails and social media notifications is a never-ending challenge. As much as we talk about the importance (and difficulty) of sustained, deep focus, there are other types of attention, all of which have their usefulness. There’s the creativity that springs from boredom; the…Read more...

I grew up in upstate New York without a garage, so I consider myself fairly skilled in the art of car de-icing—or so I thought. Ice storms have become more common in Portland since I moved here over a decade ago, and with each storm I get less confident in my ability to liberate my windshield. As it turns out, I…Read more...

Mineral oil and mineral spirits may both have a place under your sink or on a shelf in your garage, but despite sounding similar, they are very different. Not sure which to use for your project? Here’s what to know.Read more...

Houseplants can add some some color and life to an otherwise dull space. But even if you’re making sure that they get plenty of water and sunlight, you may notice that from time-to-time, some of your plants may start to look a little lopsided. If that’s the case, you probably need to start rotating your houseplants.…Read more...

The wallpaper on the market today is very different than what you would have found in stores a few decades ago. While there have been a range of improvements over the years, the one that stands out the most is that modern wallpaper is significantly easier to remove than its predecessors.Read more...

Looking to save more money groceries, personal care products, and a variety of household items? With a little planning and the right coupons, you can do exactly that—especially when you stack your coupons. Here’s what to know.Read more...

The new Always-On Displays on the iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max provide a nifty way to keep tabs on your smartphone without needing to interact with it. However, Apple’s original design choice was odd: By default, the 14 Pros dim your wallpaper in addition to the clock and notifications, which is both confusing…Read more...

I love the whole spectrum of pickles—sweet, sour, half-sour, etc.—but my favorite kind of pickle is one that’s so aggressively flavored, it’s almost uncomfortable to eat. I like a challenging pickle, a pickle that would vanquish lesser women. Adding MSG to my pickles helps me achieve this.Read more...