Hey,

It’s Pete Matheson with a new issue of Experiments in Progress.

Optimization sounds like progress.

But looking back, some of the things I optimized most didn’t improve my life at all.

Let’s dive in👇

For a few years, I tried to optimize everything.

Health tracking. Keyboards. Desk setup. Buying decisions.

Some of it helped. But a lot of it turned out to be unnecessary once I already knew what worked.

Here’s what I stopped optimizing and why.

At one point, I was using all of these:

This was useful early on. It taught me the fundamentals:

As long as I:

Everything works fine without tracking it constantly.

I used mechanical keyboards for years including Logitech’s MX Mechanical.

They feel great and sound satisfying.

But I switched back to the Apple Magic Keyboard with Touch ID and haven’t looked back.

Reasons:

Mechanical keyboards are more “enthusiast.” The Apple keyboard is just more practical.

I stopped using monitor stands completely.

A monitor arm is simply better:

Once you switch, it’s hard to go back.

I’ve also stopped trying to optimize for price.

Now I’d rather:

It’s simpler long-term. Optimization is useful when you’re figuring things out. But once you know what works, you don’t need to keep optimizing.

My setup is simpler now and it works better.

📱 Enjoying this newsletter? Share it with a friend who’s as obsessed with tech as you are:

Can you actually hear the difference between normal audio and audiophile gear?

I didn’t think it would matter much. I was wrong.

🗓️ See you Saturday.