I recently picked up a new helmet for my daily commute. Here you can see some tentative reservation before wearing it for the first time:

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Thankfully, I’ve found it to be the former. In fact, this new helmet has completely changed the way I think about protective gear for my head since it offers three distinct advantages over any previous model:

  1. Visibility — the helmet is bright yellow and has front and rear facing lights embedded into the helmet. There are four different light functions, including slow and fast flash. The lights sit so much higher now, it feels like I’m easier for drivers to see as well (no evidence on this yet though).
  2. Simplification — Given that the helmet has built-in lights, I no longer have to worry about front and rear bike lights. Did I bring them to the office? Did I take them off my bike so they won’t get stolen? Do they have enough battery power? No longer a worry. I’ve left my charging cable at the office and can plug it into for some quick juice after I arrive. The helmet charges via USB, and my helmet is usually sitting on my desk a few feet from my laptop — no behavioral changes needed.
  3. Comfort — I really enjoy wearing it. In fact, I don’t even notice I’m wearing it at all (which makes for laughs as I look like I could start shooting laser beams out of my head with it on).

It’s been a few weeks, but this helmet has already brought me much joy. It’s funny how a product can change the way you think in retrospect — why wouldn’t you have lights in a helmet? It’s so obviously better.

Thank you to all of the wonderful people out there working on new ideas, creating products, and building businesses that immediately set the bar and shift expectations.

This was originally posted on Medium