You WILL forget your earbuds sometimes.

Sometimes our sales pitch in these stories is pretty tenuous. Sometimes it’s just ridiculous on purpose. Sometimes we’re really reaching. And sometimes we’re just trying not to repeat ourselves. But we’re going to repeat ourselves now because this here is some stone-cold reality: every carry-on bag you own should have a spare set of earbuds permanently tucked away inside it.

It doesn’t matter how on top of things you are. One of the habits of highly organized people - as well as the rest of the human race - is to leave your earbuds at home when you’re traveling on occasion. There you are, on a long flight or stuck on a layover, with no distractions to stuff up your earholes. If you’re “lucky”, you can pay an arm and a leg for an overpriced pair from an airport vending machine. If not, you’re stuck with the sad parody of earbuds they give you on the plane. What an idiot you are!

Oh, hey, but wait… you remembered to stash these decent-sounding, reasonably comfortable JLab Premium Metal Earbuds in that weird pocket on your backpack where you keep mints and spare shoelaces. What a genius you are!

Buy a bunch of these. Don’t even open the packages. Just stick them in your carry-ons and get on with your life. Then, when you’re 30,000 feet over Akron while your first-string earbuds are sitting at home on your nightstand, you’re golden. No matter how smart you are, you WILL forget your earbuds sometimes. What happens next depends on whether you’re an idiot or a genius.