Several years ago I wrote one of my most controversial posts, Don't Clean Your Glasses. If I keep wearing dusty glasses I find I stop noticing the dust, and then I save the time of washing and drying. I'm embarrassed to admit it, however, but I do now clean my glasses.

In June 2020 I got a new pair of glasses, and this time I got them with a "Super Hydrophobic" coating. This has two main effects:

• Water evaporates from the surface without leaving any splotchy residue or other trace.

• They smudge really easily.

The place this has the most advantage is when playing in the water. My glasses get wet, then they dry, and through all of it I can see clearly. Previously I would leave my glasses on the shore and have pretty blurry vision beyond about ten feet, which does not combine well with keeping an eye my kids in the pond. The coating also helps a lot with walking in rain.

The easy smudging, however, means I often need to clean them every few days, or even every day, especially if the baby is playing with my face. Luckily the coating also means they're much faster to clean because I no longer need to dry them: I just put them back on, and within a couple minutes they're fully clear again.

On balance I do prefer the coating, but it's closer than I would have guessed.