Software I use, gadgets I love, and other things I recommend.

I get asked a lot about the things I use to build software, stay productive, or buy to fool myself into thinking I’m being productive when I’m really just procrastinating. Here’s a big list of all of my favorite stuff.

Workstation

  • 13” MacBook Pro, 8GB RAM (2018)

    I was using an Intel-based 13” MacBook Pro prior to this and the difference is night and day. I’ve never heard the fans turn on a single time, even under the incredibly heavy loads I put it through with our various launch simulations.

  • Custom Build Desktop with Arch Linux OS

    The only OS if you looking to upgrade your skills is Arch Linux. I have highly build custom CPU which is quite fast and I do most on my clients projects in it.

  • Reddragon K552-RGB LED Keyboard

    They don’t make keyboards the way they used to. I buy these any time I see them go up for sale and keep them in storage in case I need parts or need to retire my main.

  • Apple Magic Trackpad

    Something about all the gestures makes me feel like a wizard with special powers. I really like feeling like a wizard with special powers.

Development tools

  • Neovim

    I don’t care if it’s missing all of the fancy IDE features everyone else relies on, Neovim is still the best text editor ever made.

  • Alacritty

    It is blazing fast terminal written on Rust And i cannot live a single day without this terminal. I use it for almost all purpose.

  • TablePlus

    Great software for working with databases. Has saved me from building about a thousand admin interfaces for my various projects over the years.

Design

  • Figma

    We started using Figma as just a design tool but now it’s become our virtual whiteboard for the entire company. Never would have expected the collaboration features to be the real hook.

Productivity

  • Alfred

    It’s not the newest kid on the block but it’s still the fastest. The Sublime Text of the application launcher world.

  • Reflect

    Using a daily notes system instead of trying to keep things organized by topics has been super powerful for me. And with Reflect, it’s still easy for me to keep all of that stuff discoverable by topic even though all of my writing happens in the daily note.

  • SavvyCal

    Great tool for scheduling meetings while protecting my calendar and making sure I still have lots of time for deep work during the week.

  • Focus

    Simple tool for blocking distracting websites when I need to just do the work and get some momentum going.