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, M1, 16GB RAM (2021)

    I was using a Windows based laptop 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.

  • Acer Predator X3

    Ultra-wide monitors are amazing for productivity. No bevels in the way for me

  • Keychron K3 keyboard

    I like chiclet keyboards and I like mechanical keyboards. This is the best of both worlds.

  • Logitech G403 mouse

    Just a solid mouse, nothing fancy. I like the shape and the scroll wheel is nice.

Development tools

  • Visual Studio Code

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

  • iTerm2

    I’m honestly not even sure what features I get with this that aren’t just part of the macOS Terminal but it’s what I use.

Design

  • Figma

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

  • Photoshop

    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

  • Notion

    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.

  • Focus

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