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

  • 14” MacBook Pro, M1, 16GB RAM (2021)

    This device is working really smooth and haven't faced any issues yet. I’ve even never heard the fans turn on a single time, even under the incredibly heavy loads I put it through with our various launch simulations.

  • GIGABYTE G27Q 27-inch 144Hz QHD Monitor

    This one is a budget friendly display on the market if you want something good in the range of 27”. When you’re working at planetary scale, every pixel you can get counts.

  • GRID Pro Tasker Chair

    Ergonomic chair is nothing but a basic need for a dev I believe and this one works too well. From adjustable Armrests and synchronous tilt to adjustable lumbar support, the Chair provides intuitive stabilization and alignment at an accessible price.

Development tools

  • Visual Studio Code

    It makes the coding process really smooth with all the fancy IDE features. Hats off to 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.

  • 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.

  • Google Keep

    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.