Software I use, gear I rely on, and things I recommend.

A living list of the hardware and software I use to build things, stay productive, or convince myself I'm being productive while procrastinating. Swap in your own setup.

Workstation

  • 14-inch laptop, plenty of RAM

    Whatever machine you have is enough - but a fast compile loop and a silent fan make long coding sessions a lot more pleasant.

  • External 4K monitor

    One big screen beats two small ones. Editor and terminal side-by-side, browser on the laptop display.

  • Mechanical keyboard

    Any board you enjoy typing on. Bonus points for remapping Caps Lock to Escape.

  • A decent chair

    Your back will thank you long before your commit history does.

Development

  • VS Code

    Reliable, extensible, and the default for a reason. Swap in your editor of choice - the muscle memory matters more than the logo.

  • Ghostty

    A fast, native terminal that gets out of the way. Pairs well with tmux and a good shell prompt.

  • Bruno

    Git-friendly API client - collections live as plain files in the repo, so they version-control naturally alongside the code.

  • OrbStack

    Containers and local VMs without the overhead of Docker Desktop.

Design

  • Figma

    Where design work starts - and a great virtual whiteboard for architecture sketches and thinking out loud with diagrams.

Productivity

  • Raycast

    Launcher, clipboard history, window management, and snippets. If you're still using the default launcher, do yourself a favor.

  • A password manager

    1Password, Bitwarden, pick one - the point is to never think about credentials again.

  • Plain notes

    Notion, Obsidian, or a folder of Markdown files. The system matters less than actually writing things down.