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 Pro, 16GB RAM (2021)

    I was using an Intel-based 16” MacBook Pro prior to this and the difference is night and day. I never hear the fans turn on, even under heavy load. In contrast the intel based does not like google meet sessions.

  • Apple Studio Display

    I am using two of these. I like the built in camera. But its general implementation in macos is not really setup for multiple displays. Displays is a ongoing topic for me, might remove one of them again and replace with a LG Dual Display soon.

  • Logitech MX Ergo

    I grew up using trackballs and find them very comfortable for everyday use.

  • Apple Magic Keyboard

    The thinnest keyboard I could find plus the added comfort of TouchId.

Development tools

  • IntelliJ Idea

    While sublime is awesome and i always have it at the ready, the comfort creature i am got used to all the fancy bells and whistles IntelliJ has built in.

  • 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. I should actually just use the internal DB tooling in IntelliJ but somehow this tool is still installed.

Design

  • Figma

    I have started using Figma over Sketch lately, i am not a very good designer myself but i find most of the design community is using Figma - so this eases interaction with this community for me a lot.

Productivity

  • Raycast

    After many years raycast has superseeded my Alfred installation.

  • Linear

    Basically a more pleasant Jira. I love the simplicity of it. And speeeed.

  • Obsidian

    Experiment #6234 to replace my paper notebook. I am not sure if it will stick.