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

What helps me ship stuff fast and sustainably.

Development tools

  • Jetbrains

    I know a lot of vim bindings and admire the people who use neovim, but jetbrains products are just so polished. I've been using them for years and they've never let me down. Datagrip especially is by far the best database administrative tool. It's well worth the money. Silly things like ts-server crashing on vs-code just doesn't happen on Webstorm. The new ai features are underappreciated too.

  • Ollama

    Ollama just works. It's so nice for running models locally without needing to do any extra python setup. I'm interested in vllm for performance gains, but ollama has served me very well in production so far.

Workstation

  • Desktop Intel with RTX 3060

    I like having a dedicated workstation with an nvidia card to run models and try things out locally. Works great for running small models. One day I'll buy a 4090 or 5090, but for now I make do.

  • Server AMD with RTX 4060

    Unraid is great for a home server. I can run applications and also store all my personal data on the same server. Putting a cloudflare proxy in front gives you some security while letting you self host.

  • Kinesis 360 Pro Wireless

    I started developing wrist and shoulder pain from bending my hands and shoulders in to type. A split, concave and tented keyboard is a game changer. Hasn't made me type much faster, but it let's me type all day without any of the issues I used to suffer from. Expensive but worth it if you're making decent money in software.

  • Apple Magic Trackpad

    Bill Gates could never make something this solid.

Design

  • Excalidraw

    Excalidraw is just so convenient for sketching out ideas and prototyping. I've never used something so simple and easy to use. It seems to cache in browser which is so nice and convenient.

Productivity

  • Alfred

    Alfred is so nice for kicking things off, but mostly I just love the extended clipboard. Coding without an extended clipboard is so much slower. It's a substantial improvement, I don't see how you can be serious without investing in a clipboard tool with a stack.