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

  • 16” MacBook Pro, M4 Max, 64GB RAM (2024)

    Upgraded because I convinced myself the extra GPU cores would make my Excel spreadsheets render faster. They don't, but it makes me feel better about my life choices.

  • 16” MacBook Pro, M1 Pro, 32GB RAM (2021)

    I was using an Intel-based 16” MacBook Pro 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 with our various launch simulations.

  • Keychron Q6 Max Knob Keyboard

    A full-size mechanical keyboard because I need a numpad for Excel championship training. The knob is perfect for adjusting volume when my DJ mixes are too fire.

  • Keychron keychron M6 4K Mouse

    4K polling rate for when I need to select cells in Excel with sub-millisecond precision. Completely overkill, absolutely necessary.

  • Secretlab TITAN 2020 Chair

    If I’m going to slouch in the worst ergonomic position imaginable all day, I might as well do it in an expensive chair.

Development tools

  • nix-darwin

    Because manually installing software like a caveman is so 2015. Now I can spend hours configuring my system instead of minutes installing apps. Efficiency at its finest.

  • JetBrains IDEs

    All Products Pack courtesy of my employer. I use at least six daily because editing settings in a proper UI instead of a JSON file doesn't give me migraines. VS Code users can enjoy their fast startup times.

  • Ghostty

    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.

  • Caddy Reverse Proxy

    Automatic HTTPS is such a game changer. I pretend I understand how it all works under the hood but really I just appreciate not having to deal with certificate renewal anymore.

Diagramming

  • Excalidraw

    Great for making diagrams that look like a five-year-old drew them, which perfectly matches my architecture skills. The hand-drawn style makes everything look intentionally casual.

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.

  • Obsidian

    My second brain, mostly filled with TODO lists I'll never complete and half-baked ideas for side projects. The graph view makes me feel like a knowledge management genius.

  • CleanShot

    Because apparently the built-in macOS screenshot tool isn't good enough anymore. The scrolling capture feature is legitimately great though, worth every penny for that alone.