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 15” 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.

Development tools

  • Visual Studio Code

    I've been using VS Code for a few years now and I love it. It's fast, has great support for TypeScript, and has a huge ecosystem of plugins. GitHub Copilot is also a game changer.

  • Postman

    When it comes to testing APIs, Postman is still the best. I’ve tried a few alternatives but nothing comes close to the productivity I get from Postman.

Development libraries

  • Tailwind CSS

    Tailwind has been a game changer when handling CSS for my web development projects. There are a lot of love/hate opinions on this topic. For me, it's the ability to quickly read some front-end code and make adjustments without affecting the global CSS structure has been a great improvement in my DX (Developer Experience).

Design

  • Figma

    Figma is not only great for designing UIs, but it’s also great for implementing front end code. I use it for both.

Productivity

  • Alfred

    It’s not the newest kid on the block but it’s still the fastest.

  • OmniFocus

    The best and most powerful task manager I’ve ever used. I like to organize my tasks by project and context, and OmniFocus makes it easy to do that.

Photography

  • Canon EOS RP

    While the iPhone camera is great, I still like to use a real camera for special occassions. This is a great entry-level full frame camera that supports professional Canon lenses.