Uses

I use a number of tools to get my work done. This page is a living document of the tools I use.

Hardware

Macbook Pro M2 is my daily-driver laptop. I have a number of computers I perform daily work on, but a majority of my time is spent on my MacBook Pro. I have a number of accessories I use with my MacBook Pro, but I tend to use it in clamshell mode with an external monitor. When at home, I use a Dell Ultra HD 4K Monitor P2415Q monitor.

iPhone 14 is my primary phone. I try to avoid installing anything more than I need on my phone, and have notifications turned off for almost all applications.

Apple Watch Series 6 is my primary watch. I’ve gotten used to having notifications on my wrist for a number of years. Having the ability to quickly get updates on my life for me is pivotal. I’d love to have a watch that is more open, but I haven’t found one that is as good as the Apple Watch.

Yubikey is my go-to MFA device. MFA everywhere, and MFA often. I use multiple Yubikeys depending upon the service I am trying to authenticate into, but I tend towards using the newer USB-C keys that remain mostly flush with the host. I also use a Yubikey 5 NFC for my phone.

Oura Ring is the ring you may see me with. I track pretty much everything. Oura lets me know whether or not I am meeting my goals (sleep, exercise, HRV) and how to improve any deviations that do exist. I’ve tried a number of other devices, but Oura has been the most accurate and the most comfortable.

Eight Sleep Pod Pro is my bed. This bed is a lifesaver. Having the ability to set bed temperature and tracking on both sides of the bed has been incredible. I’ve been able to get a better night’s sleep, and have been able to track my sleep in a way that I haven’t been able to before.

AirPods Pro are my gold standard in “I need to be able to listen to things” / “I need to do phone calls” / “I just need headphones that work.” I am rarely (if ever) seen without them.

HD 6XX are my at-home headphones. Reasonable price. Great sound. I’ve tried a number of other headphones, but these are the most comfortable and have the best sound for the price.

Bose QC45 are my go-to for flights. I’ve tried a number of noise cancelling headphones, but these are the most comfortable and have the best noise cancellation.

Logitech MX Master 3 is my daily-driver mouse. I have a number of mice I use, but this is my favorite. I use it for work and for gaming, but I have a number of mice I use depending upon the situation.

Drop ALT Keyboard is my daily-driver keyboard. I have a number of keyboards I use, but this is my favorite. I use it for work and for gaming, and have a number of keycaps I swap in and out depending upon my mood.

Software

NeoVim is my primary editor in the terminal. I’ve used Vim for years, but having expanded plugins and bindings has heavily sped up my flow.

Raycast is my primary launcher. I’ve used a number of launchers, but Raycast has been the most extensible and the most useful. I still use Alfred for a number of things, but Raycast has been my go-to for launching applications and performing quick actions.

Alacritty is my terminal of choice. It just works, and is blazing fast.

Reeder is my read it later app. Complete iCloud sync is the reason I use it, since it is lacking on features compared to Instapaper and Pocket (no tagging, folders or search).

Alfred gets me access to everything I need quickly. I use a number of powerpacks in order to streamline additional searches and actions — network utilities, GitHub pull requests, and so on.

Things is how I track what I need to get done. I’ve used a number of alternatives, but Things allows me to create the most extensive and detailed to-do items.

Bartender allows for me to clean up my menu bar. As I run a number of items in parallel, this overall makes things far more clean.

Dash is the documentation browser I’ve found most useful. It’s great to be able to gain a quick understanding of what values I should send in and gather information from.

BetterTouchTool is my way of adding super powers to my touch pad. It’s a way of quickly pulling up applications and items I use daily.

Hopper is my primary disassembler. IDA is incredible, but awfully expensive — having the ability to quickly (and cheaply) take interesting binaries apart has been unparalleled.

IINA is my media viewer. QuickTime is great, but having the ability to have subtitles, playback history, and many other items I don’t traditionally have through QuickTime is incredible.

Karabiner allows for me to bind my keys to pretty much everything.

Keyboard Maestro is quite similar — I use Nikita’s bindings.

Notion is my note taking utility. I switch some times with Obsidian.

Popclip brings iOS style highlighting options to macOS. I have found it to be incredibly useful for actions I perform every day (adding things to notes or calendar) and quickly gaining context on an item.

Superhuman is my email client of choice. I was one of the first 100 users, and I have no plan of stopping. Superhuman is one of the few reasons I can achieve inbox zero. I have a significant amount of configuration changes within Superhuman that allow me to quickly triage inbound emails and respond / file accordingly.

Typinator provides immense value in quickly fixing typos and expanding content for my frequently typed messages.

Typora is where I write my markdown. It’s clean, streamlined, and allows me to quickly produce new content.