I've been adjusting my software tooling for as long as I can remember.
With shifting to working from home, there's a few recent additions (as of March 2020) on the hardware and software side.
Hardware
- MacBook Pro 14", 2021 Edition - The M1 is a beast.
- Samsung UR55 28" IPS 4K UHD Monitor - In March 2020 after a transition to working from home, I had to upgrade a years-old Benq monitor. I landed on the 28" Samsung because it was the only one that would ship and be delivered in two days. It's crisp, colors are good, and adjustable brightness means my eyes don't fatigue after a day of work.
- Das Keyboard Model S Ultimate with Cherry MX Blues (discontinued) - I've had this keyboard since 2016; it's a beast. Since it's been discontinued, the newest model that's closest looks to be their Professional Model S.
- Drop + Matt3o MT3 /dev/tty Keycap Set (1800 Kit) - The feel of these keycaps is incredible; I legitimately look forward to typing with it every day. Who even says that!?
- CalDigit TS3 Plus - This is a great dock and supports a ton of peripherals.
Audio / Video
- Shure SM7B - It's a great-sounding mic and a necessary upgrade after running into popping audio from the WH-1000XM4s.
- Scarlett Solo - Necessary with the Shure; bonus that it can take guitar input.
- Cloudlifter CL-1 - Phantom power, and also mostly necessary with the Shure.
- Rode PSA1 - Boom for the mic; easy to secure to a desk. Sturdy.
- Sony WH-1000XM4 Headphones - I take a lot of calls during work, and AirPods weren't lasting the entire day. The sound quality is incredible, and the battery lasts for all-day pairing sessions, music, or calls with my team.
- Razer Kiyo - Much better than Apple's stock webcam. With the built-in light, it means I don't need to mess with lighting or worry the picture won't look good.
Development
- kitty - It's fast, it renders ligatures, and configuration is a breeze.
- Cascadia Code - My typeface of choice; I like a bit of weight for my coding font, and between ligatures and Powerline support, this has been my pick for a while. With a release in June 2020 supporting variable font weights, there's not much else I'd want from my font.
- tmux - tmux has been a staple in my workflow since 2011.
- starship - Between using a slew of languages, full-screen terminal use, and using git branches, the information density for what I care about most can't be beat.
- asdf - I work in Ruby, Rust, Elixir, Elm, Python, NodeJS... asdf manages it all. I still forget the commands, but it "just works" when I'm not changing versions.
- neovim - vim has been my editor of choice since 2008; with support for async support, neovim is my current flavor of choice. My vim configuration is available on GitHub.
The full list of development-related software I use can be found in my Brewfile.
Software
- 1Password - OTP support has been a game-changer. A must-use.
- Alfred - I've been using the Powerpack and custom workflows to open up Basecamp projects, GitHub repos, Heroku apps, Trello boards...
- Boom 3D - Better than an equalizer.
- CleanMyMac - This helps clean up cruft and uninstall apps.
- DaisyDisk - While dua-cli is solid, sometimes I want more of a visualization. DaisyDisk fits the bill.
- Dash - Another must-have as a software developer. Alfred integration alone makes it worth it.
- Krisp - Between young kids and a loud keyboard, it's important to talk on calls and not be disruptive with unnecessary noise.
- Mailplane - I've got Gmail's keyboard shortcuts seared into muscle memory, but I want a desktop app to read mail. Mailplane does the job.
- Postico - Solid little Postgres GUI.
- Todoist - I live and die by my calendar, but this is handy for keeping track of other things.
- Tuple - I wouldn't want to pair-program without it.