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, M1 Max, 64GB 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.

  • Apple Pro Display XDR (Standard Glass)

    The only display on the market if you want something HiDPI and bigger than 27”. When you’re working at planetary scale, every pixel you can get counts.

  • Apple Magic Trackpad

    Something about all the gestures makes me feel like a wizard with special powers. I really like feeling like a wizard with special powers.

  • Herman Miller Aeron 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

  • VS Code

    A powerful, free code editor with a massive extension ecosystem. It offers great features like IntelliSense and built-in Git support, making it a top choice for many developers.

  • Cursor

    An AI-first code editor built on VS Code, designed to pair-program with you. It deeply integrates AI to help write, edit, and understand code with simple instructions.

  • Antigravity

    A new AI-powered IDE focused on collaborative and agentic development. It allows you to offload tasks to AI agents that can execute code, refactor files, and run terminal commands directly.

  • Codex

    OpenAI's AI system that translates natural language into code. It powers GitHub Copilot and can turn simple comments into working functions in many programming languages.

  • Claude Code

    An autonomous coding agent from Anthropic, designed to be used directly in your terminal. It can search and edit code across your whole project, execute commands, and handle complex, multi-step tasks on your behalf.

Design

  • Adobe

    An industry-standard suite of creative software for photo editing, graphic design, video editing, and more. It provides professional-grade tools like Photoshop and Illustrator for complex design projects.

  • Claude Design

    Refers to using Anthropic's Claude AI model for design-related tasks. It can generate design specifications, analyze UI layouts from screenshots, and write HTML/CSS code from a simple mockup description.

Productivity

  • Habitify

    A data-driven habit tracker focused on building long-term routines and consistency. It helps you monitor your progress with detailed charts and analytics to understand your behavioral patterns.

  • ClickUp

    An all-in-one productivity platform that combines tasks, docs, goals, and chat into a single app. It’s highly customizable and aims to replace multiple tools, acting as a central hub for your work.

  • Focus

    Simple tool for blocking distracting websites when I need to just do the work and get some momentum going.