These are the things I use! I value privacy, freedom, data ownership, and digital minimalism, so I tend to research product features and policies thoroughly before making a purchase.
If I list something here, it means I generally appreciate it’s presence in my life, and would recommend it to others, though I have no affiliation, and none of these are affiliate marketing links.
Inspired by https://uses.tech/.
Hardware#
| What | Name | Reason |
|---|---|---|
| Desk | FlexiSpot E7 Pro | I just love standing desks. This one is pretty good quality, functions as expected, and looks nice. |
| Laptop | Intel LAPQC71A | + Beautiful; lack of visible branding, sleek build, 144Hz display + Powerful components and great port selection + Good Linux compatibility + Mechanical keyboard on a laptop is interesting - Short battery life and a bulky charger :( Random review with more thoughts and helpful information. |
| Keyboard | Ergodox EZ | Great ergonomics, saved my wrists from repetitive strain injury Programmable which is extremely worthwhile for workflow optimization especially if you use a tiling window manager such as i3. |
| Gazzew and Boba U4 Silent Tactile Keyboard Switches | Quiet and amazing to type with | |
| Phone | iPhone SE (2020) | Efficient form factor and cost |
| BAN | Garmin Vivoactive 6 | |
| Noise-cancelling Headphones | Sony WH-1000XM4 | |
| IEM/Earbuds | Moondrop Chu II | Very comfortable, don’t fall out |
| Alarm Clock / Smart Light | Lifx Luna | I find it much more pleasant to be woken up by gradual light rather than noise. |
| Hardware Token | Yubikey |
Workstation#
Configuration managed with Ansible according to my playbooks.
| What | Name | Reason |
|---|---|---|
| Operating System | Debian Linux | Familiar and simple |
| Window Manager | i3 | Workflow optimization |
| Web Browser | Brave | Chromium with a wealth of added features which enhance privacy and convenience (ad-blocker, content filtering, and Playlist on mobile) |
| Screenshot Utility | Flameshot | Functions as expected |
| Blue Light Filter | Redshift (set to -O 2500 all-day everyday) | Makes it easier to stare at a screen all day :) |
| IDE / Text Editor | VSCode | Good defaults (after adding a plugin for vim keybinds). |
| Neovim | Neovim is more fun to customize and use, but VSCode’s ease of use is just more important sometimes. | |
| Notes | Obsidian | Versatile and works with markdown, so extremely portable and interoperable. This sums it up. - Low friction for taking notes while working through a problem (easy formatting and image pasting) - Write blog posts to publish with a SSG like Hugo - Back up and track notes with Git!!! |
| Terminal Emulator | Wezterm | Cross-platform and has a built-in terminal multiplexer so I can use the exact same config and keybindings across any operating system |
SaaS#
| What | Name | Reason |
|---|---|---|
| LLM | Claude | Generally helpful for most tasks, especially programming with Claude Code. |
| Personal Productivity | Lunatask | + Private all-in-one service for habit tracking, task management, journaling, time blocking, and relationship tracking + Offers lifetime licenses + Data is portable (can export to own data in plaintext and keep personal backups) - Not open-source, source-available, or self-hostable, but still significantly better than all other services I tried for these purposes |
| Flashcards | Anki | I use Anki and apply Dr Piotr Wozniak’s 20 Rules for Formulating Knowledge to better remember the things I learn. Spaced repetition is absolutely critical for retaining information and becoming proficient with new skills quickly, in my opinion. |