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.

WorkstationDevelopment ToolsDesignContent CreationAI

Workstation

  • 14” MacBook Pro, M4, 16GB RAM (2024)

    I upgraded this year from an M1 to an M4 and I've yet to hear the fan on this thing despite my 2 external monitors, and recording setup. The biggest wins are the battery life, and all the ports.

  • Secretlab Magnus Pro Standing Desk

    This past year I finally got a standing desk and it's been a game changer. I've been using the Secretlab Magnus Pro and it's perfect for my needs. I stand 30-40% of the time and it's great to break up the day. I also added the dual monitor arms.

  • Secretlab TITAN Evo Chair

    I'll admit, I don't know a lot about chairs. But what I love about this chair is it's easy to dial in the lumbar support and the tilt. There's been many times where I've just laid it back and napped.

  • Monitors (2) Dell UltraSharp U2723QE 27" 4k

    I've been using the Dell UltraSharp U2723QE a year now and it's by far the best monitor I've ever used. Clear colors, great viewing angles, and the 4k resolution is *chefs kiss*

  • BenQ 4k

    The awesome folks at BenQ sent me a 4k monitor to review. I've been using it for about a month now and it's been great. It's a little more expensive than the Dell, but the color accuracy is off the charts.

  • Sony Alpha a6400 Mirrorless Camera

    I've been using this camera for 3 years now and it's been great. It stays mounted on my tripod in my office and I use it for all of my video recording/streaming content. With a camlink, I can record directly to my MacBook Pro and use it as a webcam. Ah, but don't forget the adapter power supply. Super useful to make sure the camera doesn't shut off due to heat.

  • Sony 16mm f/1.4

    I've been using this lens for 2 years (got it with the camera) and can't imagine shooting without it. People always ask me how I get a bokeh effect and honestly, it's this lens doing 100% of the work.

  • Shure MV7 USB Microphone

    Don't get me wrong, I miss the colors on my HyperX Quadcast mic. But the sound quality on a Shure is amazing. I went with the USB model because I'm not an audiohead, but it also has an XLR port in case that changes in the future.

Development tools

  • v0

    I started in v0, then switched to Bolt, and now back to v0. It's a great tool for ideation and prototyping. I use this to create my ideas and then move to Cursor when I need to create a more involved project. However, v0 keeps adding news features and I'm loving how fast I can create fullstack apps with it.

  • Excalidraw

    I've been using this for all of my diagramming needs for years and it's only gotten better. I use it to create all of my diagrams for my projects and take it a step further with the Pro plan and VS Code extension.

  • RayCast

    Let me start by saying I'm not a Mac power user. So there are a lot of features here that I don't invest the time in learning. With that said, I use the color picker, clipboard, and well that's it.

Design

  • Figma

    Yes, I have figma. No, I'm not a pro at it. I use it mainly for storing assets and making simple tweaks.

  • Canva

    I use this more than Figma. Mainly it's how I layout my social cards and blog post cover images. But with that said, lately I've noticed I've used chatGPT and Gemini to do the same. I'm going to give Canva another month or two to see if I can fully get rid of it.

Content Creation

  • Descript

    I'm on year 2 of using this and it's easily the best tool for video creation. Using a transcription as a way to edit your video is a game changer. I never realized how much dead space and "ums" I had in my videos until I started using this.

  • Screen Studio

    New to my arsenal this year. I think the sweet spot for this is demo content, and promotional material. I wouldn't use this to for a long-form video.

  • Streamyard

    I've been using this for about 5 years now. It's made huge improvements over time. I've used it to stream to YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitch. With that said, it's expensive and when I have time, I'd like to explore using OBS, just streaming to YouTube and sharing the stream link to the other platforms.

AI

  • chatGPT

    The difference between expanding on an idea, and expounding on one is that the former adds new knowledge, while the the latter dives deeper into existing insights. This is how I use chatGPT. It's not for replacing my brain, but for replacing my memory.

  • Gemini

    Nano Banana, Veo, etc. It's 100% for gimmicky stuff for my kids, but it's nice to play with and combine with other AI generated content if for nothing else, to keep pace.

  • Cursor

    As of now, I'm using Cursor. I'm thinking about giving Kiro a try, but I'm going to need Cursor to stop shipping so many awesome features 😅

  • Amazon Bedrock

    This is the backbone of my AI services. I use it to generate text, images, and other content. I use it for both knowledge gathering, creating agentic workflows and just for fun.