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
14-inch MacBook Pro, M4 Pro, 24GB RAM
Compact enough to work from anywhere—cafés, coworking spaces, or my apartment in Montreal. Powerful enough to run local AI models and spin up multiple dev environments without the fans ever kicking in. The sweet spot between portability and performance.
Apple Magic Keyboard
Nothing fancy, just a reliable keyboard that stays out of the way. I've tried mechanical keyboards but always come back to this. The low profile works well for long writing sessions.
Apple Magic Trackpad
All the gestures make me feel like a wizard. Switching between desktops, navigating Figma files, zooming around code—it all feels natural after years of muscle memory.
Development tools
Claude Code
Anthropic's CLI for Claude. This has become my primary coding partner—I used it to build most of this portfolio site. The combination of agentic coding and conversation makes it feel less like a tool and more like pair programming.
Cursor
VS Code with AI built in. The tab completion has genuinely changed how I write code. I find myself thinking in larger chunks now, letting the AI fill in the predictable parts while I focus on the interesting decisions.
Warp
A modern terminal that actually feels like it belongs in 2024. Command palette, AI assistance, and proper text editing. I spent years in iTerm2 before switching and haven't looked back.
Replit
Quick prototyping and deployment without the setup overhead. When I have an idea I want to test, I can go from concept to deployed URL in an hour. Great for validating before committing to a full project.
Design
Figma
The standard for a reason. After a decade of design tools—Sketch, Adobe, InVision—Figma is the first one that doesn't feel like it's fighting me. Design, prototype, collaborate, and hand off all in one place.
Excalidraw
Hand-drawn style diagrams and wireframes. Perfect for early ideation when polish would actually slow things down. I use it for system architecture sketches, user flows, and explaining ideas to clients.
Productivity
Superwhisper
Voice-to-text that actually works. I use this constantly—for journaling, drafting emails, thinking through problems out loud. Speaking is often faster than typing, especially when I need to get ideas out before they disappear.
Cal.com
Open-source scheduling that respects my time. Clean interface, good integrations, and I own my data. After years of Calendly, it feels good to use something that aligns with my values around open source.
Obsidian
My second brain. Local-first markdown notes with backlinks, where I keep everything from daily journals to client project notes to programming concepts I'm learning. The daily notes workflow has been transformative for how I think and remember.