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, 32GB RAM (2021)
If you ever used an Intel based Macbook, do yourself a favor and switch to one of these. The M1 and M2 chips are killer—every command I perform is near instantaneous and there's never any waiting or lag. Great for video production, games, and everything in-between.
Development tools
Sublime Text 4
People ask me all the time why I don't switch to VScode, and believe me, I've tried, yet nothing keeps up with the speed Sublime Text has built-in. I'll occassionally use VScode for GitHub Co-Pilot, but my preference (and heart) will always be with Sublime.
Warp
Best terminal on the market right now. Thing is fast af and expectedly so as it's built with Rust. Also has some AI command finding built-in, although, I don't really use it much.
TablePlus
Sequel Pro didn't support newer versions of MySQL, therefore, I had to move to TablePlus, and boy, what a great decision that was. This has to be the best way to interface with a SQL database, it's fast, makes finding data you need easy, and has safeguards in place to prevent you from accidentally deleting or editing data.
Design
Adobe XD
Figma gets all the love, and I do love how it's completely online, but XD is still the clear winner for me. I've yet to see any program besides XD that gets layer locking, masking, and grouping right. The hotkeys on this program should be the hotkeys for every Adobe program in my opinion—an absolutely phenomenal user experience for speed and design.
Productivity
Alfred
I've had this program for years... It's the first thing I install on any fresh Macbook and deservedly so. This is the only way I'll open up programs, I suspect that I've saved hours worth of time opening things this way instead of clicking to open things up.
Plain Tasks
This is a Sublime plugin that lets me quickly create to-dos within my text editor. If you're ever wondering what that yellow notepad is in my editor, this is it! Easiest and quickest way to get shit done, no complex online task apps like Notion required.
Video
Black Magic Pocket Cinema Camera 4k
My go-to camera for any video production that I do. Absolutely stunning 4k quality that shoots in 24fps raw. If you're looking for cinema-like quality on a budget, this is the camera you should get. Has some flaws like lack of internal stabilization, battery life, and overall size, but I assume these'll be fixed in the near future.