Software
- Are.na — The everything app. Generating ideas, moodboarding, saving references, and finding things you didn't know you were looking for. Don't forget the Chrome extension and mobile app.
- Bitwarden — Self-hosted and free password manager. No reason to have a password breach in 2025.
- Brave Browser — My everyday browser. Useful for blocking unnecessary trackers and ads.
- Cal.com — Calendly-alternative and quite pleasant to use.
- Claude — Good AI model for general usage: Ideation, writing simple code, copywriting, idea augmentation, and proof of concepts
- Cursor — Coding with AI. The code completions are great, and it's fun to spin up little prototypes based on a few sketches = faster idea validation.
- Figma — UI design, user flows, wireframes, and other exploratory digital product design.
- Google Docs — Writing, planning, design documentation - pretty much everything!
- Google Sheets — Everything else I don't get done in Docs, gets done in Sheets. I build myself lots of mini tools for Financial analysis, AB tests, pivot tables, trip itineraries, time trackers, etc.
- Illustrator — Drawing vectors, logo design and general illustrations
- InDesign — Preparation of print files, especially magazines, booklets, letterheads, resumes and cover letters
- Linear — Project management for the anti-JIRA crowd. I use this at work, and at home.
- Obsidian — Writing app that saves all your notes in markdown files. Pleasant interface and highly customizable.
- Photoshop — Photo manipulation and general file preparation. I also do a bit of exploratory design work in Photoshop.
- Portainer — Running a few docker containers on my NAS at home. Easy to manage everything in one place.
- Read.cv — A nice, minimal resume/cv website.
- Slack — Still kind of the industry standard for chatting with teams.
- Webflow — Web development without using code (mostly). This website was made on Webflow.
- XLD — Lightweight OS X music file conversion app. Just drag the files into the icon and they convert (almost no interface to speak of).
- Raycast — I've always been a no-visible-dock and Spotlight-only type of person. Over the years, Spotlight has gotten worse and worse, and so Raycast was a natural replacement. Particularly helpful for converting currencies and doing a bunch of small tasks that I used to do in a new browser tab.
- After Effects — Of course, there are a few new contenders in the video editing space, but AE is still where I feel most comfortable doing basic animations, transitions and video editing.
Recreation
- Bluesky — Short-form social media, I prefer this format to Instagram/Tiktok. I migrated to Bluesky in 2022-23 after having my Twitter handle since 2007.
- Feeeed — An excellent news feed aggregator, mobile app is highly recommended. I also love the language flashcards.
- Hackernews — Great source for general tech news. Read through the comments for some spicy takes = free user testing in real time.
- Last.fm — In what may seem like a bizarre concept to some people, last.fm "scrobbles" the music you listen to and gives you analytics and recommendations.
- Letterboxd — Nice way to discover new movies and track the ones you've seen. Don't let the algorithm tell you what to watch, find it here.
- Plex — Home media management. I have a massive media library that I can stream on my network at home.
- Posts.cv — While shortlived, this place was a breath of fresh air for creative folks dipping their toes into a new social media experience.
- Reddit — Legacy social media and news website. It used to be better, but hey it's better than nothing.
- Retro — Dare I say this is a good Instagram alternative. Good way to mentally archive your weeks/years via photos.
Workspace
- Phillips Hue — Controlling and automating a few lights around my house. I also set my lights on an automatic timer to wake up without an alarm.
- Midori Notebooks — A5 size. Dot grid for life.