I believe great tools can significantly boost productivity and experience. Here are some of the tools I use daily and recommend.

For more recommendations, check out Digital Taste List. For crypto hardware wallets, see the Hardware Wallet Buying Guide.

Hardware

MBP 16 M3 Max A maxed-out Mac is the nuclear weapon of productivity SANC 2K 29" Ultrawide Affordable and reliable, unbeatable value HHKB Type-S The best electrostatic capacitive keyboard, DIY modded with a Bluetooth module Logitech MX Vertical Ergonomic mouse, saves your wrist Beats Studio Block out noise, stay focused WERO Thunderbolt 3 Enclosure Up to 3GB/s transfer speed (DIY portable drive) Samsung 990 PRO NVMe The core of the enclosure LaCie Mobile Drive 1TB Primarily for archival storage

My Products

TidyLink Browser Extension A cleaner, more organized new tab page for managing links. 100% local data.

Verso macOS App A Markdown reader/editor. Double-click a .md file to open, read, edit, and close.

AI

Claude Code AI Anthropic's AI-powered coding terminal tool, the ultimate vibe coding companion

Gemini AI Google's AI model with exceptional Deep Research and 2M token context window

ChatGPT AI The most loyal, highest-ROI employee -- shipped 12 products in one month with it

Antigravity AI VS Code-based AI code editor with built-in multi-model support

Development

Ghostty Mac Blazing fast native terminal emulator written in Zig, open-sourced by HashiCorp's founder

CodexBar Mac Menu bar AI coding assistant with Claude and multi-model support

Visual Studio Code Mac Where all my writing happens, whether code or articles

SourceTree Mac Free and excellent Git GUI client

OpenInTerminal Mac Quickly open the current folder in terminal or editor

GitHub Platform Code hosting and open-source collaboration platform, home base for all my projects

Cloudflare Platform CDN, DNS, Pages, Workers -- the Swiss Army knife of internet infrastructure

SnippetsLab Mac Code snippet manager (deprecated)

Zeabur Platform Cloud deployment PaaS platform (migrated to Cloudflare)

Writing

Obsidian Mac · iOS In the AI era, local Markdown is like a floppy disk -- so I migrated from Bear to Obsidian

Bear Mac The best-looking Markdown note-taking app with the nicest UI (migrated to Obsidian)

Design & Media

Figma Mac · Web Switched from Sketch -- collaboration and plugin ecosystem are truly superior

Final Cut Pro Mac My go-to video editing tool

CleanShot X Mac My longest-used screenshot tool, with built-in screen recording, OCR, and cloud sharing

PPduck Mac My longest-used image compression tool

Downie Mac The best video downloader out there

HandBrake Mac Open-source video transcoder, go-to for compressing video files

Sketch Mac Used this UI design tool for years (migrated to Figma)

Productivity

Things3 Mac · iOS Switched from years of Todoist, embracing simplicity

Fantastical Mac There's simply no better calendar app on Mac

Timing Mac Time tracking tool to measure work hours and optimize ROI

Mimestream Mac The best Gmail client on Mac

Numi Mac The best natural language calculator on Mac

DeepL Mac · iOS Translation app, the free tier is more than enough

MoneyWiz Mac · iOS Budgeting and finance manager with automatic bank sync

Dropbox Mac The best sync cloud drive -- my entire encrypted machine syncs with Dropbox in real time

Spotify All Platforms Background music for work

System Enhancement

Raycast Mac Alfred replacement with better UX and UI, free tier covers most needs

Manico Mac Quick app launching and switching, been using it for nearly 10 years

One Switch Mac 20+ quick toggles for hiding desktop, dark mode, and more

PopClip Mac Quick actions on selected text, with a powerful plugin community

Paste Mac · iOS The best clipboard history manager on Mac

CleanMyMac Mac The best cleanup and uninstall tool

Pictogram Mac Custom Mac app icon replacement tool

Setapp Mac The best-value app subscription on Mac -- one subscription unlocks hundreds of premium apps

Security & Privacy

1Password Mac · iOS The best password manager, worth every penny

Cryptomator Mac · iOS Folder encryption tool -- encrypt before syncing to the cloud for an extra layer of security

LuLu Mac Open-source firewall

ReiKey Mac Keyboard event monitor, open-source

KnockKnock Mac Inspect Mac startup items and detect suspicious files or malware

OverSight Mac Real-time monitoring of microphone and camera usage, open-source

Mobile

Calendars iOS By Readdle, love its weekly and monthly views

Grow iOS · Watch One app to manage all health data -- good health is the foundation of everything

Soulver 3 iOS Natural language calculator on iOS

DAMA iOS Auto mosaic and redaction tool for images

Pushover iOS · Web Push notification receiver for custom code monitoring alerts

Zerion iOS Mobile wallet balance and transaction tracker