Uses
What I actually use
The tools are less interesting than what you do with them — but people ask, so here's the real list.
Grouped by where it lives — the machine, the terminal, the desk, the body. Specific where the specifics matter, vague where they don't. Anything I built rather than bought says so.
What it runs on
One laptop, one screen, and a small box that never sleeps.
- Laptop
- MacBook Pro 14″ · M3 Pro · 36 GB
- Display
- Dell U2723QE · 27″ 4K
- Server
- Mini PC · Ryzen · Debian
- OS
- macOS, and Linux on the box
Where I actually work
- Editor
- Neovim · LazyVim, trimmed down
- Also
- VS Code, for pairing
- Terminal
- Ghostty
- Shell
- zsh · starship
- Multiplexer
- tmux
- Git
- lazygit, and gh
- Daily CLI
- ripgrep · fzf · fd · jq · bat · zoxide
What I build with
- Typed daily
- TypeScript (strict), Python
- Frontend
- React · Next.js (App Router)
- Styling
- Tailwind
- Data
- Postgres, via Supabase
- Services
- FastAPI · Node
- Validation
- Zod
- Tests
- Vitest · Playwright
- Toolchain
- pnpm · uv
- Hosting
- Vercel, plus a plain VPS
The model layer
Picked per task, not per launch — and the only evals I trust are the small ones I wrote myself. No leaderboard numbers here on purpose.
- Frontier
- Claude, plus a GPT-class model
- Local
- llama.cpp · Ollama, on the box
- Open weights
- Qwen / Llama-class
- Retrieval
- pgvector, and a reranker
- Evals
- small, hand-built, per task
- Orchestration
- thin, hand-rolled
- In the terminal
- an LLM CLI, on a short leash
Built, not bought
The one thing on this page I made with my hands.
- Board
- 65% — built, not bought
- Switches
- linear, hand-lubed
- Keycaps
- PBT dye-sub, muted
- Stabilizers
- lubed and tuned
- Firmware
- QMK · VIA
- Layout
- QWERTY · home-row mods · symbol layer
The point was never an endgame board. It was taking the thing apart enough times to understand it — which is roughly how I approach everything else here too.
The late-night setup
- Notebook
- A5 dot-grid · a cheap gel pen
- Timer
- a wind-up timer · 50/10
- Sound
- closed-back headphones · brown noise
- Light
- one warm lamp, dimmed
- The real trick
- phone in another room
Keeping the head clear
A short one. Not a program worth copying — it just keeps the head steady for the long hours.
- Lifting
- barbell · 3–4×/week
- Running
- easy miles, twice a week
- Mobility
- a $6 lacrosse ball, mostly
- Cold
- cold showers · the free version
On me, most days
- Watch
- Casio F-91W
- Water
- a scratched 1 L Nalgene
- Bag
- a plain roll-top
- Power
- one 65 W GaN brick, one cable
- index cards · a pen