03 — Uses
The tools behind the work.
People ask, so here it is — the hardware, editor, services, and quiet utilities that make up a regular working day. Updated when something actually changes, not when the affiliate links pay better.
01
Hardware
- MacBook Pro 14″ — M3 Pro, 36 GBDaily driver
- LG UltraFine 27UL850 4KExternal display
- Keychron K3 Pro (low-profile brown)Mechanical keyboard
- Logitech MX Master 3SPointer
- Sennheiser HD 6XXHeadphones for deep work
02
Editor & shell
- VS CodeWith Vim mode, ESLint, GitLens
- Geist MonoEditor font, ligatures off
- iTerm2 + zshPowerlevel10k, fzf, ripgrep
- TmuxLong-running sessions per project
- Claude CodeDaily pair, mostly for triage
03
Frontend
- Next.js (App Router)Default for product work
- TypeScriptEnd-to-end, strict mode
- Tailwind CSSWith a thin design-tokens layer
- Framer MotionUsed sparingly, on purpose
- Radix UI / shadcnWhen primitives are needed
04
Backend
- Node.js + ExpressPreferred over Laravel for new work
- PostgreSQLWhen the data has shape
- MongoDBWhen it doesn't
- RedisCaching, pub/sub, queues
- BullMQBackground jobs I trust
- Prisma / DrizzleDepending on the project age
05
Infrastructure
- VercelFor Next.js front of house
- Hetzner / DigitalOceanFor Node services
- CaddyReverse proxy, HTTPS by default
- GitHub ActionsCI for tests, lint, deploys
- SentryErrors I actually triage
- Better StackLogs, uptime
06
Services I pay for
- LinearIssue tracking
- 1PasswordSecrets
- Cron-job.orgExternal scheduler
- PostmarkTransactional email
- CloudflareDNS, R2, image proxy
Inspired by uses.tech — last reviewed May 2026.