I enjoy tools that are pieces of art in and of themselves. This page is inspired by Kevin Kelly's CoolTools site. Below is a continually updated list of tools I use in my personal and professional life that spark joy.

Everyday Productivity

  • Raycast - I use it ~100 times a day for so many things. It is the foundation of my efficiency on macOS.
  • Stats - See cpu, gpu, ram in the menu bar in real time.
  • Shottr - Can't copy text with your cursor? Use this to scan the text.
  • Linear Mouse - Increase cursor movement than highest speed on Macos. My pointer speed is 0.13, do not go to the max speed as it will be extremely hard to reset it
  • Notion Calendar - Good design. I preferred when it was named Cron.
  • Dozer - Hide apps in the menu bar. I thought about building this for so long and then ended up finding it!
  • Bitwarden - Password autofill is so satifying. Simple and it just works.

Developer Tools

  • Cursor - I prefer this over Github copilot + VS Code. It's essentially the same layout/design as VS Code with very intentional AI features
  • iTerm2 - Makes the terminal experience on macos smooth.
  • Disk Inventory X - best way to visually manage storage on macos.

Ergonomics and Focus

Sites

  • Perplexity.ai - best answer engine out there. Also when I met Aravind, the CEO, at AI grant, he was quite nice and softspoken.
  • Duckduckgo - if perplexity doesn't have it, I go here. I love being able to watch videos here instead of getting sucked into wasting time on youtube.
  • AlternativeTo - anytime I need a software tool I go here.
  • Packhacker - Really great site to find travel gear.
  • Monkeytype - Best well-designed typing practice site.
  • Catalog Choice - Want to stop junk mail coming to your house? Here's how

Notetaking

  • Notion - My LifeOS. Also my todo list and personal project management tool. For team project management, I prefer Linear.
  • Obsidian - Local notetaking that makes a beautiful writing experience.
  • Pilot G-2 05 - I handwrite in my journal nightly and this pen makes it so satifying.

Clothing

  • Ibex - Sustainable lululemon that aligns with my interest in hiking and plastic-free clothing.

Health

  • Flux - Turns off the blue light on a laptop in order to not interfere with sleep.
  • Earthrunners - I have used these for about 85% of all of my walking for 2.5 years. Start very cautiously, especially if you want to run in them.
  • Colemak - I never learned to touchtype until college when my wrists started to hurt a lot due to ignorance concerning propr ergonomics. I chose colemak as my keyboard layout and enjoy it so much. Instead of looking at a diagram of where letters are, I just started completely fresh on monkeytype and looked at the screen and let muscle memory develop over time. After 2 years, I am floating around 84 wpm with 96% accuracy