Uses
The desk, the machines, and the everyday apps, dated from when they arrived.
This is the desk, the machines, and the software I actually use, each dated from when it arrived. An item is marked as in use only when there is evidence from the last few months.
Machines
- MacBook ProusingThe current machine, bought when the previous one could not run a screen recorder and a fleet of agents against the big display at once.
- MacBook Air 15″usedIt is the couch machine. Unplugging the desk setup was enough friction to keep me at the desk, so a light machine fixed that.
- MacBook Pro M1 MaxusedFour years as the main machine, then handed down.
- HP OMEN 30L, UbuntuusingTen cores, 125 GB of memory, an RTX 3090, on around the clock. Every scheduled job runs here, because a laptop sleeps and a job that dies silently looks like a quiet day.
- iPhoneusingIt is increasingly where I drive the agents from.
- iPad, for handwritingusedThree years of handwritten brain dumps, now scanned and searchable. The habit lapsed in 2024.
- Apple Vision ProusedOne journal written on it. Impressive, and unused since.
Desk
- Moved next to the Linux box in August 2026.
- Herman Miller AeronusingIt is the chair, and has been for years.
- Standing deskusingTwenty-five minutes standing was an achievement at first. It is normal now.
- Shure SM7BusingThe microphone. A podcast-cleanup model now makes a phone recording sound nearly as good.
- Beyerdynamic headphonesusingI never wrote the model down.
- A visual timerusingWork starts by setting it. With the screen recorder, it is the backbone of getting anything done.
- WhiteboardusedBought in 2020. A camera pointed at it turned thinking into presenting, so the recorded-whiteboard habit was retired in August 2026.
- Mechanical keyboardsusedA Korea-era rabbit hole: a Leopold with Cherry MX Clears, a Realforce that taught me I do not like Topre for code, and a Drop CTRL built by hand for about $400 in parts. Nothing about keyboards in the record since 2020.
- A $200 acoustic guitarusingBought on a whim. It taught me I could learn something I had decided I could not. Looking for a teacher as of August 2026.
Wearables
- WHOOPusingMakes exertion count, including the stairs. The health organ in my system reads from it.
- Apple Watch UltradroppedWHOOP replaced it for training. Apple Health still holds steps and resting heart rate.
- Plaud NotePinusingA voice recorder worn on walks. It works as a commitment device: with it on, a day is forty to fifty thousand steps and hours of talking.
Apps
- RaycastusingReplaced Alfred for a faster path to a model and easier extensions. My own extensions live in it now.
- WarpusingOne long-lived agent tab per goal, not per persona.
- AsideusingThe agent-native browser, and the app I have used most since it arrived. The browser is already basically you.
- ChromeusingIt is what Aside drives under the hood.
- ArcdroppedIt crashed too often on my machine.
- CursorusedIts persistent chat was enough to make me leave VS Code in 2024. The editor use faded; the cloud agents came back into my week in August 2026.
- LinearusingThis is where everything that needs doing gets recorded, including what agents surface.
- Things 3droppedFive years as the task app, replaced by a small database of my own, which was itself retired. The queue is Linear.
- 1PasswordusingVaults are split by how much damage an agent could do with each one.
- CleanShot XusingThree years of its filenames sit in my journals.
- OBSusingEvery working session is recorded, over 1,500 hours on a private channel. Knowing nothing is lost is most of why I can start.
- GranolausingA hundred-plus meetings transcribed. I keep the transcript and skip the summary.
- Gmail, Google CalendarusingTwo accounts, read and cleared by a command rather than a client.
- SuperhumandroppedI paid for it and did not use it.
- NotionusedIt held a daily build log through 2025, and nothing in 2026.
- ObsidianusedA folder of plain text files with a search index over them replaced it.
- MochiusedThe bot I built to feed it got too ambitious, and the habit did not survive 2025.
- AudibledroppedBooks come from physical bookstores now.
- SpotifyusedA launcher command generated playlists from it once.