Getting closer to how your environment actualy works will only expand your mind
— Michael B. Paulson, otherwise known as ThePrimeagen

This page was last edited on March 29, 2024

My former college roomate and good friend, Hayden Buscher, recently made a post about the things he uses to stay productive. Giving credit where its due, I thought it was a great idea, so I decided to give my own spin on it.

This list is the fruits of my due diligence and research into finding the right tools for my use cases. I hope it helps you find the right tools for you.

Hardware

Computer

The laptop I use is a is a Gigabyte AERO 16 OLED creator laptop, which features a Intel 12th Gen i7 Processor, and a NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti Graphics Card. I love the anodized alumnium finish on the chasis, its sturdy, aesthetically pleasing, and easy to clean. The OLED screen is gorgeous, I have become spolied by such beautiful screens and stuggle looking at normal High Definition LED screens. People passing by or in class will look at my screen and compliment it (that’s how you know its good, who in their right mind would do that). As with all OLED screens, scren burn is a real and legitmate concern I struggle with at times, but it is a skill issue I have solved by autohiding my dock and with screen savers, and in dire situations this video. The keyboard is a joy to type on, and the trackpad is smooth and responsive, but both get dirty quickly. The dongle provided by Gigabyte was filmsy, and cheaply made, so I replaced it with a USB-C hub from Amazon. The battery lasts about 3-4 hours on a full charge, which is fine for my use cases, but I wish it lasted longer. I’ve had this laptop for about a year now, and I’m very happy with it and would recommend it to anyone looking for a new laptop.

Mobile Devices

My phone isn’t anything special, so I’m not going to talk about it. I use a iPad of the 10.2” variety (9th generation). I use it for reading and taking notes in class. Honestly, this felt like a missing piece of my workflow, and I’m glad I got it. With a paper-type screen protector, I get the feel of writing on paper, the clarity and beauty of a digital screen, and the syncing and backup of the cloud on a screen the size of a notebook. I use a knockoff Apple Pencil, and it works fine. For note taking, I use the app Goodnotes with the lifetime subcription.

Software

Operating System

Wow, what an easy and not at all controversial topic to answer… Welp, here we go. I technically dual boot Windows 11 (ew) and Ubuntu 22.04.2 LTS, also known as Jammy Jellyfish, but so much of my time is spent on Ubuntu that I’m just going to talk about that. My only gripes with it are the graphics drivers for my Nvidia GPU, but this is resolved by the proprietary drivers from Nvidia provided by Ubuntu.

I’ve come to notice that when it comes to the tools I use (especially when it comes to software), usage time and maintainance/stability are inversely proportional to the customizability the tool provides. The more customization is provided in software, the more time is spent configuring and mataining it, and in worst-case scenarios, the more unstable it becomes. Because of this, less time is spend actually using it.

My operating system is a tool, and as all good tools should, the distro I use should be one that leverages this relationship, so I can manage how the software is used, and not how it works. This is why I am probably not ever going to be an Arch Linux user. Its very impressive how quickly Arch Linux packages maintainers innovate and release changes, and pacman is a great package manager, but I do not have the time nor the patience to maintain my broken system when I forget to update after a week.

On the other end of the spectrum, Ubuntu works out of the box, but its quite bloated with software I will never use or need. I used to be a bit of a distro hopper, but like an old pair of jeans, I always come back to Ubuntu for its ease of use and stability. For the most part, it just works.

One distro that has caught my eye and I’ve been meaning to try is Debian, specifically Debian 12 (Bookworm) . Its seems to hit the sweet spot of stability and customizability between Arch and Ubuntu, and I’ve heard great things about from Hayden and Noah Oveson.

Window Manager

I’m not a fan of the default GNOME desktop environment, I’m a tiling window enjoyer. I like to have full control over my windows, so I use the i3 window manager. However, I plan on switching to dwm in the future, as I’ve heard it is more stable and faster than i3.

Coding Font

I cannot stress how elgalant and beautiful the font MonoLisa is. I use it for everything, from my code editor to my terminal. MonoLisa definately lives up to its branding of “font follows function”. Being a monospaced font, each of the characters are the same width and its ligatures, which is the combination of two or more characters into a single character, provide a great reading experience and look cool. I patch MonoLisa into a Nerd Font by using this custom patching script. I highly recommend it.