Software I use, hardware I love, and other tools I recommend.

I keep this list up to date as I invest and build out my workstation, development environment, and productivity toolset. Below is a list of my current favorites.

Workstation

  • MacBook Pro 16" (M2)

    An incredible machine that can quite literally do anything I ask it to, without breaking a sweat. I am extremely happy with it, coming from my previous Intel MacBook Pro!

  • 2x Dell 27 4K UHD Monitor

    One display vertical, one in horizontal. It helps organize and keep my productivity high having more screen real estate and places to put windows across my code editor, docs sites, and terminal.

  • Uplift 70" V2 Standing Desk, Commercial

    Investing in your health is a must: I sit down and code lots of hours during the day. Standing for a bit helps relieve back pain and posture issues from being dialed in. An investment, but worth it!

Development tools

  • PHPStorm

    My go to PHP editor. VSCode is excellent but the refactoring abilities from PHPStorm are unmatched.

  • OrbStack

    A fast replacement for Docker Desktop on Mac. Doesn't kill my battery and brings a refreshing set of modern and intuitive features.

  • TablePlus

    Modern and robust tool to manage all of your databases. Native MacOS app that feels like quality and is quite transparent in terms of showing you the queries it performs as you use the tool.

  • Warp

    I replaced iTerm2 with Warp recently to try out the hype. It's definitely an improvement where it feels more like an application rather than a terminal, but I still need to understand how to wield it better.

  • Fork

    Fantastic free git UI tool that helps me track my changes before commit. I try to be well versed in CLIs but this tool just makes my life so much easier I can't go back.

  • Ray

    Incredibly useful debugging tool I use with my Laravel codebases to print out logs and understand exactly what's going on in my application locally.

  • Tinkerwell

    Handy tool to run Laravel code snippets on production servers or to mess around with code without sticking things inside an anonymous function in a route.

Productivity

  • Slack

    Using Slack for all critical notifications: deployments, alerts, monitoring, etc. It is a one stop shop for useful information that needs to be timely.