My Professional Toolkit

Preferences are preferences, but should you want a recommendation, here’s my current setup:

Hardware

• Mouse: Logitech G403
• Keyboards:
  • K73 - custom keyboard, not available in stores.
  • Magic Keyboard for Apple users and Glorious GMMK for PC users (goofy name aside, you’ll need to buy key switches and keycaps).
• Headphones:
  • Conference Calls: AfterShokz OpenComm - Bluetooth - Bone-conductive, lets my ears breathe. All-day battery. Ridiculous range. Fantastic noise cancellation. Minimal audio latency. Great for conference calls. Terrible for music.
  • Music: Sennheiser HD 599 SE - Open air, lightweight, excellent audio capabilities out of an unpowered 1/8” jack. (Disclaimer: I’ve haven’t used the HD599 myself, but my discontinued HD590 and HD598 have been in service for 15 years and 8 years, respectively, and I have 0 regrets.)
  • Travel: Apple AirPods Pro (Gen 2 USB-C) - Active Noise Cancelling works incredibly well for flights. Fantastic for music. Serviceable for conference calls. Can get a bit uncomfortable after about 2-3 hours of use, so if I’m expecting to take more than 1-2 calls I’ll also bring along the OpenComms from above.
• Displays:
  • Primary: 40” Dell U4021Q - It’s basically 50% more real estate over the 27” with slightly less pixel density. Oh, and it’s curved. (This model has been recently upgraded, so the one I have can be had for 30% off!)
  • Secondary: 27” Dell U2720Q - I use a window manager to split the screen real estate into two parts. Others may prefer two monitors.
  • Dock: Dell WD22TB4 - Allows me to drive the two aforementioned displays, ethernet, power, and sundry USB devices to my laptop in a single cable. chefs kiss
• Laptop:
  • 2021 Apple MacBook Pro 14” M1 Max 32GB - I love this machine so much I now have two of them: one in Space Gray and one in Silver to keep my personal and work lives separate. (Also, given that my livelihood depends on technology, the redundancy has been super-helpful on the rare equipment failure.)
  • Lenovo ThinkPad Carbon X1 - Still my favorite laptop after Apple’s offerings. Highly configurable. Skip the touchscreen and add the cellular modem. (n.b., I no longer possess a Windows Laptop, but if I did, it would be this one until Windows-on-ARM gets itself sorted.)
• Cellphones:
  • Primary: iPhone 15 Pro - I wish it were smaller, but it is exceptionally reliable and has great battery life.
  • Backup: iPhone 13 Mini - With a 120Hz screen and more battery life, this would be my primary phone.
  • Weekend (future): Light Phone III - I have a small investment in this company. If Light Phone III can get iMessage and a 2-factor authenticator app on here, this would contend as my primary phone.
• Tablet:
  • Creation: reMarkable 2
  • Consumption: iPad Pro 11”

Software

• E-mail client: Mail.app (MacOS’s default e-mail client). Thunderbird for Windows/Linux.
• Calendar: Fantastical - desktop app that’s a fantastic calendar.
• Window Manager: Divvy - cheap and good
• Note-taking:
  • Apple Notes - almost what I’m looking for, but not pro enough
  • Joplin - markdown-based note taking.
    • Chosen as it effortlessly absorbed my old Evernote notebooks. Could use better sharing/multi-surface features, but they’re constantly improving the experience.
    • Jury is still out Looking to move away from this.

Important desk accessories

• A Desk Mat - an infinite mousepad. You can find them in all sorts of patterns.
• Lighting:
  • Elgato Key Light - clunky, expensive, but provides sufficient lumens and temperature controls via app.
  • Lume Cube LED Desk Light - inexpensive but wholly adequate.

Furniture

• Chair: Herman Miller Aeron - Modern (not classic) edition, fully loaded with arm rest and lumbar adjustments. Size B and Carbon or Mineral color for me. Be sure to read the details carefully as there are many editions of this chair and it’s not always immediately obvious which is wich.
• Footrest: Get one. I use this as it came free with an old desk.