// uses
What I actually use.
No affiliate links. No “productivity stack.” Just the tools that survived a year of late nights.
Writing
- Markdown + frontmatter
Every essay is a .md file in the repo. No CMS. No DB. The git history is the audit log.
Two fonts. Sans for body, Mono for everything tactical. Editorial weight comes from rhythm, not faces.
- remark-gfm + rehype-slug
Footnotes, autolinked headings, anchor copy. Boring tools, sharp output.
Stack
RSC by default. Client components only when interaction demands it.
- TypeScript
Strict. No `any` survives review.
Utility-first. No design system file — tokens live in @theme.
Zero-config Next.js host. Edge cache + ISR cover 99% of traffic.
Infra
Live prices, customer portal, monthly + annual tiers. Webhooks gated by signature.
Transactional + audience for the newsletter. Welcome email is one HTML template.
Auth (magic link only) + members table. No third-party identity providers — yet.
Lighthouse CI on every PR. The 95+ floor is enforced, not aspirational.
Writing station
- MacBook Pro 14" (M-series)
Two windows: one editor, one preview. That's the whole desktop.
- VS Code + Cursor
Cursor for drafts, VS Code for surgical edits. Both pointed at the same repo.
- Magic Trackpad
Mechanical keyboards are romantic but loud. Trackpad keeps the studio quiet.
- Hatch sunrise alarm
I write between 9pm and 1am. The morning needs a soft landing.
Discipline
- Field notes
End-of-month retro published as the next field-note essay. Compounds the work.
Every essay is dated and decay-tested. If it stops being true, it gets a redaction notice — not a delete.
If I wouldn't quote it back to myself in six months, it doesn't ship.
Inspired by uses.tech. Updated whenever I swap a tool — see the changelog.