zainThree sections, one rule. Every item here has a why: gear is only interesting if the reasoning is visible. If I can't say what a thing does for the work, it isn't on the desk or on the machine.
The desk, over time
Seven setups, in order. Every piece has a reason it was added and a date it arrived.
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2019
Where the list starts
A Dell laptop, a cooling stand, one HP mouse. Everything that comes after is this desk, answered one line item at a time.
The software
Curated, not counted. Nothing here made it in for being installed: each one earns its line by saying something, either about the work or about the taste.
On the Mac
Design and build
The craft, and the place it turns into something that runs.
Figma
The day job. Systems, flows, and every file the case studies came out of.
Cursor
Where the code lives when it isn't in the terminal.
Eagle
The reference library. Screenshots of good work, sorted so I can find them a year later.
VIA
What the macropad at the top of this page is programmed with.
AI in the loop
Not a demo drawer. These are the tools I direct daily.
Claude + Claude Code
The build partner. This site, every page and animation, was pair-built with it in the terminal.
Ollama
Local models, for the work that shouldn't leave the machine.
MacWhisper
On-device transcription. Meetups and voice notes become searchable material.
Wispr Flow
I dictate faster than I type. Most of what I write starts as speech.
The second brain
The vault this website answers from.
Obsidian
One Git-versioned vault of Markdown. The chat on this site reads from it.
TickTick
Capture now, decide later. Nothing lives in my head.
Small tools, sharp edges
Each one saves seconds. Seconds are the whole game.
Alfred
Launcher, clipboard, workflows. The Spotlight I actually wanted.
CleanShot X
Screenshots that respect your time, and mine.
Karabiner-Elements
Keys remapped to how my hands work, not how the factory shipped them.
Swish
Window management by trackpad gesture. No shortcuts to remember.
Dropover
A shelf for drag and drop. Fixes the one thing macOS never did.
Bartender
Hides everything in the menu bar that doesn't need me right now.
Keeping the human alive
The machine can run all night. I can't.
LookAway
Forces my eyes off the screen every twenty minutes. Design is a long game.
Endel
Generative soundscapes. The only thing I can work through that has no lyrics to argue with.
Amphetamine
Keeps the Mac awake through a long render or a longer agent run.
On the phone
A Pixel 6a, stock, unrooted, and still entirely mine. The ROM years ended when Shizuku made root unnecessary, which is the trade I'd make every time: the same control, none of the fragility.
Root-free power
A decade of flashing ROMs taught me what I actually wanted: control, without a broken phone.
Shizuku
Hands apps ADB-level permissions without root. The single reason my phone stays stock and still does what I want.
Hail
Freezes apps instead of uninstalling them. Everything the manufacturer preinstalled is asleep, not deleted.
SD Maid SE
Finds what apps leave behind. Storage is a design problem too.
AccuBattery
The real health of the cell, not the marketing number.
Automation
If I do it twice, the phone should do it the third time.
Tasker
The heavy one. Conditions, triggers, and the tasks that run before I remember to.
MacroDroid
Tasker's fast draft. Most automations start here and only graduate if they survive.
Automate
Flowchart automation. It made me think in nodes years before I thought in agents.
AI in the pocket
The same practice as the desk, on a smaller screen.
Claude
The one I actually think with. It follows the thread from the terminal to the train.
Perplexity
Research with citations, so a claim can be checked rather than trusted.
ChatGPT
Kept for comparison. Knowing where models differ is part of the job.
Guarding the attention
The phone is the most hostile interface I own. These are the counter-measures.
Regain
Blocks the infinite scroll: Reels, Shorts, the lot. The feed is a designed trap, so I designed a way out.
Sleep as Android
The reason a 3am start is a schedule and not an accident. It tracks the cycle and wakes me in the light phase.
Endel
The soundscape that follows me off the desk.
Open, private, and quietly good
Where a free tool beats a funded one, I use the free one.
LocalSend
AirDrop that doesn't care what phone you own. Open source, and it just works.
Blip
The one that beats it for the big stuff. Resumable, peer to peer, no cloud in the middle.
Bitwarden
Every password, on every device, for free. Nothing about that should be remarkable, and yet.
Authy
The second factor. Boring, and that is the entire point.
Keeping score
Two things I refuse to guess at.
Wallet by BudgetBakers
Where the money actually went, not where I meant it to go.
Must
Every film and series I've watched, rated. The taste record this site's Media page is built from.
On the iPad
The iPad
Not a second laptop. It's the sketchpad, the tracker, and the one screen I'm allowed to be slow on.
Prodrafts
Infinite canvas. Where a flow gets drawn badly before it gets designed properly.
Luma 3D Capture
Photorealistic 3D from a phone walk-around. The fastest way to feel where AI is going.
Streaks
Six habits, no more. The limit is the feature.
Opal
The screen-time wall. I don't trust my own willpower at 11pm and I've stopped pretending otherwise.
Bobby
Every subscription in one list. Half the cancellations I've made started here.
When Did I…?
One tap, one timestamp. Answers the question memory is worst at.
Every macOS default worth flipping, the terminal, the menu bar, the shortcuts. A machine with no factory settings left standing, written down so yours doesn't have any either.
The games
The other half of my taste, and the half interviews never ask about. Some of the best interaction design ever shipped is in here: a puzzle box that taught a generation of designers, a platformer with no dialogue that still lands its ending, and a traversal system nothing has beaten in seven years.
INSIDE
Playdead. Not a word of dialogue, and it still lands the ending.
LIMBO
Silhouette, sound, dread. Proof of how little you need.
Monument Valley
The Escher puzzle that made a generation of designers care about games.
Sayonara Wild Hearts
A pop album you play. The rare thing that is style and substance.
Mini Motorways
A systems-design exam disguised as a calm little game.
Leo's Fortune
Hand-painted platforming, back when mobile games still tried.
Marvel's Spider-Man
The traversal is the game. Nothing has felt better to move in.
Miles Morales
Tighter, warmer, and a better story than the original.
Marvel's Spider-Man 2
The wings. That's it, that's the review.
Horizon Zero Dawn
A world worth walking slowly through, and the best twist in years.
NFS Most Wanted
The blacklist, the cops, the whole of my teens.
NFS Unbound
The one that finally gave the series a visual identity again.
And on the small screen
Genshin Impact
Free to play, and better made than most things that aren't.
Mekorama
A tiny robot, a diorama, and a level editor. Perfect thing.