Mitchell Hanberg
Articles Projects Bookshelf Newsletter Uses

Uses

No one ever asks me what font or syntax theme I use, but nevertheless here we are.

Development

  • NeoVim

    I started using Vim full time since the beginning of 2018 and I can’t imagine my life without it. Vim is a gateway drug to the life of optimizing for productivity (even if it costs you some productivity up front!).

    The primary reason why I love Vim is the keyboard focused design. It keeps my hands and arms in relatively the same position as I work, as I rarely need to reach for the mouse. It’s not that the mouse is a bad input device, but the travel distance between the mouse and home row on your keyboard starts to become a problem the faster you work. You can cut down on this by getting a tenkeyless or 60%, but it can’t beat not moving your hands at all!

    Plugins

    I use packer.nvim to manage my plugins; you can see all of the plugins I in my dotfiles.

  • Thicc Forest

    I like the subtle dark theme with hints of green. I use this in NeoVim, Alacritty, and Alfred.

    This is a fork of Everforest

  • JetBrains Mono font

    I switched fonts every so often, and this is my current choice. I also use the patched nerd font version to get the fancy icons.

  • Alacritty

    I switched to Alacritty because I thought iTerm2 was causing my computer to crash (I think I have since concluded that it is a macOS bug).

    I’ve kept using it, as it is super lightweight and is meant to be used with tmux.

  • Postico

    Postico is a minimal Postgres GUI client and is an example of an amazing macOS application, amazing performance and has just the functionality that I need.

  • Firefox Developer Edition
  • Sublime Merge

    This is the best Git GUI application that I have ever used.

    The features that I enjoy the most is the three way merge, staging/unstaging individual lines of code, and the ability to search just about anything in the repository.

  • Dash

    Dash is an offline documentation repository with full text search. Combined with the Alfred Dash workflow, this is a must have application for anyone writing software on a Mac.

  • Sketch
  • Figma
  • zsh

    zsh is pretty much an improved version of Bash. It is worth using because of the community that has been built up around it (see ohmyzsh) and the number of plugins available.

    It’s even the default shell on macOS now!

  • zplug

    zplug is a plugin manager for zsh that is inspired by vim-plug. I recently switched from ohmyzsh to zplug to get a better handle on my configuration and make it easier to install plugins.

  • tmux

    tmux is primarily what I use to manage terminal splits and windows. It follows the Vim philosophy of keyboard shortcuts and extensibility, so they make a fine pair.

  • asdf

    Once I started programming in Elixir, I needed to be manage two languages at once (the other being Erlang) and asdf makes that super simple. It is based on a plugin architecture, so there is a plugin for just about every language you can think of.

    I contributed to the Io plugin when I was reading Seven Languages in Seven Weeks by Bruce Tate.

  • fzf
  • gh
  • ripgrep

Productivity

  • Alfred

    Alfred is a workhorse of a tool. It’s amazing for launching apps, searching your computer, managing your pasteboard, and snippets. It becomes really powerful when you start using workflows as it enables Alfred to integrate with other apps and run arbitrary scripts in any language.

    It’s definitely my #1 productivity tool for macOS.

  • 1Password
  • Things 3

    I like Things for personal projects, but I don’t actually use it that much in my daily life because my work projects already have a form of project management software.

  • Fastmail

    I started using Fastmail as a cheap way to use my domain as my email address, then I learned of some of the powerful aliasing features which I now love.

  • Itsycal
  • iCloud Drive

    I used to use Dropbox, but switched to iCloud Drive because of it being baked into all of the Apple products and being able to share the storage space with my family.

  • Licecap

Hardware

  • 2020 13" M1 MacBook Air

    Personal computer.

  • 2021 16" MacBook Pro

    The new one with the M1 Pro chip 🏎.

  • Ergodoz EZ

    This is the best keyboard ever made.

    It’s a split ortholinear keyboard that is incredibly extensible, you can find my config here.

    I use this one at work.

  • OLKB Preonic

    This is second favorite keyboard. Just as extensible as the Ergodox, but in a tight form factor that is easy to carry.

    You can find my config here.

    I use this one at home/travel.

  • Apple Magic Trackpad

    I use it in between the two halves of my keyboard.

  • CalDigit TS3 Plus

    I plug all my peripherals and both of my montiors into this little guy, and then plug my laptop into it with only a single cable!

  • LG 27UD68-W
  • Philips Hue Bulbs

    I have these throughout my home. They’re really nice in my office as it allows me to dim and change the warmth of the light to be easier on the eyes in the dark.

  • Fully Jarvis Dual Monitor Arm

    I use a monitor on one arm, and the laptop mounted on the other. I had to contact customer support to purchase the laptop holder by itself.

  • Fully Jarvis Standing Desk

    I use an old IKEA desktop as the desk surface. In the future I want to build my own desktop out of 2x4 lumber.

    I have the caster wheels as well, which makes moving the desk a breeze for when I need to fidget with the cords behind the desk.

  • Anker Power Strip

    I have this attached to the bottom of my desktop.

    It is nice because it has plenty of outlets that are spaced apart for plugs that have the big block on them, as well has 3 USB ports for charging things like my iPad without using a block.

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