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by runjake 950 days ago
I don't know if they transformed my life, but the following things substantially improved it.

- OK, except the MacBook Pro. That transformed my life. Portable, powerful, long battery life, super-usable.

- OK, and Raycast (https://www.raycast.com/), too. Raycast has transformed my life. I resisted Raycast for a long time, because I already owned Alfred and I thought that Raycast was hipster junk for people unaware of Alfred. I was so wrong.

All my common statements and actions are now down to quick launch and hotkeys with a lot of GPT integration thrown in (eg. "Check spelling and grammar", "Improve writing", "Summarize text", etc).

I've been trying to stick with cross-platform apps as much as possible so that I can eventually move back to Linux, but Raycast is that exception. I pay for the Pro license. And yes, I've played with Albert and (I think) KRunner on Linux.

I could do most of this with Alfred, Albert, or KRunner, but Raycast is so much more polished and has so much less friction when extending it.

- Standing desk: https://www.amazon.com/Flexispot-Standing-Adjustable-Electri...

- Electric Kettle: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00DEQDEZA/

- Light therapy lamp: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B075H39NDL/

- AA battery flashlight: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01G75P1SC/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b... I use this thing all the time.

I was nervous going from a USB-charging, albeit larger flashlight to something that takes AA batteries, but this is way easier. When the thing is dead, it's not useless for 2 hours until it's charged up enough. I go to the office battery drawer, retrieve another AA, pop it in and I'm good immediately. In actuality, I keep a spare AA battery in my daily backpack and rotate it out.

- TNF Surge 2023 backpack: https://www.amazon.com/NORTH-FACE-Commuter-Laptop-Backpack/ I moved to this from a Goruck GR1 (which I still use outside of work). The Surge backpacks change all the time. I have a couple from past years -- they aren't that great.

It has a lot of pockets to stash things, the bottle holders aren't stupid. It's ergonomic. The chest strap has a whistle which I use all the time to get people's attention. It holds a 16" MBP and an iPad easily. It's light. The fabric on this particular color is quite rain resistant. Don't watch the YouTube reviews for the 2023, most of them are reviewing a substantially inferior 2023 prototype model before they improved a bunch of things.

- Foam rollers. Doesn't matter which, just buy one with decent ratings.

- Balance board. Nice little core workout and kinda fun when you're noodling on a problem. I bought the crappy plastic one that was on Shark Tank. Don't buy that one. Instead, buy one of these from Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=balance+board

1 comments

havent heard of raycast, looks neat! What are the main workflows or automations you use it for?
I am on mobile but I will do my best. I use the Snippets, Script Commands, and AI Commands the most. And Dynamic Placeholders.

https://manual.raycast.com/

I use them for everything from code, config, and script generation to completing trouble tickets (open ticket, get problem and have AI summarize it and make it readable because people can’t English anymore, make a determination/guess on the fix (eg. firewall or other system update), generate the fix commands snippet and ask me if I want to apply them or cancel. Most of these steps is a Python/Ruby/Shell script that takes input from the script in the previous step. I try to keep the scripts small and atomic.

I have a semi-secret obsession with automating nearly all the routine parts of my job and eliminating cognitive load so I can focus on more productive and creative tasks.