My favorite things

There's something deeply satisfying about using exactly the right tool for the job — whether that's a thoughtfully designed app, a gel pen that doesn't dry out, or a camera that disappears in your hands and lets you focus on the shot. Over the years, I've accumulated a collection of things that bring this satisfaction into my daily life.

With the holiday season upon us, now seems like a fitting time to share some of my favorites. This isn't quite a gift guide or formal recommendations list, but rather a snapshot of the tools and objects that have earned their place in my life. Some are practical, some are indulgent, but all of them represent that rare combination of good design and genuine utility.

Here's what made the cut:

Hardware

• Laptop: MacBook Air ↗ (M2, 13"). This form factor feels like the quintessence of the MacBook Air. Lightweight, nice shape, no Touch Bar, yes Touch ID, big function keys. It's just well done. Apple seems to think so too, since they've left the Air's form factor more or less untouched for the last four years' worth of laptop releases. I'm not complaining, though. Despite its lack of a fan (?!) this laptop still gets serious work done, from running AI/ML tasks for my classwork to photo editing in Lightroom and Photoshop. (Note: The version of this laptop that I have, with the M2 chip, is no longer on sale. I recommend the newest version instead, currently the M4.)

• Phone: iPhone 17 ↗. I recently upgraded to Apple's latest and greatest after my old iPhone 11 ran out of storage for the n^th time and I couldn't manage to free up any more space. The 17's display, camera, battery, OS, etc. are all an upgrade from my old phone and feel nice to use, although it sometimes feels like we're nearing the end of the innovation cycle for cell phones. Still, it's worthwhile to remember how much collective engineering, design, and business effort has been invested over almost two decades into making phones the way they are today — this model being no exception. Pretty cool if you think about it.

• Headphones

  • Wireless: AirPods Pro 3 ↗. They're convenient, sound plenty good, and have a surprising battery life given their size. I use mine everyday for music and podcasts, and they're also great during workouts. While the carrying case feels a bit more plasticky than the previous generation AirPods Pro 2 (which I recently upgraded from), the headphones make up for it with a big improvement in noise cancellation. Whenever I put them on, all the noise around me just... disappears.

  • Wired: Skullcandy Ink'd+ ↗. Think of these as a better version of the headphones they hand out on airplanes. The sound quality is nothing extraordinary, but they're a good bang for your buck and the mic works well. I mostly use mine for video calls on my computer, and yes, for watching movies on long flights.

  • Reference: Audio Technica ATH-M30x ↗. These aren't for everyone. They're EQ'd for studio monitoring, so they lack the punchy bass and crisp treble that make music pop in consumer headphones. But they're great for recording and mixing, which is what I bought them for while I was taking a class on spatialized sound at school. These days, I pull them out every now and again to hear the hidden details in the mixes of my favorite music.

• Speaker: Ultimate Ears WONDERBOOM 2. This speaker does everything you'd want a Bluetooth speaker to do: it's loud, the battery lasts a long time, and the speaker is waterproof. I've tested this several times: it floats! (Note: The WONDERBOOM 2 is no longer on sale, and I recommend the newer WONDERBOOM 4 ↗ instead. I'm not in a rush to upgrade, but the new version should be great.)

• Camera

  • Body: Canon EOS R8 ↗. I fell in love with photography during an intro photo class I took at school; when the class ended, I decided to get my own camera. After way too many trips to B&H to test out various bodies, I settled on the R8 for its light weight and lack of overkill features while still shooting in full-frame.¹

  • Prime: Canon RF 50mm f/1.8 STM ↗. This was the first lens I bought for my camera, and it's still my favorite. Affectionately dubbed the "nifty fifty", the humble 50mm prime has been photographers' learning lens of choice for decades. Shooting with it forced me to practice composition without using zoom as a crutch, and after a few months, I had a much better feel for my camera than I ever did while using a zoom lens in class.

  • Zoom: Canon RF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM ↗. Okay, so I don't actually own this lens. But I did rent it to photograph my sister's high school graduation, and now I really want to own it. Enough said.

Software

• Notes

  • Typed: Obsidian ↗. When a mentor showed me Obsidian for the first time, I was sold as soon as I saw the knowledge graph generated by his interlinked notes. The app has a learning curve, but it's well worth the effort to master given the platform's power and customizability. One day, I'll post here about my Obsidian setup... but don't hold your breath.

  • Handwritten: GoodNotes ↗ combines the best aspects of handwritten and electronic notetaking. It has the recall benefits of writing by hand, while also running OCR on your notes so you can search them later. For a student, the ability to quickly Command-F something you learned in lecture two months ago is a gamechanger. (Of course, these benefits are only achieved if you can avoid getting distracted by your iPad during class. A word to the wise: airplane mode is your friend.)

  • AI-assisted: Granola ↗ is one of a handful of AI meeting notetakers that has popped up over the last few years. While they're all somewhat similar, I particularly like Granola's human-AI interaction. During your meeting you can type any notes into the app's notepad, then after the meeting is over, Granola uses your notes as a skeleton to weave its AI-generated notes into. I also love that the desktop app is non-intrusive, transcribing meetings without needing to join your calls as a separate participant.

• Email: Superhuman ↗ is popular with the Silicon Valley crowd, and I decided to give it a try earlier this year. Though $10/month (with the student discount) still feels pricey for a wrapper over Gmail, the intuitive UI and fast keyboard shortcuts have saved me a bunch of time and made it much easier to handle the barrage of emails I get every day, so I'm sticking with the app for now.

• Coding: Cursor ↗ is everywhere now and needs no explanation, so I'll instead highlight how the app is a masterclass in AI interaction design. Its familiar VS Code UI fits perfectly into existing developer workflows, and its different AI features (Tab, Quick Edit, Agent) allow humans to hand off as much or as little control as desired to AI for any given task. I still do some programming in non-AI-based IDEs for my classwork, and the difference in developer experience between them and Cursor is night and day.

• Music: Spotify ↗ also needs no explanation. I appreciate the way the app leans into the personal and social aspects of music listening with features like Wrapped, personalized playlists, and more recently, the AI DJ that generates a queue to suit your current mood. I also have a soft spot in my heart for Spotify's Web API, which powered a few of my early software and data analytics projects.

• Event Planning

  • Social: Partiful ↗. I was initially skeptical about this app, thinking it would become the latest in a long line of social fads among my late-teen-to-early-twenty-something peers. Much to my surprise, the app has picked up a lot of traction. Invitation designs that are rooted in Gen-Z sensibilities have proven to be a genuinely fun addition to the college party scene, and now I kind of want to host a party just so I can design my own.

  • Technical/Professional: Luma ↗ is exactly what you'd get if Partiful had a more put-together older sibling. When I was in SF, most of the events on there involved some combination of networking, startups, and AI, but in New York, there are also events involving... uh... normal people hobbies like reading, wine, philosophy, and running. The website has a great calendar system to find similar events to the ones you've liked before. Just make sure to adjust your notification settings if you don't want to get a bunch of emails from your hosts inviting you to follow-up events.

• Budgeting: YNAB ↗ is a complete 180 from the way most people plan their finances. It leans into the idea that most expenses in life (e.g. groceries, gifts, even unexpected costs like car repairs) are essentially subscriptions. In that light, the app helps you take a holistic view of your money, planning your saving and spending according to your own priorities in life.

• Digital Mindfulness: ScreenZen ↗ encourages more intentional usage of the apps that distract us the most by putting a delay in between clicking an app and having it open. When I'm making a conscious effort to use a given app less often, applying this interruption to my reinforcement cycle for as little as a few days is usually enough to help me snap out of the habit.

• Flight Tracking: Flighty ↗ is the gold standard. I heard about it a couple years ago and have used it to track every flight I've taken since. Not only is the app beautiful, making excellent use of Apple's native design language, it also has the best real-time flight data in the game. On several occasions, it has predicted and notified me of delays and cancellations before the airline did, allowing for crucial time to plan and possibly rebook. The app has an optional paid subscription, which I think is best described by the following review:

  "There are really two main strategies that developers can use for pricing their app. Either their free tier is god-awful, it's the worst experience you can possibly have, and their paid tier is good. What Flighty does is they make their free tier good and their paid tier outstanding."²

• Skiing: Slopes ↗. I don't ski often, but this app is a great addition for whenever I do manage to hit the slopes. It tracks all the stats a ski nerd could want to know,³ visualizes your day's lift rides and runs on a map of the mountain, and aggregates the photos you took while out. Similar to Flighty, this app has a good free tier and an outstanding paid tier. You can't go wrong either way.

• NYC Subway: Exit Strategy ↗. As a native New Yorker, nothing is quite as satisfying as stepping off the subway and immediately being right in front of the station exit instead of having to walk down the platform to reach it. For the cost of a slice of pizza, this app lets you do that... every single time.

• Games

  • Singleplayer: Monument Valley ↗ is a liminal and intensely beautiful puzzle game that hinges on optical illusions and the manipulation of perspective. Everything about the game is sublime, from its Escher-inspired visuals to the ethereal sound design. I first found out about Monument Valley when it was featured in Starbucks' "Pick of the Week" promotion in 2015,⁴ and have since played through it and the sequel several times. In an auspicious turn of events while doing research for this post, I found out that the third game is coming out in just a few days and can't wait to play through it.

  • Multiplayer: The Battle of Polytopia ↗ is a turn-based strategy game featuring civilization-building and warfare, but it also has plenty of charm to go around. Each of the game's 16 tribes has a unique low-poly visual identity and theme music to match, and some of the songs are honestly bangers.⁵ I played Polytopia a lot with my friends during the Covid pandemic, and recently redownloaded it for old times' sake. I was sad to discover that my favorite tribe's endgame strategy was nerfed by an update to the tech tree, but I suppose it's fair given how overpowered the strategy was. (RIP Kickoo.)

Stationery

• Pen: Pilot G2 ↗ (0.5mm). I realized that I prefer fine-point gel pens through a lot of experimentation during high school and college, but all the models I tried would dry out before I could finish the ink. The G2 was the first pen I tested whose ink lasted the whole way, and I've been using it ever since.

• Pencil: uni Kuru Toga Advance ↗. A mechanical pencil that keeps your lead sharp by automatically rotating it while you write. It sounds like a gimmick... until the moment you try it.

• Eraser: Pentel Hi-Polymer ↗ (Large). So much better than those pink erasers we all used in elementary school.

• Notebook: Moleskine Classic Notebook ↗ (Soft Cover, 5x8.25"). This notebook is a joy to write in; I use it for meeting notes and the occasional long-form journal entry. I got mine as swag at an industry panel I attended, and am planning to buy another once my current one fills up.

• Tape: ScotchBlue #2090 Painters Tape ↗ (1.41"). Great for hanging posters on dorm room walls, and doubles as a water bottle holder on my desk. (Yes, this simple roll of tape has prevented me from spilling water on my electronics and schoolwork multiple times.)

Miscellaneous

• Belt: American Bench Craft Everyday Belt ↗. I found this company online while looking for a high-quality belt, and they're the real deal: every belt is made to order by hand in the USA. The company offers a lifetime warranty, and I'm pretty sure I read somewhere in their marketing materials that they expect you to be able to pass your belt down to your kids. I own two of them and have worn them daily for two years; they're still as good as new.

• Journal: The Five Minute Journal ↗ is the journal for people who don't journal. Instead of open-ended prompts, each daily page has the same five short, structured prompts: three to fill out in the morning and two at night. While individual days' entries can be mundane, reading past entries in sequence reveals a powerful arc of self-improvement. Each journal has enough pages for around seven months of daily use, and I'm currently halfway through my second one.