I spend the vast majority of my waking hours within the confines of my office. Because of this, I've made it a point to make that fiefdom a place that I look forward to walking into each and every day. If your interested, keep reading!

Desk space

When we moved into this home, I knew that I wanted my office to be an executive style office; where the desk is in the center of the room and when sitting at the desk, I am looking at the door. I have always thought this to be a cool layout, and it provides the added benefit that nobody can sneak up on me unprepared, and I get to see my kiddos being cute throughout the day (I have windowed french doors).

The desk is a custom-built desk using 2.25 inch butcher block slabs that were purchased from a reclamation center. It's an "L" shaped desk with the primary portion measuring out to be ~75 inches and the secondary portion measuring out to be ~60 inches; with the desk depth being measured out to 30 inches. The height of the desk was measured out to my seating height at 32" - so if you're a shorter person, this probably won't feel comfortable to you. This all makes for a very large desk, and makes for a perfect workspace.

The primary portion is set up with my desktop, monitors and connected peripherals. While the secondary portion is generally left clean and available for taking notes, studying, tinkering, daydreaming and other non-monitor focused activity. It's also open to the windows allowing me to take breaks from staring at the screen and looking outside to look at nature (a.k.a. my neighbors backyard).

Because the desk is set up in an executive style positioning, and because it is an open backed desk, the cable management proved to be rather tricky - and it doesn't help that I have so many peripherals and prefer to be hard-wired in (no bluetooth for me).

If you're interested in the full build details and how I managed the cable management, you can read more about it in my Building the Perfect Executive Style Desk blog post.

Computer build

With my current build, I wanted to try something more unique than what you would traditionally think of. I've been interested in doing a mini ITX computer build for a long time. However, I also love my beefy, super performant computers. And the combination of super beef and mini ITX doesn't mesh well - at least not without serious customization and capital.

That is until I discovered the Streacom DA6 computer "case". It's actually a 21.5 litre, open-frame ITX case capable of housing practically any NVIDIA flagship GPUs from any generation.

Because of the open frame design, I'm also not limited to the confines of a traditional case; which means that my CPU cooler can extend outside the case boundaries. While this is certainly a choice look, it's unique and the surface area of the desktop is still quite small compared to traditional ATX tower cases.

Read more about it

Software and Environment

My operating system of choice is Linux. There is no better solution as a daily driver for software engineering - with exceptions to game development and if you're engineering for the Apple ecosystem (stupid Apple).

Specifically, I run Arch Linux as the operating system, and I run Hyprland as my Wayland compositor (graphical interface). Hyprland is a bit flashy and leans into the waifu community - which isn't so much my flavor, I already have a sexy wifey - but it is a very well-built Wayland compositor, and Wayland itself has become increasingly more mature over the last year since I switched to Linux full time.

Spit

Spit is a very simple, and extraordinarily fast Git GUI. I am super comfortable with the command line and traversing a git tree and logs, but sometimes you just need a GUI for the task at hand. That's where Spit comes in nicely. It's not bloated, it is stupid fast, and it provides all the data that I might need for trying to contextualize whatever I am trying to solve.

Spit is a read only application (more or less), so if you're looking for something with more power, you'll probably want to look elsewhere. GitKraken is the most common one when researching, but SublimeMerge is the one that I have had first-hand experience with, and it is pretty decent as a full-fledged utility application.

Alacritty

Until recently, I had been using Kitty. I decided to switch to using Alacritty because I learned that Kitty had a "phone home" functionality that could not actually be disabled, and I prefer to be in full control over what happens within my terminal environment.

Alacritty is a very fast, GPU accelerated terminal interface. It is very limited when it comes to bells and whistles, but is absolutely worth the trade-off in terms of the performance gain.

Zeal Docs

I use Zeal as an offline documentation tool for software development. This tool allows you to download the official documentation for programming languages, frameworks and even common libraries. It also allows you to generate and upload your own documentation for offline reading. Zeal is built on top of Dash which is a Mac only application.

Official documentation has become an essential resource for myself as I've grown as an engineer. It might sound like a stupid statement, but what I mean by that is that StackOverflow and [name your AI here] can only get you so far if you don't actually take the time to understand what the underlying code is actually doing. Zeal is a tool that allows me to quickly and easily access that official documentation.

AFFiNE

AFFiNE is a new tool in the toolchest that I have come to really enjoy, and I am looking to depend on as I use it more and more. Prior to AFFiNE, I tried using Excalidraw and Miro for drawing out thoughts and concepts - white-boarding essentially - but I had issues with both. I also tried Notion and other note-taking applications, and I simply had issues with everything I tried. Which led me to just not using them because I didn't like the experience.

So far with AFFiNE, I haven't had any of those issues. I really enjoy the experience. It is less focused than Excalidraw (simply being a drawing board) and Notion (originally just being a note-taking app), but the way the whiteboarding and the note-taking all meshes together is really nice and I have found great value coming from it.

I appreciate it for its local first mentality and for the ability that I have to host it myself should I choose to make use of its cloud functionality.

AFFiNE is built on BlockSuite, among other open-source libraries, and I have not tried BlockSuite directly to determine of that is all that I actually want

• instead of having the possibility of getting vendor lock in with AFFiNE, even if it is open source and all.

Neovim

It's fine. You can say it. I am a member of the Neovim cult. But hear me out! This editor is incredible. It does exactly what I want, because I configured it to do so.

Since I switched from Jetbrains to Neovim I have noticed two specific things: (1) the speed at which I can navigate a codebase and make changes as increased significantly; (2) my memory for the codebase has increased as well - I am far more connected with where specific code is, what it's purpose is and how it operates.

Opencode

Opencode. Ohhh, how I love a well engineered tool. How one interfaces with AI varies from person to person dependent on how they think and how they approach each problem. For me, Opencode gives me a singular location where there is singular focus for what I am architecting, and it provides the exact interface I need for understanding what the agent is doing.

Peripherals

I am a man of many peripherals. Though, with my recent computer build, I did a major cleanup of my workspace so as to avoid the feeling of clutter and to open it up a little more. This included a removal of a third monitor, in favor of a two monitor setup. This was enabled because of the environment I have configured on linux.

If you're interested in what I use on a daily basis, below contains a list and short description. I'll provide a link to the products as well.

Alienware 34" OLED monitor

As my primary monitor, I have a 34" Alienware oled monitor. It is fantastic! Though, I have had it for a while and there are probably better options today - Asus generally being the best go to for their oled panels.

Philips 4k monitor

As my secondary monitor, I run a 28" Philips 4k monitor. This is a great secondary monitor, and I use it in a vertical stance for passive content (slack, music, etc.).

Dactyl Manuform

My primary keyboard for non-gaming activity is a custom designed and 3d printed by myself. I found some "wooden" filament that I used for the print which gives the encasing a textured feel, and I spent a lot of time trying to find some wooden styled keycaps. I first looked at actual wood keycaps, but I couldn't seem to find any within a reasonable price or that didn't look sketch. Currently, these have Glorious Kailh Speed Silver mechanical switches. With the hollow case though, these don't sound terribly great, nor do they give the same kind of bounce as the ones in the Keychron Q2 QMK I was using previously. I intend to swap these switches out for some Gateron Quinn switches which have an amazing feel on these 3d printed keyboards.

Keychron Q2 QMK

My primary keyboard for non-gaming activity is a custom 65% Keychron Q2 QMK mechanical keyboard with Keychron K Pro silver switches. I generally appreciate a shorter pre-travel and travel distance and a lighter operating force, and these are perfect for the job. I've matched the case and the switches with a set of dark and light green double-shot pbt keycaps that make for a great aesthetic.

Wooting 60He

My primary gaming keyboard is a Wooting 60He. In my opinion, this is the best keyboard for gaming that is out there. It is super responsive and feels great to play on. The resistance in the keys, while also being able to set the activation point is absolutely perfect. However, for me, it genuinely does not feel good for long typing sessions. For typing, I much prefer mechanical switches.

Finalmouse UltralightX (ULX)

My primary mouse is a Finalmouse UltralightX. It is very lightweight, weighing in at only 36g. It's battery life is exceptional, requiring a charge about every 10 days (while being my primary mouse 10+ hours a day).

Razer Atlas mouse pad

My mouse pad is the best! I have a Razer Atlas tempered glass mouse pad. Again, this is one of those purchases where I have come to really love it and don't expect to go back to a traditional, cloth mouse pad anytime soon.

Blue Yeti

For a microphone, a simple but perfect for what I need Blue Yeti. This is on a low profile Elgato Wave mic arm.

64Audio A6t IEMs

One of my all-time favorite purchases these 64Audio A6t custom molded IEMs! I have never had an earphone feel more comfortable and sound better than these - though I'm sure their higher end might prove that statement wrong. These were quite pricey, but I do not regret the purchase in the slightest. In fact, I tell my wife pretty frequently how much I love this purchase. I live 6+ hours with these earphones in each day and if it weren't for the inability to hear my kids playing, I wouldn't even notice they were in my ears.

These were custom molded, requiring that I go into an audiologist and get ear molds that I had to send in to 64Audio for them to craft the IEMs around.

WorkPro Quantum 9000

I sit a lot! It is the largest downside to having built a custom desk that doesn't allow for standing. But, regardless, much of my life is spent sitting. I have tried many chairs, and so far the only one that I have had for longer than a yar is the WorkPro Quantum 9000 series ergonomic chair. It's nothing fancy, but I have never felt any pain from sitting in this chair - achiness due to long sit sessions and neglect for my body's need to stand and get even a little bit of exercise, sure; but never any pain.