A living document of the tools and systems I use for academic work, writing, and maintaining this site. Inspired by uses.tech.
Writing and thinking
Obsidian. Where all my thinking and writing happens. Notes, drafts, course materials, research; everything lives here as interconnected markdown files. The linking and graph view help me see connections I’d otherwise miss.
Claude Code. My primary AI collaborator for research, writing, and development. I use it as a thinking partner as well as a content generator, for testing arguments, exploring ideas, building this site, and working through problems. This site is mostly developed through conversation with Claude Code (see Quartz below for the foundation).
Gemini CLI and Qwen CLI. Alternative AI tools I use alongside Claude for different perspectives and capabilities (and for after I hit my session limit with Claude).
Zed. A fast, modern code editor I sometimes use for quick edits and writing with AI.
Markdown. All content is written in plain markdown. No lock-in, version-controllable, portable forever.
Research and reading
Zen. My current primary browser, recently switched from Vivaldi. Firefox-based, minimal, and opinionated in ways I like. Still settling in.
Ecosia. Search engine that plants trees. Good enough for almost all searches, and I like supporting the model.
Reader by Readwise. Where I read almost everything. RSS feeds, articles, newsletters, PDFs, EPUBs. All highlights and annotations automatically export to Obsidian, keeping everything connected.
Zotero. Reference management. Free, open source, and works well with Obsidian via plugins.
Gemini Deep Research and ChatGPT Deep Research. For research discovery and initial literature exploration before diving into primary sources.
This site
Quartz. A static site generator designed for publishing digital gardens. Transforms my writing about scholarship into this website with graph view, backlinks, and full-text search.
GitHub. Version control and free hosting via GitHub Pages. The entire site is open source.
Giscus. Comments on the site are powered by GitHub Discussions. No separate account is needed if you have GitHub.
Umami. Privacy-focused analytics. No cookies, no personal data, just anonymous page view counts.
Kit. Newsletter management (formerly ConvertKit).
Hardware
ASUS ZenBook 13”. Primary machine running AerynOS with the GNOME desktop. Linux for the flexibility and control.
Google Pixel 6. Starting to feel a bit old but still does everything I need, which is mostly photos, podcasts, reading, and staying connected with a few people (no social media apps).
Principles
A few principles guide my tool choices:
- Plain text where possible. Markdown, not proprietary formats
- Own my data. Self-hosted or exportable, never locked in
- Fewer tools, deeper use. Master a few rather than dabble in many
- AI as partner. Augment thinking, don’t outsource it
- Open source software. Prefer tools built by people working together in the open
This page is updated as my setup evolves. Last updated: March 2026