The tools I use – and don’t use – on an everyday basis.
Writing: Apple Notes. With sincere apologies to Notion, Bear, Obsidian, Evernote, and Google Docs. Simplicity won out.
Publishing: WordPress. I’m a capable amateur at web development, with major emphasis on amateur. Hitting post (WordPress) and designing pages (GreenShift) is a joy.
Financial Tracking: Copilot. I don’t like using mission critical life apps that overload information. Copilot’s dashboard does the opposite. A truly useful app for navigating personal finances. Better than Mint was. Better than day trading apps now.
AI
Claude. Anthropic’s models are significantly more advanced than OpenAI’s, but the trade-off is the amount of credits you can use in a monthly plan. I use it for coding small apps or tools I need and for analyzing larger data sets, but I’m working with desktop automation and Brave/Bluesky API integration in 2025. Sonnet 3.5 is for real.
ChatGPT: I regularly use but stopped subscribing to ChatGPT Plus. Until OpenAI solves its hallucination problems, I’ll be using the regular functionality and custom GPTs I previously created in 2023 and 2024. There’s just more value in Claude or Poe at the moment, especially when it continues to hallucinate in data sets I’ve uploaded. (As always, please read my AI policy for this blog. All words are 100% written by me.)
Flux: I’m interested in image and video generation purely on a personal and concepting level. The ethical and legal risks of running an image trained on dirty (copyrighted) datasets in market are absolutely massive. However, I subscribe to see how well they understand the physics of the real world when prompted correctly. This will have huge implications on gaming and development in H2 of 2025 and beyond. It’s an amazing model.
Gemini: I’ve been beta testing every model of Google’s AI efforts because I’ve been bullish on agents being the true potential of AI investment. DeepMind is doing work I wish I was doing (and probably Meta does too), so I’m firmly on board.
Surf: Flipboard put this app in beta and I’m a big proponent of what Mike McCue is trying to do for social media, its users. Also into the way they envision restoring the playing field for journalists and brands. This app in particular fuses RSS and social feeds to build the way we should be reading about news and trends.
Social
Disclosure: While I have accounts built across every social network simply because my job requires me to understand the space, this is purely how I use social on a personal level.
TikTok: I lurk on TikTok. I watch TikToks. The community and content make it the most useful social network in 2025. But don’t bother sending me anything, I just scroll and find fun insights for clients.
Bluesky: I like investing time in social networks that have an upward trajectory and gets developers excited, fully opens their API for people and companies to make cool shit. They should have embraced the more widely used protocol that Mastodon uses, but it’s thriving. The real-time updates and trending topics are working better than Twitter’s at its peak. I’m high on Bluesky in 2025. Brands feel safe. App is updated regularly. The CEO isn’t creepy. More of that please.
Mastodon: The developer, indie web, and artist communities are firmly here, so I pop in once a day. The ability to move my posts and followers to another “neighborhood” within the community was the original dream of Web 2.0.
Threads: I shitpost here. I love the community even though the app is being mismanaged, but that’s historically been a problem with channels that Meta owns. Since I’m spending most of my time with more vibrant communities (who have more coherent product roadmaps), I’ll ultimately use it as a syndication channel like LinkedIn.
Instagram: I’m on Instagram because my network is on Instagram, but it’s a channel that’s having some rough teenage years. I post photos of memes and babies. It had loads of potential but enshittification comes for all Meta products. We’ve got a year or two before a serious competitor emerges.
LinkedIn: Linked’s my favorite business website and least favorite social channel. Put simply: It doesn’t do what social networks should do and I don’t actively monitor it. In 2025, Most of what I’ll be adding here is syndicated from channels doing social better. I’ll eventually hire someone to reply to comments, be transparent that it isn’t me replying to comments, and direct them to another channel.
I’ve ignored serious engaging with his channel for four years other than to check in on colleagues, but I see a lot of my former Twitter mutuals using it more. Bonus: They aren’t typing in annoying clickbait formats. Plus, DMs are interoperable with Texts.com.
Facebook: I deleted by Facebook account after fifteen years in 2019 and use an old work account to check in on community groups and marketplace. If you get a friend request, it’s not me.
I also removed my personal accounts from Twitter and Snap and only keep logins for clients. If you see a “message” from me on those channels, as well as Blind, Fishbowl, etc. — You have a bot trying to steal your password or something. Block and report.