The kit I actually keep open.
The tools I keep around for product, design, software, and the rest of the week. Plus the books that still shape how I think.
Always open
Product
LinearHow I keep work moving without turning it into a status meeting.
JiraWhere a lot of the company still lives. I have used it alongside everything else.- ObsidianWhere notes become a system. Specs, research, and half-formed product thoughts.
PostHogThe honest version of what people do after they click.
MobbinReal product screens when I need a reference, not a mood board.
MazePut a prototype in front of people before I fall in love with it.
DovetailWhere interviews stop being a pile of notes and start becoming a pattern.
IntercomSupport and the in-product conversation. Close to the customer, not a ticket pile.
Design
- FigmaWhere every product starts. Frames, prototypes, and the UI I end up shipping.
Screen StudioThe way a product should look when you show it, not just when you ship it.
ExcalidrawWhen I need a diagram in two minutes and Figma would slow me down.
FramerFor sites that need to feel designed, not assembled.
AdobeOlder muscle. Still useful for marks, print, and the occasional illustration.
UI & UX
shadcn/uiThe components I actually ship. Copy them in, then make them mine.
Beautiful UIPatterns for AI products. Thinking states, streaming, the stuff a normal kit does not have.
Tailwind CSSHow the UI gets its shape. Utilities instead of a stylesheet I will not maintain.
v0Describe the screen, get something close enough to start from.
Magic UIMotion and polish when the default component still looks like a default component.
21st.devA shelf of components to steal from. Faster than starting from a blank frame.
Origin UIMore shadcn pieces. Forms and the boring product UI that still has to look good.
Radix UIThe accessible primitives under a lot of this. When I need the behavior, not the skin.
LucideThe icon set. Clean, consistent, and already in the repo.
MotionAnimation without making the page feel like a Dribbble shot.
Software
GitHubSource of truth. If it is not here, it is not real yet.- ConvexThe backend I reach for when I want to ship instead of wire infrastructure.
Next.jsDefault for the web. I stop thinking about the framework and start on the product.
ExpoDefault for mobile. Same product, on a phone.
VercelWhere it goes live.
AI
How I rank them
The models I actually pick. Cursor first, then coding, then Claude when the problem gets harder.
- 1
Grok 4.6 HighBest in Cursor · via Cursor · High FastGrok 4.6 on High, Fast. The one I actually enjoy pairing with in the editor. Agentic coding that still feels snappy, without waiting on a heavier Claude pass. - 2
GPT-5 SolBest for coding · via CodexWhat I run in Codex. Terminal-Bench, repo work, the agent that will sit in a codebase and keep going. GPT-5 Sol is the coding specialist in that family. - 3
Claude Opus 5Best Claude for coding · via ClaudeThe Claude that sits next to GPT-5 Sol. SWE-bench, repo agents, long coding passes. Fable is for when the problem is bigger than the codebase. - 4Claude Fable 5Best for hard problems · via ClaudeThe top Anthropic model. Long-horizon agents, messy reasoning, the pass I take when it has to be the best model in the room. Leads the intelligence indexes for a reason.
Around them
- CursorThe editor I write almost everything in now. Also the AI I work beside.
LangChainEvals and traces. How I see what the model actually did, not what I hoped it did.
GreptileAnother model on the PR. Reviews the diff and catches security issues I would skip past.- Wispr FlowVoice to text that keeps up. I talk, it writes.
Vercel AI GatewayOne door to many model providers. I switch LLMs without rewriting the stack.
Collaboration
SlackThe hallway. Most of the real conversation still happens here.- Microsoft TeamsThe other hallway. When the company lives in Microsoft, this is the room.
- LoomThe fastest way to show a product instead of writing a paragraph about it.
ConfluenceThe wiki the team actually opens. Specs, decisions, and the page you search for later.
Reading
Top five
- 1
The Almanack of Naval RavikantEric Jorgenson. Wealth and happiness as skills, not traits you were assigned. - 2
BuildTony Fadell. How to make the thing, and how to keep making it after the first version. - 3
The Mom TestRob Fitzpatrick. How to talk to users without them being polite. - 4
That Will Never WorkMarc Randolph. Netflix before it was Netflix. The idea is cheaper than the conviction. - 5
Steve JobsWalter Isaacson. The taste, the tantrums, and why the products still look inevitable.
On product
InspiredMarty Cagan. Still the clearest picture of how a real product team should work.
EmpoweredMarty Cagan and Chris Jones. The team is the product. Coaching beats a better process.
Escaping the Build TrapMelissa Perri. Shipping is not the same thing as making progress.- The Mom TestRob Fitzpatrick. How to talk to users without them being polite.
Continuous Discovery HabitsTeresa Torres. Keep discovery weekly, not as a phase you graduate from.
Obviously AwesomeApril Dunford. Positioning before you try to explain the product.
LovedMartina Lauchengco. The best product still loses if nobody understands why it matters.
The Influential Product ManagerKen Sandy. How to lead a product without owning every decision.
SprintJake Knapp. Five days to test the idea before you spend a quarter on it.
Change by DesignTim Brown. Design thinking without the workshop theater.
Working BackwardsBryar and Carr. Start from the customer and write the press release first.
On building
Zero to OnePeter Thiel. Competition is overrated. Build something that did not exist.
Super FoundersAli Tamaseb. What the data actually says about who builds the big ones.- BuildTony Fadell. How to make the thing, and how to keep making it after the first version.
The Cold Start ProblemAndrew Chen. Network effects, and the ugly first mile of getting one started.
The Hard Thing About Hard ThingsBen Horowitz. The parts of the job nobody puts on a slide.
BlitzscalingReid Hoffman. When speed is the strategy, and when it burns the company down.
No Rules RulesReed Hastings. Netflix culture, with the parts that only work if you mean it.- That Will Never WorkMarc Randolph. Netflix before it was Netflix. The idea is cheaper than the conviction.
Hacking GrowthSean Ellis. Growth as a system, not a channel you try once.
The Startup Owner's ManualSteve Blank. Customer development, written as a manual you can actually follow.
Good to GreatJim Collins. What changes when a company stops being merely good.
Good Strategy / Bad StrategyRichard Rumelt. Strategy is a diagnosis and a bet, not a list of goals.
Masters of ScaleReid Hoffman. Patterns from people who scaled something that should have broken.
On thinking
Thinking in SystemsDonella Meadows. Feedback, stocks, and why the body and a product behave alike.
AI EngineeringChip Huyen. How to turn a model into something you can actually ship.
RangeDavid Epstein. A case for generalists. This one felt personal.
Thinking, Fast and SlowDaniel Kahneman. Two minds, and how often the fast one is quietly wrong.
Predictably IrrationalDan Ariely. People do not decide the way they say they decide.
Think AgainAdam Grant. The skill of changing your mind before the evidence humiliates you.
SupercommunicatorsCharles Duhigg. Conversation as a craft, not a personality trait.
Never Split the DifferenceChris Voss. Negotiation from someone who did it when the stakes were not a roadmap.
How to Win Friends & Influence PeopleDale Carnegie. Old, obvious, and still true when you actually do it.
OutliersMalcolm Gladwell. Talent is real. So is the ten thousand hours and the zip code.
Atomic HabitsJames Clear. Tiny systems beat a better plan you will not keep.
Make TimeJake Knapp and John Zeratsky. Protect the day, or the day will spend you.
The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ckMark Manson. Care about fewer things, on purpose.
Do the F*cking WorkBrian Buirge and Jason Bacher. Taste is cheap. Sit down and make the thing.- The Almanack of Naval RavikantEric Jorgenson. Wealth and happiness as skills, not traits you were assigned.
Talent Is Never EnoughJohn Maxwell. Talent is the start. Character is what stays.
On people and the world
- Steve JobsWalter Isaacson. The taste, the tantrums, and why the products still look inevitable.
Steve Jobs in ExileGeoffrey Cain. The NeXT years. What Jobs built after the firing, and what he brought back.
Elon MuskWalter Isaacson. Ambition at a scale that is hard to look away from, or excuse.
The Book of ElonEric Jorgenson. Musk in his own words. Purpose and intensity, without the full biography.
SapiensYuval Noah Harari. The story of us, told as a product of shared fiction.
A World AppearsMichael Pollan. Consciousness, from the inside, without the usual mysticism.
How to Change Your MindMichael Pollan. Psychedelics, science, and what a mind can still do.
This Is Your Mind on PlantsMichael Pollan. Caffeine, opium, mescaline. Plants that rewrite attention.
The Immortality KeyBrian Muraresku. A history of ritual, wine, and the religion that did not keep its name.
Magicians of the GodsGraham Hancock. A provocative case that we forgot an older civilization.
Fingerprints of the GodsGraham Hancock. The first book in that argument. Still the one people start with.
Rich Dad's Guide to InvestingRobert Kiyosaki. How the rich think about assets, for better and worse.