Small tools I use every day
Most of my day is spent in a terminal and a browser. Over time a few small tools have earned a permanent place. None of them are new or exciting, which is part of the point.
- ripgrep for searching code and notes. Fast enough that I search instead of remembering.
- fzf for fuzzy-finding files and shell history. The history search alone is worth it.
- jq for anything JSON. I keep a small file of jq one-liners I have needed more than once.
- tmux so that long-running jobs on the home server survive a dropped connection.
- A plain text scratch file that is always open. Phone numbers, half-written commands, ideas. Cleared every Friday.
What I stopped using
Elaborate note-taking apps, task managers with tags and contexts, and most browser extensions. Each of them was nice for a month and then became something to maintain. The tools that stuck are the ones that do one thing and get out of the way.
A habit, not a tool
When I solve the same small problem twice, I write the solution down in a file called howto.txt. It is unglamorous, and it is the most useful file on my machine.