James TurkInterview
Assistant Clinical Professor (University of Chicago)
Adapted from James Turk's interview on Uses This, published 10 August 2024. The kit is drawn from their answers and each reason is an excerpt, lightly edited. Shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. Read the full interview ↗
Is this you? Claim this kit →Hardware
These days, I mostly use a 14" M1 Macbook Pro.
Despite my reluctance, this is the happiest I've been with a laptop since my ThinkPad T420 ten years ago.
I have a pair of USB-C monitors at home, and usually use a Keychron V1.
After using a pretty cheap pair of Bluetooth headphones until they broke, I decided to upgrade to a pair of Sony WH-1000XM5 and I'm incredibly impressed with them.
I also wear a modded Casio F-91W watch with a Sensor Watch board.
Communication
FastMail - Secure, private, and so much nicer than GMail.
Productivity
Fantastical - A piece of macOS software I happily paid for so I could reliably have all of my calendars in one place.
Browser
I use Firefox as my browser, in equal parts to support an open web, and because it allows a level of customization that works well for my idiosyncratic browsing needs.
Notes
I've mostly settled on Obsidian for now, largely for its high-quality sync which allows me to edit a note in neovim, VSCode, or Obsidian, and reference it from my phone, or take a quick note from my phone and expand upon it later when I have a full keyboard.
Coding & Development
When I started teaching, I decided to start using VSCode for my main development environment, since 90% of my students will be and it feels right to be familiar with the same tools they are using.
ruff has become an incredibly useful tool as well.
Media
Pocket Casts - I've used it almost every day for nearly a decade and remain completely happy with it.
Other
One thing I really miss on macOS is the ability to use a true tiling window manager.
I get by with Magnet for now, but this is likely what will push me off macOS for my next machine.