Uses
What I reach for to design, write, and ship.
Inspired by the uses.tech convention — a living list, not an affiliate page. For curated recommendations with more context, see Design Resources.
Hardware
A setup optimized for long writing sessions, video calls, and occasional 3D work — not a gear review site.
- MacBook Pro (Apple Silicon) — Primary machine for design, code, and calls.
- Studio Display (or equivalent) — Single large canvas for layout review and long documents.
- Mechanical keyboard + trackpad — Low-profile switches; trackpad for gestures when I am not on the road.
Design & prototyping
- Paper — Connected canvas for design, agents, and code-native handoff.
- Figma — Still the default for flows, systems, and async critique.
- Excalidraw — Whiteboards and architecture sketches in the open.
Development
- Cursor — Day-to-day editor for this site and experiments.
- Claude Code — Agentic runs in the terminal with explicit permissions.
- Astro — Static-first framework for davidhoang.com.
- Replit — Full cloud environments when I want to spike without local setup.
Writing & thinking
- Obsidian — Notes and drafts before they graduate to the digital garden.
- Proof of Concept — Newsletter for longer essays on design and AI.