Gears
These are the equipment I use and personally recommend for coding, work, editing and recording Youtube videos.
💻 16-inch Macbook Pro, 32GB RAM, 1TB Storage ($3200 new)
My daily driver 💻 is a powerful laptop that works well for both programming and editing videos.
Watch my Youtube review here.
My laptop of choice: 16″ Macbook Pro with Retina display, Touch bar, 32Gb RAM and 1TB SSD.
This beast of a machine packs a lot of punch in a small package. A beautiful display coupled with a powerful Intel i9 core and plenty of RAM, perfect for the multi-tasker who needs to get more done.
⌨️ Das Keyboard ($140 new)
Highly recommended keyboard for any professional typer or coder.
I’ve tried many keyboards, from Apple keyboards, Microsoft ergonomics, Razer etc. I found that the quality, fit, finish, and ergonomics of the Das keyboard to be the best of them all. I use Brown keycaps. I prefer the Model S Professional because it’s the same great quality at a lower price point. You can also buy refurbished if they’re available for $100 or so. It’s a steal at these price points.
🎧 Airpods Pro ($199 new)
Great lightweight earphones with noise-cancellation for uninterrupted, focused sessions.
For portability and great sound quality, the Airpods Pro do extremely well. I personally like the Bose headphones when I’m sitting down, but the Airpods Pro for portability is much better.
The battery life is amazing (5+ hours) on a single charge, which is enough for my day-to-day use. It’s light, and something I can throw in my backpack and go. The sound quality is great, much better than I imagined.
The noise cancellation works great – it reduces ambient noise and consistent hums (e.g. vacuum cleaner) very well.
Caveat: the mic is meh. It works just well enough for video conferences, but I probably wouldn’t use them to record TikToks.
For an in-depth review, check out my video on the Airpods Pro review.
🎧 Bose QC35 Headphones ($199 new)
In an open office environment, a good pair of headphones is a MUST-HAVE. This is it.
Office noise can be a huge distraction. I’ve tried many pairs of headphones like Bose QC25, Sennheiser Momentum, Beats by Dr. Dre, and couldn’t really find a good fit until I found this.
QC35 is a bit on the pricier side, but the noise-cancellation is amazing, it’s extremely lightweight, and it holds up to rugged use. I throw it in my backpack and go. So far, it has worked amazingly well for me. And it syncs with multiple devices via Bluetooth seamlessly.
🖥 LG 34-inch Curved Monitor ($599 new)
More screen, more productivity. Nothing beats a large screen for coding.
The best upgrade for any software engineer is a monitor. A 3-monitor setup is usually ideal (according to many online articles), but for the average Joe, I think the LG 34-inch curved monitor fits the bill.
You get 4K resolution at 34-inches, which is plenty for all your coding needs. And it supports HDMI2, Thunderbolt, and DisplayPort. For all my coding needs, this monitor fits the bill. And I love how it looks on my desk.
The only downside is that it doesn’t support USB-C, which otherwise would’ve made it much more perfect.
🔊 AudioEngine A2+ Speakers ($269 new)
Beautiful, minimalist speakers for home offices.
These are the quintessential speakers for the minimalist desk setup 🙂
The sound quality’s good, but it’s not amazing. For the price, I think it’s decent (~$250). Mostly I’m paying for the good looks 🙂
I’d recommend getting these Desktop Stands for optimized listening experience – it definitely made a difference for me.
💻 15’ Macbook Pro Retina ($750 used)
Great connectivity with a powerful CPU for the budget-conscious who want to get into Ma’s ecosystem.
Note: I’ve seen replaced this with a 16-inch Macbook Pro
I upgraded this laptop with 2TB SSD, which made this an absolute pleasure to use. Watch how I did it here.
My laptop of choice is the 15″ Macbook Pro with Retina display, Touch bar, 16Gb RAM and 512GB SSD. Gorgeous display, fast processor, and TONS of RAM for multitasking.
For both work and leisure, this laptop satisfies my needs, and then some. I’m not a huge gamer, so I can’t vouch for its gaming capabilities. However, for all my coding, video editing needs, this laptop is second to none. I love the MacOS ecosystem, and this is the best laptop money can buy for me at this point.
The only downside here would be its bulk and keyboard. I’m not a huge fan of the new keyboard. I see where Apple is going with the low-profile keyboard, but I can’t say I’m a fan.
🖱 Apple Magic Trackpad 2 Wireless
Simple, user-friendly and accurate.
I use Apple’s Magic Trackpad Wireless for my day-to-day operation. I moved away from a mouse a long time ago, and haven’t looked back since.
This Trackpad with wireless connectivity is rechargeable (saves me the need to buy AA batteries), and it’s connected by bluetooth. My entire workplace looks streamlined and clean due to this little magic item.
I love this trackpad and highly recommend it over the older trackpad as the new one is bigger and supports Force Touch (ability to detect press pressure).
🛋 Foldable Couch
Best couch for relaxing, hands-down.
Probably the best purchase in terms of furniture for my home office 🙂
I especially enjoy the flexibility of the couch – the folding couch lets me use them in different positions. I can lay flat, seated upright for reading, or bend it slightly to get a little more support for my back… And it’s a great space saver for smaller places too as you can fold and put it away if you don’t need it.
The only thing to take note of is that washing it can be a pain sometimes. I put a cover over it sometimes, but mostly I try not to have liquids around to avoid having to wash it 🙂
💺 Ergohuman Ergonomic Chair ($700 new)
Your back will say thank you.
If you’re working 8-9 hours on a desk like me, then you need to find a great chair. Consider this an investment for your own health.
I looked around, and found that this was a good fit for my situation. I like that you can adjust various parts of the chair, from the headrest, armrest, and even the lumbar support.
Mesh works better over summer as you don’t sweat as much. Leather, on the other hand, is a mess during summer as all that heat builds up 🙁
If you have some extra cash, then the Steelcase Leap ($500 used) is a great choice – try to find them from your local second-hand furniture store as many startups tend to buy them in bulk and liquidate for cheap when they close shop.
📷 Canon SL2 with 18-55mm Lens ($750 new)
Budget dslr perfect for vlogging and amateur Youtubers, like myself 🙂
Great bang-for-the-buck DSLR that works great for my use cases. I initially bought this for photography purposes. My old T2i broke down after a trip to the sand dunes 🙁
This camera has a flip-over screen, which is really nice for seeing myself when I’m recording. It has support for 1080p videos, mic-in support, and light enough for daily travels. The facial tracking feature is definitely awesome.
Add to it you can use all the popular Canon L and non-L lenses, this is a winner in my opinion.
🎤 Takstar Mic ($25 new)
For $20, this mic is UNBEATABLE.
I’ve tried the Rode Mic (quintessential Youtuber’s mic), and various others. The Rode Mic is awesome, but it’s also $300. I wasn’t ready to throw all that money for a channel that’s just a side hobby.
This Chinese-made microphone produces clean audio, and a typical AA battery lasts for weeks, if not months.
There are many Youtube videos online that show how capable this mic is. Check it out if you’re looking for one!
📚 Books
These are the books I’ve read and enjoyed. I’ll update this section as frequently as I can.
System Design Interview: An Insider’s Guide
The best beginner’s guide for systems design interview prep.
This is a great book for preparing for system designs interview. I love the questions covered, and it’s a very easy read well suited for both beginners and intermediates looking to polish their system design skills.
It covers a wide breadth of problems like designing a rate limiter, key-value store and more. I like that the questions focus on applying fundamentals and sound logic to solve the problems.
Some of the negative reviews are centered around the lack of depth, but I think that’s understandable because a book on systems designs prep simply cannot cover all that depth.
You can also check out the online course here: link
Elements of Programming Interviews
The best book for programming interviews prep.
Read my in-depth review here.
This is a great book for preparing for software engineering interviews. I particularly enjoyed the high-level data structures/algorithms description, and the depth they cover in the book. In addition, I like that they cover things like how to plan your study schedule using the book, which shows they put a lot of thought into this book.
The questions are quite difficult if you have not done these types of questions. For beginners, I’d recommend Coding the Cracking Interview, which is another book I recommend here.
Cracking the Coding Interview
Great for starting to prep for interviews.
This book is perfect for beginners who are starting to prepare for technical interviews. The book covers all the basic data structures such as binary tree, graphs, linked lists, arrays and more. I like that it starts each section with a detailed overview of how a data structure works, and then follows up with questions of the right difficulty.
I also like that they cover some behavioral questions in the book. It’s a good starting point for everyone. I took this book and added my own spin to it in my own preparation for technical interviews.
The Effective Engineer
Every software engineer should read this to learn how to better leverage their time and effort.
I really enjoyed this book because not only did I pick up many useful tips for my own career growth, but I felt that I could relate to Edmond Lau’s perspectives in the software industry.
Software engineering is more than just writing code and fixing bugs. I like the way that he puts forth how we can increase our impact through high-leverage activity, which is value per unit time. This has motivated me to start thinking about my day-to-day in terms of how I can increase my impact, and slowly grow towards my dream of becoming a 10x engineer.
Crucial Conversations ($17 new)
Essential handbook to learn how to communicate better. Highly recommended.
Everyone needs to read this at least once. If you’re working in a high-stress, high-performance environment, you need to know how to tackle those important conversations. A mentor suggested this book to me, and I picked up a few great tips from it.
I’ve used this to improve not only work relationships, but also personal relationships, with friends, family and loved ones.
The Senior Software Engineer ($20 new)
A simple practical how-to book that covers many aspects of a software engineer’s career, such as interviewing, writing, communicating etc.
I think this is a good read for both budding and seasoned software engineers alike. It’s a quick read, contains actionable items, and very much applicable to a software engineer’s day-to-day life.
The only downside (not really) that I can think of is that it doesn’t have more tips.
Otherwise, great book with many practical tips.