AI & Models
Primary toolingAnthropic Claude
The reasoning engine behind every agentic system I build. Claude Sonnet for production workloads — cost-latency balance is excellent. Claude Opus for architecture reviews, complex reasoning, and anything where the extra thinking time pays off. The tool I've evaluated most thoroughly and trust most in production healthcare contexts.
Claude SonnetClaude OpusAPIMCP
OpenAI GPT-4o
Comparison baseline and multimodal tasks. Useful for evaluating where models diverge on the same prompts — disagreement between models is often the most interesting signal.
BenchmarkingMultimodal
Llama 3 / Mistral
On-premises deployments and sovereign AI requirements. When data cannot leave the building, open-weight models running on private infrastructure are not optional — they're the architecture.
On-PremisesPrivacy
Cloud & Infrastructure
Multi-cloud by principleGoogle Cloud Platform
Primary cloud for AI/ML workloads. Vertex AI, BigQuery, and GKE form the backbone of most production pipelines. The data and ML tooling is second to none.
Vertex AIBigQueryGKE
Amazon Web Services
SageMaker for model deployment where AWS is the incumbent. S3 as the universal data lake. Lambda for event-driven agent triggers. The broadest service catalog in the industry.
SageMakerS3Lambda
Microsoft Azure
Azure OpenAI Service for enterprise clients already in the Microsoft ecosystem. Active Directory integration and compliance tooling make it the path of least resistance for regulated industries.
Azure OpenAIEntra ID
Red Hat OpenShift
On-premises Kubernetes for healthcare clients with strict data residency requirements. The enterprise Kubernetes standard when the workload cannot live in a public cloud.
KubernetesOn-PremHIPAA
Development
Daily driversVS Code + Claude
VS Code with the Claude extension running as a pair programmer. The feedback loop between writing code and having an architectural reviewer inline has permanently changed how I work. Not a crutch — a cognitive multiplier. I write better code with it than without it, and I understand why more clearly.
VS CodeClaude ExtensionGitHub Copilot
Python
For AI/ML work, Python is still the lingua franca. FastAPI for agent APIs, LangGraph for orchestration, Pandas + Polars for data. The ecosystem is unmatched.
FastAPILangGraphPolars
TypeScript + React
For AI-powered interfaces, React with TypeScript. The type safety catches the class of errors that are embarrassing to ship. shadcn/ui for components — the right abstraction level.
TypeScriptReactshadcn/ui
Model Context Protocol
MCP is now the standard for tool integration in every agentic system I build. One server per integration surface. Composable, auditable, portable across any Claude-powered context.
MCPTool UseAnthropic
LangGraph
Graph-based agent orchestration. Explicit state machines, human-in-the-loop checkpoints, cycle support. The right mental model for production agentic systems in regulated environments.
LangGraphMulti-Agent
Docker + Kubernetes
Everything runs in containers. Docker for development parity, Kubernetes for production orchestration. Helm charts for deployment configuration. The baseline assumption for anything that needs to scale.
DockerKubernetesHelm
Hardware
The physical layerMacBook Pro M-Series
The unified memory architecture changed what local development feels like. Running large models locally, spinning up Docker environments, compiling TypeScript — all without the fan spinning up. Battery life that survives a full day of actual work. The best laptop I've ever used, and it's not close.
Apple SiliconmacOSLocal LLM
Ultra-wide Monitor
Horizontal real estate for terminal + editor + browser simultaneously. Once you work ultrawide, a standard 16:9 monitor feels like a port hole.
34"+1440p
Mechanical Keyboard
Tactile switches. The feedback loop between thought and typed character matters at the margin. Quieter than it sounds, better than membrane by a wide margin.
TactileMechanical
ANC Headphones
Active noise cancellation for deep work. The ability to create acoustic isolation anywhere — airport, office, road — is one of the highest-ROI tools I own.
ANCFocus
Reading & Thinking
Off-screen toolsKindle + Physical Books
Kindle for travel and technical reading. Physical books for literature and anything I want to annotate properly. The marginalia habit is worth maintaining.
KindleMarginalia
Plain Text + Obsidian
Notes in plain Markdown. Obsidian for linking ideas across notes. The graph view occasionally reveals connections that weren't obvious. Everything is local, everything is portable.
MarkdownObsidianLocal
arXiv + IEEE Xplore
Primary sources for AI/ML research. arXiv for preprints the day they drop. IEEE Xplore for standards and established engineering literature. The peer-reviewed record matters.
arXivIEEEPapers
Paper Maps + GPS
Road trips: paper maps for planning, GPS for execution. The paper map forces you to understand the geography before you drive it. Old habit, worth keeping.
Road TripAnalog
Last updated March 2026 · Blue Planet · No affiliate links · All opinions are my own · Tools earn their place by being used daily