FrankS.

Things I Actually Use

No affiliate links, no fluff. These are the books that changed how I think and the tools I reach for daily. If it is on this list, it earned its place.

Books

  • The Pragmatic Programmer

    The book that taught me to think about code as a craft, not just a job. Read it early in my career and still reference it. The section on tracer bullets alone is worth the price.

  • Clean Code

    Robert Martin is opinionated and sometimes wrong, but this book will make you a better programmer. The chapters on naming and functions changed how I write code permanently.

  • Designing Data-Intensive Applications

    The systems design bible. Dense but essential. If you want to understand how databases, message queues, and distributed systems actually work under the hood, this is it.

  • Shape Up

    How Basecamp builds products. Free to read online. Changed how I think about scoping work and shipping on time. The concept of appetite over estimates is worth the read alone.

  • Zero to One

    Peter Thiel on startups and building things that matter. Contrarian and thought-provoking. I disagree with some of it, but the framework for thinking about competition and monopolies is sharp.

Development Tools

  • Zed

    Fast, minimal, and built from the ground up in Rust. My daily driver now. The performance is noticeable coming from VS Code, and the collaborative features are solid.

  • VS Code

    Still the gold standard for code editors. Free, fast, and the extension ecosystem is unmatched. Cursor is built on it, so learning VS Code transfers directly.

  • Figma

    Where design happens now. I use it for wireframes, design reviews, and collaborating with designers. The dev mode makes translating designs to code much less painful.

AI Tools

  • Claude

    My preferred AI assistant for coding and writing. Better at nuance and longer context than the alternatives. The reasoning feels more like working with a thoughtful colleague.

  • ChatGPT

    The one that started it all. Still useful for quick questions and brainstorming. I switch between this and Claude depending on the task.

Hosting & Infrastructure

  • Vercel

    Deploy Next.js apps in seconds. The developer experience is exceptional. Preview deployments for every PR changed how I ship. Worth it for the workflow alone.

  • Netlify

    Great alternative to Vercel, especially for static sites. The forms and serverless functions are solid. I use both depending on the project.

  • Fly.io

    When you need more control than Vercel gives you. Great for running Docker containers close to users. The CLI is a joy to use.

  • Heroku

    The original platform-as-a-service. Still useful for quick deployments and side projects. The free tier is gone but the simplicity remains.

  • Cloudflare

    DNS, CDN, and security in one place. The free tier is generous. I put Cloudflare in front of almost everything now. The performance gains are real.