Josh Medeski’s Mac and iPhone setup
Every week we post a new interview with someone about what software they use on their Mac, iPhone, or iPad. We do these interviews because not only are they fun, but a glimpse into what tools someone uses and how they use those tools can spark our imagination and give us an idea or insight into how we can do things better.
New setup interviews are posted every Monday; follow us on RSS or Twitter to stay up to date.
Who are you and what do you do?
My name is Josh Medeski, I’m a front-end developer at a small (but successful) start-up in Houston called Medology. I’m also a freelance writer and speaker, and have a podcast called One Intentional Life.
What is your current setup?
I’m an all Apple guy. At home, I have a Mac mini (Mid-2011) with a 21″ Dell monitor and a Macbook Pro (2012) that are still going strong (thanks to El Capitan). At work, I use a 27″ iMac Retina with a secondary 27″ monitor.
At home, my desk is an old drafting table with a makeshift shelf. For my audio setup I have a mic, stand, and pop filter. The awesome pencil holder was made by my mom.
At work, we just got Herman Miller desks from the Locale series with the amazing Embody Chair. I’ve got a rubik’s cube, pictures, and a homemade crochet Groot (again, made by my mom) to keep me company.
Where can we find your OS X wallpaper?
It’s a picture of me taken by my good friend Ling at Tout Suite in downtown Houston.
What software do you use and for what do you use it?
Oh man, where to start!? Let’s break into areas of responsibility.
Personal
For personal use, I use Spotify for music, Todoist for task management, YNAB for budgeting, Airmail for desktop emailing, 1Password for password management, Evernote for web clippings, Feedly for RSS, Pocket for reading later, Day One for journaling Bartender to organize my menu bar, Fantastical for calendars, Spectacle for window management, BetterTouchTool to be nerdy with my trackpad, Slack for team communication, and Alfred for pretty much everything else.
Front-End Development
I’ve been a long time Sublime Text user, but recently made the switch to Atom and really am enjoying it. I also use Emmet for quick coding, Wakatime for cool stats, Source Tree for Git, and oh my zsh for my terminal.
The stack and common tools I use at work includes Sass for stylesheets, Gulp for running tasks, Laravel for the back-end guys, Craft for managing content, Zurb’s Foundation for scaling my front-end work, and Docker for server management (locally and on production).
How would your ideal setup look and function?
I would love a local development environment that is extremely fast and always works. I would also love a text editor that never crashes and learns how I code (like a second brain). Mostly I just want a computer with unlimited power!
What iPhone do you have?
I have the iPhone 6 (16GB) with a simple case and EarPods.
Where can we find your wallpaper online?
My wallpaper is a photo taken at my wedding by Christine Gosch.
What apps do you use the most, and why?
I use AnyList for grocery shopping, Google Maps for getting around, Pocket Casts for podcasts, GroupMe for group messaging, and Drafts for collecting thoughts.
Which app could you not live without?
Drafts: It’s the quickest and easiest way to keep everything out of my head and in my productivity system.
There are more Sweet Setup interviews right here.