Who are you, and what do you do?
I'm Carol (Nichols || Goulding), and I'm a software programmer who prefers to work with the Rust programming language. So much so that I literally wrote The Book on it! I run my own consultancy, Integer 32, LLC, with my partner, Jake Goulding. I recently joined the board of the Rust Foundation, the non-profit that supports the Rust community, as a Project Director. I'm also on the Crates.io Team, which maintains the package registry site for Rust, where people share their open source Rust libraries for other Rust programmers to use.
What hardware do you use?
I'm currently using a MacBook Pro M1 Max, usually with a Kinesis Freestyle keyboard and an external trackpad; I've found this combination to be the best at preventing RSI for me. I've got Sennheiser HD 560S headphones with an aftermarket microphone that goes in front of my face for all my video calls. Also important is a butt pillow with a tailbone cutout that I needed after giving birth to my kid and having tailbone pain and now I'm used to. Go ahead and laugh it up, dear reader, someday you will get older too, if you're lucky! In the summer, a ceiling fan and a window fan. In the winter, a combination air purifier/humidifier and a snuggie.
And what software?
You can pry my favorite text editor, TextMate, out of my cold, dead fingers. I use macOS, git, zsh and Oh My Zsh, Homebrew, iTerm2, Paste, Carbon Copy Cloner, Firefox, Bitwarden, Signal, Google Mail/Calendar/Docs/Meet, GitHub, Zoom, Zulip, Slack. I prefer open source software when it works for me, but I'm not a purist.
And now for what I don't use: LLMs. I can create my own garbage just fine, thanks, with a much smaller impact on the environment. I'm pretty stuck in my ways at this point: I know what code I want to write, and "assistants" are just distracting and get in my way. I don't even like IDEs with autocomplete or inline errors (although I do pop open VS Code occasionally to use automated refactorings). Adding the clipboard manager Paste to my workflow was a productivity booster, but LLMs are... not.
What would be your dream setup?
Imagine an empty ocean beach a few blocks away from my home in Pittsburgh (I know, I know, be careful what I wish for) that always has perfect weather. Then about halfway to the water's edge, an Eames lounge magically appears under an umbrella and is never damaged by the elements. Add a computer, keyboard, trackpad, and monitor that float in perfect ergonomic positions, are unaffected by sand or water, and are visible in bright sunlight. A teleportation device brings people to me when we want to collaborate by drawing ideas in the sand, and sends them back when I need time to think by myself. For the final touch, a cup that is always full of fizzy water and nugget ice. Oh, and universal free health care and world peace.