Who are you, and what do you do?
I'm Michelle, and I'm a member of the team at The Pudding, which is a publication of visual, data-driven essays. Some of my favorite projects are about the sounds of Mexico City, monkeys playing piano, and the most extra national anthem performances. Creating these stories involves data analysis, data visualization, front-end web development, design, and writing. My background is in computer science, but I also love telling and thinking about stories, so I feel lucky to have found a great combination of the two.
What hardware do you use?
On my desk you'll find: a MacBook Pro, an external monitor, an Apple trackpad, a NuPhy Air75 keyboard, and a little whiteboard for sketching ideas or jotting down notes.
And what software?
Our team uses all the Google things (Gmail, Google Meet, Google Calendar). We use GitHub and currently use Svelte for all of our projects (I'm a big fan). We also use Notion, mostly for documentation of team policies and some project management. I use Figma pretty often, both for designing stories before starting on code and more recently for making a huge inspiration board of screenshots of other data visualizations that I like.
ChatGPT has become a regular part of my workflow. I have the paid "Plus" plan which allows access to the latest models and fewer limitations on messages and uploads. I often ask it for coding assistance, having it write a script or even debug my code. It's the first place I turn when I'm having a weird Git problem. I also sometimes ask it for title ideas.
Since reading "Deep Work" by Cal Newport a couple years ago, I've tried to minimize working in a half-distracted state and either focus or take a break. Inspired by this blog post, I started using a "deep work log" to track sessions of focused work. I keep a simple Google Sheet to record the project I'm working on and the start and end time of the session. The act of logging the start of the session is the main benefit for me - I have to think to myself "ok, I'm starting a deep work session", and it signals my brain to lock in. When I complete the task (or when I get distracted), I end the session (which can last anywhere from 30 minutes to 3 hours). Usually when I start one of these chunks, I play lofi music from here (because the backgrounds are nice and because then Spotify Wrapped won't tell me that I'm obsessed with lofi).
What would be your dream setup?
The dream would be my current setup + a section of the room with tons of musical instruments + a section of the room with a large cafe-like table where I would invite people to come cowork with me.