Things That Still Work

My Daily Drivers

Like most everyone, I’ve tried a lot of tools over the years, from minimal editors to elaborate dashboards; entire systems that promised to change how I worked. Most didn’t last. When taking stock of the ones that did, the most interesting thing was how unremarkable they are. They just stayed useful.

The command line and VS Code are where quite a few of my daily hours go. The CLI is quiet and predictable, a place that doesn’t need to explain itself. Over the years I’ve experimented with moving all my coding to being CLI based but I always drift back to an external editor. VS Code adds just enough comfort to make the work enjoyable: syntax highlighting, split panes, a little visual context when you’ve been buried in text too long. Between the two, I can move fast, break things, and fix them again without frustration.

Then there are the tools that simply exist as an integral part of life for better or worser: spreadsheets, email, and Slack. Spreadsheets still handle the messy middle of projects where structure hasn’t quite solidified. Email remains clunky but indispensable; it’s the only medium that still behaves like correspondence. And Slack… well, I use it too much. I haven’t figured out how to escape it yet, but at least it’s searchable.

After all the churn, that’s what remains as my daily drivers: tools that don’t try to impress you. They just work, quietly, the same way every day. Stability might not be exciting, but it’s what keeps me moving forward.

Maybe one day Anchorline will earn a spot on this list. Not because I build it, but because it has become that ingrained in the system of me.

— Lauren