My setup in grad school
This was my setup in grad school. Note all actual compute was performed on a much more powerful workstation.
Hardware
- 13” Macbook Pro without touchbar: I tried the touch bar but it was more expensive and less useful than tactile keys.
- Dell Ultrasharp U2415 24” monitor plus a cheap extra HP display I found in the office.
- Microsoft Sculpt Ergonomic keyboard and mouse: feels great even after coding and writing for hours.
- Dual-screen wallpapers from TwelveSouth: I love Hawaii!
- Bose QuietComfort 35 Wireless Headphones: great for working in an open office space, and plane flights.
- SteelSeries Airtouch standing desk.
Everything goes into my Macbook via two USB-C cables. I route all my USB-A peripherals through the Dell monitor, which routes both USB and video to a USB-C hub that also has ethernet and power for the Mac. The hub connects to my Mac via a USB-C extension cable so I can keep the mess hidden under the desk. I use an HDMI to USB-C cable (in red) to connect my Mac to the second display.
Tip from @mattmight:
Buy multiple laptop chargers. Leave one at your office, one at home, etc. It can actually make economic sense if the cost of packing up your charger exceeds the cost of buying another one.
Software
- iTerm2; much better than the default macOS terminal.
- Mathias Bynen’s dotfiles.
- Vim to write code; steep learning curve but useful.
- Solarized theme.
- Night Shift active 24/7 to reduce eye strain.
- Mendeley to manage research papers and references. Export
.bibfiles when you write papers, sync your PDFs to the cloud, read and annotate PDFs on any device, and create shared folders with your team. - Overleaf for writing papers in .