Who are you, and what do you do? What do you like to do outside of work?

I am Lili, a software engineer at Kinship working on the Wisdom Panel product. I am a full stack developer, with a focus on the front end. At Wisdom, I build features to support the marketing team and the eCommerce part of our application. When I’m not working, I love to read, play board games, run, travel, and shoot film photography. My cat, Max, is also always around in most of those activities listed, especially work.

What hardware do you use?

I use a 2019 15” MacBook Pro in clamshell mode most of the time, connected to my external monitor. For my mouse, I have the Logitech MX Vertical mouse. Since nothing gets done without tunes, I’ve got my Bose QuietComfort. I prefer handwriting for my note-taking, so I always have my Moleskine and pen nearby.

My desk was ordered originally as a dining table but because of the pandemic, quickly became my desk. My chair is pretty horrid—ergonomically speaking—and I definitely need better one.

And what software?

At work, I use Ember.js and Ruby Ruby on Rails. Before this job, I went to Alchemy Code Lab here in Portland, Oregon, where I studied full stack MERN (MongoDB, Express, React, Node). At this point, though, I have more experience and over twice the amount of time in my current stack than the one I learned! I use Visual Studio Code to write in, GitHub for version control, and Slack for communicating with my coworkers.

What’s your keyboard setup like? Do you use a custom layout or custom keycaps?

My first foray into keyboards was the Keychron K2 with the Gateron Red switches. My heart was always set on the ErgoDox, but I couldn’t afford it at the time. Being on the Keychron, I realized how much I loved the sound of mechanical keyboards and their tactility and decided to just go for what I always wanted, the ErgoDox. Changing the keyboard to a custom layout was imperative for me to be able to fully fall in love with the keyboard. I don’t have any special keycaps, though that is something I am looking towards in the future!

What would be your dream setup?

My dream setup would be to have a Fully office setup with one wide monitor in a room with lots of windows and nature to look at.