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

My name is Simon, and I’m 28. In college I started out at an art school for illustration, then transferred to a different school and did civil engineering, then changed majors to psychology (and also music composition). I worked in a lab while in school and got to have my music performed by some really talented people. But while in school, I got really into 3D modeling and used my CAD knowledge from engineering to get into designing imaginary structures and eventually got a job doing architectural design. I then went to grad school for city planning, where I got my master’s degree.

I am a freelance architect and vice president of planning and development at an affordable housing development consulting firm (I help companies design and get funding to build affordable housing) in the United States. My goals are to create housing for people who can no longer afford decent housing in their cities and to make old dilapidated structures cool again!

I live with my girlfriend, who’s a costume designer for theater, and our cute little doggo named Crumpet—who’s professionally adorable! I like rock climbing, running, drawing, writing music, trying new restaurants, and playing tennis in my free time.

What hardware do you use?

I use two setups.

My work/home stationary setup includes the Moonlander, Apple trackpad, a Logitech vertical mouse, 43” 144HZ monitor, a high-spec Mac mini, an Audient iD4 interface, Yamaha HS5 speakers, the Yeti mic everyone has, an old iPhone 12 as a webcam, and a Novation 61SL MkIII as the MIDI keyboard for writing some tunes. The desk is a 72x30 Fully Jarvis standing desk, and my chair is a Steelcase Gesture.

My home setup is a 16” 2019 MacBook Pro, a 12.9” iPad Pro m2 that I use mostly as a second monitor, another Magic Trackpad, another Logitech vertical mouse, Moonlander mounted vertically to the desk with smallrig clamps and extenders, Desky Dual Mini Sit Stand desk, Lifelong laptop stand, Artisan Hien small mousepad, and an Odosola iPad stand.

And what software?

I use Autodesk CAD, RStudio, Excel, a bunch of Adobe programs (that I wish weren’t a subscription service), Ableton for music stuff, Octane for nice renders, VSCode and GitHub for ZMK, and Procreate for drawing on my iPad.

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

I use Colemak as my layout. All other keys, aside from alphas, are moved around for my convenience, though. My layout might look remarkably terrible to other people, but the nice part of the software is that it’s adjustable to whatever you need. Trying a few minimal layouts as well. Home row mods are interesting, but they seem to glitch out when typing above 150-170 wpm. I love the idea of a 36-key layout, but I haven’t figured out the hold times for my typing speed, so I don’t really use it at the moment.

I use a similar layout for my Corne keyboard.

What would be your dream setup?

I can’t wait for a future that does not require screens.

I do not know what form this would come in, but AR glasses that are light and comfortable is probably the answer. I know I will be waiting a long time for that lol. While screens are still required, I am actually quite happy with what I have.