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

Hi everyone! I’m Terry, a full-stack developer from Toronto. I currently work at Lever, where I help develop Lever’s API and evangelize TypeScript. I have been writing code for about thirteen years in a variety of tech stacks; I am a bit of a language nerd!

Outside of work, I am a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt, and also love to train Thai boxing. Because of COVID, I am have been mainly focusing on kettlebells (got my bells from Great Lakes Girya) and running.

Great Lakes Girya is really good. It is a small company, so it takes a bit of time to get your order, but the quality is definitely worth it. Also, we are in a pandemic, so it is totally understandable. It was a one-person shop for a while, so they were a little slow responding, but it has gotten much better. I like supporting Canadian business as much as I can, so I am happy to give them my money.

I also love reading (mostly fantasy), playing Xbox, and hanging out with my family. If you’re into fantasy books, I highly recommend The Riyria Revelations by Michael J. Sullivan and The First Law series by Joe Abercrombie. There are actually a ton more I could recommend. Just have a look at my Goodreads.

I became a dad last year, so all my hobbies take a back seat to that.

What hardware do you use?

I use a fifteen-inch MacBook Pro for development and old Mac mini running EndeavourOS as a media server. I have an IKEA BEKANT sit/stand desk , which I stand at, sit at, and lean on for the better part of the day. I change from standing to sitting on my ErgoStool, and then to sitting on a chair. I got an ErgoChair 2 on the way.

My mouse is an Anker Ergonomic. I used to have an Evoluent VerticalMouse, but the Anker works well and is much cheaper, which leaves me with more money to spend on keyboards. More on that later!

You will usually find me wearing Bose QuietComfort 35 wireless headphones II for listening to music and Zoom meetings.

And what software?

I am spending most of my day working in iTerm and VS Code. I also use Vim for some file editing. I am a novice Vim user, so if you are like me, I recommend use the spf13-vim setup. Spf13-vim has been good enough, but now that I am using Vim more often, I want to start doing my own customizations/config.

Firefox for personal browsing and Chrome for work/dev. I sometimes also use Safari because of Apple Pay being built in. I think I have sold my soul to Apple 😂.

Slack/Zoom for staying in touch with my co-workers.

1Password is my security crush.

Spotify all day long.

I do most of my note-taking in Bear App and old school pen & paper (I love Sakura Pigma Micron pens).

I use Alfred for launching apps and other cool things, BetterTouchTool for when I do have to use the mouse, Choosy to make it easy to open certain links in specific browsers, Fluor to override macOS fn keys, and Rectangle for window management. I really wish macOS had auto-tiling!

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

My daily driver is a black ErgoDox EZ with Kailh Silver switches. I changed a few of the keycaps, but I honestly do not remember where I got them.

When I travel, or just feel like switching it, I use my white Planck EZ with Cherry Brown switches. I really love this keyboard. The simplicity of it really makes me feel peaceful.

If you cannot already tell, I am a ZSA fanboy. I own all of their keyboards, with a Moonlander on the way. Batch 5, baby!

My layouts are kinda bland. It is essentially the default Planck layout with a few tweaks. I have a new one I am working on, but it is still in its early stages. Because I need to use symbols and do a lot of text selection, it requires are lot of key-combo gymnastics. I am trying to find a layout that doesn’t have me contorting my hands all day long.

Terry's Ergodox EZ layout Terry's Planck EZ layout

5. What would be your dream setup?

I would change my standing desk for one that is a bit sturdier, with a nice wood top and automatic height adjustment. The sturdy desk would also allow me to have a monitor stand attached to the desk, so I could free up some desk space.