A new purpose for my personal tech stack

In the past few months I have gotten married, sold my company, and (mostly) recovered from a hint of founder burnout. Everything that's happened in my life recently has made me want to change the way I use technology. More than ever, I want to avoid social media and idle scrolling, reduce obsessive phone use, and generally minimize the amount of time spent in front of a screen. Even though I plan to cut out the many:many interactions of social media, my hope is to continue blogging in a 1:many broadcast-y way instead.

There will be a few parts to this, including the Great Hardware Refresh ™️, an automation renaissance, a full revamp of my homelab and smart home, and if all goes well, making my watch my primary computing device.

I'll go over the Great Hardware Refresh quickly since its the least interesting part. Here's everything in my current personal tech stack (anything in brackets is something that's just been replaced or upgraded).

Core Network

UniFi Dream Machine + Mesh Wifi APs

Mac Mini M1

8TB SSD OWC ThunderBay 4 mini (4TB Synology HDD NAS)

Raspberry Pi 4

Philips Hue Bridge

Tailscale

Devices

iPhone 15 Pro (13 mini)

Apple Watch Ultra 2 (Series 5)

iPad Pro M1

MacBook Pro M1 Pro 16

Peripherals

AirPods Pro 2

Sony WH-1000XM4

Logitech MX Vertical

Magic Trackpad

Dell 32in Curved Ultrawide Monitor

Moonlander ergo keyboard

Opal C1 Webcam

Elgato Wave Microphone

Home Devices

Sonos Roam and Five

Google Home Mini and Nest Hub

TP-Link light switches

Hue bulbs

August Smart Lock

Ecobee Thermostat and temp/presence sensors

TCL Series 5 TV with Roku

What does it all do?

I will write a few more posts about what everything is used for in the coming weeks, but the overarching goal I'm working towards is simple, quick interactions. I want all of these components to work together perfectly every time I interact with them so that I can be "in and out" as quickly as possible and avoid prolonged screen time. More to come!