What are the 5 tools you simply couldn't do your work without?
This could be related to your industry, or even a side project you're working on.
Here are my 5 (I couldn't function without them):
Grammarly – proofreading my texts, not just posts, but also client communication
ChatGPT / Claude – mostly brainstorming, help with copy, and summarising
Figma – I can put the basic graphics together quickly.
Translator – sounds incredibly old-school, but English is not my mother tongue
Gmail – and not only for communication, but also for storing ideas and sending myself email reminders for posts
[and soon one more that I am working on – SafeLimit – prevents me from being banned on LinkedIn, so I will not lose my account.]
What are your five?
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Interesting you put still old email in this list. The answer varies, obviously, based on the kind of work. For me, chatbots are my obsession. Further from being tools that vanquish human intellect, they are tools that excite knowledge, focus and creativity.
mine skew boring: claude code for basically everything now, linear so i stop holding tasks in my head, and plausible because i couldnt stomach another GA dashboard. the non-obvious one is a plain text file i dump every half-formed idea into, no app, just one file ive had open for two years. the translator point hits btw, half the best builders i talk to are working in their second language and nobody mentions how much overhead that quietly adds. whats the one tool youd be gutted to lose if it vanished tomorrow?
After 20+ years in podcasting my non-negotiables:
Shure MV7 microphone for great sound
GarageBand for editing
Squarespace for podcast hosting
Traktor controller for my DJ'ing
AI for building my product here on PH
@suzychase Wow, Do you DJ? :D What about VJ-ing? :D
@busmark_w_nika I do! 🎧 I've been curating + producing for The Groove Radio, the first mixtape podcast, since 2005. No VJ-ing yet, but now you've got me thinking... 😄
@suzychase It is time to pick a new hobby! :D
@miloriano Why did you decide on Claude over ChatGPT? :)
@Kagi -- search, translate, and AI assistant
Amp & Claude Code
@Reflect
@LM Studio
Discord
@dzhlobo Thank you for sharing :)
Hey
WisperFlow
Claude
Outlook
Reminders - Specially water
Notes - Capturing thoughts
My 5, building dev infra:
Claude Code — completely changed how I write and review code. The feedback loop with an agent that has real context is genuinely different from a chatbot.
Linear — forces you to actually prioritize instead of just accumulating tickets.
Warp — made the terminal feel less like 1985.
Posthog — seeing where users actually go vs. where you thought they'd go is humbling.
A dedicated inbox per project — routing signal by context (CI alerts, customers, agents, ops) keeps your head clear. A single noisy inbox is death by a thousand notifications.
Curious if anyone else's list has shifted significantly in the last year because of AI — not just adding AI tools, but replacing things that no longer feel necessary?
@dannyheng Not gonna lie, I use only one from your stack. Had experience with the Posthog for a while... need to revisit it again! :D
Great question! Here are my 5 essentials:
Notion – my second brain for notes, projects, and planning
2. Claude / ChatGPT – brainstorming, drafting, and thinking through complex problems
3. VS Code – can't write a single line of code without it
4. Slack – async communication keeps my team in sync
5. Loom – nothing beats a quick video when text just doesn't cut it
Curious how many people overlap on Claude/ChatGPT — it seems like it's becoming the universal #1!
@doganakbulut Me too. I am mixing it. Claude for coding, ChatGPT for general requests.
My five are a mix of development, infrastructure, security, and automation:
1. Claude Code: for exploring large codebases, reviewing architecture, debugging difficult issues, and automating repetitive engineering work.
2. Cloudflare: for DNS, application security, traffic protection, caching, and managing services at the edge.
3. VS Code: still my main workspace for writing, searching, debugging, and maintaining code across different projects.
4. Zapier: for connecting business tools and automating repetitive workflows without building every integration from scratch.
5. Tailscale: for securely connecting servers, devices, and internal services without exposing them directly to the public internet.
I've benefited a lot from discovering tools through discussions like this, so I'm looking forward to finding a few more worth adding to my workflow.
@alosefer Thank you for contribution :) Tailscale is new to me here :)
Mine :-
1. Chat /Claude
2. Canva
3. Google Analytics
4. X
5. Reddit
@deepu_jee The first one and the last 2 are my faves :)