Technologies I Use
Notetaking
For electronic notes I use Obsidian. With my Bible notes I backup the Obsidian vault with git to a Gitea instance attached to a Raspberry Pi on my local network.
For physical notetaking I like to use a leatherbound notepad. Any notes I take from Bible studies I try to copy into the Obsidian vault.
Programming
The strong majority of my programming is with R and Markdown, I use RStudio. If I do something in Python or SQL, I gravitate toward VS Code for its better autocompletion and highlighting relative to RStudio for those languages.
Languages
Currently I use R and Markdown/Quarto primarily and Python when R can’t do the job. In association with R and Python, I use SQL both directly and through {dplyr} backends.
| Language | Proficiency | Experience |
|---|---|---|
| R | Strong | 2.5 years |
| Markdown, Quarto | Strong | 2.5 years |
| SQL | Moderate | 1 year |
| Python | Moderate | 1.5 years |
| LaTeX | Moderate | 1 year |
| Java | Basic | 2 semesters |
| HTML | Basic | Some |
| CSS | Basic | Some |
| DAX | Basic | Some |
| JavaScript | Near Zero | Next to none |
Software
RStudio: This is my go-to editor for writing reports and apps with Quarto and Shiny. The open-source community is really thriving and makes the R language very approachable. A big plus is the Vim motions as I use a weird combination of Vim motions and keyboard macros.
VS Code: I use this for miscellaneous code editing and any Python work. It is a good editor, but doesn’t fit into my usual workflow.
- Positron: It’s a weird cross between RStudio and VS Code.
- Windsurf: Basically VS Code with AI. The AI portion is kind of in the way. It is useful for file paths and tedious repetitive edits, but I don’t find it at all helpful for real analysis.
Power BI: I am not a fan of any Microsoft data analysis software. It feels restrictive to do anything outside of basic charts and graphs. I always feel that I am fighting the program to get what I want. Being locked down in a closed-source, paid ecosystem is a big negative. The documentation is severly lacking compared to that of the R community.
- DAX: This is terrible. Just terrible.
- SQL Server Analysis Server: It uses DAX. It’s okay.
Tableau: Similar thoughts to Power BI, but I have generally had a better experience. However, I have used it very little.
ArcGIS: I only used this for a class. It was an alright experience, but I haven’t done any complex work to feel out the program yet. All of my mapping needs recently have been filled by
{plotly}and{ggplot2}.Obsidian: This is a good and adaptable notetaking software. I use it often on all my devices.
DuckDB: This is a good database software. I use it mainly for ETL into local data marts which are then used in Shiny applications or reporting with Quarto. For me this is superior to having a server-based warehouse as the data are fairly small in size and can be programmatically refreshed with an R script.
Keyboard
I use a ZSA Moonlander with Cherry MX Silent Reds. I also use a Colemak layout with some macros and layers. My full layout is available on Oryx.
During my undergraduate degree I was developing a cyst in my right wrist which was possibly the result of using a small laptop keyboard for many hours each day. Since switching to the split, columnar layout of the Moonlander, my wrist pain has subsided but the cyst remains.
Operating System
Currently on my home system I have a dual boot Windows 10 and Linux Mint setup although I only use the Window installation. For what I do at home, Linux did not offer a signifcantly better experience.
On a laptop I have Kubuntu (25.04) installed with bspwm as the window manager. This is mainly to learn how that ecosystem works. I want to eventually back up my configuration to GitHub.
At work I use Windows 11. I recently upgraded from Windows 10 to take advantage of the NPU in my work laptop (only compatible with Windows 11), but I have yet to try it out.