Workflow5 min read
Small tools, large leverage
The highest-ROI work a developer can do has nothing to do with frameworks. It's sharpening the seam between your shell, your editor, and your brain.
The compounding curve
A new framework saves you weeks once. A better shell alias saves you ten seconds, every day, for the rest of your career. Do that math out and the shell wins, badly.
I keep a small `~/.scripts` directory. Most of the files in it are under twenty lines. None of them would survive a code review. Together, they probably save me an hour a week.
What I keep close
- `fzf` for fuzzy-finding everything — files, branches, history
- `rg` (ripgrep) for searching code at the speed of thought
- A custom `gco` that lists branches with `fzf` and checks one out
- `zoxide` so I never type a deep `cd` path again
The shell is a programming language with the lowest-friction REPL ever invented.
If you only do one thing this week: pick the action you do most often and shave three keystrokes off it.