Jen Myers
Technologist, writer (Girl Develop It, Code and Cupcakes Chicago)
Posted in developer, mac, technologist, writer
Who are you, and what do you do?
I'm Jen Myers. These days I use the descriptors "technologist" and "writer," but I've been a variety of things over the years: web designer/developer, teacher, speaker and organizer. I've been involved with Girl Develop It since 2011 and currently serve the organization as a leadership advisor. I also run a series of mother/daughter beginner web development workshops called Code and Cupcakes Chicago. During the day, I'm the Director of Open Source Curriculum at online tech course provider Pluralsight. I write things on the internet. I also raise a small human.
What hardware do you use?
I work remotely and am often on the move, so my center of operations is my 13" MacBook Pro. The only other significant pieces of hardware I use are analog. I'm a pen-and-paper person who prizes her handwriting, so I always have with me a lot of notebooks, each designated for a specific purpose. Most essential is my extra large Moleskine notebook/planner where I use a personalized Bullet Journal format for my task lists. I am an avid proponent of the art of the task list.
I also use large Moleskine Cahier journals for individual needs: one for my day job, one for my personal projects, one for my community work, etc., also organized in Bullet Journal format. My longform writing goes into college-ruled composition books. I also always have at least two Pilot G2 .05mm black ink pens with me. At least.
And what software?
For daily productivity, I'm a fan of Evernote - I write all of my weekly newsletters and essays there, as well as various other bits and pieces. I use Sunrise Calendar to provide the digital backup to my paper planner and Airmail to manage several email accounts.
For coding, I rely on Sublime Text and iTerm. Websites like my personal site or my newsletter essay archive are powered by Jekyll and are served by GitHub. I use Adobe Photoshop when I have to.
What would be your dream setup?
I think pretty much already have it. I like to keep things simple, modular and portable, with good but relatively inexpensive tools that can I can easily get more of when I need them. Maybe I'd like a fancy studio with lots of light and lots of tea. And a cat.