My drawing assets. Drawing diagrams to explain things makes my life so much easier

My table saw. It’s the cheapest one I could buy new, but damn if I don’t use it for every single project I do. Just got much nicer combo blade for it, so now it cuts buttery smooth.

Org mode!!!

I don’t say this lightly, I think I would be dead if it wasn’t for Org mode in emacs given how hostile most of the tools and systems in society are to my brain.

It seems like every other organizational/pkm tool is built by people with extremely high executive function, is extremely opinionated in a way that is impossibly unlikely to dovetail with my particular brain and how it specifically needs help and is made with ZERO thought to how cruel it is to design a wholistic organizational and thinking tool and sell it to people who are struggling in precarious positions via a business that will eventually enshittify or abruptly go out of business and leave those people stranded a million miles from shore with a notes/thinking system that is hopelessly locked into an abandoned system.

I use Org mode for work, I use it for life, it is essentially as necessary as a pen and paper for me to actually get shit done.

I’m a machinist, so I use a huge variety of tools (setting fixturing, looking at prints and diagrams, CAD and CAM software, manual machine tools, etc.) The most important? Eye protection. I have excellent vision and would never jeopordize it to whatever extent possible and reasonable. I use safety glasses so often now for scenarios even outside of work, I forget to take them off when eating until halfway through a meal. Maybe I should be worried about the broccoli, though. You can never be too careful.

Regularly use for work? Scalpel blades. My job would be essentially impossible without them.

I probably use my driver and table saw most, but my cordless multitool is climbing up there.

At work? Laptop and VSC/browser

Outside work, probably hex key set, I have it with me all times when cycling

My brain :p

My Fluke Intelatone copper cable tracer and pin mapper. Had one as a company tool back early in my career. Bought one for myself when I moved and just carry it around in my magic bag of tricks. It is just the best at finding its other half, so much so that ive had multiple employers buy their own because I use my own and wanted me to stop using the shitty cheap ones they get off amazon.

I do sys admin/engineering work in a Windows environment. PowerShell is what got me this job, and together with my programming experience allows me to keep up with my seniors who have been in their positions for a decade or more.

It also helps us all make a good team. They have the knowledge and experience advantage (though I’m catching up), I have the skills to figure out how to implement the plans in a way that doesn’t involve days of mind numbing manual actions.

My penis.

A scratch owl. At the leather shop I used that bastard for everything.

Spoon, I am currently unemployed and I love to eat so I carry a spoon wherever I go just in case I might eat something.

Math. It is the language of nature, music, science, and technology. Math is power.

Math allows me to create and use my own tools and media, besides those that someone has already dreamed up.

My brian.

Precision vernier caliper

Caffeine.

Excel.

Job Access With Speech.

My glasses, for sure. Next would be my bike, as I use it to get around everywhere. Third most important is probably my keyboard at work, or a pencil.

OpenProject. Great tool for project management and usual organizational operations. Also, it’s European, libre and have interface (partly) in Esperanto.

I’d say my brain or my computer, but in reality it’s my motivation to focus for a hot minute. So many distractions!

I would have to say EES (Engineering Equation Solver), as I’m a thermal engineer. Or potentially MATLAB with the CoolProp installed. They are quite brilliant tools, not to mention fun to work with!

Communication skills (aka bullshittery)
I’m a finish carpenter and project manager so its my job to figure out what my boss thinks the client wants, what the client actually wants, what the fuck the architect is talking about, whatever the interior designer thinks they do, and translate it into usable language to get my carpenters to build it and make everyone think it was their idea that was the best.

My computer, my hand, and my ability to discern and call out bullshit.

Battery powered 3/8 drive impact

The browser. A surprising amount of my billable hours is googling the manual of some obscure thing someone else sold our customer and they want to feed the signal to our system and then reading aloud how they connect the thing.

My penis. It gives me an all access pass to most of life. Combined with my translucent skin I can go anywhere, do anything, and not get questioned.