My Creative Stack for 2025

The tools powering my experiments in AI, writing, and creative work

Jan 05, 2025

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At the start of every year, I find myself doing an inventory. What tools are serving me well? What's just taking up space? What new things do I need to explore?

This year feels particularly important to get right. As AI reshapes creative work, the flood of new tools can be overwhelming. It's tempting to either chase every shiny new release or retreat into only what's familiar. I've found the sweet spot lies somewhere in between.

My approach is simple: experiment often, adopt selectively, and regularly retire what no longer serves me. While I test many new tools, I only keep the ones that meaningfully improve my work. I'm also not afraid to let promising tools simmer on the back burner until they're ready for center stage. This balance lets me stay current without getting distracted by every new launch.

Since many of you are likely doing similar audits to start out the year, I wanted to share my current setup – what's working, what isn't, and what I'm still figuring out.

Here's where I've landed.

Core Toolset

These tools are essential to my workflow, each chosen for a specific role that supports thinking, building, and sharing. When possible, I pay to remove ads.

Creation Tools

Obsidian (Free): Home base for all of my writing. I don't go deep into its unique functionality, but keeping my writing in markdown format makes it portable, future-proof, and easy to use with AI tools.
Figma ($12.50/mo): My go-to for UI design, prototyping, and presentations.
ChatGPT ($20/mo): My creative Swiss Army knife for brainstorming, coding, and refining ideas. I use it more often than Claude mainly due to two things: no long conversation caps and better multimodality, especially with voice.
Claude ($20/mo): I've customized Claude primarily as my writing editor and code collaborator. It's unmatched for editing in my experience. By feeding it samples of my writing and clear instruction sets, it refines my drafts while preserving my voice. Invaluable for someone who writes as much as I do.
Midjourney ($10/mo): Now that Midjourney has a web interface, it's my go-to for image generation. Every professional creative I know in visual fields prefers it. While I'm still learning, it already helps me create consistent feature images for all my writing which is very useful.

Development and Prototyping

Replit ($11.25/mo): A new addition. I'm committing to more programming and prototyping in 2025, and Replit offers the simplest path forward. While it has limitations that might not work for full-time developers, it's perfect for prototyping and sharing ideas.
GitHub (Free): Home base for versioning code.
Coding Stack: Two fundamental tech stacks dominate the AI creator space. If you want to do more programming this year, I’d focus here:
- Backend: The Python ecosystem (Jupyter Notebooks, etc.)
- Frontend: Vercel's frontend stack (React, TypeScript, Next.js, shadcn/ui, Tailwind CSS)

Sharing and Community

Substack (Free): While more newsletter tools exist now than when I started writing, Substack remains fantastic for hobbyist writers like me.
X (~$20/mo): Despite my hot-and-cold relationship with this platform, it's still my primary channel for daily sharing and engaging with the AI/tech community. As X enters the AI space with Grok, it's interesting to track its evolution.
Bluesky (Free): I now crosspost my tweets here. Will it catch on fully? TBD.
Typefully ($12/mo): Helps me maintain a consistent social presence by scheduling posts across X and Bluesky.
Screen Studio ($9/mo): Creates clean, engaging demo videos for my experiments – increasingly important for sharing technical work online.

General Management

Notion ($4/mo): I’m grandfathered into this low price, so I keep it around mainly for resource databases and kanban boards. The web clipper remains the best way I've found to collect and organize valuable content.
Apple Notes (Free): Still the easiest way to capture raw ideas on the go as an iPhone user.
Apple Mail, Calendar, Reminders (Free): My rule: if these can't handle my basic needs, I need to simplify my life.
Cloudflare: After Google domains got sold, I moved here and have been happy.
Cal (Free): The nicest calendar booking app I've found with integrated video calls.
Luma or Partiful (Free): Essential if you're planning in-person events.

Learning

Perplexity (Free): The heir apparent to traditional Google search. The free version satisfies my needs.
YouTube Premium ($15/mo): The world's most expansive edu-tainment platform. Worth paying to remove ads.
Libby (Free): The LA library's digital collection is fantastic. Combined with my Kindle, I can borrow almost any book I want – an incredible resource.

Hardware

I haven't bought substantial new hardware lately. My current tech is at least a couple years old and still going strong. Don't give in to gear acquisition syndrome – quality equipment from recent years works great.

MacBook Pro (M1 Pro, 14", 2021): Probably the favorite laptop I’ve ever owned. Doesn’t really feel dated at all for my purposes.
iPad Pro (2018): The first USB-C iPad Pro. Mostly use it as second monitor for my MacBook. Occasionally use it as a tablet. Handy on the road.
iPhone 13 Mini: I've tried newer iPhones but prefer this one. I want to use my phone less, so a bigger, more expensive device would be counterproductive.
AirPods Pro 2: Great sound. Adaptive audio is amazing. Better deal than Airpods Max.
Kindle Paperwhite: Mostly use it to read library books, which makes it incredibly valuable. I pay to remove ads.
Logitech Pebble Keys Keyboard: An inexpensive but very handy little keyboard.
Apple Magic Trackpad: I'm hopelessly hooked on the trackpad for design work.
Native Union Laptop Stand: Replaced my bulky external monitor with this elegant solution. Pricey for what it is but beautifully designed.

Evaluation

Exploring

Vercel v0 ($20/mo): Vercel was already doing a lot of the most interesting work in design engineering, and now they offer an AI-powered experience. Haven't used it much yet, but I'm bullish on its potential within their ecosystem.
Cursor ($20/mo): A powerful AI-enhanced IDE. I used it extensively while building the Unknown Arts AI knowledge base, but now I’m seeing if Replit can cover my current needs.
Google Gemini ($20/mo): Google's impressive end of year releases. Currently testing via free trial. Some interesting things going on, but so far it doesn’t look like it will replace my core tools.
Sora & Veo 2: The newest generative video tools from OpenAI and Google. Worth watching, though I don't need video capabilities yet.

Phasing Out

Readwise & Reader ($9/mo): Popular for personal knowledge management, but not delivering enough value for me lately relative to other tools.
Blinkist ($5/mo): The Sparknotes of non-fiction. Not using it enough to justify keeping.
Framer ($15/mo): Currently hosts my portfolio, but I'd love to consolidate into Replit for more portable code. Not urgent since the move will require rebuilding my site from scratch.

Final Thoughts

Tools don't make the creator, but they can certainly expand or limit what's possible. As we head into 2025, I'm excited to keep experimenting with this setup, adapting as my needs evolve and new capabilities emerge.

The best toolkit is the one that gets out of your way and lets you focus on creating. For me, this combination of proven workhorses and carefully chosen new tools seems to strike that balance.

What does your creative stack look like for 2025? I'd love to hear what's working for you.

Until next time,

Patrick