The Gear
Tools We Trust
A short list of gear that earned its place. Not the best of anything — just what I actually use, what it costs, and who should save their money.
Most gear lists are affiliate dumps with a paragraph of filler per item. This one is deliberately short and will stay that way. If nothing in a category has earned a spot, that category stays empty.
How something gets on this list
Ninety days minimum
Nothing is recommended off a first impression. Ninety days of real use, in a real week, or it doesn’t get written up.
Bought, not gifted
Paid for with my own money wherever possible. If something was sent free, that is stated at the top of the entry, not buried at the bottom.
Names who should skip it
Every entry says who it isn’t for and what the cheaper answer is. A recommendation that fits everybody is a recommendation that fits nobody.
Some links here earn a commission. It changes nothing about what makes the list or the order it’s in — the full disclosure is here, in plain English.
The categories
Five categories, one per pillar. Entries are being tested now and get published as they clear ninety days — the first batch lands in the Sunday dispatch before it appears here.
Training & recovery
Home-gym essentials, the few things worth the money, and the long list of things that aren’t.
Sleep
Blackout, temperature, light and noise. The cheapest pillar to fix and the one most men ignore longest.
Focus & the desk
The small number of tools that actually protect attention, and the apps that only pretend to.
Running the business
What a small operation actually needs to stop depending on one man’s memory.
Books
The handful I’ve read more than once, with the one idea from each that actually changed something.
Get the reviews as they land.
Every write-up goes to the list first, including the ones where the answer is don’t buy it. Free, one email a week.
Using something you think belongs on this list? Tell me about it — the best finds have come from men in The Forge.