My personal tech radar. Inspired by the Thoughtworks Technology Radar — if you haven't checked that out, I recommend it.
Adopt
| Claude Code w/ Remote Control | 2026-04 | Work on projects, across multiple hosts, on the go. |
| Obsidian | 2022 | Second brain, everything is "just a file". Using for all types of notes, lists, weekly/monthly/quarterly reviews. In Jul ’26, I upgraded to Obsidian Sync after dealing with iCloud sync data corruption. |
| Healthchecks.io | 2026-06 | For cron/job observability — wanting assurance that scheduled intents actually ran. Or core services are healthy. |
| Tailscale | 2026-01 | Private networking for all of your devices. For the layperson: create your own little secured "internet". |
Trial
| Cloudflare Workers | 2026-01 | Using for a few hobby projects. |
| Audiobookshelf | 2026-07 | A self-hosted audiobooks server for your local network. Syncs progress across all devices. Has an ecosystem of clients for Web, Mobile (iOS+Android), and CarPlay. |
| Beszel | 2026-07 | Lightweight server monitoring. I have this running on my Raspberry Pi 400. Very easy to setup after some light setup. |
| Raindrop.io | 2026-08 | An images and links collection tool. Visual-forward. I use it collect design inspiration. |
Assess
| restic + Backblaze | 2026-02 | Remote backup snapshots. |
| Hatchet | 2026-07 | Task orchestration. Idea on file: distributed video encoding across a fleet of MacBooks. Parked here deliberately rather than started. |
| Synology NAS | 2026-07 | Best in class consumer-friendly on-premise data storage units. Their DSM software is great, though the hardware a bit underpowered. Company was embroiled in a 2025 controversy over a proprietary drive lock-in attempt, which it then back-tracked on after public outrage. |
| Raspberry Pi 400 | 2026-07 | Fun little device to use as an always-on mini server. The form factor is just a keyboard. I have Claude Code running on it with full privileges, and a 256GB NVMe SSD attached via an external enclosure. |
Hold off
| Factorio | 2026-07 | Wishlist game deferred even longer, because real life has become this game. Why play a simulation? Saving it for a different season. |
About this page
It's never been easier for a single person to run their own software factory, thanks to agentic AI. With this newfound leverage and scale, it's wise for individual software engineers to inherit the behaviors of larger software factories (and treat the software factory itself like a product).
Thoughtworks has been one of the best at this game and I've been following them for more than 10 years. I love what they do with their Technology Radar, and felt the need to recreate this format for myself to share with others.
I encourage you to consider it too.