Paid Tools
Here are the set of paid tools I use constantly. I think of them as workers I hire for specific jobs.
Learning
- acm - ACM comes bundled with Oreilly & Pluralsight. Though I don’t use them often, I turned to them whenever I have to learn a a technical concept.
- Everand - Been using Scribd for a very long time. Recently they carved out the books service into a separate service. I read at least 1 book a month here.
Writing
- Audiopen - Bought the life-time plan when it came out. So much easy to dictate, transcribe, and blog daily.
- Wordtune - Wordtune helps me edit the posts I write. It is an editor that I hire to polish my writing.
Podcasting
- Descript - Google docs for audio & video editing. If you are a podcaster, Descript is a must-have tool. Make editing transcript, clips so much easier.
- Riverside - Tool to record all my podcast interviews. Have tried different tools (including the one from Descript), but nothing is as user-friendly as Riverside.
- Transistor - Where I host Gravitas WINS podcast. Amazing service. Plus been part of Justin Jackson's Megamaker too.
Networking / Coaching
- Zoom - I use for all virtual calls. All my coaching calls happen via Zoom.
- Linkedin - Been a premium user for 2 years. Since I write and post there daily, it helps to be a premium user. LI has morphed to be a first-class professional network. That is where I meet most of interesting people from a career perspective.
- Twitter - In Dec'2023, subscribed to the premium plan to check out if it helps in getting a good user experience. So far no. May be too early to tell.
Others
- Dropbox - All my files are here. Been a user ever since they started
- pCloud
- Opalstack - Where I host all my sites & apps. I have been using their previous avatar (Webfaction) for more than a decade. Switched to Opal when Webfaction was sold to Godaddy.
- Webflow - My younger son uses it to make his site
What are the tools you pay for?