rcmnd

ThingsSoftware

by Cultured Code

Who uses, recommends or left Things, in their own words: each a verbatim quote with a link to where it was said.

4 people

Mandy Brown
Writer, editor and coach; co-founder and editor of A Book Apart and a former contributing editor at A List Apart.
liked

Things remains my to-do app, especially now that the cloud sync is in public beta. I like the way it lets me organize to-dos into different projects; when you have a lot of projects, that bit of separation is key.

The Setup (usesthis.com) interview, given while she was communications director at Typekit.

2012-03-19·usesthis.com ↗

Michael Lopp
Engineering manager who has worked at Apple, Netscape, Slack and Palantir; writes as Rands at randsinrepose.com and wrote Managing Humans.
liked

If I had to commit to a productivity application, it'd be Things.

His written "Uses This" interview, covering his "coffee shop rig" and "home rig".

2010-07-09·usesthis.com ↗

Chris Coyier
Front-end developer and writer; co-founder of CodePen, founder of CSS-Tricks, and co-host of the ShopTalk Show podcast.
uses

Things for personal TODO lists. BusyCal for calendaring.

His written "Uses This" interview, listing his office setup and the apps he runs day to day.

2020-01-23·usesthis.com ↗

Alex Payne
Programmer and writer; was Twitter's API lead, co-authored Programming Scala and co-founded Simple.
uses

iCal syncs up to Google Calendar for scheduling, and Things keeps track of my tasks on both my MacBook and my iPhone.

His written "Uses This" interview, from when he was API lead at Twitter.

2009-01-02·usesthis.com ↗

What they also use

Every entry is a verbatim quote and a link to the public post it came from. Nothing is paraphrased. If it is not on record somewhere public, it is not here.

The verdict is what they actually said: loved and liked are explicit; recommended means they told others to get it; uses means they only say they use it; read is a book on their public shelf with no verdict; mixed and disliked are kept too.

A dashed affiliate link, sponsored or their own label means the post disclosed a relationship. It is shown, never hidden.

The shading behind a date shows how dated a recommendation is for its kind of thing.

The shading behind a date shows how dated a recommendation is, for its kind of thing. Fully green is recent. It drains a quarter at a time as the post gets older, and is empty once it reads as dated.

What counts as old depends on the thing. A laptop praised four years ago has been replaced twice; a book loved twenty years ago is probably still loved. The shading is gone after about:

Stripes mean the post carries no date and the date shown is an estimate. No date at all, no shading.