Q&A with Tim Kadlec

I’m an independent web developer, consultant and trainer living in northern Wisconsin with my wife and three daughters.

I wrote Implementing Responsive Design: Building sites for an anywhere, everywhere web (New Riders, 2012) and was a contributing author for the Web Performance Daybook Volume 2 (O'Reilly, 2012) and The Smashing Book #4: New Perspectives on Web Design (Smashing Magazine, 2013). I write sporadically at timkadlec.com and you can find him sharing his thoughts in a briefer format on Twitter at @tkadlec.

Hardware

My work machine is an 11" MacBook Air. When I'm at home, I hook it up to an external monitor for a bit more screen real estate.

I've got a bunch of different devices for testing that sit next to my desk in some stands my father-in-law built for me. My primary phone is a Nexus 4", though I tend to bounce around a little bit to try and get a feel for different operating sytems. I've also got a Kindle Touch, which is probably my single favorite device. It doesn't do much, but what it does it does very well.

Software

I primarily use Sublime Text 3 for code, though I'll hop on vim if I'm working over an ssh connection. I use Edge Inspect for device syncing, Chrome as my default browser, iTerm as my terminal replacement and Editorially.com for writing.

Evernote is my brain. Everything goes in there from articles I want to be able to retrieve to digital copies of receipts and such.

Dream setup

Hmm...I don't think I'm far off. One of these times I need to break down and pick up a nice high-resolution display. Also—windows. My home office at the moment is in the basement and I would love a space with big windows.

Inspiration

I read a lot—both to learn about new things and to cut back and relax a bit. I think a lot of the ideas from there come back to influence the way I look at things.

I also get a lot of inspiration from the people I work with and talk to. There are so many smart and awesome people in our industry.