Actually Useful Lists
Curated developer lists — VS Code extensions, Linux commands, Python libraries, Docker tips, Git tricks, CSS snippets, and more — hand-picked and genuinely useful
Curated, opinionated lists that skip the obvious and highlight genuinely useful tools, commands, extensions, and snippets. Every entry is hand-picked and explained.
- 50 Actually Useful VS Code Extensions — skip the obvious, discover gems
- 10 Actually Useful Linux Commands — beyond ls, cd, and grep
- 20 Actually Useful Python Libraries — beyond requests and numpy
- 15 Actually Useful Git Commands — beyond commit, push, pull
- 10 Actually Useful Chrome Extensions — beyond ad blockers
- 20 Actually Useful JavaScript One-Liners — array tricks, deep clone, debounce
- 15 Actually Useful Docker Commands — beyond run, ps, stop
- 10 Actually Useful macOS Shortcuts & Tips — Finder, Spotlight, Quick Look
- 10 Actually Useful Terminal Aliases — aliases that save minutes daily
- 25 Actually Useful CSS Snippets — modern CSS patterns that work everywhere
- 15 Actually Useful npm Packages — beyond express, lodash, moment
- 10 Actually Useful tmux Shortcuts — practical terminal multiplexing
- 10 Actually Useful SQL Queries — window functions, recursive CTEs
- 20 Actually Useful Linux One-Liners — process, network, disk in one line
- 15 Actually Useful VS Code Settings — config tweaks that change everything
- 10 Actually Useful React Hooks Patterns — custom hooks you’ll use daily
- 10 Actually Useful Bash Functions — put these in your .bashrc
- 10 Actually Useful PostgreSQL Commands — beyond SELECT, JOIN
- 10 Actually Useful Python One-Liners — list/set/dict tricks in one line
- 10 Actually Useful GitHub Actions Workflows — ready-to-use CI/CD patterns
Published Topics
50 Actually Useful VS Code Extensions (2026)
50 genuinely useful VS Code extensions — skip GitLens, Prettier, ESLint. Discover Error Lens, Pretty TypeScript Errors, CodeSnap, Project Manager, and 46 more that actually change how you code.
✓ Live10 Actually Useful Linux Commands You Probably Don't Know
10 Linux commands beyond ls, cd, grep — ncdu, fzf, bat, ripgrep, fd, tmux, jq, htop, duf, tldr — that will change how you use the terminal.
✓ Live20 Actually Useful Python Libraries (2026)
20 Python libraries beyond requests and numpy — rich, httpx, pydantic, typer, pendulum, textual, fastapi, polars, orjson, and 12 more that will upgrade your Python projects.
✓ Live15 Actually Useful Git Commands You Probably Don't Know
15 Git commands beyond commit, push, pull — git bisect, git worktree, git rebase --interactive, git log --graph, git diff --word-diff, git blame, git reflog, git cherry-pick, git sparse-checkout, and 6 more that fix real problems.
✓ Live10 Actually Useful Chrome Extensions (2026)
10 Chrome extensions beyond ad blockers — Vimium, OneTab, GoFullPage, uBlock Origin, Tampermonkey, JSON Viewer, React Developer Tools, Wappalyzer, WhatFont, Loom — each with real-world use cases.
✓ Live20 Actually Useful JavaScript One-Liners (2026)
20 JavaScript one-liners for arrays, strings, objects, and DOM — dedup array, deep clone, debounce, throttle, shuffle, group by, pick/omit, flatten, chunk, unique, intersection, difference, sort by key, object from entries, deep freeze, random hex color, copy to clipboard, detect dark mode, URL params parse, wait/delay.
✓ Live15 Actually Useful Docker Commands (2026)
15 Docker commands beyond run, ps, stop — docker system df, docker prune, docker commit, docker cp, docker history, docker inspect, docker stats, docker events, docker diff, docker port, docker top, docker builder prune, docker compose logs, docker compose exec, docker context.
✓ Live10 Actually Useful macOS Shortcuts & Tips (2026)
10 macOS shortcuts and tips beyond Cmd+C/V — Quick Look (Space), Spotlight math, Emoji picker (Ctrl+Cmd+Space), screenshot shortcuts, split view, text replacements, Smart Folders, keyboard navigation, hot corners, terminal tricks like open . and pbcopy.
✓ Live10 Actually Useful Terminal Aliases (2026)
10 terminal aliases that save minutes every day — .. for cd .., g for git, gcmsg for git commit, npmls for npm ls --depth=0, ports for lsof listing ports, myip for public IP, weather for curl wttr.in, md for mkdir+cd, cat to bat, ls to eza/lsd.
✓ Live25 Actually Useful CSS Snippets (2026)
25 modern CSS snippets — smooth scroll, aspect ratio, scrollbar styling, backdrop blur, truncate text, gradient text, custom selection, smooth shadows, clamp for fluid type, container queries, has() selector patterns, nth-child formulas, print styles, dark mode via prefers-color-scheme, focus-visible, scroll-margin, sticky footer, full-bleed, line-clamp, accent-color, color-mix, size queries, initial-letter, text-balance, overscroll-behavior.
✓ Live15 Actually Useful npm Packages (2026)
15 npm packages beyond express, lodash, moment — zod, tsup, c12, destr, perfect-debounce, consola, citty, hookable, defu, scule, rc9, serialize-error, pkg-types, ohash, dotenv.
✓ Live10 Actually Useful tmux Shortcuts (2026)
10 tmux shortcuts beyond basic split and switch — Ctrl-b z (zoom pane), Ctrl-b q (show pane numbers), Ctrl-b {/} (swap panes), Ctrl-b ! (break pane to window), Ctrl-b , (rename window), Ctrl-b w (window tree), Ctrl-b & (kill pane), Ctrl-b s (session list), Ctrl-b : (command prompt), Ctrl-b ? (keybindings).
✓ Live10 Actually Useful SQL Queries (2026)
10 SQL queries beyond SELECT, JOIN — window functions (ROW_NUMBER, LAG, LEAD), recursive CTEs for tree structures, PIVOT/UNPIVOT, date bucketing, rolling averages, running totals, find duplicates, pagination with seek method, fuzzy match with LIKE/ILIKE, upsert with ON CONFLICT.
✓ Live20 Actually Useful Linux One-Liners (2026)
20 Linux one-liners for process, network, disk — find largest files, kill all processes by name, monitor live log tail, CPU/memory by process, disk usage per directory, check listening ports, check external IP, SSL cert expiry, download entire website, rsync with progress, count files per directory, find recently modified files, watch a command every N seconds, random password generator, bulk rename files, extract tar.gz to directory, find text in files (excluding node_modules), list all users on system, system info dump, uptime check.
✓ Live15 Actually Useful VS Code Settings (2026)
15 VS Code settings beyond theme and font — editor.formatOnSave, editor.codeActionsOnSave, editor.minimap.enabled, files.exclude, search.exclude, terminal.integrated.fontFamily, workbench.startupEditor, editor.stickyScroll.enabled, editor.cursorSmoothCaretAnimation, workbench.tree.indent, editor.bracketPairColorization, editor.guides.bracketPairs, diffEditor.ignoreTrimWhitespace, files.autoSave, security.workspace.trust.
✓ Live10 Actually Useful React Hooks Patterns (2026)
10 React hooks patterns beyond useState and useEffect — useDebounce, usePrevious, useOnClickOutside, useIntersectionObserver, useLocalStorage, useMediaQuery, useInterval, useFetch, useToggle, useForm.
✓ Live10 Actually Useful Bash Functions (2026)
10 Bash functions for your .bashrc — mkcd (mkdir + cd), extract (auto-detect archive type and extract), killport (kill process by port), weather (curl wttr.in), cheat (quick reference), google (CLI search), docker-clean (prune everything), tree (enhanced directory listing), json (pretty-print JSON), timer (stopwatch).
✓ Live10 Actually Useful PostgreSQL Commands (2026)
10 PostgreSQL commands beyond SELECT and JOIN — EXPLAIN ANALYZE, pg_stat_statements, pg_terminate_backend, table bloat check, pg_dump with --exclude-table, COPY to/from CSV, CREATE INDEX CONCURRENTLY, VACUUM and ANALYZE tips, SET LOCAL for session settings, pg_ls_waldir for WAL management.
✓ Live10 Actually Useful Python One-Liners (2026)
10 Python one-liners for everyday scripting — flatten nested lists, transpose matrix, find most common element, chunk list into batches, dict merge with **, remove None/empty from list, palindrome check, transpose dict of lists to list of dicts, run external command with subprocess, create a simple HTTP server.
✓ Live10 Actually Useful GitHub Actions Workflows (2026)
10 GitHub Actions workflow patterns — CI with matrix build, auto-deploy to GitHub Pages, publish npm package, auto-label PRs, stale issue/PR management, dependency updates (Dependabot config), code coverage reporting, automated releases with semantic-release, Docker build and push, auto-assign reviewers.
✓ LiveAll 20 topics in Actually Useful Lists are published.