The Give-A-Shit Stack is the set of tools I'd choose for building an excellent user interface between your team and your business; the software you use all day, every day. It's a critical cultural decision that can shape your experience of work, keep you focused, and inspire your team (seriously).
I was reviewing the first version of this post and noticed some changes I would make. Here are those changes, with a little more behind most of the choices.
Computing platform: macOS (same as before) Despite half my X feed being about Omarchy, macOS is the right choice. I will say, though, that this is the first year I'm delaying upgrading my personal Mac because I find macOS 26's UI changes to Finder, specifically, to be very bad. Hoping for a better middle ground in a minor version in the coming months, or an announcement of Alan Dye's early retirement. He's earned all that time on his yacht, or vacation home, or whatever suits his fancy — just something far away from Apple Park.
Team communication: Slack (same as before) After using Teams (under protest) for a couple years now, I feel more strongly about this than ever. Why would you want virtually all communication in your company mediated by a slow, ugly piece of software made by people with no taste? Teams' very origin story is a cynical one, trying to stomp out Slack by shipping a terrible simulacrum within the licensing of existing enterprise contracts. As it always is, you get what you pay for. It's also worth mentioning that shared Slack channels between company workspaces is an excellent setup that you should use whenever you have the opportunity. It also helps you choose partners that use Slack!
Writing and documentation: Notion (same as before) It's still the best text-to-shareable-URL option with just enough formatting and excellent multiplayer support. A totally serviceable KB, a perfect way to share evolving information (like known issues and improvements during a beta, without ever having to wonder if someone can access it or not, or is looking at the latest version or not). Just don't make it worse with security lockdowns like disabling link sharing. It's too easy for an admin with no taste to spoil its best qualities.
Spreadsheets and analysis: Google Sheets (formerly Equals) Equals has rebranded and focused on advanced financial reporting, away from the database-native general spreadsheet that it was when I first used it. I'm sure it's still a great tool and its easy integration of external data through recurring queries is powerful enough to avoid paying out the nose for a Domo or other BI tool in a lot of cases, but the speed, ubiquity, and ease of use of Sheets takes the cake this round. Especially in comparison to Excel, you can't beat the tool that was built for the web from the start.
Project management: Is there a good option here? (formerly Notion) The problem with tools like this as a category is that they generally encourage you to use them more. A good PLG trait, of course. But if you're using Jira, for example, you get sucked into writing more Jira issues. Other sufficiently mature tools like Linear fall into this same trap — that everything must be written down, kept, prioritized, reported on. Tools that make me do more work-about-work feel at odds with actually getting things done. They increase indirection. They convince teams that they can't do anything without writing it down, which is a ridiculous lie. I'm not sure there's a strong recommendation right now for the workflows I'm most interested in; gather some context about a project, and let a high-level person or two go run with it. Maybe it's just the simple tasks in Slack. Who knows. Not me, yet. Maybe the next major version of Basecamp will do it.
General AI use: ChatGPT (new category) It's beyond obvious that a go-to chat window is just part of life now. I prefer ChatGPT, mostly because of the Mac app's quality. Avoiding the model switcher with the GPT 5 models is an excellent and long-due improvement. I don't know if this is an agent adoption thing or just more iterations on working with a broader set of MCP definitions but the category as a whole leaves something to be desired when it comes to the "go do work for me" stuff that they've supposedly been able to do for a while.
Video calls: Zoom (formerly FaceTime) For a utility like this, where you just have to make sure there's a tool in the middle of the Venn diagram for all parties, it's the best choice. It also seems to be the most resilient to varying network conditions and, to me, delivers the best-looking video, all other things being equal.
Calendar + scheduling: Google Calendar + SavvyCal (formerly no great answer) You need a shared calendar and Outlook was built for work in the nineties. So you're kind of out of options. SavvyCal is downright delightful to use, though. Originally designed to even out the scheduler / guest dynamic, it's built extremely well by a unique design-and-development unicorn, Derrick Reimer. It's a tool that's genuinely inspiring to use, and presents great to the people you're trying to meet with.
Email: Google Workspace (formerly Hey for Domains) I'm sure there are teams that are all-in on the powerful but very specific workflows in Hey and use them to great advantage. I'm a happy Hey email user (duh, since my Hey account is hosting this post) and can't go back to email life without the Screener, but I think in a business setting, the less email, the better. That can never go to zero, of course, but having a more basic email tool can help discourage you from spending too much time there, if that makes sense. Besides, if you have a sales team using a CRM, they probably need an email platform that will integrate with that tool as well.
Password + secret management: 1Password (same as before) Not much more to say about this one other than you definitely need a solution for this, and 1Password handles the work/personal account split really well.
I was reviewing the first version of this post and noticed some changes I would make. Here are those changes, with a little more behind most of the choices.
Computing platform: macOS (same as before) Despite half my X feed being about Omarchy, macOS is the right choice. I will say, though, that this is the first year I'm delaying upgrading my personal Mac because I find macOS 26's UI changes to Finder, specifically, to be very bad. Hoping for a better middle ground in a minor version in the coming months, or an announcement of Alan Dye's early retirement. He's earned all that time on his yacht, or vacation home, or whatever suits his fancy — just something far away from Apple Park.
Team communication: Slack (same as before) After using Teams (under protest) for a couple years now, I feel more strongly about this than ever. Why would you want virtually all communication in your company mediated by a slow, ugly piece of software made by people with no taste? Teams' very origin story is a cynical one, trying to stomp out Slack by shipping a terrible simulacrum within the licensing of existing enterprise contracts. As it always is, you get what you pay for. It's also worth mentioning that shared Slack channels between company workspaces is an excellent setup that you should use whenever you have the opportunity. It also helps you choose partners that use Slack!
Writing and documentation: Notion (same as before) It's still the best text-to-shareable-URL option with just enough formatting and excellent multiplayer support. A totally serviceable KB, a perfect way to share evolving information (like known issues and improvements during a beta, without ever having to wonder if someone can access it or not, or is looking at the latest version or not). Just don't make it worse with security lockdowns like disabling link sharing. It's too easy for an admin with no taste to spoil its best qualities.
Spreadsheets and analysis: Google Sheets (formerly Equals) Equals has rebranded and focused on advanced financial reporting, away from the database-native general spreadsheet that it was when I first used it. I'm sure it's still a great tool and its easy integration of external data through recurring queries is powerful enough to avoid paying out the nose for a Domo or other BI tool in a lot of cases, but the speed, ubiquity, and ease of use of Sheets takes the cake this round. Especially in comparison to Excel, you can't beat the tool that was built for the web from the start.
Project management: Is there a good option here? (formerly Notion) The problem with tools like this as a category is that they generally encourage you to use them more. A good PLG trait, of course. But if you're using Jira, for example, you get sucked into writing more Jira issues. Other sufficiently mature tools like Linear fall into this same trap — that everything must be written down, kept, prioritized, reported on. Tools that make me do more work-about-work feel at odds with actually getting things done. They increase indirection. They convince teams that they can't do anything without writing it down, which is a ridiculous lie. I'm not sure there's a strong recommendation right now for the workflows I'm most interested in; gather some context about a project, and let a high-level person or two go run with it. Maybe it's just the simple tasks in Slack. Who knows. Not me, yet. Maybe the next major version of Basecamp will do it.
General AI use: ChatGPT (new category) It's beyond obvious that a go-to chat window is just part of life now. I prefer ChatGPT, mostly because of the Mac app's quality. Avoiding the model switcher with the GPT 5 models is an excellent and long-due improvement. I don't know if this is an agent adoption thing or just more iterations on working with a broader set of MCP definitions but the category as a whole leaves something to be desired when it comes to the "go do work for me" stuff that they've supposedly been able to do for a while.
Video calls: Zoom (formerly FaceTime) For a utility like this, where you just have to make sure there's a tool in the middle of the Venn diagram for all parties, it's the best choice. It also seems to be the most resilient to varying network conditions and, to me, delivers the best-looking video, all other things being equal.
Calendar + scheduling: Google Calendar + SavvyCal (formerly no great answer) You need a shared calendar and Outlook was built for work in the nineties. So you're kind of out of options. SavvyCal is downright delightful to use, though. Originally designed to even out the scheduler / guest dynamic, it's built extremely well by a unique design-and-development unicorn, Derrick Reimer. It's a tool that's genuinely inspiring to use, and presents great to the people you're trying to meet with.
Email: Google Workspace (formerly Hey for Domains) I'm sure there are teams that are all-in on the powerful but very specific workflows in Hey and use them to great advantage. I'm a happy Hey email user (duh, since my Hey account is hosting this post) and can't go back to email life without the Screener, but I think in a business setting, the less email, the better. That can never go to zero, of course, but having a more basic email tool can help discourage you from spending too much time there, if that makes sense. Besides, if you have a sales team using a CRM, they probably need an email platform that will integrate with that tool as well.
Password + secret management: 1Password (same as before) Not much more to say about this one other than you definitely need a solution for this, and 1Password handles the work/personal account split really well.