---
title: "Justin Garrison's desk is not a tool list"
locale: "en"
url: "https://irz.fr/en/articles/justin-garrison-workbench-learning-en"
markdown_url: "https://irz.fr/en/articles/justin-garrison-workbench-learning-en.md"
category: "ideas"
tags: ["tools", "learning", "linux", "maker", "work"]
published_at: "2026-08-23T16:55:00.000Z"
author: "Camille Morel"
translation: "https://irz.fr/fr/articles/justin-garrison-workbench-learning-fr.md"
---

# Justin Garrison's desk is not a tool list

Justin Garrison describes a workstation where terminal, garage bench and cheap tools form one learning system.

A tool list rarely explains how someone learns. It says that they use Neovim, an iPad, Krita, a soldering iron or a standing desk. It leaves out the important part: what those tools force them to understand.

In an interview published by Uses This in May 2026, Justin Garrison describes a workstation that looks less like a gadget collection than a learning loop.[1](https://usesthis.com/interviews/justin.garrison) The terminal helps him work, but also understand Linux. His garage helps him make things, but its small size forces him to choose and store carefully. Cheap tools lower the cost of starting, then a failure becomes the moment when he decides whether better equipment is worth buying.

IRZ's interest is therefore not a recommendation of his setup. It is a look at how a workstation can become a learning architecture: each tool opens a practice, exposes a constraint and produces the next problem.

## The terminal as workshop

Garrison has used Linux as his primary operating system since his first computer. He says that this choice taught him how the machine works and how to fix it.[1](https://usesthis.com/interviews/justin.garrison) That is not just a software preference. It is a relationship between a tool and a skill.

He does much of his professional work in a terminal and develops with Neovim.[1](https://usesthis.com/interviews/justin.garrison) He also maintains lists of TUIs and tmux plugins. That could look like collecting. It works more like a notebook of experiments: the list is large enough to compare tools, while the standard remains their usefulness in actual work.

The important detail is that Garrison does not present the terminal as an interface reserved for experts. He describes it as the place where work and learning overlap. Using a Linux distribution, fixing a network problem and trying a text-based tool are not three separate activities. They share an environment and make their problems neighbours.

That changes how we think about a workstation. A good setup is not necessarily the one that hides every difficulty. It can be the one that makes certain difficulties accessible often enough for them to become familiar.

## Cheap enough to try

For hardware projects, Garrison says he uses many no-name, inexpensive tools. He cites Adam Savage's strategy: buy the cheapest version that lets you start, then reconsider when it breaks.[1](https://usesthis.com/interviews/justin.garrison)

This is not a defence of bad equipment. It moves the decision to a better moment. Instead of buying assumed quality before having a practice, you buy the possibility of trying. The failure then provides situated information: what broke, when it broke and whether the same limit appears often enough to justify spending more.

The principle also applies to software. You can start with an application that has known flaws and observe the actual friction before moving. Digital tools can hide their limits more effectively, though: an app may be present without exposing the system behind the problem. Garrison prefers tools that let him see how things work, especially in Linux and the terminal.

> Illustration: Justin Garrison portrait from the Uses This interview. The interview is not a shopping list. It describes the constraints each tool answers. Credit: [Uses This / Justin Garrison](https://usesthis.com/interviews/justin.garrison).

## The garage as constraint

His making space is a retrofitted garage, but only half of it is available: the other half still stores a car.[1](https://usesthis.com/interviews/justin.garrison) In his dream setup, he would like more bench space, more storage, a window and separate areas for exercise and filming.

That is more instructive than a photograph of a perfectly organised workshop. More space would not remove every problem, but limited space changes the practice: projects have to find a place, storage becomes a condition of returning, and the bench tells you what can start without moving everything else.

This can be called a learning architecture because the constraint organises the return to a project. A small room makes the cost of every new idea visible. You have to choose what remains assembled, what can be dismantled and what deserves a permanent corner rather than a box.

Garrison does not claim that this limitation is desirable. He says what he would change. That distinction matters: a limit can produce a method without becoming a virtue.

## The tablet does not replace the workshop

His post about using an iPad Pro shows the same logic through failure.[2](https://justingarrison.com/blog/2026-06-20-ipad-laptop/) He wanted a small device with an SSH terminal, Tailscale and a keyboard large enough for touch typing. The iPad met some of those needs: an 11-inch screen, Apple Pencil, Procreate, cellular connectivity and the Blink terminal.

File management remained difficult, video editing was limited and the battery drained quickly during heavy work.[2](https://justingarrison.com/blog/2026-06-20-ipad-laptop/) Apps often worked worse than their web or desktop versions. With iPadOS 26, window management became the final friction that pushed him back to a laptop.

The result is not “the iPad is bad”. It is more useful than that: a device can be excellent for drawing or writing and still fail as a workstation when the tasks change. Garrison needed to move from creative work to network and hardware operations requiring a local terminal, wired interfaces and tools unavailable on iPadOS.

The setup is therefore not an identity. It is a hypothesis tested against real work. The iPad lasted eighteen months, long enough to produce a detailed answer rather than a first-day impression.

## The list becomes a loop

What Uses This really documents is a loop: choose a tool accessible enough to try, use it in a real situation, meet a limit, then decide whether to repair, work around or replace it.

> A workstation
> **The tool gives you the next problem**
> - Start with what makes the experiment possible.: 1
> - Work long enough to meet the real friction.: 2
> - Repair, work around or replace based on that friction.: 3
> IRZ reading of the Uses This interview and the iPad post. Justin Garrison does not state this as a formal process.

The loop is reusable, while its results remain personal. The right tool depends on garage size, file work, network needs, drawing, editing and tolerance for failure. The article cannot conclude that Linux, Neovim or an iPad will suit a particular reader.

It can ask a more useful question: **which tool in my workstation is still teaching me something, and which one is only moving the difficulty elsewhere?**

The difference can be small. A tool can simplify one task while opening another kind of understanding. The terminal may save clicks, but it also exposes processes. A tiny bench slows a project, but reveals the cost of disorder. An iPad travels well, but shows when mobility becomes dependence on a platform.

Garrison's workstation is interesting for that reason. It does not promise an ideal configuration. It shows tools placed back inside a practice, with their advantages, irritations and an exit route when the promise stops holding.

## References

1. [Uses This, Justin Garrison interview, May 2026](https://usesthis.com/interviews/justin.garrison)
2. [Justin Garrison, “Using an iPad Pro as a Laptop”, June 2026](https://justingarrison.com/blog/2026-06-20-ipad-laptop/)