As web developers, we use so many different tools everyday. We can easily forget about everything we depend on. In the spirit of the new year, I want to take a moment to recognize all of the great products and projects which help me be the best developer I can be.

There's a saying out there, "You're only as good as your tools." (1) (2) This rings true in many different professions and in life. Tools that make you better at what you do are generally a great investment - typically risk free.

Here are my favorites. I use these every day, if not, every week.

rbenv (Ruby version manager): if you don't use it, start using it today
foreman (process control): start your Rails process, workers, etc. with one command
Google & StackOverflow: the world's largest documentation cache
tmux & tmuxinator: Check out my sample configuration for tmuxinator
git & GitHub
Sublime Text 3 and countless plugins (PackageControl, BetterCoffescript, Git, GitGutter, Pretty JSON, TrailingSpaces, Solarized)
vim
Rubygems
ssh: connecting to remote servers and setting up ssh tunnels
scp: copy files securely to servers via ssh
OS X screenshot shortcuts & annotations
Chrome developer tools: take time to learn the power in your browser
better_errors gem: replaces the stardard Rails error page with a live REPL
jazz_hands gem: give yourself a greatly improved Rails console
zeus gem: preload your Rails app to improve boot time for console, rspec, etc.
bundler gem
rspec gem (testing framework)
Semaphore (continuous integration): runs your specs so you don't have to.
Code Climate (automated code reviews): alerts you of problems as you push new code
Trello
plug.dj (turntable.fm replacement): Set it and forget it user-curated radio