Tweets

I've really appreciated Sherry's content over the years.

Her twitter account is a good mix of:

- Mental health advice for founders
- Conscientious parenting tips
- Psychology research
- Self-care advice

https://twitter.com/sherrywalling/status/1240974786659905536

This will be especially helpful for Sherry right now as she's getting ready to launch a new book. 🙏

(For better or worse, publishers seem to care about "follower" counts)

Follow her here: @sherrywalling

She's 62% of her way to her goal of 5,000!
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Let's boost an amazing member of the indie startup community:

Dr. @sherrywalling has been helping founders with their mental health for years under "ZenFounder."

But now she's looking to grow her personal Twitter. Let's help her get to 5,000 followers!

https://sherrywalling.progbar.co/sherry-5k

@pupeno I know how that feels; I’ve been there!

I think it’s still helpful to be conscious about what we add to our plate.

We really need to optimize for what gives us more leverage, beyond just “surviving.”

@TotalNathan @nntaleb Nope. I’ve never read Taleb.

I can’t emphasize this enough: humans need margin.

We need to leave a buffer for our physical, mental, and emotional health.

Doing more and more things to “get ahead” almost always ends in burnout.

There are seasons of life where trying lots of things is a good idea. (Especially if you’re trying one thing at a time).

What’s not healthy is adding more to your plate so you can get ahead.

One of the worst traps in life is “doing more things” so that you can get ahead (more hours, more tasks, more projects).

@theartofchristi 🤣

@Swizec This episode is a good example of how to have a respectful conversation with someone who believes in conspiracy theories.

https://overcast.fm/+Cuhv84gSU

@adamlogic 1. Originally everyone brought their own desk and chair.

2. The original 4 committed to a full year. (We’ve done that each year)

3. Yes!

@patcheung @CoWorkVernon My old commute was 1 hour each way.

My new commute is a 5 minute drive (or a 25 minute walk).

@seanpritzkau @CoWorkVernon Our group grew out of a “geek beers” meetup.

@chrisbowler @CoWorkVernon Yeah! My wife and her friend did a big renovation for us.

@SebbeSelvig @JackEllis @taylorotwell We’ve had our space since 2014.

There will always be challenges, but we’ve made it easy by:

- not needing a bunch of members to pay the bills
- making it “not-for-profit”
- hiring a cleaner
- automating most of the onboarding and invoicing
- only working with folks we like

Yup. This is exactly my setup: https://twitter.com/taylorotwell/status/1500473534346375178

@peterbrinkhuis @CoWorkVernon Nice!!

@evangoldin yes!! 💯

@colinyjchung Yes!

@melindamgolden @CoWorkVernon Yes! The key is to go where you feel best.

I like to mix it up from time to time as well.

Setting up a shared office space is simpler than you think.

We started with four people, found an office space for $800/mo, and just split the cost.

We created the environment we wanted to work in.

Eventually we expanded and opened it up to other members, but it started small.

@rskopecek @CoWorkVernon We have 3 soundproof areas for calls, recording, etc.

These days I also have my own dedicated private space, but I started out in the main room.

@JackEllis @CoWorkVernon It’s simpler than you think to set this up.

We started with four people, found an office space for $800/mo, and just split the cost.

We created the environment we wanted to work in.

Eventually we opened it up to other members, but it started small.

Companies like @automattic, @TransistorFM, @wildbit, etc.. have realized that empowering team members to choose how they work produces better results (and happier people).

Do work in a way that energizes you. Structure your work in a way that is additive to your life.

I’ve always found I’m more productive at an office, away from home.

Getting out every day, walking to the office, and seeing other people is energizing for me.

A lot of this is about being able to control my environment. In a traditional office you can’t do that.

“Work from home” should mean “flexible work:” work however (and wherever) you feel best.

For me, that meant starting @CoWorkVernon with friends.

I get to hang out all day with cool people, without the long commute or office politics.

@JackEllis @CADbloke @robwalling What WFH should mean is “flexible work,” meaning: work however (and wherever) you feel best.

For me, that meant starting @CoWorkVernon with friends.

I get to hang out all day with cool people, without a long commute or office politics.

I walk to the office, go for coffee, etc

Absolutely breathtaking in #vernonbc today.

@carson_bassett_ For real?

@andreas_codered 👍 it's good to clear your mind.

@shreypreeth You’re welcome. 🙏

Write it out 📝🔥

I built this little site called http://writeanddestroy.com 

It allows you to vent your thoughts (things that are bothering you, things that hurt you).

Then you click the "shred" button and watch your words get destroyed.

Go for walks 🚶‍♀️

The nice thing about a walk is it’s easy to initiate: just get your shoes on, and head out the door.

Walking is rhythm, breathing, mindfulness.

It’s especially helpful when I get into nature.

Group check-ins 💚💛🔴

One the @megamaker Slack, I'll post this question:

“Checking in. How's everyone doing?”

Having a group where you can express how you're feeling (whether it's just an emoji reaction, or commenting in the thread) is incredibly cathartic.

Intense physical activity 🏋️‍♀️🏂

Snowboarding is one of the few activities that gets me out of my head, and actually clears my mind.

When I'm riding, all I can think about is what's in front of me.

Breathe. 🧘‍♂️

When I get stressed, I tighten up and I forget to breathe.

Taking a moment to ground yourself, and focusing on your breath, can help reduce any built-up tension.

Sherry’s technique here really works! https://twitter.com/sherrywalling/status/1349726725077299202

When I get

😫 overwhelmed
😥 stressed out
😰 anxious
😡 angry

here are some techniques I use:

https://justinjackson.ca/calm-down

@joshcolter Thanks!

@michaeldyrynda @jasonlbeggs @TransistorFM @statamic Yesssssss

@acuellarh @jasonlbeggs @TransistorFM @statamic Awesome! Loads fast?

@aarondfrancis I realize I'm a novice, but `composer update` seems like a pretty regular occurrence, and these updates just whizz by.

I recognize spatie, symfony, but some of these I have no idea if they're trustworthy? 🤷‍♂️

(I realize the JS ecosystem has it worse)

@JackEllis @jasonlbeggs @laravelphp Tired now. But I think is @jonbuda is going to look at putting it under Cloudflare next week.

(But that will mean another DNS change and possibly another SSL cert change 😨😰)

Hey! @jasonlbeggs and I just moved the @TransistorFM @statamic site to Digital Ocean, and had to regenerate the LetsEncrypt SSL cert.

Can a bunch of you visit https://transistor.fm/, and make sure it's working?

It seems insane to me that devs are just blindly installing packages all day (some of which are installing their own packages/dependencies).

It's a huge tree of dependencies, and nobody's checking for malicious software in there? 🤔

@DCoulbourne is this something you should build? 😉

PHP devs: is there an equivalent to `npm audit` that automatically checks for security vulnerabilities in these hundreds of packages/dependencies that we all install all the time?

(I'd assume that large companies must have a process for this)

In addition to the importance of "casual friends," are the "friendly strangers I see regularly."

Saying "hello" to the person who you regularly see walking their dog has a big impact on overall well-being.

https://twitter.com/sean_m_flannery/status/1494146591602663424

"Again and again, studies have shown that talking with strangers can make us happier, more connected to our communities, mentally sharper, healthier, less lonely, and more trustful and optimistic."

https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2021/08/why-we-should-talk-strangers-more/619642/

One of my biggest mental health wins:

🚶‍♂️ Walk to my office every day (25 mins)

👋 Say “good morning” to the folks I pass along the way (4-5 people a day)

This combination of exercise, fresh air, and small friendly exchanges dramatically improves my sense of well-being.

RT @mijustin: The problem with having lots of followers is they're aligned around you, instead of being aligned around a problem-space.

If…

@iamashley It was a “pancakes for dinner” kind of day here. 😄

@AlbanBrooke It’s so sad. Just devastating for all those people.

This would be like my hometown being obliterated (about 13,000 people).

This is what Putin’s “liberation” of Ukraine looks like.

This is the town of Borodyanka, just northwest of Kyiv.

Originally liberated in 1943 after Nazi occupation. Now, reduced to rubble by Putin’s army.

Absolutely horrifying.

🇺🇦❤️

I got a nice delivery from @mjwhansen and @Geocodio today. Thank you!

I’m a huge fan of Michele’s book @DeployEmpathy (every product person should read it).

@iamashley YES!!!

👏👏👏

Thanks for this @jeffemtman.

https://overcast.fm/+nnxLXE4sg

@_rchase_ Nice! Always good to start with revenue. 💪

@SoftwareSocPod Done!

New products should consider charging *less* than their competitors.

As a new product, you're asking folks to switch away from the incumbent. Your app is unproven, and has fewer features.

Getting a good deal can be a reason to try something new.

https://justinjackson.ca/charge-more

@NathanG Love this idea.

@ryanstrickler @megamaker @TransistorFM Noticed that.

You should definitely put some boilerplate text/dummy content there while things populate.

@ryanstrickler @megamaker Sweet. I'm going to try this with @TransistorFM 💪

@rossSpeak @TransistorFM @buildyoursaas Thanks so much! 🥰

That means a lot.

@thierylaverdure Yup! We were also clear that the $10 plan would have a defined set of features.

Once we launched officially, our new plan ($19/mo) offered unlimited podcasts (on the early access version you had to pay $10/mo for each podcast)

@derrickgrigg @jackmcdade @ecammtweets Nope! I get this question a lot. 😄

@taxigy @laravelphp @tailwindcss @tailwindui @Alpine_JS Postgres for us (just because it's what Jon knew best)

When you're starting out, you can't do everything yourself.

Look for mutually beneficial partnerships.

Example: when @taylorotwell released @laravelphp in 2011, it was @jeffrey_way who helped popularize it through his @laracasts tutorials.

https://youtu.be/127ng7botO4?t=910

@derrickgrigg @jackmcdade That's @ecammtweets.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXMp9vsJrbg

Oh dang. I don't think this will be well received in the indie music scene. 😰

https://twitter.com/Bandcamp/status/1499068917947510788

@iroughol Sending you lots of ✊❤️ today.

@rathboma Sorry, I don't deal with any of that stuff at Transistor.

I wouldn't be very helpful! 😅

Early on, it helps to have a few recognizable customers.

Through our personal network, Jon and I were able to convince some high profile podcasts to use @TransistorFM (while in early-access).

That social proof (“whoa! They’re using Transistor?”) helped us gain more customers.

@evoterra @iChris @CaptivateAudio @omnystudio @TransistorFM There’s no “subscriber api” for most listening platforms, which makes subscriber counts difficult to measure.

We average out the first 24 hours of downloads of your last 3 episodes to calculate an estimated subscriber count. The graph is an estimated count over time.

@minhasv Nope. But we were clear that it would have a defined set of features.

Once we launched officially, our new plan ($19/mo) offered unlimited podcasts (on the early access version you had to pay $10/mo for each podcast)

Your story is a compelling reason to switch!

The biggest advantage of “build in public” is that people become invested in your story; they want to see you succeed.

Many of @TransistorFM’s early customers signed up (or switched to us) because they’d been following our journey.

When potential users ask: “how do you compare to X in terms of features?” ask them:

“What brought you here today? What’s your goal for this project?”

Once they answer, say: “we don’t have all of X’s features, but I’ll work with you personally to help you achieve that goal.”

Good customer support can fill in feature gaps

Don’t have that export feature yet? Do it manually for your users.

Don’t have onboarding features built? Reach out proactively and walk customers through the product personally.

Being responsive adds a ton of value for early users

@btushar I got it mostly written now.

I’m writing this thread “old school.”

Being small is an advantage.

The old competitors in your category are likely moving way slower than you. They have all the weight of technical debt, managing big teams, etc

Small = fast

Indie devs have shown they can build world-class products that compete with massive teams.

Observe customers and cut out cruft

Every product category has old, entrenched products built with old assumptions.

Connect with customers, discover what they don’t like about current solutions (too slow, too buggy, weird UX patterns, pricing), and then build a better solution.

Start with a lower-priced “early access” tier.

It’s hard to charge what competitors are charging when you don’t have their features.

But as soon as you have baseline functionally, offer early access users a lower priced plan.

For our first 6 months, we had a $10/mo plan.

Have an efficient tech stack

Frameworks like Rails and @laravelphp give small indie startups a huge advantage.

Modern design systems like @tailwindcss and @tailwindui can help you ship nice UIs faster.

Small tools like @Alpine_JS have replaced old, slow libraries.

Building a new product can feel like running a marathon, but starting an hour after everyone else.

At the beginning, reaching “minimum viable feature parity” might feel impossible. (Especially as a small startup).

Here’s a few things we did that helped 👉

@raae @megamaker I would honestly love that.

@MapsRus Yup, pretty wet and heavy, but actually pretty nice in the higher elevations!

Back at the office! Feeling completely refreshed. There's nothing like being in the mountains to give your mind a break from the doom scroll.

@JoelGMcKinnon Silverstar!

Morning laps.

@karlmonson I was bookmarking it.

I think this clip is disgusting.

@KeliWestgate This video is even better: https://www.reddit.com/r/Damnthatsinteresting/comments/t3one8/president_of_ukraine_over_time/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf

@KeliWestgate He has a varied entertainment career, including appearing on "Dancing with the Stars:"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TlJywp7E3Gw

@nbashaw It’s Canada too. 😄

@troypavlek @juststacey_ @TomEngel18 @AFPAElliott @michaeljanz @YEGPA This is alarming.

@JamesCridland Holy shit

Current work status

RT @mijustin: If you've ever felt metaphorically "punched in the face" by someone online: I know how much it sucks.

I hope this thread hel…

@NAChristakis I'm curious, what was the baseline before the pandemic for teenagers?

(I have 4 teenagers at home. Overall, two of our kids really enjoyed the initial lockdown. The other half missed seeing their friends, and missed being in-class)

@EmmettNaughton @IndieHackers Thanks!

@lukeburgis In the meantime, it’s probably worth examining Ukraine’s gun laws, and contrasting them with the USA:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_law_in_Ukraine

This attack on Ukraine is devastating.

“Kyiv’s mayor is both filled with pride over his citizens’ spirit and anxious about how long they can hold out.

He confirmed that nine civilians in Kyiv had been killed so far, including one child.”

https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-kyiv-europe-e9cd115540b398be26dfcaf472ec1621