Tweets

The 90′s web was weird, messy and fun.

(And I miss it)

"I could do that."

^-- the only way you can prove that statement, is if you do it. 😁

This story I wrote on Medium is going 🍌!

https://medium.com/product-people/keep-making-stuff-c2f264ed4c08

Building something new in 2016?

Here are three simple launch tactics: http://buff.ly/1mFR6at

Should you make multiple things, or just focus on one?

http://buff.ly/1Jix1Mj

"The more stuff you make, the more good stuff you'll make." - @songadaymann

Sometimes you just gotta kick back, drink some red wine, and listen to Hollaback Girl on repeat.

My workday is just me constantly going into Slack and clearing "unread activity."

“Making money takes practice, just like playing the piano takes practice.” — @jasonfried @jasonfried/making-money-takes-practice-like-playing-the-piano-takes-practice-41a72ab51a68?source=tw-a02dd1574d08-1444276025132#a7df--share-0-72" rel="noopener noreferrer">https://medium.com/@jasonfried/making-money-takes-practice-like-playing-the-piano-takes-practice-41a72ab51a68?source=tw-a02dd1574d08-1444276025132#a7df--share-0-72

Working on illustrating:

"That sounds nice" vs "SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY"

Anyone have more examples?

Great notes on my #microconf talk:

"How to acquire your first 100 customers"

http://buff.ly/1Q3h1SB

Thanks @itengelhardt !

LOVE this question:

“What do customers (really) want? Do they want a tool, or do they want a result?” - @CasJam

#microconf

Best blogging advice:

Stay focused on one idea, and communicate that idea as efficiently as possible.

Distribution > technical elegance

Examples:
1. JavaScript
2. GIFs
3. VHS

So true it hurts.

@billautomata/the-modern-podcast-formula-cb52ad72f58a" rel="noopener noreferrer">https://medium.com/@billautomata/the-modern-podcast-formula-cb52ad72f58a

So kids, how was school today?

"DAD MINECRAFT GOT A HUGE UPDATE TODAY. IT'S SO AWESOME."

Staring at your screen and stressing out isn't going to solve any of your problems.

Get out of the office.
Go for a walk.
Clear your mind.

Me: "What's the term for: 'we're break-even but we aren't paying the founder?‘"

@nathanbarry: “Umm, a startup?”

https://overcast.fm/+JlFRediE/41:59

“If you don't think copy is the most important part of your website, just try removing it.”
— Joshua Porter

“Never mistake motion for action.”
— Ernest Hemingway

About 90% of being a dad is turning off lights and charging up devices.

The basic rule of marketing is that you should try many different things and double down on whatever works.

I keep coming back to these #xoxofest lessons:

1. Make more stuff
2. Don't emulate others
3. Ask why (not what)

http://buff.ly/YHlsgq

My new blog post: "Play the long game" http://buff.ly/1uyfrxw

Creativity's biggest enemy is desperation.

Apparently the appropriate number of tacos is... "one more".

Building something people need is the best marketing you'll ever do.

Product person's lament: ideas are "cool" and "interesting" until you ask people to pay for them.

What I *really* want is a Deyson that sucks up LEGO, recognizes it's LEGO, and automatically sorts it into a special LEGO container.

Today I'm celebrating 12 years of marriage with this beautiful girl. Happy anniversary @lorindaapps!

"One of the great benefits of remote working is you can choose to live exactly where you want." - @dhh http://buff.ly/15RT9yX

🦋

4/ This gave me an idea:

Over the summer, I hired Ferdinand (with personal money) to build a Laravel app I've always wanted.

The aim was to get him to build a fully functional SaaS app (with Stripe billing) using @Laravelphp, Alpine, @LaravelLivewire, @tailwindcss

I just published a post on the @transistorfm blog about my experience at the @AcquiredFM live show in San Francisco, along with some photos and video.

https://transistor.fm/acquired-live/

@AcquiredFM @finkd @eldsjal @emilychangtv @iammiketaylor @jpmorgan It was amazing to be in an arena surrounded by thousands of podcast fans!

You two have created something truly special. Well done, and congrats on an epic night! 🙌

@taylorotwell @ianlandsman @stauffermatt @TightenCo Also, I think having dev influencers outside the community joining the community could be huge for attracting younger devs. 🙏 https://twitter.com/ThePrimeagen/status/1830661217075241262

This was true in 2020 and is still true in 2024!

https://x.com/samwhoo/status/1313081351281823747

I think that this is the best way to do an audio & video podcast at the same time:

1. Use a podcast hosting platform for audio (and submit to Spotify, Apple, etc)
2. Upload the video version to YouTube and add it to a Podcast Playlist. 👍 https://twitter.com/TransistorFM/status/1806412758725857358

@tuple @adamwathan @r00k I'm a big fan of editing a simple index.html file, especially for personal sites!

I made this little project (called FUN.html) for anyone who wants to do just that:

https://justinjackson.ca/fun.html

Broadly B2B SaaS is presented as a better option for bootstrappers, which I don’t think is true.

Some of the most successful SaaS by indie hackers serve “B2C” type customers: hobbyists, prosumers, creators, solopreneurs.

ConvertKit, MailChimp, TailwindUI, Fathom, Carrd…

"We're looking to work on these types of projects: scalable MVPs, @LaravelLivewire, complex business processes."

☝️ more companies should do this: be explicit about the kind of work you do and the kinds of customers you serve best. https://twitter.com/DCoulbourne/status/1777733589582385214

Brian is super talented at taking new SaaS products/features from concept to launch.

If you have something you need to ship, call Brian! https://twitter.com/CasJam/status/1765759395072250278

@steve_tenuto @PlanetScale Your work is killer!

Whoever hires you next will be lucky to have you.

If you remember the Soundblaster 16 talking parrot then we can be friends.

Perfectly encapsulates why VR is a challenging category:

"I'll be honest: I have not used my Apple Vision Pro much in the past few weeks. I don't put it on that often.

I'm not going to be the only one wearing it when my family is watching a movie together"
– @stephenrobles

I always wondered how Jack developed his unique design style.

He’s just released his long-awaited course where he teaches his approach to web design.

Instant buy!

(He’s the one who designed and built my personal site) https://twitter.com/jackmcdade/status/1757030319746674749

@adamwathan 100%

Also: many of those Main Street businesses have way more complexity, logistics, and risks than tech companies. Inventory, cash flow, ordering, fixtures, scheduling staff, point of sale tech, lease costs, etc

When I ran a snowboard shop in my early 20s, it was 10x harder…

Yes!!! 🙏 https://twitter.com/mynameis_davis/status/1745470439923572810

This new tech show from @stephenrobles and @JasonAten is excellent.

Short, well-produced segments (available as chapters in your podcast player!).

https://primarytech.fm/

@laravelphp First up, @noplanstomerge with @DCoulbourne and @calebporzio.

I've described it as "a comedy podcast masquerading as a programming podcast."

But it's also kind of like the WWF Raw of Laravel podcasts: authentic, unscripted, and uncensored.

🔗 https://lnkfi.re/qvYalu

I forgot to post the current setup for my video and podcast studio.

Always tweaking it, but this is pretty much how it looks these days.

Jason always articulates things so well!

This is a must-read for any indie hacker or bootstrapper. https://twitter.com/asmartbear/status/1721526606181613621

“On the web, the smallest company in the world can look as big as the biggest company.” 💪 https://twitter.com/JonErlichman/status/1721239845412933883

🎯 https://twitter.com/phuctm97/status/1615387386464309251

Was that #AppleEvent really shot 100% on an iPhone?

What’s the equivalent of Home Alone when it comes to Halloween movies?

Yup. Twitter used to be a great place to share links. https://twitter.com/gilbert/status/1709725251653738715

@ashleyrcarman @jacobwe I think the recent layoffs in the podcast industry result from the overcapitalization we’ve seen over the last 5 years (driven largely by the influx of cash from Spotify, Sirius, etc.).

I originally wrote about the excess capital flowing into podcasting back in 2021:…

@JackEllis Paul's not on twitter - you can talk all you want!

I like this approach to problem solving:

https://x.com/calebporzio/status/1690169730320171009?s=46&t=xyX4ISH1y8eo0WCgQ-duKw

Paul Jarvis (@usefathom) and I caught up on a call last week, and recorded it so you could listen too:

https://saas.transistor.fm/episodes/paul-jarvis-gaining-freedom-by-building-an-indie-business

I don’t enjoy air travel (early mornings, getting to airport 2 hours early, security, crowded terminals, delays, stress everywhere, sweaty planes), therefore I procrastinate booking flights as long as possible. 😅

@GaryMarcus My guess is overall usage is increasing.

More and more people I know are incorporating it into their lives and careers.

What’s the best family vacation/trip you’ve taken?

What made it great?

Irony: Marc portrays himself as a public intellectual and frequently opines on public policy matters.

But in this interview, he says we should disregard the insights of specialized experts who venture beyond their domain to adopt the role of general-purpose social thinkers.

Playing with fire: live editing HTML and CSS with Chrome DevTools https://twitter.com/i/broadcasts/1yoKMZjamvRGQ

@csallen Unlike past tech breakthroughs, it's surprising to see how fast mature companies like Microsoft have been able to incorporate AI features within their existing apps.

This will reduce the demand for intermediary products, often developed by indie devs.

@ylecun @nytimestech Thoughts on this NYT article?

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/01/technology/ai-google-chatbot-engineer-quits-hinton.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

When part 2 of @AcquiredFM’s @Nintendo series lands in your podcast player.

Jon and I don't hire very often at @TransistorFM.

@HelenRyles and @jsonperl both joined us FT in 2021.

And now, @joshuaanderton is coming aboard in 2023.

We've already benefitted so much from Josh's work.

Can't wait to see what we can all do together as a team of 5! 💪

"When might I hop off the AI train?

Put simply, I believe that the pace of change makes the poison. Intelligent machines that, for example, eliminate most of today’s jobs are not inherently a bad thing if the changes happen slowly enough that we’re able to adapt." – @danshipper

Some folks misunderstand what I'm saying.

I'm not saying, "these AIs can't be helpful assistants."

I am saying that founders trying to build startups that are "X powered by ChatGPT," with some interface to ChatGPT as their main value prop, are unlikely to succeed.

Beauty bluebird day up at @SilverStarMR

Why you should go after a market with strong demand:

https://justinjackson.ca/the-market

Comedian @mattruby got philosophical during this standup set, and I think he's right.

"A room full of people coming together to laugh or dance or sing or worship or whatever is the antidote to everything that's going on that's negative. We just gotta get off screens."

Got to see @ExodusAttack and @Anthrax last night in Penticton!

Amazing show. 🔥

In love with this @TransistorFM reviews page that @joshuaanderton built for us! 😍

https://transistor.fm/reviews/

@petersuhm Hahaha. Underrated life hack right here.

Just wait until that baby is a teenager: then you’ll have a life hack for sleeping in! 🤣

Lots of folks starting new podcasts this month I’ve noticed! https://twitter.com/ethananderson/status/1614094375163666440

So many CEOs feel like they need to "move fast."

But in my experience, slow, steady, thoughtful actions often produce better results.

@ryanflorence Don't trust health advice from GPT-3!

Paraphrasing @benthompson: "GPT is good at providing a confident answer, complete with supporting evidence and citations, that is also completely wrong"

https://stratechery.com/2022/ai-homework/

I remember @r00k telling @derrickreimer about the amount of spam he was getting to the @artofproductpod email account.

It's been standard to have email addresses in RSS feeds for verification purposes.

But now 👉 @TransistorFM hides your email so spammers can't see it. https://twitter.com/r00k/status/1494678664155471876

Anyone looking to hire a Ruby, Rails, Elixir, or Phoenix developer?

I know someone great who has some availability.

DM me. 👍

(After manually checking & blocking 100+ of these, I can tell you that M*sk has not solved the porn/spam/bots problem)

If you need an affordable blogging solution, check out @blogstatic (by indie maker @valsopi).

It's only $19/year! https://blogstatic.io/

A nice little gift you can get for yourself (and your audience). 👍

I think we'll be seeing the fail 🐳 a lot more...

“The source described the proposed cuts as "delusional," adding that when user traffic kicks up, the service can fail "in spectacular ways.”

https://www.reuters.com/technology/musk-orders-twitter-cut-infrastructure-costs-by-1-bln-sources-2022-11-03/

Excellent biz analysis from @ItsUrBoyEvan on @every:

"What's challenging about Twitter’s paradigm is that all of the value happens outside of the website."

Twitter creates a lot of value for people, but most of that value is difficult to capture (from a monetization sense).

Got called a "pessimist" today.

On the plus side (optimistic side?), that lead me to read a bunch on the philosophy of optimism and pessimism. 😄

Good overview on @philosopher1923:
https://www.thephilosopher1923.org/post/pessimism

Elon needs $1 billion of annual revenue from Twitter just to pay the interest on the loan he took out (up from $50 million last year).

It’s going to take a lot more than this to just meet his interest payments.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/30/technology/elon-musk-twitter-debt.html?unlocked_article_code=AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACEIPuonUktbfqYhlSFUYAybJUNMnqBqCgvfeh7E4gXm7KTWOSnNe0OUJH4WavkvAb7YlZ8c2237TYu59B4IVZa44yP5DbQsqQhO0o5CAldNaL3xp8dziBiY_1sPDGO1mqm6vZDK3d6Ivm7TntkrZaWDoXKbPwDZ2clYe1JhucFCt230NwL6UUbImn4kjgopyQ8xyVjwCZyKVv_H3Ch0YOdyObB_U7wVeSPgOEHiI3obas-RcBV0UXVHWT3p_4nI_6MdfPL4VPaX-KR0mf6nukPnGz4Ro5niE-7bXS-KJUtU&smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

Lots of friendly faces here at #pm22.

Four years ago, @dzohrob (@ChartableDotCom, @MegaphonePods) was one of the first “podcast industry” people to welcome me. He even let me crash at his office in Brooklyn!

So nice to see him again. 👍

We forecasted it would take us five years to get to $21,000 in monthly recurring revenue (enough for Jon and me to work on Transistor full-time).

Waiting 60 months for a paycheque felt ominous. It's easy to see why many self-funded founders experience burnout and have to quit.

🎯 These are great: https://twitter.com/DashBarkHuss/status/1554677045350760448

These two activities, in particular, provide the most leverage for future success:

👭 Relationship building: so much of finding a good job, or building a good business, is about who you know (and who knows you)

🛠️ Building projects: make things, and put them out into the world.

Broadly, this phenomenon is called the “price elasticity of demand.”

If McDonald’s raises prices on burgers, the resulting loss of demand wouldn’t make up for the increase in margins.

In some SaaS categories, offering more value (for less) can increase demand + profits.

With the recession looming we've seen other companies cut staff, increase prices, and reduce service levels.

At @TransistorFM we've decided to do the opposite, and give our podcast customers more:

https://transistor.fm/giving-more/

@yongfook Congrats! It’s been inspiring to watch your progress.

And, like most pursuits, on any given day, an unskilled fighter might land a lucky punch.

But it’s rare, and founders like this usually can’t do it twice.

In his TED talk, @AdamMGrant talks about this concept:

- 47% of "first movers" end up failing
- but only 8% of "improvers" (those who come later) fail

https://youtu.be/fxbCHn6gE3U

More thoughts on this:

The product category you choose can have a dramatic impact on your lifestyle. Some categories require more funding, more hours, more staff, more stress.

Some categories are low-margin but require "high effort" (restaurants, retail, etc). https://twitter.com/mijustin/status/1526257605831643136

@TransistorFM Your personal objectives for starting a company could look like this:

• A sense of purpose: doing work that you can be proud of
• A sense of enjoyment: doing work you like
• Freedom: flexibility, time off
• Money: having the resources to do the things you want to do