Under the Radar 61: Back to Work
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welcome to under the radar a show about
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independent iOS app development I'm
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Marco Arment and I'm David Smith under
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the radar is never longer than 30
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minutes so let's get started
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happy new year everybody happy new year
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we decided to talk about what it's like
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to get back into work after a break like
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the New Year's break you know just the
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kind of getting your brain back into
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that space into like the pace of work
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and then once you finally get there how
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do you decide even what to tackle
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because chances are you know after a big
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vacation or after the holiday break
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holidays are especially bad at it but
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but after these things we tend to have a
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lot of stuff piled up a lot of things
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that we need to address work that
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accumulated while we were gone things
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that we should probably get going on and
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so there's a bit of a tricky question
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but how do you prioritize those things
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and then once you get going with working
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like how do you like how do you get
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going how do you begin work and then
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after that I think we want to talk a
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little bit about how do we plan kind of
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the first few months of the year you
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know that in the case of a New Year's
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break like this you know we have there's
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a lot of things about the corporate
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world that that go by years things like
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you know ad budgets PR and everything
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else we talked before about seasonality
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and so the first three months of the
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year is an interesting time to plan for
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to get things done to consider you know
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what to work on whether to release
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things and everything else we're gonna
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get into all of that David are you back
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to work yet yes only just I think I've
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essentially did I mean and it's kind of
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a strange end of the year because I was
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launching a new app which I usually
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don't like to do that time of year but
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for this particular time like I'd hoped
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originally to launch workouts plus plus
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in probably November or something but it
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just didn't end up working out like if
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the project took longer than I'd
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originally expected and so it was you
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know launched I think it was December
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21st or something which is not not
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advisable and be especially because you
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kind of go through the process of
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launching something you get it out and
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then all of a sudden you have a lot of
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you know delightful but just sort of
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and things such that you know I really
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put myself so most like I just took this
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took this app through it or threw it
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over a wall into the world and they just
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like ran away for a couple days which is
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not exactly what you want you know I did
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my best like I checked into the support
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thing every now and then and you know I
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hadn't there are a few little out sir a
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few little initial bug fixes that you
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inevitably have I was able to get those
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put together and they're you know
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they're currently waiting interview but
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then you're just gonna fall off the map
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in a in a good way and like I think it's
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probably also good to start up this
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discussion off by saying that like
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taking breaks and having periods of time
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when you're not working is desirable is
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a good thing like it's a bit of a
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problem that we're kind of looking at it
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from the perspective now of how do you
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deal with that when you come back to
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work but there's certainly an advantage
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to having that that separation to take
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some time away both in terms of your
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just mental health and overall
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well-being and also probably just to
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build a little bit of perspective to me
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to come back to things and be like what
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do I actually want to work on what was I
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doing before that I was just doing out
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of inertia rather than out of desire but
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for me yeah now I'm back working again
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and kind of it's especially weird for me
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right now cuz I'm coming back to edit
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after essentially skewing all work on my
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side project all my other apps except
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for workouts plus plus for the last like
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2 or 3 months so I gotten all those apps
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into a pretty good state roughly with
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the launch of iOS 10 like I'd done you
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nice like I did a big update and then a
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bug-fix update for most of my apps
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around Iowa's ten they were all in a
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good place and I go off and work on
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workouts plus plus for a couple of
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months and now I'm in a place where I
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have to look at all my work and say like
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what do I actually want to work on next
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what should I work on next and I do find
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it really awkward and like tricky when
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you end up this kind of it's the paradox
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of choice I think it's called or just
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being overwhelmed more simply where you
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look at all of the universe of things
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that you could do and have to having to
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try and understand what the right thing
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to do and especially when you have to
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deal with these weird tensions between
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like what do I think is the
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best thing financially for my business
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for me to do well the thing what I enjoy
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most working on a thing do I think my
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customers are most expecting what you
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know where should I go in terms of what
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what project I think I would learn the
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most from like there's lots of different
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reasons and I like my first day back
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which I think goes on I guess the day
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after New Year's Day whatever that is
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January 2nd January 3rd looking at I
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just sat down and have like opened up
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the omnia focus for the first time in a
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long time because when I'm gonna period
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when I'm working on an app like
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warehouse plus like been a pretty
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focused manner if I could Afeni if I
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come across any things in my other apps
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or I get feature requests or things that
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sound good I just kind of throw them all
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into there which i think is you know a
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sane system to just kind of rather than
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thinking about them and trying to manage
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them as you go just postpone that until
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you until it's time that meant that you
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know this week I've been having to sit
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down and be like you know filter through
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just page after page of ideas of
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thoughts of things and in general I
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think my approach to this kind of thing
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is I just tend to latch on to one or two
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things that I think I can reasonably
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make progress with and in some ways this
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kind of makes me think of like I used to
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run track in high school and it sort of
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looks like the warm-up lap it's the
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before you actually can start working
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properly you have to go out and do a
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little bit of work but not really hard
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work just a little bit of something to
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get you back into this into the flow of
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things and so like today I've been
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working on a little you know it's like a
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minor feature and pedometer plus plus
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that I think is useful and good and
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isn't a particularly high stress or high
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risk feature but it's something that I
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think would be useful and I can kind of
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go through the process of working on
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something again get you know sort of get
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back in the flow and then once I finish
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this little once I finished my warm-up
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lap I expect to then dive into me some
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of the bigger features and some of the
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bigger tasks that I think are going to
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take more of my mental energy take more
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of my focus and you the kind of things
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that I don't really want to do Cole's
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after you know spending a week or two
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with very little work one of the
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challenges I face in getting warmed up
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you know as you put the warm-up lap was
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great one of the big challenges I face
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is that when you've been away from a
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project for a while whether that's just
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like you know a five-day weekend and
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we're yury your mind totally somewhere
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else or whether it's you know something
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something like a big break where you're
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working on something else for a little
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while and you got a like sideline
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something else one of the big challenges
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I have is knowing where to even start
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because this is the kind of problem
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where like you know people people like
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us who are indie developers who don't
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really work with other people we're
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basically the the job of everything
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falls on us it's very easy to get lazy
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with your organizational system about
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things like your your to-do list your
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your you know tracking of what you have
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to do next and and also like
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documentation of things like your code
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and your app and what these things do
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what these different parts do it's very
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easy to fall into the trap of well it's
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all in my head as I'm working on it and
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I could just remember these things so I
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don't need to write this down I don't
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need to document this code I don't need
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to to manage a to-do list because I know
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what I have to do you know and I am
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guilty of this worse than anybody else
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like I hardly ever write anything down I
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keep only a very basic to-do list in
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task paper of like you know things I
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need I want to do for this version and
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like like the entire like overcast 3.0
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to-do list is something like twenty
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lines long it's not this is not like a
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very granular thing to do move to the
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time and you know towards the end I'll
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have like a bug punch list basically
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that's a little bit more granular but
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otherwise you know most of the time I'm
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working on something I don't have
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anything like that it's just kind of all
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in my head so when I'm facing the
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problem my biggest challenge is just
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like I know what I have to do I have to
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keep things more documented I have to
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keep my - duze more organized but I
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don't usually do it or or I do it to a
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very half hardier degree and it's it's
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more of a challenge of personal
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discipline than anything else I'm just
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like you know when you're when you're
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solo it's it's so easy to to not do
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things the way that you have to like it
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when you work in a job with other people
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you kind of always have to be writing
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things down and coordinating to dues and
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having a road map because it's kind of
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possible to work with the people without
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having some degree of that and they're
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also usually like a well working place
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should usually be at least somewhat
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prepared for somebody leaving or
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quitting or getting fired at any time
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and some and other people being able to
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pick up their work where they left off
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and when you're when you're a solo
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developer like like us it's so easy to
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not have those kind of safeguards
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because you think you don't need them
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but when whenever you have to take any
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kind of a break or juggle multiple
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projects you really do need to think
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about those exact same strategies yeah I
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mean and I actually was bit by exactly
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that the last day or so where in this
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work that I've been doing on pedometer
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plus applies so I haven't worked on the
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app for probably since October I think
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so like two or three months and I sit
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down and I start using it I noticed
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something weird going on in my data
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system where a certainly iOS API call
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wasn't returning the values that I
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expected it to and as I started looking
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into this and this is really weird like
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it's a very one of these weird edge case
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bugs where if I give a certain value to
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healthkit API I get no data back but if
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I do a lots you know sort of other
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things it works fine which is really
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weird bug like man this is strange and I
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spent about a half a day working on this
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bug seeing if I can come you know find a
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workaround if I can avoid it in the end
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I found like I found no solution and I
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was like alright well I should probably
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use for file a file at radar about this
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just to make sure that Apple knows that
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this is a bug and I go open up bug
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report at AFRICOM you know go into my
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little account and one of the the top
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radars in there was me reporting this
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exact bug in August of last year which I
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was reporting it against like beta 2 or
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beta 3 in iOS 10 clearly I had
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completely forgotten that I'd done this
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exact process before but this is a great
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example though of this like I just
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wasted half a day trying to track this
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thing down that a few months ago I did
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exactly the same thing and I suppose
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it's it is such a tricky thing though to
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want to document in great detail all the
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varies these kinds of things because it
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is so easy to rely on your own memory
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and like I think in many ways I find
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really like one of the
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core skills of development is memory
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wear like I am at my most effective
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programming the more of an application I
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can sort of hold in my head at once
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where I know where all the features are
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I know how they all interconnect and
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having that kind of like loading that at
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loading all that information into my
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brain is like where it gets really
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efficient and helpful where I don't I'm
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not like sick constantly you know
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command effing all over the whole
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project trying to find the various
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things like I just know where they are
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but if you take a few months off and you
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come back to a project you can find
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yourself in these situations where like
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you just forgot that you've solved this
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problem or you've gone through the all
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of the work to determine that no
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solution exists and like in this case
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like what I really should have done when
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I could solve this the first time I ran
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into this problem the first time is I
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should have just had a little comment in
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my code that said you know this this API
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fails in this way you know radar filed
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here's the radar number you know for my
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own reference just so that you know it's
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like when I could this morning when I
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ran into this I could thank passed south
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you know pest Dave for going back there
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reporting this short-circuiting this
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whole thing and knowing that like okay
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yeah it's a bug is filed Apple hasn't
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fix it yet but you know I can move on
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and don't need to worry about it or at
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least I already did worried about it but
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that disciplined about that is I think
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really hard because yeah it doesn't feel
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like I think it's really difficult to
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judge how far into the future you're
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going to need to know where you are and
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on the flip side obviously you could
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take the other extreme and get really
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carried away and be documenting
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everything and all of your everything is
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like super detailed and you end up in
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like a proper like a formal like
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software model where you have like the
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requirements and you have the
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development and you have the testing
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documents and like you can go way
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overblown as well but there is
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definitely something that experiences
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like I had today definitely reinforces
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for me where like I need to be a little
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bit more and honestly it's probably the
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kind of thing where just being like 10%
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more descriptive in my gig commits in my
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comments would have a disproportionate
◼
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impact in my ability to come back to
◼
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and to feel that I understand what's
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going on is it's almost like a like a
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hierarchy of caches you know it's like a
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terminology it's like you know we all
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know that you know as you said like when
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when you have a whole bunch of the
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program in your head you are way more
◼
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effective that's what we refer to when
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we're talking about being in the zone
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and as programmers like it's basically
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having a whole bunch of the program in
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your head which is like the highest
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level cache like the l1 cache or the
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registers and then as as things like you
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know get evicted from either time or or
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crowdedness hey you have to start you
◼
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know relying on other on other things to
◼
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to keep the stuff in your head or to or
◼
►
to refer to other resources to get it
◼
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back in your head and you know a quick
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little Doc comment in the code or good
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►
documentation of like the architecture
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of the code is way more effective at
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like when you when you have a cache miss
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in your brain and you have to go fetch
◼
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it from this external resource that's
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way faster than like having to repeat
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eight hours of coding only to make the
◼
►
same mistakes over and over again only
◼
►
to discover the same eventual truth at
◼
►
the end that you could have discovered
◼
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with what you know a quick little
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comment on in the code and it's in too
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►
many ways it reminds me of a some advice
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►
I remember hearing once about when
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you're like writing a little - duze for
◼
►
yourself like if you're capturing those
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►
kinds of thoughts of the importance of
◼
►
capturing complete thoughts not things
◼
►
that just would just make sense at the
◼
►
time you know so like if I record a
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►
little to do that says you know it's
◼
►
like table view height adjustment like
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at them at that moment I may know
◼
►
exactly what that means and it sounds
◼
►
completely silly to behive a show you
◼
►
feel like fully expanded out like table
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►
view height adjustment in stat screen of
◼
►
pedometer plus plus like that if I don't
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include all those other nouns I'm gonna
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come back to that later and be like what
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does this mean like it becomes just
◼
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complete gibberish and garbage even
◼
►
though at the time it feels like
◼
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completely unnecessary because I know I
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understand entirely the context and so
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the thing in the same way it's like when
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you're ready to do is it's important and
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then use in something similarly with you
◼
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in your code or your internal
◼
►
documentation and I mean obviously we
◼
►
have the benefit though I will say of we
◼
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just have to write things that make
◼
►
sense to us that we know ourselves
◼
►
better it's not like we're trying to
◼
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write something that anybody with any
◼
►
level of sophistication or understanding
◼
►
would be of the project or of
◼
►
programming in general we'll be able to
◼
►
pick up like we know ourselves we know
◼
►
what you know like what short hands and
◼
►
what terms and things we can just use
◼
►
but I think it's very important to have
◼
►
that kind of perspective of like how can
◼
►
I be kind to my future self in my
◼
►
current self rather than just assuming
◼
►
that my future self will like kind of
◼
►
work it out oh yeah because like
◼
►
especially like you know as as the
◼
►
amount of time extends you know if
◼
►
you're writing something for your future
◼
►
self of four days from now that's very
◼
►
different from your future self of four
◼
►
months from now or four years from now
◼
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and as like I think it very quickly gets
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to a point that the this is this is not
◼
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like a slow progression I think even
◼
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after a few weeks or a few months of not
◼
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working on something you approach it
◼
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almost as if a stranger would approach
◼
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it like you're your future self is way
◼
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less familiar with what you're working
◼
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on right now then your present self
◼
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might realize and if you could if you
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can kind of get that into your head and
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internalize that and start remembering
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that as you're doing this kind of
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documentation or prep work or or
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you can really save your future self a
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is going to look at your current code
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and projects almost as if a stranger
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also probably fair and now that we've
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kind of come back into our work to
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discuss and work through a little bit of
◼
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what makes sense to plan out for the
◼
►
first part of the year because maybe we
◼
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talked about it before with like iOS
◼
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development has a schedule and a cadence
◼
►
kind of dictated to it's somewhat
◼
►
externally we're you know starting
◼
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around June 1st or so you know we get
◼
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into the new stuff cycle we're from June
◼
►
until about September we'll have new iOS
◼
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betas new devices new what Evers that
◼
►
are going to be announced the fall is
◼
►
the kind of fall out from that period
◼
►
where we start to you know all these
◼
►
things actually go out into the wild and
◼
►
they get to see how that you get used in
◼
►
practice and then we kind of get into
◼
►
this next phase which i think is in some
◼
►
ways my most enjoyable part of this
◼
►
go where you know from roughly now
◼
►
you've gotten through Christmas and New
◼
►
Year's so from now until June we have
◼
►
about six months to just work on
◼
►
whatever we want in a lot of ways and I
◼
►
tend to like this time of year for
◼
►
polishing doing a lot of like point one
◼
►
point two releases working on a lot of
◼
►
things that you know didn't make sense
◼
►
to try and squeeze in with a major iOS
◼
►
update the things like that where I can
◼
►
sit down and I can spend you know it's
◼
►
you know a significant amount of time
◼
►
without quite the same time pressure as
◼
►
I would if I was doing it over the
◼
►
summer or in the fall you know where now
◼
►
I can kind of if I take stupid ends up
◼
►
taking an extra couple weeks it's fine
◼
►
there's no there's no external
◼
►
constraints or things that I'm trying to
◼
►
fight around and so I tend to look at it
◼
►
and that's kind of like my planning
◼
►
right now for all of my apps you know
◼
►
it's like I century I'm just gonna be
◼
►
sitting there making out these kind of
◼
►
big point releases for all my apps do
◼
►
you know I have taken these kind of nice
◼
►
features that I think are value-adds
◼
►
and honestly even a lot of what ends up
◼
►
happening with me is I as I have so many
◼
►
apps but they're all kind of related you
◼
►
know all my plus plus apps are health
◼
►
oriented and so what I've started what
◼
►
I've started to do too is I'll end up
◼
►
doing something in one of them that I
◼
►
feel like will make sense to kind of
◼
►
incorporate back into the other ones and
◼
►
so I expect to be doing a lot of that
◼
►
this sure if I guess what we're gonna
◼
►
call this period like in the new year
◼
►
/ - through the spring where I can go
◼
►
through and kind of just get everything
◼
►
in a nice solid robust kind of like
◼
►
making these features a little bit
◼
►
deeper like maybe that's right I could
◼
►
way to think of it - like in this summer
◼
►
and in the summer and fall I tend to
◼
►
think of it as kind of widening the apps
◼
►
making them incorporate these new
◼
►
features incorporating these new
◼
►
platforms whatever makes sense and then
◼
►
you know sort of the first half of the
◼
►
year is more about taking those things
◼
►
and kind of digging them deeper and
◼
►
adding at all those little touches that
◼
►
make the app that richer that you didn't
◼
►
quite I wasn't quite a didn't quite have
◼
►
time to do in the first place yeah
◼
►
because you know the fall is you know we
◼
►
spend so much of the fall just and the
◼
►
summer even just like
◼
►
adapting new things or adopting new
◼
►
things and keeping up with all that
◼
►
bells new stuff and you know from from
◼
►
January through June apples pretty quiet
◼
►
usually and so yeah we it's it's a great
◼
►
time you know as you said like to work
◼
►
on you know quality to broaden your
◼
►
feature base I would say it's a great
◼
►
time to address things like user
◼
►
requests like feature feature requests
◼
►
from people they're very common like
◼
►
because you don't have anything else for
◼
►
the most part competing with this time
◼
►
most of the rest of the year you have
◼
►
like external pressure of things you
◼
►
need to be keeping up with or doing or
◼
►
planning for right now
◼
►
this part of the year is basically like
◼
►
work on the core make the app better
◼
►
make your stuff better try you know if
◼
►
you want to start experimenting with
◼
►
with brand new features or start
◼
►
planning what your next big release
◼
►
might be this is a good time for that of
◼
►
course I'm following on this advice
◼
►
myself I'm actually of course preparing
◼
►
to launch my 3.0 now but that's not
◼
►
because it was planned this way it's
◼
►
because it took too long was a long shit
◼
►
in the fall and I just didn't but but
◼
►
you know this is and honestly this is
◼
►
not a bad time to release a big point
◼
►
your a big point o update because
◼
►
there's not a lot else going on and
◼
►
there there is some concern there that
◼
►
you know you need to be aware of things
◼
►
like the PR seasons and calendar and
◼
►
advertising and everything everything
◼
►
like that one of the good things is that
◼
►
well a good thing if you're if you're
◼
►
looking to buy ads or you know things
◼
►
like a store search ads you know or ads
◼
►
on people's podcasts or ads on websites
◼
►
or whatever else Facebook ads usually ad
◼
►
inventory is is pretty low in January
◼
►
and February and this is a terrible
◼
►
thing if you make your money via ads as
◼
►
you taught me and you were right that
◼
►
basically your ad revenue tends to drop
◼
►
pretty sharply in you know in the first
◼
►
few days of January compared to the year
◼
►
before and you know compared to the week
◼
►
before even like in December and and
◼
►
sometimes it takes like big corporate ad
◼
►
budgets a little while to get organized
◼
►
and start buying things for the new year
◼
►
and so if you are an indie making money
◼
►
via ads you know I think it's important
◼
►
not to freak out too much about that
◼
►
because it's temporary and if you are
◼
►
this is kind of an awesome time to buy
◼
►
hats if you're indie because you don't
◼
►
have to work on the annual corporate
◼
►
budget and get approval from a bunch of
◼
►
in departments you can just buy the ads
◼
►
right now and so you actually might be
◼
►
able to get a pretty pretty good deal on
◼
►
an inventory where things are a little
◼
►
bit cheaper than they normally would be
◼
►
so this is that's also worth considering
◼
►
but for the most part I think you mainly
◼
►
have to have to be aware of like you
◼
►
know not releasing things too close to a
◼
►
holiday or a slow time or a slow weekend
◼
►
but I think we're mostly past that now
◼
►
you know as we talk about those it's a
◼
►
January 4th probably coming out on the
◼
►
5th so you know we're past New Year's
◼
►
Day and and like the day or two after I
◼
►
think pretty much any time now
◼
►
from now forward is ok to release things
◼
►
without too much trouble yeah and it's
◼
►
just a good like in some ways I it's a
◼
►
good is just a good time to get back to
◼
►
work like in a good way like I always
◼
►
find that the the fall just feels just
◼
►
so disjointed for me like it's really
◼
►
hard to really get stuck into things
◼
►
because there's just so many things
◼
►
going on yes certainly both
◼
►
professionally as well as personally
◼
►
that I kind of like the thought of like
◼
►
nothing's really gonna happen for the
◼
►
next couple of months and so getting
◼
►
into a normal rhythm getting into about
◼
►
in you know kind of starting some new
◼
►
habits not necessarily like you know
◼
►
like have New Year's resolutions
◼
►
perspective or just by benefit of there
◼
►
not being things that are going to be
◼
►
messing with your schedule you know it's
◼
►
kind of a nice time to be able to to
◼
►
look at that and to hopefully like I
◼
►
really enjoyed this process of sitting
◼
►
down and eating like what do I want to
◼
►
work on you know what what is actually
◼
►
going to be an interesting thing to
◼
►
build when I'm listing or what about
◼
►
would I enjoy in that and so it's a good
◼
►
time to be thoughtful about that and to
◼
►
kind of think that you know what is
◼
►
something that's maybe like the level of
◼
►
difficulty might be a little higher you
◼
►
know this is a good time to maybe to try
◼
►
and fail it's true you try something
◼
►
that's a bit risky that might work out
◼
►
like it's a better time to do that now
◼
►
then you know later in the year or when
◼
►
things are a bit more high pressure you
◼
►
know like though I've I think we're
◼
►
three Christmases ago back when the
◼
►
Christmas bump was just drew
◼
►
like I remember never late isn't the
◼
►
AppStore I would you know the Christmas
◼
►
stay and the day after Christmas were
◼
►
something like 8% 10% of my yearly
◼
►
revenue like he was huge and dramatic oh
◼
►
thankfully that's kind of settled down a
◼
►
bit like I was as cool as it was to make
◼
►
that much money like was it bit
◼
►
terrifying because I remember a couple
◼
►
years ago I had a bug in my main app
◼
►
that I released like I think about five
◼
►
six days before Christmas I hate it and
◼
►
it turned out the bug like the app works
◼
►
completely fine except for all of the
◼
►
in-app purchase didn't only have
◼
►
purchases didn't work it worked fine so
◼
►
I couldn't make any money exactly so
◼
►
that was a bit terrifying and I you know
◼
►
did the book it was one of these like
◼
►
trivial things there's a bit of debug
◼
►
logic that I had to flip over and then
◼
►
you know resubmitted to Apple did the
◼
►
expedited request and in the end it was
◼
►
fine like the app was you know working
◼
►
in a functional way on Christmas Day
◼
►
which was super important but I loved
◼
►
that one who sort of sort of passed some
◼
►
of these things where you have that high
◼
►
stakes that high stress that if that app
◼
►
had been broken on Christmas day it
◼
►
would have had a dramatic impact and so
◼
►
I in love this kind of time of the year
◼
►
where if something gets if something
◼
►
gets busted if something gets broken
◼
►
like the stakes are much lower like it's
◼
►
still impactful it's not like that I
◼
►
want to just be cavalier about things
◼
►
but it's nice to kind of have that
◼
►
pressure taken off a little bit and to
◼
►
be able to kind of really dive into some
◼
►
bigger projects in that way oh yeah I
◼
►
mean and you said earlier main it like
◼
►
about how this is such a great work time
◼
►
because like there's no interruptions
◼
►
like I love this time of year I mean I
◼
►
hate winter in general because I can't
◼
►
go outside because the outside world is
◼
►
just just hates me but I'm a huge fan of
◼
►
the amount of work I can get done during
◼
►
this time because yeah there's no
◼
►
holidays there's no well there's fear a
◼
►
few holidays there there's no like
◼
►
family needs really it's just a solid
◼
►
like couple of months really where
◼
►
there's nothing else to do but work and
◼
►
I kind of like it so anyway thank you
◼
►
everybody for listening good luck
◼
►
getting back to work yourselves and
◼
►
we'll talk to you next week bye