Under the Radar

00:00:00 ◼   ► Welcome to Under the Radar, a show about independent iOS app development.

00:00:03 ◼   ► I'm Mark Orment.

00:00:04 ◼   ► And I'm David Smith.

00:00:05 ◼   ► Under the Radar is never longer than 30 minutes, so let's get started.

00:00:10 ◼   ► So this, as we are recording, we are essentially one week before WWDC and all of the festivities

00:00:16 ◼   ► and fun and announcements that come with WWDC.

00:00:20 ◼   ► And it's probably around the time that you're hearing a lot of conversations on the other

00:00:24 ◼   ► Apple tech podcast related to things about predictions and some of the more content-oriented

00:00:30 ◼   ► things about WWDC.

00:00:32 ◼   ► But I think we thought it would be interesting to instead focus a bit more on the practicalities

00:00:37 ◼   ► of WWDC.

00:00:39 ◼   ► It's going to, I think both you and I, Mark, have been to WWDC now for almost 10 years

00:00:45 ◼   ► in its various forms.

00:00:47 ◼   ► And I think it's probably this kind of thing that there's a lot of just advice and experiences

00:00:51 ◼   ► that I've come up with from going for so long that it seemed like would be good to pass

00:00:55 ◼   ► on as you're getting ready to pack, as you're preparing to head out, to just hopefully pass

00:01:00 ◼   ► that along, be useful, and hopefully enhance.

00:01:03 ◼   ► I imagine many of our listeners are going to be in town for WWDC for a ticket to the

00:01:11 ◼   ► main show itself or to things like Layers or the very next door.

00:01:15 ◼   ► There's a bunch of other conferences going on.

00:01:17 ◼   ► There's going to be a lot of people in town.

00:01:19 ◼   ► So a lot of hopefully little things that would be useful to pass along.

00:01:23 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:01:24 ◼   ► And also, because predictions and everything, that's useful until the day of the event,

00:01:28 ◼   ► and then it's kind of done.

00:01:30 ◼   ► This, we kind of want it to be a useful thing for the entire week.

00:01:34 ◼   ► And especially because a lot of these things that were, tips that we're going to reveal

00:01:37 ◼   ► or talk about are things that we've done wrong in the past or not considered or not prepared

00:01:41 ◼   ► for.

00:01:42 ◼   ► And it's like lessons learned.

00:01:44 ◼   ► Because when you do some of these things wrong, you can have a pretty significant negative

00:01:47 ◼   ► impact on your experience of the week, or at least can be very restrictive in what you

00:01:51 ◼   ► kind of can't do.

00:01:52 ◼   ► So anyway, with that, you want to get started?

00:01:55 ◼   ► What should you bring or pack or do or prepare for for WWDC 2018?

00:02:00 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:02:01 ◼   ► So the first thing I think that is everyone should make, I mean, it's probably no surprise,

00:02:05 ◼   ► but bring a computer.

00:02:07 ◼   ► And specifically bring a computer capable of development.

00:02:11 ◼   ► Whatever that actually means to you.

00:02:12 ◼   ► And I know that would be different for everybody.

00:02:13 ◼   ► So many jokes about iPads I could make right now.

00:02:16 ◼   ► Sure.

00:02:17 ◼   ► You can make them and who knows, maybe on Monday, you'll be able to do development on

00:02:20 ◼   ► iPad.

00:02:21 ◼   ► Who knows?

00:02:22 ◼   ► The world is completely unknown.

00:02:23 ◼   ► But whatever it is, bring something that you can reliably know that you are going to be

00:02:27 ◼   ► able to develop on.

00:02:28 ◼   ► Like, if that's a 15-inch MacBook Pro, for me, I bring a little 12-inch MacBook and I've

00:02:33 ◼   ► developed on that and it's a little slow, but it works for me.

00:02:36 ◼   ► But moreover, what I mean by capable of development is like bring a computer that has all of the

00:02:42 ◼   ► tools that you use for development on it.

00:02:44 ◼   ► If you use Photoshop in your development workflow, make sure you have Photoshop installed and

00:02:49 ◼   ► ready and you don't want to be relying on hotel Wi-Fi to download these tools.

00:02:55 ◼   ► Make sure you have your signing certificates.

00:02:57 ◼   ► Anything that you are going to want to have with you, any cables that you might need,

00:03:01 ◼   ► make sure that you have a lightning to USB-C adapter or cable if you're going to be developing

00:03:07 ◼   ► that way.

00:03:08 ◼   ► You just want to be able to make sure that you have a machine that you can do actual

00:03:11 ◼   ► practical work on.

00:03:13 ◼   ► Because in my experience, W2D-C, there's a lot of information and there's like the learning

00:03:18 ◼   ► side of it.

00:03:19 ◼   ► There's the actual, like, you know, all the presentations, all the new APIs, everything

00:03:21 ◼   ► like that.

00:03:22 ◼   ► But I find it to be very much a working trip as well.

00:03:26 ◼   ► That in order for me to really understand what the new things are, I have to get into

00:03:31 ◼   ► Xcode and play with them and try them out and actually do some work.

00:03:36 ◼   ► Not necessarily something that I'm going to be, you know, shipping that on Friday, like,

00:03:39 ◼   ► you know, work, work, like in that sense.

00:03:41 ◼   ► But I want to be able to really use the new stuff in practice.

00:03:47 ◼   ► And so I need to make sure that I bring a computer that is capable and set up to do

00:03:51 ◼   ► that.

00:03:52 ◼   ► That it's not like a, you know, you're not going to bring, you know, bring a computer

00:03:55 ◼   ► just for, you know, watching movies on or something like that.

00:03:58 ◼   ► Like it is a work, something work capable with all of your tools set up on it, all of

00:04:04 ◼   ► your source code available on it, for example, those types of things.

00:04:06 ◼   ► So it's like going into it, packing, you know, making sure that you have all the latest versions

00:04:10 ◼   ► of everything that you might need so that you can actually take advantage of the week

00:04:14 ◼   ► to try the stuff.

00:04:16 ◼   ► Because that's something that I find to be so much more valuable than, you know, just

00:04:20 ◼   ► sort of retaking on all the information and then getting to the end of the week and then

00:04:24 ◼   ► starting to do it, you know, the following Monday.

00:04:27 ◼   ► At that point, you've missed the opportunity to ask questions in labs or to reach out to

00:04:31 ◼   ► different people that you may have the opportunity to reach out to during the week itself.

00:04:36 ◼   ► Yeah, I would say like my best advice to that is to actually, you know, to make sure your

00:04:41 ◼   ► development stack is complete, to make sure that you, that your certificates and everything

00:04:45 ◼   ► are all there before you leave, before you pack up your laptop, open it up, plug in a

00:04:50 ◼   ► lightning USB cable and hit build and run and make sure that you can actually build

00:04:55 ◼   ► and run that all the device symbols are loaded and indexed by Xcode for your device and everything.

00:05:01 ◼   ► Do all of that before you go.

00:05:03 ◼   ► Because so often, like when I travel, I will travel to places where downloading like a

00:05:07 ◼   ► two gig download is not feasible or possible at all.

00:05:12 ◼   ► And I, whenever I don't do this, I'm often caught off guard.

00:05:16 ◼   ► Oh, actually I have an old version of Xcode that can't build for my new OS phone and now

00:05:22 ◼   ► I'm just stuck and can't do build and run until I get home or something like that.

00:05:25 ◼   ► So definitely, you know, actually do build and run.

00:05:27 ◼   ► Make sure you can build and launch your device, your app on your device.

00:05:30 ◼   ► And that being said, there's also some specifics about the computer.

00:05:33 ◼   ► You know, we can argue like what computer is good enough and you know, everyone has

00:05:37 ◼   ► different opinion on that.

00:05:38 ◼   ► I bring a 15 inch, you bring a 12 inch, pretty much any computer is fine and you know, just

00:05:42 ◼   ► different screen space, screen space and different speeds.

00:05:45 ◼   ► But one thing that you're going to need when you consider what happens every year at WWDC,

00:05:52 ◼   ► you get new betas of everything.

00:05:55 ◼   ► You get new Xcode beta, you get betas of all the OS's.

00:05:59 ◼   ► Basically you're going to need a lot of disk space and a lot of downloading capability.

00:06:04 ◼   ► So if you're running low on space, maybe consider bringing like a little external drive or a

00:06:09 ◼   ► USB stick or something just to have some breathing room.

00:06:13 ◼   ► Also, we're going to get to testing devices in a second, but you're going to want to install

00:06:19 ◼   ► these OS's probably on something to test them out.

00:06:22 ◼   ► If you intend to install the Mac OS beta, it could be useful to bring an external hard

00:06:27 ◼   ► drive or external SSD of some kind to install that onto because you're not going to want

00:06:31 ◼   ► to do it on your main disk and you probably don't have enough free space to do it in a

00:06:34 ◼   ► useful way anyway because SSD's are expensive.

00:06:37 ◼   ► So your internal disk is probably not having that much free space.

00:06:40 ◼   ► So make sure that the computer you bring is up to date, has Xcode installed, can build

00:06:46 ◼   ► and run, has a lot of disk space free and is capable in some way of downloading a lot.

00:06:52 ◼   ► So what this might mean for you, I wouldn't suggest that you go out and buy an ethernet

00:06:57 ◼   ► adapter for your laptop if you don't already have one, but if you have one, bring it.

00:07:02 ◼   ► This is a good opportunity where you probably won't need it, but you might and you might

00:07:06 ◼   ► not think to pack it because you don't usually need those anymore.

00:07:09 ◼   ► But if you happen to have an ethernet adapter, there might be a chance here where like you

00:07:13 ◼   ► can download something really fast on ethernet, but you can't do it on Wi-Fi or it would take

00:07:19 ◼   ► too long or you can get the hotel connection maybe only via ethernet for some weird reason

00:07:23 ◼   ► or the ethernet's way faster for some weird reason.

00:07:26 ◼   ► Things like that arise.

00:07:27 ◼   ► So anything you can do to make it easier and/or possible for you to download massive files

00:07:34 ◼   ► and store them on your computer, you're going to need to do that.

00:07:37 ◼   ► And I think in general, within the actual conference itself, there's usually a prohibition

00:07:42 ◼   ► against downloading the big stuff on the Wi-Fi for obvious reasons that they don't want 5,000

00:07:48 ◼   ► people downloading the latest version of Xcode over the Wi-Fi.

00:07:51 ◼   ► So they require the wired connections for those typically.

00:07:55 ◼   ► They tend to have most of the adapters, like they have kind of a cool setup on the working

00:08:00 ◼   ► tables typically where they have some just raw ethernet connections, they have some that

00:08:04 ◼   ► have like the old Thunderbolt ethernet adapter, some of them that have the USB-C adapter,

00:08:11 ◼   ► and it's just kind of typically well set up.

00:08:13 ◼   ► But if you have one, bring it.

00:08:15 ◼   ► It may come in handy.

00:08:16 ◼   ► You just never know.

00:08:17 ◼   ► And then similarly, I'd say, in terms of having an external drive of some kind is also really

00:08:23 ◼   ► useful to have those tools.

00:08:24 ◼   ► And every now and then, it's also just kind of nice.

00:08:26 ◼   ► I tend to put the tools on something like that.

00:08:29 ◼   ► And then it's a useful thing to be able to hand a friend.

00:08:31 ◼   ► I've done that too for somebody who isn't in the convention center.

00:08:36 ◼   ► Like me.

00:08:37 ◼   ► I'm going to be asking you to do that this year again, like I do every year.

00:08:41 ◼   ► Because it's nice, because the ethernet connection at the convention center is ridiculously fast.

00:08:46 ◼   ► And I think they even proxy all of the images and things on house.

00:08:51 ◼   ► So you'll get these ridiculously fast downloads.

00:08:53 ◼   ► So you can go and download all of the images of everything and put it on a thumb drive.

00:08:57 ◼   ► And then if someone's trying to suffer through hotel Wi-Fi to do it, it's a useful thing.

00:09:04 ◼   ► Something else you're definitely going to want to have is testing devices.

00:09:07 ◼   ► And this is going to vary a lot depending on what kind of development you do.

00:09:11 ◼   ► For me, this means that I have an iPhone 7 and a Series 2 Apple Watch.

00:09:18 ◼   ► Those are my two testing devices this year.

00:09:19 ◼   ► And intentionally in that is those are my two most capable devices other than my current

00:09:25 ◼   ► primary devices.

00:09:26 ◼   ► So I wear a Series 3 watch and I use an iPhone 10 as my main devices.

00:09:31 ◼   ► My testing devices are the next most capable devices that I have available to me.

00:09:35 ◼   ► Which in my case is an iPhone 7 and a Series 2 Apple Watch.

00:09:39 ◼   ► And I want those to be as fast and as capable as possible because initial betas are not

00:09:46 ◼   ► known for their stability, performance, reliability.

00:09:51 ◼   ► So every benefit that I can give myself in having them work well is going to be good.

00:09:57 ◼   ► You're not going to want to put it on your main device.

00:09:59 ◼   ► That's always a bad idea.

00:10:00 ◼   ► - Yeah, do not do that.

00:10:01 ◼   ► You might think, "Oh, it'll be fine."

00:10:03 ◼   ► Trust me, it's not fine.

00:10:06 ◼   ► I have done that a couple of times.

00:10:08 ◼   ► It was always a huge mistake.

00:10:10 ◼   ► And all of our friends who have tried it also, huge mistake.

00:10:14 ◼   ► Don't install Beta 1 on your main device.

00:10:16 ◼   ► No matter what you think, don't do it.

00:10:19 ◼   ► Unless it's a device that you really seriously 100% don't need to be functionally reliable.

00:10:26 ◼   ► So for instance, I'm going to only bring one Apple Watch because I only have one Apple

00:10:29 ◼   ► Watch and I don't use it that much.

00:10:32 ◼   ► So it's fine if my Apple Watch is unstable.

00:10:34 ◼   ► I'm not going to bring only one iPhone because I use my iPhone constantly.

00:10:39 ◼   ► So I'm not going to put Beta 1 on my iPhone.

00:10:41 ◼   ► I depend on that.

00:10:44 ◼   ► You can make those decisions about what's important to you to be stable, but I think

00:10:47 ◼   ► for almost everybody, your iPhone's going to need to be stable.

00:10:51 ◼   ► - And I think too, along those lines with testing devices is also just, and this maybe

00:10:55 ◼   ► is just a specific example for me, but maybe it'll give clues to other people, is I do

00:11:02 ◼   ► a lot of health and fitness stuff related with all my work.

00:11:07 ◼   ► And so for me, I need to make sure too that my testing devices have active data on it.

00:11:13 ◼   ► So I wear two Apple Watches leading up to WDC.

00:11:18 ◼   ► I'll have both the watches in my pockets that I have generating steps.

00:11:22 ◼   ► If you are going to do anything that requires that phone or testing device to be in a particular

00:11:27 ◼   ► state or to have a particular thing downloaded onto it or whatever that may be, just make

00:11:32 ◼   ► sure that you do that ahead of time so that you aren't sort of playing catch up while you

00:11:36 ◼   ► do it.

00:11:37 ◼   ► But have a testing device.

00:11:39 ◼   ► You have to be a little bit creative.

00:11:40 ◼   ► Even if you're not sure if you would need one, I would recommend if you have an old

00:11:43 ◼   ► iPhone, just bring it.

00:11:44 ◼   ► You never know what you're going to need and you're not going to want to go and buy a device

00:11:49 ◼   ► specifically for it.

00:11:50 ◼   ► Because especially a year like this where there is so much, it's been so well, the secrecy

00:11:54 ◼   ► around this event I feel like is really good this year in the sense that we just really

00:11:58 ◼   ► don't know what's going to come.

00:11:59 ◼   ► So I want to be as prepared for everything as I possibly can be.

00:12:05 ◼   ► Next thing that I wanted to think about is just some of the basic practicalities around

00:12:12 ◼   ► things that you might want to have just on your packing list.

00:12:15 ◼   ► Make sure that you bring a notebook.

00:12:17 ◼   ► I know some people like taking notes on their iPhone or on their iPad or on their laptop.

00:12:22 ◼   ► That's great.

00:12:23 ◼   ► I never regret having a paper notebook just because it's that much more quick and straightforward.

00:12:28 ◼   ► And also, especially if you're in a lab environment, it's often slightly more personable to be

00:12:33 ◼   ► writing down on paper than it is to be looking at your phone while you're talking to somebody.

00:12:37 ◼   ► So I just recommend a notebook.

00:12:39 ◼   ► It doesn't matter what it is.

00:12:40 ◼   ► It could be a stack of index cards and a pen.

00:12:42 ◼   ► It doesn't matter.

00:12:43 ◼   ► Just some kind of paper.

00:12:44 ◼   ► You may be able to steal this out of the hotel room where you're staying, but I recommend

00:12:49 ◼   ► that.

00:12:50 ◼   ► I think it's important to...

00:12:52 ◼   ► It's a funny...

00:12:53 ◼   ► "Important" maybe is the wrong word.

00:12:54 ◼   ► I also recommend having some kind of something like a business card, a tchotchke pen, a sticker,

00:12:59 ◼   ► or something like that.

00:13:00 ◼   ► Have some thing with you that you are able to give to someone else that has some connection

00:13:06 ◼   ► to your work.

00:13:08 ◼   ► The most straightforward of these is a business card.

00:13:09 ◼   ► If you have them, bring them.

00:13:11 ◼   ► We're not a community that tends to do a lot of business card bingo stuff.

00:13:17 ◼   ► I've been to some industry events where everybody's always handing each other business cards.

00:13:22 ◼   ► That's not really our community.

00:13:23 ◼   ► That's not really the way that tends to go.

00:13:25 ◼   ► But I do find that every now and then I will meet somebody and they will hand me a business

00:13:29 ◼   ► card.

00:13:30 ◼   ► It feels kind of rude or awkward if I have nothing to give back to them.

00:13:34 ◼   ► I made up cheap, basic business cards just for the purpose of being able to give something

00:13:39 ◼   ► back to someone.

00:13:40 ◼   ► Very rarely, every now and then, I might give hands someone a business card, but in general,

00:13:44 ◼   ► it's just something I have to avoid the slightly awkward thing of "I have nothing for you."

00:13:48 ◼   ► All right.

00:13:49 ◼   ► I've just pictured my favorite kind of business card that you should have.

00:13:51 ◼   ► It should be a teal blue card background with a single white horizontal line in the middle.

00:13:59 ◼   ► It's perhaps the least useful but most awesome business card.

00:14:04 ◼   ► My business card is very simple.

00:14:06 ◼   ► It is a teal background.

00:14:07 ◼   ► It just has my name and my email address on it and that's it.

00:14:12 ◼   ► Another thing you can do is also to think about something like pins or stickers is something

00:14:15 ◼   ► that serves a similar role that I know a lot of people will have.

00:14:19 ◼   ► This year, I have printed out stickers of the badges within Pedometer++.

00:14:26 ◼   ► This is just an open invitation, actually.

00:14:28 ◼   ► If anyone at the conference I run into shows me their badges that they've earned inside

00:14:32 ◼   ► of Pedometer++, I've made physical copies of a bunch of the bigger ones.

00:14:38 ◼   ► If they've shown me that they've earned it, I'm happy to give them a physical copy.

00:14:41 ◼   ► It's something that's hopefully kind of a cool, interesting icebreaker, conversation

00:14:45 ◼   ► starter, and it has a direct connection to my work.

00:14:48 ◼   ► I know a lot of people who get out pins.

00:14:50 ◼   ► James Thompson of Peacock fame is famous for handing out his pins.

00:14:54 ◼   ► If you find him, he has all these beautiful app icons with these nice little 42 pins.

00:15:01 ◼   ► Having just something, whatever that might be, is just a good idea to build that personal

00:15:06 ◼   ► connection with somebody that you might encounter.

00:15:10 ◼   ► That's a really good one.

00:15:12 ◼   ► Stickers too.

00:15:13 ◼   ► It's probably a little late now, but something like Sticker Mule stickers for your app can

00:15:16 ◼   ► be good if your app is likely to have any fans there.

00:15:20 ◼   ► Don't feel self-conscious about giving somebody a business card that has your name and your

00:15:26 ◼   ► app on it.

00:15:27 ◼   ► In fact, I would even say I might even feature the app more prominently than your name in

00:15:30 ◼   ► the card.

00:15:31 ◼   ► Make the app what shows up first, and maybe that's the logo, and then below it is your

00:15:34 ◼   ► name and email.

00:15:36 ◼   ► Because going to a conference like this, we're all developers, or at least most of us are

00:15:39 ◼   ► developers who go to this conference.

00:15:42 ◼   ► I kind of care.

00:15:43 ◼   ► What do you work on?

00:15:44 ◼   ► I want to know that.

00:15:45 ◼   ► It's one of the questions I ask people when they introduce themselves to me.

00:15:48 ◼   ► I'm like, "Oh, what do you work on?"

00:15:50 ◼   ► Even if it's something that you think is boring, or even if you're just a small cog in a big

00:15:55 ◼   ► machine like a big company, I still want to know what you work on.

00:15:58 ◼   ► Maybe emphasizing the app in a card, if possible, could be pretty cool, I think.

00:16:02 ◼   ► And lastly, on the more business-y side, something that I think about is making sure that if

00:16:07 ◼   ► you are going to have a ticket for W2C, this is essential.

00:16:12 ◼   ► And I think in general, it's a good idea to have, either way, is a list of questions for

00:16:17 ◼   ► the developer labs.

00:16:19 ◼   ► So questions or frustrations, radars you've filed that haven't gone anywhere.

00:16:24 ◼   ► Have a list ahead of time of the things that you would love to talk about with somebody

00:16:29 ◼   ► at Apple.

00:16:30 ◼   ► So if you have a conference ticket, I highly recommend going to the labs.

00:16:33 ◼   ► Even if you don't feel like you're intimidated by that, if you think it's a little scary,

00:16:37 ◼   ► if you don't really know how it works, everybody there is super kind, super personable.

00:16:41 ◼   ► It's a very nice experience.

00:16:43 ◼   ► I spend most of my time in my labs because I can watch the videos after the time.

00:16:49 ◼   ► I get four days a year, basically, because there's not usually labs on Monday.

00:16:53 ◼   ► These are the four days when I can talk to the actual engineers who make the tools that

00:16:57 ◼   ► I make my living from.

00:16:58 ◼   ► So I put together a list of everything I can think of that I want to ask somebody.

00:17:03 ◼   ► Even if you feel like they're silly questions, most often they just need to be a conversation

00:17:08 ◼   ► starter.

00:17:09 ◼   ► It's something to go and talk to somebody, and then you can end up...

00:17:12 ◼   ► We'll usually develop into, hopefully, a nice conversation that you might have about how

00:17:16 ◼   ► you're using a technology.

00:17:18 ◼   ► Look at your app and see how you're using something, both which is usually really nice

00:17:22 ◼   ► for the engineers because they spend all their time making the APIs that we use, and it's

00:17:26 ◼   ► kind of cool, I think, often for them to see them actually being used.

00:17:30 ◼   ► But it's also just a good use of your time to get some questions answered.

00:17:35 ◼   ► You're going to also be updating this, hopefully, as the week goes, as new APIs are announced

00:17:39 ◼   ► and you explore stuff.

00:17:41 ◼   ► But it's just a good thing to have this list.

00:17:43 ◼   ► And it's also just...

00:17:44 ◼   ► I find the exercise of making it, even if you weren't going to W2C, is probably useful,

00:17:48 ◼   ► because you never know who you're going to run into just around San Jose or a friend

00:17:52 ◼   ► who has a ticket to the convention center who can go in and ask a question.

00:17:57 ◼   ► But it's just something to keep in the back of your mind that you don't want to...

00:18:00 ◼   ► It's like, if I find it on the spot, it can often be really struggling, a bigger bit of

00:18:05 ◼   ► a struggle, to come up with what I want to ask.

00:18:07 ◼   ► So I always try and do this ahead of time.

00:18:09 ◼   ► I've been working on my list since January.

00:18:11 ◼   ► At this point, it's like a mile long.

00:18:12 ◼   ► And for me, that's exactly what I love to be equipped with going into the labs.

00:18:17 ◼   ► So I feel like I can start a conversation with any engineer on any team and have something

00:18:22 ◼   ► that I can ask them about, and anyone gets something from.

00:18:26 ◼   ► And really don't feel self-conscious that you don't have any good questions or your

00:18:30 ◼   ► question is too basic or anything like that, or that you might be awkward around them if

00:18:35 ◼   ► you have social anxiety issues.

00:18:36 ◼   ► Because I guarantee you, whatever your question is and however you act, not only will you

00:18:41 ◼   ► fit in perfectly, but they will have seen way worse questions and people that day.

00:18:47 ◼   ► So it's totally fine.

00:18:49 ◼   ► You're around people who not only do they want you there, but they probably are you.

00:18:57 ◼   ► And so it's a very welcoming and kind environment, and no question is going to be too basic for

00:19:04 ◼   ► them.

00:19:05 ◼   ► And the best question even sometimes I find is if you don't know what to ask, it's just

00:19:08 ◼   ► that your question can be as simple as, "I'm working on something related to whatever the

00:19:13 ◼   ► technology is."

00:19:14 ◼   ► Say it's location services.

00:19:15 ◼   ► You're doing something with GPS.

00:19:16 ◼   ► Your question can just be, "Well, I was just hoping someone could take a look at my app

00:19:20 ◼   ► and see if I'm doing it right."

00:19:22 ◼   ► That's a good enough question to go and spend 15, 20 minutes with someone in the labs.

00:19:26 ◼   ► So you don't even need something more specific than, "Can you just take a look at what I'm

00:19:29 ◼   ► doing and see if it seems right to see if you have any recommendations?"

00:19:34 ◼   ► And everyone, if you're working on any app of any kind, can ask that question.

00:19:39 ◼   ► We are sponsored this week by Linode.

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00:19:58 ◼   ► You can email them.

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00:20:00 ◼   ► You can even chat over IRC in the Linode community.

00:20:03 ◼   ► Linode knows how important it is to help you get the help you need.

00:20:06 ◼   ► And they have a suite of amazing guides and support documentation as well to give you

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00:20:24 ◼   ► And of course, there's lots of great features.

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00:20:42 ◼   ► As a listener of this show, if you sign up at linode.com/radar, you will support us,

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00:21:04 ◼   ► Thank you so much to Linode for supporting the show.

00:21:08 ◼   ► So on the other hand, I thought it might make sense to wrap up the show just talking about

00:21:12 ◼   ► some more broad tips, like rather than getting out of the packing list and things you need

00:21:16 ◼   ► to bring with you, these are just things that we've, from our past experience, that I think

00:21:21 ◼   ► would be useful.

00:21:22 ◼   ► And the first one that comes to mind for me is to set up meetings ahead of time with people

00:21:27 ◼   ► you might want to meet with.

00:21:29 ◼   ► If you have someone specifically that you want to make a connection with, or you have

00:21:32 ◼   ► a relationship with someone at Apple, or whatever that may be, reach out to them ahead of time

00:21:36 ◼   ► and try and schedule something.

00:21:39 ◼   ► Understand and be very flexible about that.

00:21:40 ◼   ► I think most people have very complicated schedules during WWDC, and so it may not necessarily

00:21:47 ◼   ► be the kind of thing that you have a whole series of meeting invitations and requests

00:21:52 ◼   ► or whatever, and it's like, "I'm going to meet this person on Tuesday at one o'clock."

00:21:54 ◼   ► It may just need to be a bit more flexible.

00:21:56 ◼   ► But definitely reach out ahead of time and just sort of make sure that you sort of put

00:22:00 ◼   ► yourself on that person who you're trying to interact with's radar.

00:22:03 ◼   ► I find that really useful.

00:22:05 ◼   ► But just certainly be very flexible and understand that a lot of times you can't get a concrete

00:22:12 ◼   ► appointment with someone or something necessarily.

00:22:13 ◼   ► It may just need to be more flexible and you may need to be persistent, but it's definitely

00:22:17 ◼   ► something you want to start doing this week rather than reaching out to somebody the Thursday

00:22:22 ◼   ► of WWDC and being like, "Hey, I haven't seen you.

00:22:24 ◼   ► I'd love to meet up."

00:22:25 ◼   ► At that point, it might just be too late.

00:22:28 ◼   ► And so that's just, in general, something to be thinking about and be proactive about.

00:22:32 ◼   ► And similar to that is just being sure that during the week, if you see someone that you

00:22:36 ◼   ► know or you're interested in or you want to meet, introduce yourself to them.

00:22:43 ◼   ► Almost everyone loves—people are there to see or to meet other people.

00:22:47 ◼   ► And so if you see someone you recognize and you want to interact with, go over and say

00:22:51 ◼   ► hi and realize that maybe you'll have a nice long conversation, maybe you'll just have

00:22:56 ◼   ► a two-second conversation.

00:22:58 ◼   ► But definitely work on that confidence towards introducing yourself.

00:23:03 ◼   ► The first many years of WWDC, I so often would leave the conventions with a bunch of regrets

00:23:10 ◼   ► and feeling bad about the fact that I saw somebody that I wanted to introduce myself

00:23:15 ◼   ► to and I just didn't.

00:23:17 ◼   ► And then I gradually just got over that and just forced myself to do it, even though it

00:23:22 ◼   ► felt a little uncomfortable, even though it was something I didn't like doing.

00:23:25 ◼   ► And I always felt better having done it.

00:23:28 ◼   ► In general, they go fine.

00:23:29 ◼   ► Don't have super high expectations.

00:23:30 ◼   ► It's not like you're going to hit it off and go out and go on vacation together.

00:23:36 ◼   ► No, no, no.

00:23:37 ◼   ► You're having a two-second conversation.

00:23:39 ◼   ► It's a nice way to build that connection.

00:23:41 ◼   ► So just try and be thoughtful about that kind of stuff.

00:23:46 ◼   ► If you see somebody that wrote the app that you use, we're not YouTube stars.

00:23:52 ◼   ► We're not actual celebrities.

00:23:54 ◼   ► People who write apps in their everyday life, no one knows what they do and no one understands

00:23:59 ◼   ► and no one cares.

00:24:01 ◼   ► They can walk down the street and they are regular people in their everyday life.

00:24:04 ◼   ► It is kind of fun to have a fan recognize you for your work when you're that kind of

00:24:10 ◼   ► person who in your everyday life, that never happens.

00:24:13 ◼   ► And so when a fan recognizes you for your work, that's awesome.

00:24:17 ◼   ► And so in WWDC, this is like the one week a year where if you're an iOS developer, you

00:24:22 ◼   ► have a pretty good chance of this happening relative to any other time of the year.

00:24:27 ◼   ► And it's nice.

00:24:30 ◼   ► It's not an imposition.

00:24:31 ◼   ► It's not like bothering someone.

00:24:34 ◼   ► I mean, yeah, if they're in the bathroom, maybe wait until you guys get out of the bathroom.

00:24:37 ◼   ► But otherwise, you're not bothering someone by going up to them and saying, "Hi, are you

00:24:41 ◼   ► blah blah blah.

00:24:42 ◼   ► I really like your app," or, "Your app really helps me out," or something.

00:24:45 ◼   ► That's great.

00:24:47 ◼   ► So don't be afraid of that.

00:24:51 ◼   ► The last thing I think, well, actually not the last thing, but another main thing that

00:24:54 ◼   ► I can think about is making sure that you just take care of yourself.

00:24:57 ◼   ► I have learned the hard way that staying out late the first couple of nights, not eating

00:25:03 ◼   ► well, doing those types of life choices end up very poorly the latter half of the week,

00:25:09 ◼   ► and you just end up not having the energy or the ability to take full advantage of the

00:25:14 ◼   ► week.

00:25:15 ◼   ► So get a lot of sleep.

00:25:17 ◼   ► Go to bed at a reasonable time.

00:25:19 ◼   ► Especially because time zone things can often really mess you up.

00:25:22 ◼   ► If you're coming from the East Coast, you might be waking up really early, and so if

00:25:27 ◼   ► you try and stay up late and then wake up really early, it's a recipe for disaster.

00:25:32 ◼   ► Bring a water bottle, hat, sunscreen, comfortable shoes, things like that for just in the day.

00:25:37 ◼   ► San Francisco, when it used to be there, it was a very different climate than San Jose.

00:25:41 ◼   ► I think San Jose is much hotter, much sunnier, and so you just want to have the things that

00:25:46 ◼   ► you're going to need to take care of yourself and make sure that you're staying hydrated

00:25:49 ◼   ► and feel well rested.

00:25:50 ◼   ► Getting out and exercise, I think, is also a great thing if you can.

00:25:54 ◼   ► I'm going to try every morning before I come to the conference to get a little exercise

00:25:59 ◼   ► in just because it's so easy to let that go, and I think it shows ultimately you'll

00:26:05 ◼   ► just feel better as a result.

00:26:08 ◼   ► Because the last thing you want to do is you'll just end up late in the week and just not

00:26:14 ◼   ► feeling great.

00:26:15 ◼   ► And if you can avoid that, then it's going to make your enjoyment of the week so much

00:26:19 ◼   ► better than feeling like you have to do everything, that you have to be out super late every night

00:26:24 ◼   ► or going to event to event to event and having a completely full schedule.

00:26:29 ◼   ► It's fine to just have some time to rest, like to go back to your hotel room and sit

00:26:33 ◼   ► there with your laptop working on and trying to digest what you just understood from that

00:26:37 ◼   ► day.

00:26:38 ◼   ► That's fine.

00:26:39 ◼   ► Don't just do that, but it's a totally fine thing to take some time and make sure

00:26:43 ◼   ► that you're having a good balance to your day and you're not overdoing it because it

00:26:47 ◼   ► can be just relentless otherwise because there's a million things you could do.

00:26:51 ◼   ► Yeah, balance is really key.

00:26:52 ◼   ► It's one that I have not done well in the past.

00:26:55 ◼   ► And what I've realized as I've done this more and gotten older and more boring and

00:26:59 ◼   ► have less stamina to stay up late constantly is that I like to go out and stay up late

00:27:05 ◼   ► and yell in loud bars at most about one or two nights of the week-long conference.

00:27:12 ◼   ► That's about as much as I want to do that.

00:27:15 ◼   ► And I also, I always think that I overcommit my time ahead of time with people who's

00:27:21 ◼   ► like, "Oh, yeah, let's meet up sometime next week," or things I agreed to do.

00:27:27 ◼   ► And I always wish that I had less stuff booked because I always am so just packed all day

00:27:35 ◼   ► and I wish I had some downtime.

00:27:37 ◼   ► Actually plan for downtime, really.

00:27:40 ◼   ► Leave a lot of downtime in your schedule because you're not going to be using all of it.

00:27:44 ◼   ► A lot of it you will find things like, "Oh, I actually need to be doing this now," or

00:27:47 ◼   ► "It's a good thing I left some slots open here because all of a sudden this important

00:27:51 ◼   ► person wants to meet with me or is willing to meet with me."

00:27:55 ◼   ► Leave some slack in the schedule, but I would say leave a lot of slack in the schedule because

00:28:01 ◼   ► you will find ways to consume it.

00:28:03 ◼   ► And giving yourself just the opportunity to be flexible, I think, is just a great thing.

00:28:07 ◼   ► And taking care of yourself in general is going to leave yourself with more ability

00:28:13 ◼   ► to take advantage of more opportunities for whatever that looks like.

00:28:16 ◼   ► So that kind of self-care version side of things is just an important thing that I've

00:28:23 ◼   ► not done in previous years and you just end up totally worn down.

00:28:27 ◼   ► Your voice is gone because you've been screaming in loud bars.

00:28:29 ◼   ► Your hearing's not great.

00:28:33 ◼   ► If you don't take care of yourself, you'll just end up later in the week not being able

00:28:37 ◼   ► to fully enjoy yourself.

00:28:38 ◼   ► I had one last thing.

00:28:40 ◼   ► And the last thing I just wanted to say is something that I have found to be very useful

00:28:44 ◼   ► is you get to the end of the week and you can often end up feeling like you missed out

00:28:48 ◼   ► on something that you wanted to accomplish.

00:28:50 ◼   ► So just a small little pro tip, about Wednesday, halfway through, take inventory of anything

00:28:55 ◼   ► that you wanted to accomplish and haven't yet done, and then that gives you the time

00:28:59 ◼   ► and the ability to actually turn that around and make it happen.

00:29:03 ◼   ► Just think about what you left undone on Friday.

00:29:06 ◼   ► Think about it on Wednesday.

00:29:07 ◼   ► I found this thing that it's an exercise I do every Wednesday morning and I find it's

00:29:10 ◼   ► really useful.

00:29:11 ◼   ► That's really good.

00:29:12 ◼   ► Yeah, because the conference goes by fast.

00:29:14 ◼   ► Like Saturday, Sunday, travel and everything, most people leave on Friday afternoon or at

00:29:20 ◼   ► latest Saturday morning and Thursday's the bash and there's podcasts Monday, Tuesday,

00:29:25 ◼   ► Wednesday.

00:29:26 ◼   ► And so it's like there's a lot going on and it's really easy to all of a sudden be Thursday

00:29:30 ◼   ► and realize, "Oh crap, I'm leaving tomorrow and I didn't do X, Y, or Z."

00:29:34 ◼   ► So that's really good.

00:29:35 ◼   ► All right.

00:29:36 ◼   ► Well, best of luck to everybody.

00:29:37 ◼   ► We hope to see many of you there.

00:29:38 ◼   ► If possible, please come up and say hi.

00:29:40 ◼   ► Thanks for listening and we'll talk to you next week.

00:29:42 ◼   ► Bye.

00:29:43 ◼   ► [