that is all.
most people just want someone to have the answers - or at least seem like they do.
i'm 25 now and quite often i'm leading teams of people each 10-20 years older than me. the dynamic can often be a bit odd. i sometimes get a feeling of disdain, sometimes envy, but sometimes also enthusiasm. in whatever the scenario though i note this is directly connected to how confident i can seem to have the answers. hesitation and doubt are all way more harmful to the moral and perception of me, than the actual answer often times.
some of you might take from this that it's more important to "seem" like you have the answers then - some might prefer to actually have the answer. i think it's a mixture of both.
i went through my first redundancy process this week.
it felt like a ritual - something i needed to go through.
in many ways companies are just like families. except in companies blood is replaced with money. today was the equivalent of someone telling you you're not actually blood relatives. people who i've seen give their lives to a company - instantly disconnected.
in hindsight i don't know how you can make it all pretty. if it was you, do you really think you could tell 300 people you can't pay them anymore without any backlash...?
either way, it does also affect me. not in the way it does most people. not in the sense i worry im losing income - i usually land on my feet. in the sense that it is a nail in coffin for the fact the industry is dying. if the most daring channel, "innovative" one, can't grow, or at least even maintain a positive balance sheet, it shows consumption has changed.
most companies focus on being too technology or medium based. ie Apple is more than a phone. it exists across whatever the newest technology is. what Apple "is" then is the mission, the world. the "taste". whatever that is in a bottle is what the generational ventures seems to have.
today it's clear to me writing this that the medium has changed. away from passive consumption and to "interactive experiences".
first that meant participating by influencing what become popular (likes, retweets).
then it became leaving public feedback (commenting).
now it's influencing the media itself (...).
i'm out of the tunnel again. this time i feel lighter and more at ease than ever.
i'm going to start treating this as a thought diary, rather than a story diary. it feels easier to just share passing thoughts - sometimes without an answer.
maybe we'll find the answer reading them all back?
Hello again world
Time flies when you're having fun and it's been almost 6 months since I last wrote one of these.
You've probably figured I have no sort of schedule or routine. I don't know what it is that draws me back to write them but it seems to be like a sort of factory reset for my mind.
This week we shipped Appearance to the public.
We hit over 300 users and had over 1000 Appearance's created.
The biggest milestone happened today though where someone actually used our app to get a set of braids done.
Beside all the technical glitches, business conversations and general noise this made me the happiest as it showed, even if it's only 1 person, used Appearance to get a new Appearance.
Hopefully many more to come.
I think we should try prioritise short term emotion less. and value long term emotions more.
what do i mean?
through my life the best moments that have always followed some sort of hardship, or temporary pain – aka a job interview. aka a gym session. aka a new business.
try remember today is only 1 go. you have 365 go’s every year
:)
Talking about the thing isn't doing the thing. Thinking about doing the thing isn't doing the thing. Blogging about doing the thing isn't doing the thing...
Only sitting doing the thing is doing the thing.
Well excuse me for the latter as I've been busy doing the thing. We shipped our first (and my first) ever Testflight today. I have about 5 of my friends using it. They are blown away.
Don't get me wrong it's still very rough around the edges but it werks. And by that I mean you upload photos of you and you get a rendition of YOU. Then with just a few works or preset you can see YOU in a different hairstyle.
Accuracy, speed, reliability can all be improved but as a first hurdle I'm just astounded that in exactly 30 days I've went from idea to app. And no doubt that cycle time will decrease as AI gets better, or as my and others ideas get better.
On X (where I spend an increasing amount of time surprisingly) there's a feeling that the democratisation of software development is becoming a lot like the democratisation video went through with TikTok/Instagram. And I agree. But I don't think that is something to fear. If anything, for those of us who learned to navigate and excel in the social world, it should be something to celebrate.
Why?
Because it means we are entering the era of idea debt again. If you go and scroll social media you'll see a lot of the same type of video. Same type of trend copying. But when someone comes along and does something genuinely refreshing and new, they tend to do well.
The same is about to happen with app/software development.
And as someone who considers myself an "ideas" person I couldn't be more excited. And hopefully for anyone reading this you too can be excited as me. The distance to bringing your imagination to life is decreasing every day. It's just up to you now to imagine.
I think people hear the word AI and automatically think you wrote a 3 word prompt like "make me xx" to get what you want.
God how I wish that was the case. Actually... no I don't.
I think the hardest thing in my life right now is deciding what to work on...
Rewind 3 months to October and I was at a completely different life and headspace. I had a job, went gym and that was really it... I didn't really have side-projects or directions aside from my main career.
Fast forward to today and between my AI page - which I just found out made it to the national papers and radio (LINK) - this new app idea, upcoming job and health issues I feel like I'm in a constant state of FOMO.
I think I need to spend more time deciding how to delegate my mind and life.