Been doing some Sunday experimentation with the Buttondown API. 🙂

When you really enjoy writing but just haven’t felt inspired and so you’re thinking it’d be a good idea to start a new blog/newsletter because this one will be different, you know?

Has anyone ever seen an otherwise-free iOS app offer a “patronage” subscription? No additionally functionality, but rather a sort of recurring tip jar kind of thing?

The target market for my next projects is indie devs; target platform is desktop. Considering a Mac app, but maybe devs would prefer a web app?

Building performant, secure web apps feels like a lot more work, and I don’t like writing/maintaining JavaScript, or storing other people’s data. 🤔

There’s an aside in today’s issue of Two Common Cents Club that I really think I should expand on:

“I firmly believe that chasing 30–40% year-over-year growth necessarily comes at a cost to your customers, your colleagues, and your community.”

I’ll expand on this in future article, but what are your thoughts?

Change my mind.

I’m strongly considering making Thought Detox free (with a tip jar). Maybe randomly show a “Leave a tip” button after you release a thought. 🤔

For the business website I’ve decided that I’m going to archive the blog and, moving forward, rely on the newsletter (which has a web archive with RSS feed) for outgoing comms.

Has anyone else tried this? Any pitfalls or perils I should consider?

Indie devs that are building apps as a side-business thing, what do you struggle with most as far as making progress?

(For me, it’s a toss-up between making the time and building a community.)

Over on Two Common Cents Club, I’ve published a review of Paul Jarvis’ “Company of One” — a book that’s given me a fair bit of food for thoughtt in running my own microbusiness.

www.twocommoncents.club/book-revi…

Over at Two Common Cents Club, I’ve just added discounts on some of the tools and services I use to help run Dropped Bits, my indie app business—email, newsletters, domains, and web hosting. Aiming to add more soon!

Club Members can access them here: www.twocommoncents.club/member-di…

Well, that’s frustrating.

Coffee turned out extra tasty this morning. Not quite sure what I did differently. 🙂

I don’t really need a better browser, I need a less-shitty internet

It is a universal truth that upon joining a new Slack, one must first join all channels related to to cat photos. Only then can the work begin.

Currently wondering whether there’s a correlation between how long movies have gotten and the drop in box office revenues 🤔

The Canada Goose store in downtown Montreal has a cold room set to –20°C, with fans that can be turned on to simulate wind chill. This lets customers see how a coat will perform in winter climes.

This is attention to detail. This is customer obsession.

I love that the 80,000 Hours website includes an “Our Mistakes” page — a breakdown of mistakes they made and what they learned from it.

I should add one to 2cc.club, first entry being “didn’t check that payments worked properly.”

The goal with twocommoncents.club, then, is to help you mitigate the risks of building a meaningful microbusiness —and maximize its chances of success!— through entrepreneurial cooperation and knowledge sharing.

I feel weird sharing goals like “build a successful business” because it feels… I dunno, shallow?

Thing is, I’m really talking about building financial independence. Entrepreneurship’s scary, but rewarding, because you build a thing you believe in, and it brings value both to you and your customers.

I founded Dropped Bits 12 years ago today. In that time, it’s become a profitable little side hustle, but it’s not what I’d consider a successful business.

In 2024, I aim to change that, and I’m launching a new site to explain how (and keep me accountable).

Trying out Obsidian. I signed up for a years of sync (there’s a special right now if you sign up before 2024) and I’m slowly migrating notes from various other apps/services.

Key is that it does native Readwise highlight sync (well, with a plugin). Seems like a nicely built app, too.

Me, doing the Huberman morning walk in Montreal at 7AM in December.

(I don’t think it’s working)

If you’re a solopreneur or run a little side business, do you do any kind of financial planning/forecasting as the fiscal year comes to an end? As you start planning for a new product/service launch?

Why or why not?

If you’re like me and can’t ever figure out what’s selected in the tv UI at a glance, enable this in the Settings app:

Accessibility > Display > Focus Style > High Contrast

It’ll put a white border around the focused element on the screen.