Goals Met: ~90%

Song Of The Month (listen while reading!): HOT TO GO! - Chappell Roan - Girl Power Pop

April and May are great months in Berlin. A good portion of the public holidays are crammed into these 2 months. I’ve definitely been taking advantage of that, but I probably could have been a bit more productive.

I’ve had this strange and chronic anxiousness the last week or 2. It’s an anxiousness that I find I’m prone to.

It happens when I feel like I have something to do and keep avoiding it. Kind of like a procrastination anxiousness, but it isn’t from laziness as much as being overwhelmed by where to start, or by not feeling productive in general. I think it also stems from not putting new stuff out in public, that’s what makes me feel productive.

Right now, I’ve been getting this anxiousness from the YC app we want to complete for a new project, Vibestack. My partner has a bit more work done on it, and has a bit more confidence in it that I, and I’m a bit paralyzed as a result of how to jump in.

I have a feeling of I need to complete things and I can’t. So, I think the result is I need to complete or throw some things our that are on my plate.

  • Modergator
  • Vibestack
  • My Solo Music
  • I also have this interest in starting some new and very simple projects, that came up in the last month.

How did I do with last month’s goals?

Side Projects

Do enough marketing to say we can end modergator or stick with it

  • Result: D

We’ve paid for a lot of ads with modergator and we’ve still had 0 people make an API call.

I built out way to moderate images by dragging and dropping in the UI. I thought it’d be quite easy, it ended up taking a full 2 weeks and it’s still not out.

I think a learning here is that your really need to build community first for a dev tool. It’s hard to get people to use or see your tool, so you need to make content that would naturally be ok on reddit or other developer communities first. Or you need to have an in with some business that needs this kind of work done immediately.

There are 2 main routes to go with modergator:

  • Super easy post db for app developers
    • This potentially hard to do and get people to integrate anyway. Is it exciting?
  • Self learning moderation from what your users post
    • This is fundable but still unlikely to get people to try it

I think you really have to go distribution over product first.

Is there anything left to try with modergator?

  • Release our s3 integration product
  • Post to producthunt / hackernews

I don’t even feel comfortable to release it to hackernews, I don’t think it’s cooked enough. Not a novel enough idea yet, just a moderation api.

I could see though:

  • Show HN: Modergator - Backend For User Communities
  • Show HN: Modergator - Self Learning Moderation For Your App’s Community

So should I build one of these? or just throw it out?

Fill out YC App for modergator

  • Result: C

Started this, but now we’re still figuring out a new idea to try to get funding with.

Personal

Finish US Taxes

  • Result: A

What a pain in the ass.

Update My Investments

  • Result: B

What else got done last month?

  • I built a new website for my band: corp.band
  • Cut my own hair, not amazingly, but could’ve been worse
  • Started learning a really fun game called Hell Let Loose
  • Made my first coding youtube video for modergator

Lessons Learned?

  • Be in a community before building too much. Plan your post that a community will upvote. Then build. Optionally, reach out to people who need work done and build it for them and charge it as a product subscription.
  • Build smaller and simpler things first. Check your scope, modergator sounded easy and was much more complex. The simple thing also wasn’t that interesting, needs to be simple and useful.
  • Online gaming is much more fun with a good community, and some are actually nice and teach you stuff instead of berating you for being bad.
  • You learn so much more by doing something you suck at, rather then just watching. Don’t be afraid to do the thing your bad at in front of everyone, that’s how you learn. (i.e Being a squad leader in Hell Let Loose)
  • Build monoliths as much as possible in the beginning. Don’t get fancy and build out microservices.

What are my goals for next month?

  • Finish up modergator
  • Finish YC App
  • Play solo set for SE.CORP
  • Have all vacations planned
  • Read refactoring UI

You can’t connect the dots going forward, only back.

Steve Jobs

Make sure these goals trend the dots towards my goal, being in front of the right people, focusing time where it matters, etc.

What are my 2024 (year) goals?

  1. 🟡 Release/Work on 3 startup projects. Build them faster, throw them out faster.
    • I need to build quickly and release quickly. I need to clear time in my schedule for this.
    • Related lifetime goal: Run my own business.
  2. 🟡 Show off 12 items of my work in public. 1 per month atleast.
    • I should build my projects in public. I should have my music out in public more. I should write blog posts. I enjoy the feedback.
    • Related lifetime goal: Run my own business / Have 100k fans of my music.
  3. 🟡 Curate and keep to a more regular routine. 6hr side projects. Wake up by 8am.
    • Atleast 6hrs per week on music / side projects.
      • Decide on Sundays what I want to achieve with the week
    • Wake up by 8 regularly and work on my projects in the morning.
      • I do better work in the morning and need to keep this routine. Otherwise I’m tired at night and just watch tv.
    • Reduce my obligations/stress so that I have time to work on projects / music. I feel stressed with all the things I must do. I don’t have time for my passions then, and I also can’t stop and smell the roses in life.
    • Define what I’ll achieve each week.
  4. 🔴 Release 4 SE.CORP songs. Set up a repeatable way to get listeners / viewers.
  5. 🟡 Develop a better musical ear
    • I’d like to more readily be able to find notes, tab out songs, and jam over other songs

What are my lifetime goals?

  1. Run my own business that allows me to: support myself, be relaxed, be innovative, love my work, travel.
  2. Backpack for 6 months through Asia.
  3. Have 100,000 fans of my music.
  4. Be relaxed and be excited to wake up to my life every day, and these days are meaningful long-term.