Goals Met: ~80%

Song Of The Month (listen while reading!): Brakhage - Stereolab - Alternative

May was both a really fun and stressful month.

There’s so much friend activities going on as the Berlin summer opens up.

Before I got everything done, I had a similar overwhelming anxiety I had last month. I basically had too much to do and not enough time for everything. I always felt guilty when I wasn’t working.

Honestly, that feeling is still here but much more soft. Think I’m just prone to it.

Anyway, about a week ago, I finished my React Meetup talk. That was my last big todo and the pressure rolled off me like a dew drop from a leaf.

It has been great to have some time this week to not have to do some side project or something. I’ve been getting a lot of my little todos completed which have been piling up.

How did I do with last month’s goals?

Music - Solo Project | Band Project

Play solo set for SE.CORP

  • Result: F

I just did not have to time to prep my set for the little festival (Crumbles Castle) we were going to. My time was too busy between the YC app, work, and the other CORP. gig.

Side Projects

Finish up modergator

  • Result: A

We just decided yesterday that we are sidelining modergator. This is a bit of a tough decision for me as I feel like modergator never got it’s time to see the light really.

This is our fault for not building the super cool thing from the start. I plan to elaborate on what I mean in a dedicated post.

While its a bittersweet decision, it is definitely sweet. I also feel relieved not to have an obligation to work on it, juggling it amongst other projects.

We’re now going to focus on our own projects and build vibestack on the side.

Finish YC App

  • Result: A

We finished our YC app for a project that sprung out of modergator, Vibestack. This is an auto-deploying & AI friendly stack for making apps faster.

The YC app took a lot of work actually, but still less time than I used to spend on it with SkinTheory. It was also easier to write & record the app due to a better suited project for YC.

Lessons here:

  • Do a rough draft of the app to align on the general idea
  • Make a cool demo
  • For the making money side, try to do a small bit of math that gets you into millions/billions

Personal

Have all vacations planned

  • Result: B

We know all the vacations we’re going to do, but only switzerland is planned. Takes a while to plan a full trip though. It will be completely brainless once we’re their though which is the nice trade off.

Read refactoring UI

  • Result: A

I have been reading it, but slowly. All set up on the ipad.

What else got done last month?

  • I held my first technical talk at the React Berlin meetup!

    I am very excited about this. The talk’s title was: “Designing a Devtool Saas in 2025: A Design Ride-along”.

    I planned on working on it way in advance, but time got away from me, and I only started working on it the day before. I ended up making this huge presentation that taught the fundamentals on next.js and was crap. I got a bit of an anxiety attack and had to go to sleep because I was scared I’d have nothing for the talk.

    Laura calmed me down though, and in the morning I had a beautiful return to my original vision. The talk was just about my stack used in modergator, and which technologies were “hot or not”.

    People loved it and loads of people came up and talked to me after. I think it was extremely good for my personal goals but also will look good on my CV.

  • Went to Crumbles Castle festival, a very neat DIY festival in a broken old castle north of Berlin about 1.5 hrs.

  • Played a gig with CORP. in Juntion Bar.

    Went pretty well with the new songs, ended up staying out with Garvan and another band friend, Vidhy.

  • Saw Stereolab in concert, and they were amazing.

  • Partied on a boat in the Spree with my friend Chris

  • Put new pickups in my guitar for the first time

    Went pretty well, but also the bridge pickup didn’t fit perfectly 😬

  • May Day was a mad one, as always

  • Got a lot of little todos done in the last few days since I’ve had more time

  • I posted my windows 98 CORP. band website and it went a bit viral on Hackernews!

    This is awesome and plays into my larger goals. I’ve never really got upvotes on hackernews, but they loved this fun, whimsical thing.

    I ended up getting ~8k visitors to the site.

Lessons Learned?

  • Don’t code/design/ideate too much on a project. You will become attached to the code and never be able to bin it.
  • Code the cool thing first. Not the easy thing on a project. The cool demo is what matters to hook people.
  • Make cool, whimsical tech and hackernews will like it. Ideally its super simple and cool, not super technical. Which should make it easy for you!
  • Distribution above all else for new ideas

What are my goals for next month?

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.