Why make a social media app in 2023. Why make anything? Is it to SHIP, scratch an itch, give the people something, prove someone wrong, make money? I don’t know but this is either the best cop out ever or something much deeper. I started thinking about what this app would not be. No ads! No discovery! Wow you can save photos! When you define yourself by what you’re not maybe it just ends up being…
Trust and safety is the most important aspect of any marketplace with the the least amount of innovation.
I first became interested in building a solar still after reading John Perlin’s excellent book Let It Shine: The 6,000-Year Story of Solar Energy (the above image can be found on page 45 of the book). It’s a really amazing book, starting with solar homes in ancient China and going all the way to the invention of silicon solar cells. There’s a great story in the book about Mària Telkes and the…
My project I’m about to shutdown is a marketplace app for paintball players to buy/sell/trade gear. It never attracted a huge amount of users (~80 daily active users at the end), but when it felt time to shutdown the idea to pull it from the App Store without warning felt wrong. People could be in the middle of a deal and not have a way to wrap up. Also I wanted to have some closure with a project…
This is a short list of some of my favorite articles I’ve ever read online. These are mostly all Long Reads™️ so strap in if you click any of the links.