Notepad Calculator is a web-app for mixing plain text notes with calculations. Inspired by the idea of Soulver (I hadn’t actually used Soulver when I first created it). I open sourced the very first version of it back in 2015. At that point it was a very simple static web-app with no back end. Later that year I added a backend to the version hosted at notepadcalculator.com, but not the open source…
It’s been an eventful year for Readlang ! This a quick update of the last year running the bootstrapped language learning web-app which I bought back from Duolingo in February . Goal After buying Readlang back, I set its goal to be: The best reading tool in the world for language learners Furthermore, I want it to stick around for the long term. To stay profitable. I’m not looking for an exit. As…
I wrote about my language learning startup, Readlang , back in 2014 , and then again in 2016 , both times attracting attention on Hacker News, where my story of a struggling one-man startup seemed to resonate. Well, it’s now 7 years later, and a bunch has happened since, so it’s time for an update… The Aquihire My Readlang story caught the attention of Duolingo and I went to work there in 2016.…
And no, not a fancy smart watch. This is a throwback to a time when a state-of-the-art watches had LCD screens and black resin straps… Yes, an old-school CASIO. The name, W-202-1AVEF, like the watch itself, is the antithesis of Apple’s clean aesthetic, proudly advertising its features: WATER RESIST 50m! ILLUMINATOR! But this is a style of watch has stood the test of time, and now has a certain…
After a few years of radio silence, I’m back! Back to tinkering around, bootstrapping my own software projects, and sharing my journey. I had an amazing time at Duolingo over the past few years, worked on some awesome projects, and learnt a ton. While there I got to see the company grow from 70 to over 500 employees, from almost zero revenue to over $200M / year and a successful IPO last year. It…
Less than two months ago 3 Years as a One Man Startup became my most read blog post by far. I ended it with: Readlang is ramen profitable, helping more people every day, and there’s still plenty of room for improvement. Of course I’m continuing. It reached the #1 slot of Hacker News and got over 59K views in just 2 days. HN sometimes gets a bad rap but I found the responses overwhelmingly positive…
I’ve spent most of the past 3 years creating one language learning web-app, Readlang . --> Readlang browser extension in action. Learn about Readlang I wrote about my struggle to get this off the ground almost two years ago and was thrilled with the response on Hacker News and elsewhere. I’ve been meaning to write a followup for a long time, but would always convince myself to wait… Just a couple…
Laptops have two big usability problems: Small displays - After using large desktop monitors, working on a laptop feels cramped and unproductive for anything beyond simple web browsing. Terrible ergonomics - Your head is tilted down to view the screen, which can lead to back problems after long periods. A common solution is to use a separate keyboard and mouse and raise the entire laptop using a…
I’m 16 months into my language learning startup, Readlang . So far I’ve been working completely alone, learning a lot about web development, design and marketing as I go. I’d like to say that I’m learning about running a business too, but calling it a business sounds like a stretch, since it’s still only making pocket change. This is going to be brutally honest , I’m not afraid to share numbers.…
Chrome for iOS has been my main browser since I bought my iPad over a year ago. I love the way it syncs my bookmarks and history with my desktop Chrome browser and its familiar UI. But one thing that occasionally annoys me is its speed. From the start Chrome was marketed as the fast browser but so often on iOS it feels like I’m browsing in bullet time. I blamed it partly on having the first iPad…
I’m spending the summer in Madrid at the moment. It’s a great place to work on Readlang. It keeps me in language learning mode, and it’s way cheaper to live than my old home of London, which is handy when trying to bootstrap a business. The one problem is the heat, my friends back in the UK are complaining about the 30 degree heat wave there at the moment, well that’s nothing compared to the 42…
Busuu noticed that I have a gmail address and presented a “Go to your email” link taking me straight to gmail. It’s a nice touch. Pity about the dodgy CSS in the spam folder message though.
Wow, woke up this morning to see this at my readlang.com Google Analytics: Wait a minute… just noticed the date :-)
These libraries share an ‘almost perfect’ quality of being compact, well designed, and I wouldn’t start a large project without them. jQuery The DOM manipulation library. Underscore.js Just a clean set of functions for manipulating Arrays, Objects and some other general things that feel like an extension of the language. The kind of stuff you need do all the time. It’s amazing how much more…
It’s been close to a year now since I made the switch from desktop to web development, and there’s no turning back! Here’s some thoughts. Why the switch? It’s pretty clear that the vast majority of new application development is moving towards the web. The advantages are: Frictionless - No installation or updating required, just open the URL No Releases - All users are guaranteed to be using the…
I started a new position a few months ago. Its going OK but the boss is kind of an asshole. He likes it when I get a new feature working quickly, but then expects that kind of progress all the time. Sure, he understands technical debt but still gets pissed off when he can’t see any visible progress he can play with. I try to explain that taking things slowly now will pay off in the long run but…
I quit full time employment at Mendeley in Feb 2012 to move to Spain, learn web development, and work full time on my own projects. I’d actually quit the same job in the same company 2 years before, that time to make a film and travel the world. So it probably didn’t come as a complete shock to my colleagues. The plan was set back temporarily when my manager asked if I’d be interested in working…