Simple Knowledge

Ramblings of a maker. Backflips guaranteed.

[pvmederos]

What I used to learn basic iOS development

You want to get your mobile app idea off the ground, but can't seem to find a decent iOS developer to help you out. Yeah, sounds like everyone these days.

But you're curious. You're up for a challenge. You've got some web dev under your belt. You've done a few Treehouse courses and think you can pick up iOS development in a few months, working hard with any spare moment you may have. The very thought exhilarates you.

I've been there. I've read through at least 12 different iOS books. I've watched dozens of screencasts. I've been through at least hundreds of articles and tutorials. And don't even get me started on how many Stack Overflow threads I've slogged my way through.

But instead of providing a huge list of 100+ resources, I'm going to narrow it down to just a few.

This list is intended for people who understand development, but haven't jumped into iOS yet -- specifically Ruby / Rails and other web devs.

Big Nerd Ranch iOS Programming 3rd edition. This was incredibly fun to read and work through, unlike most other dry, boring dev books. It get's you working with code immediately, and building apps that let you explore as you learn.

Paul Hegarty's CS193p iOS course on Stanford online. I took his Fall 2011 course, but it's since been updated. This course-style was typical lecture (a bit dry and boring), but it helped build solid foundation for understanding iOS concepts such as MVC, Target Action, View hierarchies  and delegation. I took it at the same time as working through the Big Nerd Ranch book, and found it incredibly helpful.

Anypic from Parse. I didn't feel like building my own web API, so I checked out Parse. They provided an open-sourced app called AnyPic for study. Taking apart AnyPic, I used it to built an app called PhotObama to solidify the concepts I learned in BNR book and Paul Hegarty's class. (Sidenote: I also took a look at Sam Soffe's open-sourced Cheddar app for more advanced techniques.)

NSScreencast for bite-sized iOS chunks. Used in collaboration with RailsCasts for building the Rails API stuff. It's always great to watch someone walk through code, make mistakes in real-time, and explain WHY they are doing something... especially a master such as Ben Scheirman.

Local iOS developers. I have two individuals to thank for dealing with my constant questioning. Arthur Sabintsev, lead mobile dev at Shelby.tv, and Brad Herrup, lead mobile dev at ZipList. They helped me through the questions I couldn't find online, and tricky things like preparing TestFlight for test distribution, dealing with provisioning profiles, and finally launching in the App Store. They have my deepest gratitude. I would recommend checking out local Meetup groups (locally, I found a CocoaHeads DC chapter) and getting involved in your local tech scene.

That's it. And the biggest piece of advice I can bestow upon you? Don't be afraid to break things, or start from scratch. I had to rebuild several apps multiple times before things started clicking. Have patience, and good luck!

If you have any specific questions, feel free to reach out to me on Twitter @pvm.

[pvmederos]

"A true revelation, it seems to me, will emerge only from stubborn concentration on a solitary problem. I am not in league with inventors or adventurers, nor with travelers to exotic destinations. The surest - also the quickest - way to awake the sense of wonder in ourselves is to look intently, undeterred, at a single object. Suddenly, miraculously, it will reveal itself as something we have never seen before."

Cesare Pavese, a writer and philosopher, from his work Dialoghi con Leuco.

[pvmederos]

Startup Adventures: Kale

Kale is an easy way live healthier by tracking and sharing what you eat with your friends. It started as a simple text message between friends, and has evolved into an online community with an iOS client and web app for professionals.

The Challenge

Last January, a friend of mine was in a difficult spot. He despised his body. It stressed him out, made him feel terrible, and he knew he wasn’t enjoying life the way he should be.

Him and I were close friends since "high school Halo". He knew I’ve always been (unreasonably) passionate about health and fitness, so he came to me asking for help.

Obviously, my answer was “let’s do it.”

What a difference 3 months made.  I had never seen him so energized. He was very proud of what he’d accomplished. He was eating great foods and started crushing CrossFit. All in all, he lost 40lbs in total weight. We didn't track BMI, so I'm not sure how much muscle he gained, but I can assure you that much more than 40lbs of fat was burned.

A Small Habit

I’ve trained hundreds of people to become stronger, healthier, and feel happier with themselves. I know the role motivation plays in self-transformation, and I know how difficult it is to change behavior. It’s no easy feat.

There are thousands of variables that lead to success. But none may be as important as the ability to break things down into tiny habits. Chaining these tiny habits together can cause some serious behavior change.

You can’t climb a flight of stairs without taking the first step. Similarly, you can’t lose 40lbs without saying no to the first bag of Doritos.

Where It Started

The journey for my friend started when we met at a coffee shop to plan the first month. We were going to focus on changing just one, small aspect of his life. Based on his schedule, we determined that nutrition would be that one thing.

Off to Border’s we ventured. I pointed my friend to my favorite "healthy eating" book - The Paleo Diet Solution by Robb Wolf. Thus, I empowered him with tool #1 for behavior change: education.

Knowing the powerful effect that record-keeping has on progress (and inspired by Tim Ferriss’ little tip in 4-Hour Body), I asked my friend to take a photo of everything he ate. It would be a food diary of the simplest kind. No need to describe what he ate, how many calories, how many grams, or any sort of point system. Just take a photo.

I also knew the power of peer accountability. If I could hold him accountable to his peers (me), it would be one more notch in the proverbial ladder to success.

Me: “I need you to take those photos, and text me every time. To make it fair, I’ll do the same. I’ll record everything I eat, whether its a delicious rack of ribs or a bag of M&M’s, and I’ll send it your way.”

Him: “Sounds fair to me. I’m in.”

I decided to take it a step further, and join my friend in recording and sharing everything we ate.

And it worked marvelously.

By the close of the first month, my friend was shedding weight. He was already feeling better than he had since elementary school. We parted ways in May, success in hand.

Distractions and backburners

This photo-logging was a one-off event; I didn’t think much more about it until later that year.

Instead, my sights were set on:

Other ambitious ideas (workout marketplace app, PaleoPal food finder app, bite-sized educational videos for nutrition pros, etc.)

Client work (paying the bills doing design and development.)

Side projects (WordPress screencast to try bringing in a little side cash.)

All that distraction kept me from realizing what I’d found, but it kept my ideas percolating in the back of my mind.

It wasn’t until the end of summer that this photo-sharing technique reared it's beautiful head. Another friend needed help, and I wanted to track my own food to see how certain types of foods affected my energy.

Apple had just released iOS 6 beta, and with it, the ability to upload photos via Safari. This was a perfect chance for me to a.) solve my own problem, b.) help a friend, c.) build something fun to learn new tech.

I sat down on a gorgeous weekend (shame on me) and cranked out a small web app that did one thing; this app allow a person to upload a photo to a list. Basic, ugly, but functional. I showed my friend how to use it, and started using it myself.

Fast forward / spoiler: I’ve used that app to record almost every meal I’ve eaten since then.

My goal with this web prototype was test the most important assumption: that people would _consistently_ take photos of what they eat.

I didn’t care so much if it helped you eat healthier (yet), because if I couldn’t get you to record your meals how could I expect you to change your diet?

I needed a specific target. You can’t design a great product with a million people in mind. You start with one person. Then two. Then 10.

Easy decision: I would focus on people like me. People in relatively good health that can afford to splurge a bit on healthier foods. People that feel like they can be doing more to improve their health. People that shop at Whole Foods, participate in CrossFit-like activity, and own an iPhone.

I could have gone after a different segment, but after listing them out (with their pros/cons), this one made the most sense because it was the quickest route to answering my hypothesis.

Finding the first few testers

I convinced a handful of family and friends (that met my previously mentioned criteria) to join up and try recording meals. I made little improvements here and there, but I really didn’t want to invest any more time in this if it was something only I found useful.

But the proof was in the results. Each person continued to log their meals consistently. Not only that, but it actually helped them eat healthier. They would think twice about posting crap, and the app on their phone served as a reminder that they wanted to eat healthy stuff. I had a new hypothesis to prove.

Let’s take a quick break, shall we? At this point, it’s November 2012. I started thinking about this idea in the beginning of 2012. I built my first iteration of the idea in August.

What I’m trying to say is that ideas take time to grow, build, test, and learn. Don’t feel like crap when you’re a month into a project and feel like you haven’t gotten anywhere. Take your time, and build something worthwhile. Make sure you’re solving the right problem.

Business models? They can be discovered

About this time I started wondering about the possibility of creating a legitimate business around this ‘thing’. I loved helping people improve their health, and I loved nutrition, and I loved building things… so if I could find a way to start making money from this, I’d be set!

I shared my idea + progress with at least 50 people over the course of a few months. I'm talking to people  from all over: entrepreneurs, designers, developers, family members, random people, etc.

Each of them gave me interesting feedback, whether it was their perspective on the market, the product, the business model, or why they thought I should change my name from Kaletrain (long story) to just Kale.

It was incredibly important that I talked to so many people, because it really helped me narrow-in on creating a sustainable model that worked.

Talking around, I discovered that there existed a group of professionals that would quite literally squeal with delight at the opportunity to track nutrition so easily. This meant they would pay. This also meant I could make money and keep building this thing. This also meant I did a happydance:

I continued (and still continue) exploring different business models. My number one priority is to help others get healthier, but number two priority is to be able to continue offering this. Paraphrasing Zuck, I’m not building a service to make money, I’m making money to build a better service.

Sidenote: I have a huge vision. I want to change the way the world thinks about food and how it impacts their life. I want to help people live healthier, happier lives so that they can appreciate life and live it well. I want to open restaurants. I want to build sustainable farms. I want to shift pharama companies into thinking "preventative".

Build, learn, iterate

I had the itch to flex my Objective-C muscles and build out a native iOS app for this thing… mostly because I couldn’t stand how slow the web app was.

Tech sidenote: could I have built a fast, native-like web app? Sure. Did that tech interest me at the time? No way. I knew how to build fast web apps. What I really wanted to learn was a lot more iOS dev, so that’s the decision I made.

A few weekends zoomed by, and the end of December brought me my first iteration of the native iOS app. I loved it. So did my users.

Of course, there were hundreds (literally) of issues with it. It wasn’t anywhere near the level of polish I set for myself. The engineering was incredibly poor and unrefactored. The design was sloppy and inconsistent. From a technical standpoint, I hated it.

But I had a fracking product in my hand, that I had built to solve a specific problem I had, and it was absolute joy.

I set a deadline for myself: If this were to hit the App Store by the end of January, what would I absolutely need to fix in order to get it out?

Using that as a guide, I found that there wasn’t much I needed to do. I added a a few buttons to pop up UIWebViews that linked to the web app (for signup, settings, password reset, etc., the small things) and decided to push it up to the App Store.

That was quite a process, as it was my first time submitting anything to the App Store. I was incredibly nervous as I waited and waited for my app to be reviewed.

I’ve heard of the horror stories of apps being rejected for no apparent reason. I would wake up in the middle of the night and wonder “Shit, what if because I mention the word ‘subscription’ and I’m not using in-app purchases, they’ll reject and ban me from the store forever?!”

Yeah, that was stupid.

I was just impatient. Within 2 weeks, I was approved and the app was on the store.

More happy dances for everyone!

Moving forward

I’m now testing Kale with complete strangers. I am not marketing it. I am not actively reaching out to people to try/buy it.

I’m still learning, and that’s ok.

Funny story: the morning after it hit the App Store, I woke up and read an email (from the web app) letting me know a user had signed up. It was an email from Russia. I couldn’t believe I was already getting hacked!!

Oh, wait, another email, this time the user has a French email address… and a Spanish address… and finally a Gmail… wait another minute here, how are all these people signing up for my app? I haven’t told a soul?!

Turns out, the App Store has quite an extensive reach. 350+ million devices where people have access to the App Store. And it looks like people are searching for this stuff daily.

Today Kale has 65 members and over 850+ meals shared. I’m talking with gym owners and personal trainers to incorporate Kale into their client work. I’m making it easier for people to track and share their meals every day. I’m already changing people’s lives in small ways (have some wonderful responses/testimonials from my early users!)

But there’s so much learning to do.

For example, I just recently built an entire section of the web app centered around food exploration. I didn’t ask anyone if they needed, I just built it because I thought it would be awesome. I didn’t even think too much if I thought it would be useful.

Turns out I’m finding it’s not so useful. Bah. None of my users use it. Heck, I don’t even use it.

So I’m shifting my product strategy. I’m focus on having the mobile app delight my primary user (person wanting to eat healthier) and I’m shifting focus of the web app to pros that need tools to help others eat healthier.

Closing thoughts

There are many more things I want to share with you all, but I’ll leave you with a few key points:

It’s incredibly difficult to do this process alone. I’ve tried pulling people in to help me, but I haven’t found a good fit yet. Finding good people that share your passion is redonkulously difficult.

For the most part, I wake up thinking about making Kale more awesome. But there are some days where I don’t. And that’s perfectly okay.

There’s always more to learn, and many ways to do it, but building + testing a product is by far the most useful way to do it. It beats discussing an idea, or mockups, or even prototypes.

Building products take time. Be patient, and make sure you’re building something useful.

If you found any of this useful, let me know over on Twitter @pvm. If you’re interested in eating healthier, check out Kale for iOS on the App Store.

Until next time!

[pvmederos]

Be deliberate

That's not to say, "be closed minded" or "be hard headed." Those are extreme forms of inaction, the opposite of deliberation. Being closed is avoiding deliberation.

So what guides you in your decisions? Your Why. It's in the knowledge that there are no silver bullets, no secrets or shortcuts. That you need to be sincere, authentic, and honest. That what you need is not more, but better. Your Why is greater than you How. 

And with that, I leave you to reflect further on a few Big Ideas by Frank Chimero.

[pvmederos]

Front-end development walkthrough

Design and development processes are hard to teach. They're made up of so many tiny pieces, that the only way to get a firm grasp of what's going on is to experience it.

I was about to whip out a new part of the Kale webapp today when I thought about recording the experience as a screencast to share online. I learn so much when I watch others' screencast (Railscast, Ruby Tapas, NSScreencast, and many more.) I also know that my students learn best when they get to watch me and ask questions about what I'm working through.

So I, emboldened by Drew Wilson's livestream of building the Industry redesign, I decided to record my own efforts. An entire hour of it.

And guess what? It was fun. It was exceptionally fun.

The footage is quite raw. Stuff doesn't always go how I expect it, and I reveal that development isn't a straight path. It's actually a convoluted path with lots of futzing around. But there's definitely a process, and as I explained why I did things a certain way it helped me refine the way I think about it.

Here's a link to the video, and it is embedded for your viewing pleasure below:

If you watch it, and enjoy it, or have questions, or want more, or have critique for my design + dev process, please let me know. I'd love to produce more :)

You can find me on Twitter @pvm.

[pvmederos]

Startup Adventures

That thought recently crossed my mind as I was prototyping ways to display my work history across time (inspired by Marty's exquisite visualization of his work history.)

This realization revealed itself while I was bulleting out projects I've had the opportunity to work on. Some were minor things (websites for friends) and others were monumental in their scope (such as advancing humanity's physical and mental health.) Some were tiny side projects and others were full-fledged businesses. All of them commanded my time.

In any case, each came with excessive amounts of learning. Lots and lots of learning.

Last year I read Joshua Foer's "Moonwalking with Einstein", a riveting story about a journalist exploring and conquering memory. Without spoiling your fun (if you haven't had the chance to read it yet), the book offered an important takeaway:

Actively remember your experiences, for the more you remember, the longer and more fulfilling your life will be.

Taking this to heart, and coupling it with my earlier sentiment about sharing my learning experiences, I've decided to start writing about the things I've worked on.

My hopes are that

a.) My experiences might save you some pain (or at least provide you with comedic relief); and

b.) I will be able to explore, enjoy, and critically think about what worked and what didn't, so I can continue making progress.

The most difficult part of all this is where to start. Should I start at the beginning? With the most exciting tale? The most depressing? The happiest? No, no, no, no. I need a hook.

Instead, I'll start with the one that seems inconsequential, but really opened by eyes to entrepreneurship.

Stay tuned.

[pvmederos]

Be brave and test your theories

You may find yourself conflicted. On one hand, you must stand for what you believe in. On the other, you must keep your mind open to alternate possibilities. The second statement seemingly undermines the first.

"[…]the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

I have found that people with strong opinions are the ones who change the world. They forge their path, with a seemingly singular focus on what they believe is correct. But how do they know it's correct?

That is a personal question, with a very personal answer.

Every successful leader can justify their position. They must; at least for their own conscious.

"The virtue in most request is conformity. Self-reliance is its aversion." - RWE

So you ask yourself, "How can I be sure that my thought is correct? I don't want to be wrong." Ah, self-doubt. I prefer to tackle this as I would a math proof, by building a system of proofs, a series of tests.

For example, I'm a strong believer in the ancestral health movement (a more casual term: the "paleo lifestyle.") I believe it instructs the most beneficial way to nourish your body.

There are hundreds of factors that lead me to follow the ancestral health theory, but let me enumerate a bird's-eye-view of my proof:

I have studied (and participated) in other nutritional lifestyles. I have recorded objective data to show that I feel and perform better when I follow paleo guidelines compared to other diets. N=1 (sample size of 1, me.)

Other nutrition scientists are similarly arriving at these conclusions[2]. N= Thousands more than 1

I (and others) have tested our nutrition hypothesis and found weaknesses. It has led us to refinement. (Example: low-carb is not the end-all-be-all answer[3].)

Other nutritional lifestyles have been disproven. The Standard American Diet (SAD) promoted by the US FDA is the leading cause of systemic inflammation, auto-immune disease, obesity, and cardiovascular disease. Vegetarianism leads to insufficient energy and gut irritation. Low-carb diets lead to loss in performance and insane cravings. This does not mean they are completely broken. It means we need to evolve our thinking. 

So you've read through this and found a problem with my theory. Maybe you have proof (poor experimental design, contrary evidence from another test, lack of data) that contradicts one of my reasons for belief. Good. This is where balance comes in handy.

Is it possible I might change my mind later? Of course. Change is the only constant. But as it stands, based on the current information I have available, my belief that "ancestral health = good" remains firm.

By stating your belief, you learn to make it stronger. Putting your opinion in the public is scary, but it reveals weaknesses. Scared? Don't be. Now you know your weakness. Now you can crush it. 

For this exact reason, the Lean startup movement is proving successful. People are testing their assumptions earlier and more frequently. This leads to a playful exploration of truth. People are building better businesses and improving more lives.

"Play is the highest form of research." - Albert Einstein 

Now, your conviction is not merely a guess. It's no longer fragile. You've tested and grown. You've learned from mistakes. 

But beware of the opposite end of the spectrum. Avoid growing into a rock, unable to change without breaking. One day you may come across a test that challenges your beliefs. And if it proves your belief incorrect, in your eyes, you must be brave enough to concede, to start over again, to continue growing.

[1] Some advice from Jeff Bezos by Jason Fried

[2] Mark Sisson, Loren Cordain, Robb Wolf, Diane Sanfillipo, Chris Kresser, Chris Masterjohn, Sarah Fragoso… these are just a few of those I consider well-read, reasonable, and test their hypotheses well.

[3] My Thoughts On Low Carb And Paleo Episode 3: A New Hope by Robb Wolf

[pvmederos]

Delete Forever

My pops is finally switching over to Gmail. Once he wrapped his head around Labels, he couldn't believe how quickly he could take care of email. He loves it.

As I was showing him around some of your usual tasks - creating contacts, color-coding labels, inbox-zero philosophy - we came across an unusually powerful piece of micro-copy:

"Delete forever?! Whoa. That's rough. Do I really have to delete this forever?"

- Paul Sr.

Funny how I've hit delete maybe once or twice in my Gmail career, but I've never considered how that statement, Delete Forever, has impacted my ability to truly remove a piece of mail from my archive.

Beware, or behold, the power of micro-copy.

[pvmederos]

Designing Fitness for the Minimum Effective Dose

Over the past decade, software design leaders has ushered in an era of focus. Steve Jobs, Jeff Bezos, Jason Fried, Drew Houston, and smaller shops such as IA, Atebits, and RealMac Software are creating very focused products, dedicated to solving real problems and cutting out bloat. The Lean Startup movement has taken this perspective and applied it to business processes, so that we're now seeing a renaissance of really good products.

Thanks to the proliferation of idea sharing and discussion provided by the Internet, vast numbers of people are able to experience, share, and contribute back to their communities, spurring knowledge of what works and what doesn't. And doing so quickly.

Asking Why and Setting Goals

At the core of this movement is the question of "Why". Why do people need this problem solved? Why are we building this product? Why do we need this feature? Asking "why" directs the conversation towards meaning.

It's no surprise that athletes are also asking why. Why should I run for 5 miles? Why should I lift heavy weights? Why should I change my workout?

The answer is always tailored to the end-goal, the result. Why do you want to work out? Are you trying to heal yourself (lose weight, fight an auto-immune disease, treat diabetes, etc.)? Are you trying to maintain good health? Are you training for performance (competitions, sport)? 

These questions have always been asked, but now they are directing fitness programming. These questions are helping people cut out the bloat from their programs. If I don't care about running a 5K, do I really need to spend 30 minutes on that treadmill? Or, if I do want to run a 5K, how (if at all) should I be running on the treadmill?

People are busy. Most people's goals are not to Dead Lift  300lbs just to lift 300lbs. Most want to practice the olympic lifts only because it helps them build strength, which in turn makes them feel good, feel energetic, look sexy, have bragging rights, etc.

That's where the concept of Minimum Effective Dose (or MED) makes it's entrance. 

In Lean Startup terms, think of it as "what features do I need to ship my MVP?" In fitness, it's "what is the minimum amount/type of exercise I need to achieve my goals."

The Minimum Effective Dose

My first encounter with this methodology was in a behavioral health class at university with Dr. Richard Winett. Here's a man, an accomplished psychologist and doctor, into his 70s, who looks like he's in his 30s. He showed the class a few photos he's taken over the years of his training and it was the first time I've ever seen a 60-year-old man with ripped abs. His musculature was more defined than mine.

Dr. Winett has completed significant number of studies proving the efficacy and effectiveness of MED training, specifically in regards to basic resistance training (weight lifting) and interval training for your cardiovascular movements (running, rowing, cycling.)

Sidenote: He favors resistance training for health maintenance; but, of course, programs should be tailored to your goal.

Old school doctors, trainers, and coaches have had doubts but the data pouring in sufficiently cements MED training as *the* preferred fitness program.

MED in CrossFit and pop-fitness

In CrossFit's early days, they had an extreme focus on simplicity, on doing the most with the least - not just with the exercises, but what was needed to accomplish them. 

One of my favorite articles in the CrossFit Journal (Sept. 2002) walked you through building a garage gym. Talk about badass. It's amazing how much you can do with basic equipment. 

Once again, the idea was to exercise *smarter* so you could spend less time, do less movements, but still achieve your fitness goals.

That's why CrossFit has exploded. Do more with less. Sound like a familiar mantra to you product designers?

Given the success of MED, it's surprising that so few people don't know about it. Two of the higher-profile champions for MED training have been Eva Twardokens (olympic skier / lifter) and Tim Ferriss (author, 4-Hour Body.)

An important concept in MED is "downtime". Your body needs time to recover. Overtraining can cause more damage, and make life much more difficult, than under-training. 

My parkour friends would jokingly poke at me, "It seems the more time you spend playing video games, the more you improve." Little did they know...

I trained very intensely for short periods of time, and it led to huge improvements. I don't think anyone had a standing broad jump longer than mine. Why? I let my legs rest. I did nothing. (Granted, this wasn't purposefully thought out to improve my performance. I just wanted to play World of Warcraft.)

But I digress. MED is growing, and I hope this article provided a decent introduction as to why you should look into it. If you have specific questions about building MED into your fitness, reach out to me on Twitter.

Designing your life

But don't stop at fitness. Apply this MED process to nutrition. What are the foods you need to eat to achieve your goals? You might find they are vastly different than what you think. 

Apply MED to your job. Apply it to your relationships. Apply it to life. Design your life by taking a step back to understand why you're doing something, then find the most effective path to doing it.

As fitness history is proving, sometimes that path takes a lot of hard work and experimentation. Sometimes it just takes a small step back to look at the big picture.

[pvmederos]

Effective habit formation with Lift and Tiny Habits

Behavior change is easier than you think.

Following Professor BJ Fogg's "Tiny Habits" tactic, pick a behavior that you want to change and anchor it with a behavior you currently perform.

After I {your anchor here}, I will {the behavior you want to change}.

For example:

After I close my front door, I will hang my keys on the hook.

There are a few things to keep in mind when creating an effective Tiny Habit:

The anchor must be definite. A bad anchor is "After I finish eating dinner", or "After I wake up in the morning." Those are too vague. You need a definite yes/no - "After I turn my car off" (Is the car off? That's a yes or no.)

The anchor must be in a similar context to the behavior you want to change. If you want to do 20 pushups, your anchor should not be "After I get in my car." How can you do pushups in a car? Psh.

[ Want more help? Read up on the different types of behavior's and how to effectively change them with BJ Fogg's behavior model chart. ]

Here are a few good examples:

After I brush my teeth, I will floss my teeth.

After I put on my underwear, I will fold one shirt from the floor and put it in my dresser.

After I email my coworker with a new request, I will open up our product management tool and create the new request.

Have a solid behavior pinned? Great. Now you need to track it. This is where the Lift app comes in handy. Lift lets you pick a habit and track it day-to-day.

After downloading Lift, sign up, open the app, and add your new anchor. Don't worry if it's not matched - you'll create it manually:

Once you've added your habit, begin the tracking! You'll find that by combining the Tiny Habits format of hot anchor + behavior, along with Lift's motivation, you'll be flossing your teeth in no time.

Want help creating these habits? Send me a message on Twitter @pvm and we'll get to work. Add me as a friend on Lift (Settings > Add Friends > search for Paul Mederos) and I'll keep you motivated.

[pvmederos]

iOS Development is fun

This past summer marked my "let's do it" moment for iOS development. It's been charming, fulfilling a side of creativity I haven't flexed since C++ years ago.

There are ups and downs - mostly ups - to working with code that translates directly to an interface you can touch.

I wanted to share this article with you from Jack Groetzinger over at SeatGeek. He discusses the surprises when designing an iPhone app. All good stuff.

My favorite part:

On the web, a designer is often comfortable with frontend markup. HTML/CSS are accessible and easy to learn, even for those without a programming background. Objective-C is not. So on the iPhone, the technology draws a bigger barrier between the person creating the design and the person implementing it. Iterating on the interface involves more friction [4].

Here's to hoping this is remedied as time goes on. Would be nice to develop natively in a more fluid fashion.

[pvmederos]

One thousand years and beautifully crafted software

I don't care much for software development.

Let me qualify that by stating that software has been a large part of my life. 

I can trace back my coding days to age 10, hacking away via GameShark for infinite health on Battletoads. Scripts were written to automate the boring parts of RPGs (experience farming) so I could get to the fun stuff. I hacked IRC chats to learn when the enemy guild was planning on attacking our fortress in Ultima Online.

As time passed, hacking became a way to express myself; a tool, really. Web development was useful in that I could build collaborative places to share experiences with people. Whether it was a forum for my Counter-strike clan, or a CMS to share training experiences with other parkour athletes, software facilitated (and enhanced) my connections with people.

I know, I know. Most software developers already live by this code (hah.)

"Yeah, I build tools that change people's lives."

"I help my clients change the world."

But it's so easy to forget the reasons you've spent the past 6 hours bullet-proofing a method so the app doesn't crash on your user.

You start worrying about the craft, and the techniques used in building software. You start forgetting about the user, err, the person who will be using your software.

***

I had just finished listening to a (wonderful) podcast about how quickly life changes. Putting on my jacket, ready to head out to grab a coffee, I started wondering about the things I had in my apartment: furniture, books, laptops, kitchen-y stuff, etc. Was any of that stuff going to be here in 5 years? How about 50? Would the building I'm living in last 100 years? 

Will anything I create endure to 1,000 years? 

The pile of books on my desk laughed at me. Stepping back, this perspective allowed me to re-evaluate my purpose.

People generally live for good health, enjoying family/friends, and being happy in what they do. If I honestly want to change the world, I'm going to have to leave a lasting impression on how people accomplish those three things.

***

Earlier in life I was incredibly blessed to be involved with American Parkour. I was able to positively change thousands of people's lives by helping them learn parkour. They became healthier, happier, stronger, and more confident. How? I helped build a website.

I wrote code, and in a direct way, that code helped people.

Will that endure 1,000 years? Perhaps. The ripple I helped start by changing how people viewed fitness is something that will continue to propagate. Can I do better? Definitely.

I challenge you to craft something beautiful. Craft a 1,000-year piece of software.

(An aside: whether you're working on a product or providing services, the concept remains unchanged.)

[pvmederos]

8 principles for building products people want

Mike Krieger, cofounder of Instagram, shared a bit of insight today at 500 Startup's Warm Gun conference. TechCrunch posted a great summary of his talk, wherein they summarized a few points that Mike made about building products for people.

I found this to be a useful summary:

Draw on previous experience and understanding. The biggest problem is startups in search of a problem. Chase what you’re passionate about, you’ll probably already have knowledge in the space.

Have a hypothesis about how you’re different. Have a point of view about your startup. Why is there a special opportunity for this now?

Never build without sketching. Mike says him and Instagram co-founder Kevin Systrom would go to a cafe with little iPhone design pads where “we’d build and throw away entire features. You’d waste three or four pieces of paper, not three weeks of coding”.

Learn in weeklong increments. Start with a question “Will folks want to share photos on the go? Can we build filters that look good?” Spend the week investigating and by Friday have a conclusion and move on.

Validate in social situations. “We called this the Bar Exam. If you can’t explain it to the guy or girl at the bar, you need to simplify.” Don’t just test with your techy friends.

Know when it's time to move on. “I know pivot has become a dirty word, but if there’s no unanswered questions left, then it’s time to move on.”

The Wizard Of Oz techniques for social prototyping. You don’t need to build everything at first. You can be the man behind the curtain. Krieger says him and Systrom tested an early version of a feature which would notify you when friends joined the service. Instead of building it out, they manually sent people notifications “like a human bot” saying ‘your friend has joined.’ It turned out not to be useful. “We wrote zero lines of Python, so we had zero lines to throw away.

Build and maintain a constant stream of communication with your audience. Don't spend months building something without any idea if someone actually wants it.

Sounds like a solid mix of design thinking + lean startup methodologies.

[pvmederos]

Always pitch your startup

Just wanted to share a little note passed on by Eric Koester of Zaarly.

Last month, Eric was providing feedback on Cor's pitch deck. It was my first run sharing the deck with someone outside our team.

I casually remarked, "I welcome critique, but forgive my nervousness. It's really my first time pitching this thing."

To which Eric playfully countered:

"You're in a startup. You should always be pitching your startup."

Boom. Eric was right. I had been pitching to family, friends, and colleagues all along. It made the entire process much easier.

[pvmederos]

Basics of a quality partnership

As each venture passes, I learn a bit more about Why I do the things I do.

Today, Brad McCarty posted up his selection process for which startups he decides to mentor. He pulls out 5 main points (abbreviated here):

1. What Can I Offer?

[…] So I start my process by looking at where the company is right now, and seriously considering whether I have a set of skills or knowledge that can help them. If I don’t, then I immediately thank them for their interest and explain in detail why I don’t believe that I’m the best choice for their goals.

2. Am I Conflicted?

[…]The hazard here (for one example) is that I seriously dislike the daily deals system, and so I know that I can’t be a good mentor to them unless we’re talking about completely changing their approach to their business.[…]

3. Who’s Behind It?

[…] I request a story from every person on every team that I mentor. I want to know who they are and what they do, not just their idea.

4. What’s the Timeline?

In many cases I’ve had companies who have simply needed a bit of help prior to an investor pitch or demo day. These are easy. An hour or so on Skype and things are pretty much finished. But other times I have people who are still in the idea stage of a project that could literally be a hundred-year company. I have to do some soul-searching to figure out how much time I can offer them, and whether it’s mutually beneficial to start that relationship.

5. Where’s the Love?

[…]But there has to be a near-tangible connection in order for me to work with someone. If I don’t love them or their idea, why am I going to waste their time? […] without a connection it’s just a power grab and that’s the wrong way to approach mentorship in my opinion.

Interestingly enough, these same questions can be applied in any form of partnership where an investment of resources (time, money, talent) will be made.

Keep these 5 things in mind as you search for your next client, your next employee, your next big startup idea cofounder, your next investor, or your next anything. Be honest with yourself, and it will pay off.

[pvmederos]

Want to know if your idea is good? Get money.

You don't need to shop your idea around with other entrepreneurs to see if it's worth anything. All you have to do is go to a potential customer and ask them to pay.

By paying, they're not giving you some "feel good" critique... they're giving you concrete feedback on things they need to see in order to continue paying. Try it out - next time you have an idea ask someone for a measly $1. Even handing over that $1 is a great exercise in serious feedback.

I'm working on a side project for helping people stay motivated on their diets. Before I started writing a scratch of code, or sketching out any mockups, I got someone to pay me. I asked a potential customer to pay me $30/mo for the service my app would provide. The darndest thing happened - I was paid. And it lasted for 3 months.

The feedback I got was incredibly useful... not your typical "Yeah, good idea. You should do X. I'm sure you'll be the next Facebook." 

It was: "Uh, you need to give me a meal plan or I'm giving up. You better text me at 7AM and remind me to hit the gym. You better do X and Y or else I'm done. How come you didn't text me around lunch?"

I'm now working on a slightly more ambitious concierge MVP, and reaching out to my next small batch of customers. It's exciting.

Do the same with your product/service/idea. You'll find the feedback invaluable, and it may even save you an entire year of wasted time.

[pvmederos]

Live the dream

I try to stay conscious of these decisions everyday, but it's hard. I'm torn by the opportunities missed. I cry for the people I couldn't help. I feel selfish for the choices that put my vision first.

In my most painful moments, I take a step back and listen. I force myself to appreciate the moment. But 'force' you say? How so?

Go out for a walk. Get distracted. Drink a milkshake. Watch people for a few minutes. 

And then reflect on why you are doing what you're doing. 

What am I best at? 

What things seem really easy for me that are difficult for others? 

When do I shine? 

What kinds of problems do I like solving? 

How much uncertainty makes me comfortable/uncomfortable? 

How much recognition do I need? From whom? Why? 

How much do I like risk? 

Am I more conceptual or concrete? 

Do I love ideas or execution?

How am I at building relationships? 

How am I creative? 

Do I like to teach others?

I realize that I'm afforded a gift not bestowed to many. I have the opportunity to sit down and think about what I'm doing. I get to choose.

Most people keep floating down the river. They don't stop and take a look around. They can't worry about where they'll be tomorrow, because they can't even focus on today.

Put in the extra work and plan for tomorrow. Dream big, but act small. Once you start taking these tiny breaks from the hectic pace of life, you'll realize you have more freedom.

And before long, you'll be living the dream.