Val Sopi
The Benefits of NOT Being Online
<p>Hey, you probably know me as the founder of <a href="https://claritask.com/">Claritask</a> or as...
over a year ago
<p>Hey, you probably know me as the founder of <a href="https://claritask.com/">Claritask</a> or as a Podcaster where I nakedly talk about my <a href="https://bootstrapping-saas.transistor.fm/">Bootstrapping Saas</a> journey.</p>
<p>Since early this summer I took a sabbatical...
mtlynch.io
Resurrecting a Dead Library: Part One - Resuscitation
When I arrived on the scene, it wasn’t a pretty sight.
I saw formerly active, cheerful Python...
over a year ago
When I arrived on the scene, it wasn’t a pretty sight.
I saw formerly active, cheerful Python classes in a sorry state of atrophy, having gone years without exercise. Functions at all levels of abstraction were crammed together inhumanely under the label utils. I tried to read...
mtlynch.io
Rough Experiments with Llamafile and LLaVA 1.5
I read Simon Willison’s post about using Llamafile to experiment with open-source chatbots / LLMs....
a year ago
I read Simon Willison’s post about using Llamafile to experiment with open-source chatbots / LLMs. He made it sound so easy, so I decided to try it out.
One of my longtime hobby projects is WanderJest, a site for finding live comedy. One of the challenges of that site is that the...
Build In Public...
Building In Public 101
Here's a crash course on the rising trend of building in public
a year ago
Here's a crash course on the rising trend of building in public
Scott DeLong
Weeks 48-52: My Final Update
It's been fun (kinda). Here's where it ended up and where I'm going next.
The post Weeks 48-52: My...
a year ago
It's been fun (kinda). Here's where it ended up and where I'm going next.
The post Weeks 48-52: My Final Update appeared first on Scott DeLong.
Max Rozen
2018: Reflections on trying to start an internet business
A review post on what I've done this year in terms of trying to start an Internet business
over a year ago
A review post on what I've done this year in terms of trying to start an Internet business
Max Rozen
Strangers from the internet paid for my MacBook Air: on my 4th year of indiehacking
In which I finally make money from strangers off the internet.
over a year ago
In which I finally make money from strangers off the internet.
mtlynch.io
Testing Ansible Web App Roles with Selenium
Overview Ansible is an excellent tool for deploying web apps. Ansible allows us to define web apps...
over a year ago
Overview Ansible is an excellent tool for deploying web apps. Ansible allows us to define web apps in terms of the different “roles” that compose our web app (e.g. web server, database server, application server). As our roles and the interactions between them become more...
Max Rozen
Books every developer should read
Whether you want to start a career as a developer, or have been a developer for 20 years, you should...
over a year ago
Whether you want to start a career as a developer, or have been a developer for 20 years, you should check out these books.
mtlynch.io
Building a Homelab VM Server
Note: This article describes a VM build in 2017.
For the 2020 version, see, “Building a Homelab VM...
over a year ago
Note: This article describes a VM build in 2017.
For the 2020 version, see, “Building a Homelab VM Server (2020 Edition).”
Overview I do the bulk of my home development work in virtual machines (VMs). My main desktop PC is a Windows 10 machine, so I had always run my VMs from...
mtlynch.io
Aardvark'd: The Fog Creek Documentary, 18 Years Later
In 2005, Joel Spolsky’s software company, Fog Creek, filmed a documentary about their summer...
a year ago
In 2005, Joel Spolsky’s software company, Fog Creek, filmed a documentary about their summer internship program. The film is called Aardvark’d: 12 Weeks with Geeks, and it follows four college interns as they design, implement, and launch a completely new software product.
That’s...
mtlynch.io
Reset Month
No update this month I’m skipping my normal retrospective this month, as I sold TinyPilot and am...
6 months ago
No update this month I’m skipping my normal retrospective this month, as I sold TinyPilot and am taking some time to figure out my next project.
Retrospectives will hopefully resume in a month or two!
mtlynch.io
TinyPilot: Month 37
New here?
Hi, I’m Michael. I’m a software developer and the founder of TinyPilot, an independent...
a year ago
New here?
Hi, I’m Michael. I’m a software developer and the founder of TinyPilot, an independent computer hardware company. I started the company in 2020, and it now earns $60-80k/month in revenue and employs seven other people.
Every month, I publish a retrospective like this...
mtlynch.io
Deep Work by Cal Newport
This was my favorite book of 2018. It profoundly impacted the way I approach my work and organize my...
over a year ago
This was my favorite book of 2018. It profoundly impacted the way I approach my work and organize my time. After reading it, I find it easier to maintain concentration and to prioritize important tasks. It was also the final push I needed to un-addict myself from social media.
mtlynch.io
What I've Been Doing Since Quitting My Job
I worked as a software engineer for Google from 2014 to 2018. On February 1st, I quit my job and...
over a year ago
I worked as a software engineer for Google from 2014 to 2018. On February 1st, I quit my job and formed my own single-person software company.
That was four months ago, so I thought I’d share an update on how things are going.
What’s it like not having a job? That’s the most...
Dominik Sobe's...
My experience living and working in South East Asia
a year ago
Max Rozen
How do you use variables in the HTML webpack outputs?
Looking to inject variables from CI into the HTML your webpack build outputs? It's relatively simple...
over a year ago
Looking to inject variables from CI into the HTML your webpack build outputs? It's relatively simple to do.
mtlynch.io
Retrofitting Apps for Cloud Storage with Zero Code Changes
I recently installed a media sharing app to one of my servers. It was simple to install, but it hid...
over a year ago
I recently installed a media sharing app to one of my servers. It was simple to install, but it hid a dastardly trap for long-term maintenance.
Every time a user uploaded a file, the web app saved it to the local filesystem. If I ever blew away the server and rebuilt it, I’d have...
High Signal
Black Friday 2023 deals for entrepreneurs
Here's a list of some of the best Black Friday discounts for entrepreneurs and developers. This page...
a year ago
Here's a list of some of the best Black Friday discounts for entrepreneurs and developers. This page contains affiliate links.
Courses
Grow and Monetize your Newsletter - 60% off
Monetize Your Newsletter - 60% off
Grow Your Newsletter - 60% off
WesBos - Beginner JavaScript -...
Max Rozen
OnlineOrNot Diaries 14
Back to regular programming.
a year ago
Back to regular programming.
mtlynch.io
Reset Month
No update this month I’m skipping my normal retrospective this month, as I sold TinyPilot and am...
5 months ago
No update this month I’m skipping my normal retrospective this month, as I sold TinyPilot and am taking some time to figure out my next project.
Retrospectives will resume in July.
Tony Dinh's...
Feb 2023 updates: Twitter API, ChatGPT API, Hackaigon.
It was a such a short month!
a year ago
It was a such a short month!
Max Rozen
OnlineOrNot Diaries 16
On content marketing, starting a YouTube channel, and improving status pages
a year ago
On content marketing, starting a YouTube channel, and improving status pages
Dominik Sobe's...
You want everything at once – me too
11 months ago
Val Sopi
What it's like to make and launch a product, for me.
<p>I've been making Saas products since 2013. My very first product was a project management tool...
over a year ago
<p>I've been making Saas products since 2013. My very first product was a project management tool that included invoicing, time-tracking, and a plethora of other functions.</p>
<p>The idea was to be better than others at cheaper prices. Whatever "better" and "cheaper"...
mtlynch.io
Paternity Leave: Month 1
Highlights My wife and I became parents. I realized that caring for a newborn takes more time than I...
3 months ago
Highlights My wife and I became parents. I realized that caring for a newborn takes more time than I expected. I’m unsure what to do with my partially-finished Hacker News course. Goal Grades At the start of each month, I declare what I’d like to accomplish. Here’s how I did...
mtlynch.io
I Sold TinyPilot, My First Successful Business
My first two years as a bootstrapped founder went poorly. I could barely find any paying customers,...
6 months ago
My first two years as a bootstrapped founder went poorly. I could barely find any paying customers, and all of my businesses lost money. I began questioning my decision to quit my cushy Google job.
In mid-2020, yet another of my businesses had flopped, and it was only kind of...
Tony Dinh's...
Nov 2024: My first million!
$1M in annual revenue, B2B sales, SOC 2, resellers, grow team, and other updates in November 2024.
a month ago
$1M in annual revenue, B2B sales, SOC 2, resellers, grow team, and other updates in November 2024.
mtlynch.io
Building a Homelab VM Server (2020 Edition)
For the past five years, I’ve done all of my software development in virtual machines (VMs). Each of...
over a year ago
For the past five years, I’ve done all of my software development in virtual machines (VMs). Each of my projects gets a dedicated VM, sparing me the headache of dependency conflicts and TCP port collisions.
Three years ago, I took things to the next level by building my own...
Grow With Less
The Overwhelmed Business Owner's Guide to SEO
What do you do when you spent hours writing awesome articles only to realize your mom and your best...
over a year ago
What do you do when you spent hours writing awesome articles only to realize your mom and your best friend Dave are the only people reading them?
That’s the question I asked myself 7 years ago after writing dozens of articles for my new blog French Together.
I followed 10,000...
mtlynch.io
TinyPilot: Month 25
Highlights My blog post about redesigning the TinyPilot website became my second most popular...
over a year ago
Highlights My blog post about redesigning the TinyPilot website became my second most popular article of all time I’m exploring ways to preserve more knowledge on my blog I’ve lowered TinyPilot’s prices in an effort to reduce inventory Goal Grades At the start of each month, I...
mtlynch.io
Why does a extraneous build step make my Zig app 10x faster?
For the past few months, I’ve been curious about two technologies: the Zig programming language and...
9 months ago
For the past few months, I’ve been curious about two technologies: the Zig programming language and Ethereum cryptocurrency. To learn more about both, I’ve been using Zig to write a bytecode interpreter for the Ethereum Virtual Machine.
Zig is a great language for performance...
mtlynch.io
My First Year as a Solo Developer
On February 1st, 2018, I quit my job as a software engineer at Google to start my own single-person...
over a year ago
On February 1st, 2018, I quit my job as a software engineer at Google to start my own single-person software company. It’s exactly one year later, so it feels like an apt time to reflect on how that decision affected my finances, lifestyle, and happiness.
How I made and spent...
Tony Dinh's...
March 2022: $5,316 MRR and my journey to 30K followers
Hello everyone! 👋 I’m happy to share that this newsletter has now reached 2,000 subscribers. Yay!...
over a year ago
Hello everyone! 👋 I’m happy to share that this newsletter has now reached 2,000 subscribers. Yay! 🥳 I’m very grateful to have your support, and I hope what I shared here has been helpful for you! Let’s dig in. Here is what happened in March 2022. 📊 Reached $5K MRR, but it's...
High Signal
Making $1m ARR with social media scheduling
Davis is the co-founder of OneUp, a tool for scheduling social media posts across a range of...
11 months ago
Davis is the co-founder of OneUp, a tool for scheduling social media posts across a range of platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn and many more. The business is now doing over $1m in annual revenue! Davis joined me for an interview about joining the...
mtlynch.io
Hiring Content Writers: Part Five - Terminating Writers
Overview: Hiring Content Writers Part One: Finding Writers Part Two - Creating a Detailed Job...
over a year ago
Overview: Hiring Content Writers Part One: Finding Writers Part Two - Creating a Detailed Job Description Part Three: Screening Candidates Part Four - Working with Writers Part Five - Terminating Writers (this section) If you’ve followed this guide, you’ve hired writers on a...
Dominik Sobe's...
My Indiehacker Journey: Part One.
over a year ago
Build In Public...
How Twitter helped me with the 1st ever BUILD IN PUBLIC NFT 💎
Happy Friday everyone, Below is the story of: how I found an artist to collaborate and mint my 1st...
over a year ago
Happy Friday everyone, Below is the story of: how I found an artist to collaborate and mint my 1st ever NFT project on the theme of “build in public” how it all came together on Twitter DMs how we plan to auction/sell it to a thoughtful buyer how we intend to donate all the...
Max Rozen
OnlineOrNot Diaries 8
Building a new feature in a couple of weeks.
a year ago
Building a new feature in a couple of weeks.
Max Rozen
OnlineOrNot Diaries 17
On learning screencasting, cleaning up tech debt, and focus
a year ago
On learning screencasting, cleaning up tech debt, and focus
mtlynch.io
TinyPilot: Month 41
New here?
Hi, I’m Michael. I’m a software developer and the founder of TinyPilot, an independent...
a year ago
New here?
Hi, I’m Michael. I’m a software developer and the founder of TinyPilot, an independent computer hardware company. I started the company in 2020, and it now earns $80-100k/month in revenue and employs six other people.
Every month, I publish a retrospective like this one...
Max Rozen
Guidelines to improve your React folder structure
People often say to 'move files around until it feels right', but what does 'right' even mean? Let's...
over a year ago
People often say to 'move files around until it feels right', but what does 'right' even mean? Let's learn in this article.
Val Sopi
A change in how I share my open finances and a new self–imposed public challenge
<p>
A bit over a year ago, I wrote <a href="https://valsopi.com/setting-sail">a post</a> in...
a year ago
<p>
A bit over a year ago, I wrote <a href="https://valsopi.com/setting-sail">a post</a> in which I talked about embarking on a journey to financial freedom. Specifically speaking — I took out a personal loan so I could focus on solely building products.
</p><p>
With that...
mtlynch.io
TinyPilot: Month 38
New here?
Hi, I’m Michael. I’m a software developer and the founder of TinyPilot, an independent...
a year ago
New here?
Hi, I’m Michael. I’m a software developer and the founder of TinyPilot, an independent computer hardware company. I started the company in 2020, and it now earns $60-80k/month in revenue and employs seven other people.
Every month, I publish a retrospective like this...
Grow With Less
Stoicism: Can the Ancient Philosophy Make You a Better Business Owner?
I have always considered philosophy to a strange topic full of mysterious sentences and complicated...
over a year ago
I have always considered philosophy to a strange topic full of mysterious sentences and complicated concepts.
So I was pretty surprised when I read Epictetus’ Manual for the first time.
The advice in the book was not only understandable but also surprisingly actionable.
I have...
mtlynch.io
Hiring Content Writers: Part One - Finding Writers
Overview: Hiring Content Writers Part One: Finding Writers (this section) Part Two - Creating a...
over a year ago
Overview: Hiring Content Writers Part One: Finding Writers (this section) Part Two - Creating a Detailed Job Description Part Three: Screening Candidates Part Four - Working with Writers Part Five - Terminating Writers There are thousands of working freelance writers in the...
mtlynch.io
TinyPilot: Month 43
New here?
Hi, I’m Michael. I’m a software developer and the founder of TinyPilot, an independent...
10 months ago
New here?
Hi, I’m Michael. I’m a software developer and the founder of TinyPilot, an independent computer hardware company. I started the company in 2020, and it now earns $80-100k/month in revenue and employs six other people.
Every month, I publish a retrospective like this one...
Max Rozen
Understanding Integration Testing in React
Moving from Enzyme to React Testing Library is rough. You can't do a lot of things you used to, and...
over a year ago
Moving from Enzyme to React Testing Library is rough. You can't do a lot of things you used to, and there are new best practices. Let's learn them!
Max Rozen
OnlineOrNot Diaries 19
Refactoring the business entity, thoughts on marketing and building
9 months ago
Refactoring the business entity, thoughts on marketing and building
Val Sopi
Summer 2023 finances
<p><a href="https://twitter.com/valsopi/status/1680156076036030464" target="_blank">Monthly tweet...
a year ago
<p><a href="https://twitter.com/valsopi/status/1680156076036030464" target="_blank">Monthly tweet update</a></p><p>Looking back at the tough June, I thought I should clear up a few things as the much better July is almost over.</p><ul><li><b>🫣 Bummer:</b> June tanked with...
Max Rozen
OnlineOrNot Diaries 10
On re-rearchitecting.
a year ago
mtlynch.io
Automatically Deploying ClipBucket with Ansible
Overview ClipBucket is an open source video hosting platform, similar in functionality to YouTube or...
over a year ago
Overview ClipBucket is an open source video hosting platform, similar in functionality to YouTube or Vimeo. In this guide, we’ll walk through how to deploy ClipBucket to a server using the configuration management tool, Ansible.
tl; dr - Just Install ClipBucket I don’t care about...
mtlynch.io
Join My Six-Week Blogging Course
I’m teaching a small-group, live course about attracting readers to your blog through Hacker News....
6 months ago
I’m teaching a small-group, live course about attracting readers to your blog through Hacker News. Sign up by Monday (June 24th) to reserve your slot.
Why take a class with me? My blog receives 300k-500k unique readers per year. After Google, Hacker News is the primary way that...
Max Rozen
How I became a React developer
On how I left a 'prestigious' consulting job to start from scratch as a React developer
over a year ago
On how I left a 'prestigious' consulting job to start from scratch as a React developer
Build In Public...
What if you could edit like Spielberg? 🎥
Meet Eddie AI—your new editing partner ready to bring cinematic flair to every cut!
2 months ago
Meet Eddie AI—your new editing partner ready to bring cinematic flair to every cut!
Max Rozen
OnlineOrNot Diaries 7
In which I pay for people to check out OnlineOrNot to test my landing pages.
a year ago
In which I pay for people to check out OnlineOrNot to test my landing pages.
mtlynch.io
Takeaways from Cory Zue's May 2023 Livecoding Session
My friend Cory Zue has been publishing his live coding sessions, so I decided to watch one and...
a year ago
My friend Cory Zue has been publishing his live coding sessions, so I decided to watch one and record my notes.
My background vs. Cory’s I’ve read a lot of Cory’s blog. We’re both Python developers, but he specializes in Django, whereas I’ve always worked with thinner frameworks...
Max Rozen
Start your own app with React, GraphQL and Serverless architecture: Part 1 - Server-side Rendering,...
Start your own app with React, GraphQL and Serverless architecture: Part 1 - Server-side Rendering,...
over a year ago
Start your own app with React, GraphQL and Serverless architecture: Part 1 - Server-side Rendering, Serverlessly!
Scott DeLong
Weeks 44-47: The end is near
As this challenge comes to an end, it feels good to be at a point where I'm about as immune as...
a year ago
As this challenge comes to an end, it feels good to be at a point where I'm about as immune as possible to looming threats
The post Weeks 44-47: The end is near appeared first on Scott DeLong.
Grow With Less
My SEO traffic collapsed so I built a SaaS (Early 2022 retrospective)
Sometime last year, I decided to turn the French Together course (a self-study French course for...
over a year ago
Sometime last year, I decided to turn the French Together course (a self-study French course for English speakers) into a language learning app.
This was done in 3 steps:
Learning how to code Building the French Together app Launching Here is how I went about each step and what I...
mtlynch.io
WanderJest: Month 2
Highlights I’m betting big on a publicity campaign that’s at risk of failing spectacularly....
over a year ago
Highlights I’m betting big on a publicity campaign that’s at risk of failing spectacularly. WanderJest finally earned its first dollar of revenue, but in a way that is definitely unsustainable. Poor work habits have left me with the most stress I’ve felt in a year. Goal Grades At...
Val Sopi
Giving blogstatic a real chance
<p>I have never really given blogstatic a real chance to succeed.</p>
<p><b>Up to now, I've said a...
over a year ago
<p>I have never really given blogstatic a real chance to succeed.</p>
<p><b>Up to now, I've said a version of any of the following.</b></p>
<ul><li>"It's a side project..."</li><li>"I did it in ~30 hours..."</li><li>"It's growing slowly without much marketing..."</li></ul>
<p>And...
mtlynch.io
TinyPilot: Month 17
Highlights TinyPilot’s sales jumped to $57k, and it might be sustainable. I’m just about to launch...
over a year ago
Highlights TinyPilot’s sales jumped to $57k, and it might be sustainable. I’m just about to launch TinyPilot’s new product and branding. I reduced Google Cloud Platform fees by 90% on my side projects. Goal Grades At the start of each month, I declare what I’d like to accomplish....
mtlynch.io
TinyPilot: Month 24
Highlights TinyPilot reached an all-time high of $74k in revenue. I’m trying to figure out the best...
over a year ago
Highlights TinyPilot reached an all-time high of $74k in revenue. I’m trying to figure out the best approach to software licensing. I’m still searching for a web framework I can love. Goal Grades At the start of each month, I declare what I’d like to accomplish. Here’s how I did...
Tony Dinh's...
Jun 2023: How I work with employees
Some quick updates from me in June 2023
a year ago
Some quick updates from me in June 2023
mtlynch.io
TinyPilot: Month 23
Highlights The TinyPilot website redesign is finally done. I’ve learned to make Debian packages, and...
over a year ago
Highlights The TinyPilot website redesign is finally done. I’ve learned to make Debian packages, and it’s surprisingly simple. I’ve given up on Vue and frontend frameworks in general. Goal Grades At the start of each month, I declare what I’d like to accomplish. Here’s how I did...
mtlynch.io
Is It Keto: Month 6
Highlights Is It Keto’s user visits plateaued in February, but that still represents progress....
over a year ago
Highlights Is It Keto’s user visits plateaued in February, but that still represents progress. Revenues fell substantially and missed targets for the month. I’m going to shelve the project unless I achieve my targets for March. Goal Grades At the start of the month, I laid out...
mtlynch.io
Is It Keto: Month 3
Prior to February 2019, I published all my retrospectives on Indie Hackers:
Is It Keto Month 3:...
over a year ago
Prior to February 2019, I published all my retrospectives on Indie Hackers:
Is It Keto Month 3: Returning to a Site that Grew without Me
mtlynch.io
The Perils of Outsourcing Your MVP
A few months ago, I had a brilliant idea for a website. Then, I had an even brillianter idea: build...
over a year ago
A few months ago, I had a brilliant idea for a website. Then, I had an even brillianter idea: build the website, but outsource all the work.
Every great website starts with an MVP: the minimum viable product. It demonstrates the idea in its simplest form to test whether anyone is...
mtlynch.io
Zestful: Month 5
Prior to February 2019, I published all my retrospectives on Indie Hackers:
Zestful Month 5:...
over a year ago
Prior to February 2019, I published all my retrospectives on Indie Hackers:
Zestful Month 5: Launched, but Still No Customers
mtlynch.io
My Eight-Year Quest to Digitize 45 Videotapes (Part Two)
In part one, I described my arduous journey to capture my old home movies in digital format and...
over a year ago
In part one, I described my arduous journey to capture my old home movies in digital format and divide them into individual scenes. After processing all the clips, I wanted the experience of exploring them to be as simple as looking up clips on YouTube. Because these videos are...
mtlynch.io
Projects
TinyPilot (2020 - present) TinyPilot is a small, inexpensive device that gives you remote access to...
over a year ago
TinyPilot (2020 - present) TinyPilot is a small, inexpensive device that gives you remote access to servers before they even boot.
Refactoring English (2021) Refactoring English: Effective Writing for Software Developers is my upcoming book that teaches developers practical tips...
mtlynch.io
My Second Year as a Solo Developer
Two years ago, I quit my developer job at Google to build my own software business. A year later, I...
over a year ago
Two years ago, I quit my developer job at Google to build my own software business. A year later, I posted an update about my finances, happiness, and lessons learned. Today marks the end of my second year, so it’s time for another update.
How I made and spent money Metric 2018...
High Signal
$200k from selling Google Sheets tutorials
Andrew Kamphey is a creator who has made $200k from teaching people how to use Google Sheets over...
a year ago
Andrew Kamphey is a creator who has made $200k from teaching people how to use Google Sheets over the past three years. Think 'Miss Excel' but he's a beardy guy who doesn't dance in his videos. In this interview Andrew shares his marketing wins,
High Signal
$100k from building a SaaS boilerplate for Django
Cory Zue has built a living making Django SaaS boilerplates for founders. It means you can get...
a year ago
Cory Zue has built a living making Django SaaS boilerplates for founders. It means you can get started with your SaaS much quicker
Scott DeLong
Weeks 22-25: It’s A Growth Hacker’s Paradise
Growing and monetizing the email list is what these weeks were all about. Plus, things I would do...
a year ago
Growing and monetizing the email list is what these weeks were all about. Plus, things I would do differently.
The post Weeks 22-25: It’s A Growth Hacker’s Paradise appeared first on Scott DeLong.
Build In Public...
Build In Public: Spotlight Edition (Andrew Barry)
Hey everyone 👋 Hope you had a great week. In today’s edition, I wanted to feature Andrew Barry....
over a year ago
Hey everyone 👋 Hope you had a great week. In today’s edition, I wanted to feature Andrew Barry. Andrew’s a friend/creator/former colleague that you may already be familiar with on Twitter. I’ve admired his work from afar and always enjoy conversing with him on topics of...
mtlynch.io
GUIs are Antisocial
Last week, I was listening to the CoRecursive podcast interview with PowerShell’s lead architect,...
5 months ago
Last week, I was listening to the CoRecursive podcast interview with PowerShell’s lead architect, Jeffrey Snover.
One moment in that interview has been stuck in my head the whole week is when Snover argues that graphical user interfaces (GUIs) are inherently “antisocial”:
I...
mtlynch.io
What Got Done - Month 2
Highlights What Got Done received 32 new user sign-ups (growth of about 5x since May) Zestful may be...
over a year ago
Highlights What Got Done received 32 new user sign-ups (growth of about 5x since May) Zestful may be rising from the dead, with four new inbound customer inquiries. Is It Keto earned $184, and Zestful earned $26, making it my highest revenue month since quitting my job. Goal...
mtlynch.io
Staying Motivated by Sending Status Updates to Nobody
At my last job, status meetings with my manager were outstandingly efficient. He never ran me...
over a year ago
At my last job, status meetings with my manager were outstandingly efficient. He never ran me through the typical drill of listing list off everything I did since our last meeting. Instead, we jumped right to the meaty topics of career growth, team development, and challenging...
mtlynch.io
TinyPilot: Month 9
Highlights I plan to open TinyPilot’s first real office next month. TinyPilot’s revenues continue to...
over a year ago
Highlights I plan to open TinyPilot’s first real office next month. TinyPilot’s revenues continue to plummet, but I’m learning to accept it. I’m inching ever closer to the freedom to take short vacations. Goal Grades At the start of each month, I declare what I’d like to...
I Have No Idea What...
A Summary of My Learnings On How To Find Startup Ideas
I’ve been searching for new startup ideas and problem areas to tackle. It’s quite difficult to do,...
over a year ago
I’ve been searching for new startup ideas and problem areas to tackle. It’s quite difficult to do, especially when you begin adding constraints to the criteria such as “Am I excited about this problem space?”. The internet is filled with helpful ways to come up with startup ideas...
High Signal
Building a mentor marketplace to 20,000 users
Mentorcruise is an impressive mentor marketplace which has grown to 20,000 users.
a year ago
Mentorcruise is an impressive mentor marketplace which has grown to 20,000 users.
mtlynch.io
What I Learned About Upwork from a Bumbling Scammer
For years, I’ve hired freelancers through a site called Upwork. The site attracts many different...
over a year ago
For years, I’ve hired freelancers through a site called Upwork. The site attracts many different professionals, so I’ve used it to find everything from cartoonists to software developers to copy editors. Some were great, some were disastrous, but none of them had ever tried to...
mtlynch.io
My Sixth Year as a Bootstrapped Founder
Six years ago, I quit my job as a developer at Google to create my own bootstrapped software...
10 months ago
Six years ago, I quit my job as a developer at Google to create my own bootstrapped software company.
For the first few years, all of my businesses flopped. The best of them earned a few hundred dollars per month in revenue, but none were profitable.
Halfway through my third...
Build In Public...
How I Built This In Public: Michelle Marcelline
Immigrating from Indonesia to the US and building Typedream in public
a year ago
Immigrating from Indonesia to the US and building Typedream in public
mtlynch.io
Running NixOS on Proxmox
One of the stumbling blocks I ran into when trying out NixOS was that I couldn’t run it under...
a year ago
One of the stumbling blocks I ran into when trying out NixOS was that I couldn’t run it under Proxmox, my preferred virtual machine server.
Through some trial and error, I figured out how to install NixOS as a Proxmox container.
Download the NixOS container image First, download...
mtlynch.io
Educational Products: Month 2
Highlights I learned a few techniques that make it easier for me to record videos for my course....
4 months ago
Highlights I learned a few techniques that make it easier for me to record videos for my course. I’ve decided I don’t need to use a Merchant of Record service. I’ve integrated htmx into my standard toolkit for making web applications. Goal Grades At the start of each month, I...
High Signal
The Ultimate Guide to Social Proof
Social proof is a powerful concept in marketing. It's the idea that as consumers, we are influenced...
6 months ago
Social proof is a powerful concept in marketing. It's the idea that as consumers, we are influenced by what others do, especially people we admire. If you have ever seen a website mention its number of users, a review from a customer, or company logos, you've
Build In Public...
Still on the fence on learning no-code? What's stopping you?
It’s not an understatement when I say no-code practically changed my life and my career. In 2018, I...
over a year ago
It’s not an understatement when I say no-code practically changed my life and my career. In 2018, I was a different KP. Stuck at a corporate job where I felt like I was a tiny cog in a huge wheel, surrounded by uninspiring peers who I didn’t resonate with, bringing home a...
mtlynch.io
Hiring Content Writers: Part Two - Creating a Detailed Job Description
Overview: Hiring Content Writers Part One: Finding Writers Part Two - Creating a Detailed Job...
over a year ago
Overview: Hiring Content Writers Part One: Finding Writers Part Two - Creating a Detailed Job Description (this section) Part Three: Screening Candidates Part Four - Working with Writers Part Five - Terminating Writers A clear, concise job description shows candidates that you’re...
mtlynch.io
Using Nix to Fuzz Test a PDF Parser (Part Two)
This is the second half of a post about using Nix to automate a fuzz testing workflow.
At this...
2 months ago
This is the second half of a post about using Nix to automate a fuzz testing workflow.
At this point, I can run honggfuzz against pdftotext, but it takes a bit of manual effort to get things started. I promised in part one that I’d get all of the installation and fuzzing down to...
mtlynch.io
Fooled by Randomness by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
The book contains many interesting examples of common biases and logical fallacies, but it’s buried...
over a year ago
The book contains many interesting examples of common biases and logical fallacies, but it’s buried in a lot of bluster and fluff about how smart the author is. While it was likely groundbreaking when it was published in 2004, its ideas have since permeated into the mainstream....
Build In Public...
How I Built This In Public: Noah Bragg
Lessons from building and growing Potion to its acquisition all in public
a year ago
Lessons from building and growing Potion to its acquisition all in public
High Signal
10 websites for selling your startup
If you are wanting to sell your startup but aren't sure where to do that, here are all your options....
11 months ago
If you are wanting to sell your startup but aren't sure where to do that, here are all your options. There's lots of choice here for you
mtlynch.io
TinyPilot: Month 6
Highlights TinyPilot had another record-breaking month, with $15k in revenue. I sold $1.1k in...
over a year ago
Highlights TinyPilot had another record-breaking month, with $15k in revenue. I sold $1.1k in pre-orders for my first ever video course. My attempt to slow down sales ended up doing the opposite. Goal Grades At the start of each month, I declare what I’d like to accomplish....
Tony Dinh's...
2023 Recap
I turn 30, built a new app, and other updates in December 2023
12 months ago
I turn 30, built a new app, and other updates in December 2023
👋 Hello, I'm...
Bootstrapping to €600k MRR and getting killed by Shopify. The story of Checkout X.
...
a year ago
mtlynch.io
My Fifth Year as a Bootstrapped Founder
Five years ago, I quit my job as a developer at Google to create my own bootstrapped software...
a year ago
Five years ago, I quit my job as a developer at Google to create my own bootstrapped software company.
For the first few years, all of my businesses flopped. None of them earned more than a few hundred dollars per month in revenue, and they all had negative profits.
Halfway...
Max Rozen
Fixing Race Conditions in React with useEffect
If you're using useEffect to fetch data, chances are you've either run into a race condition, or...
over a year ago
If you're using useEffect to fetch data, chances are you've either run into a race condition, or have one without realising it. Let's learn how to fix them in this article.
Max Rozen
How to handle server-side rendering in React
Getting server-side rendering to work in React is quite a hassle if you don't know what you're...
over a year ago
Getting server-side rendering to work in React is quite a hassle if you don't know what you're doing. Let's make it easier.
Val Sopi
Marching into March
<p>February was yet another month with unexpected expenses on top of my planned budget of -2500....
a year ago
<p>February was yet another month with unexpected expenses on top of my planned budget of -2500. They were again family related.</p><p>The lesson here is that my personal budget is way too tight without much margin for any unexpected expenses, especially with two growing kids and...
mtlynch.io
TinyPilot: Month 16
Highlights I announced a new product and then discovered it was a mistake. I simplified the...
over a year ago
Highlights I announced a new product and then discovered it was a mistake. I simplified the TinyPilot website to focus on a single device. I tried taking my first real vacation from TinyPilot with mixed results. Goal Grades At the start of each month, I declare what I’d like to...
mtlynch.io
Experimenting with Lllama 3 via Ollama
I saw that Meta released the Llama 3 AI model, and people seem excited about it, so I decided to...
8 months ago
I saw that Meta released the Llama 3 AI model, and people seem excited about it, so I decided to give it a try.
I don’t have much experience running open-source AI models, and I didn’t see a lot of documentation about how to run them. I tinkered with it for a few hours and got...
mtlynch.io
End-to-End Testing Web Apps: The Painless Way
Okay, I know you’re skeptical. Other guides have promised you painless web app tests only to reveal...
over a year ago
Okay, I know you’re skeptical. Other guides have promised you painless web app tests only to reveal that their solution requires some hyper-specific tech stack or a paid third-party service. I won’t do that to you.
This guide provides a straightforward and flexible template for...
High Signal
Selling Unicorn Platform for $800k
I was thrilled to see recently Alex Isora make $800k by selling Unicorn Platform, a website builder,...
a year ago
I was thrilled to see recently Alex Isora make $800k by selling Unicorn Platform, a website builder, as I previously interviewed him about learning to code without a CS degree. Alex has stayed on at Mars, the company which has acquired him and unlike a lot of founders, will stay
mtlynch.io
TinyPilot: Month 7
Highlights TinyPilot achieved astonishing growth in revenue, jumping from $15k in December to $42k...
over a year ago
Highlights TinyPilot achieved astonishing growth in revenue, jumping from $15k in December to $42k in January. Most of TinyPilot’s sales came from a single positive YouTube review. TinyPilot is experiencing growing pains as I scramble to meet demand. Goal Grades At the start of...
Max Rozen
Understanding when to use useMemo
If you've just learned what useCallback is, you might be wondering why on earth useMemo exists, and...
over a year ago
If you've just learned what useCallback is, you might be wondering why on earth useMemo exists, and why we don't use it everywhere.
mtlynch.io
KetoHub: Month 2
Prior to February 2019, I published all my retrospectives on Indie Hackers:
KetoHub Month 2
over a year ago
Prior to February 2019, I published all my retrospectives on Indie Hackers:
KetoHub Month 2
Dominik Sobe's...
What I learned bootstrapping 8+ software products
3 weeks ago
Build In Public...
Build In Public - Community Edition #1 (Aug 2021)
Hey everyone 👋 Build In Public is no more just a hot trend, it’s a movement. Thousands of founders,...
over a year ago
Hey everyone 👋 Build In Public is no more just a hot trend, it’s a movement. Thousands of founders, creators, and builders are embracing the principles and building in public especially on Twitter. On that note, get ready for a quick community round-up highlighting launches and...
mtlynch.io
TinyPilot: Month 45
New here?
Hi, I’m Michael. I’m a software developer and the founder of TinyPilot, an independent...
8 months ago
New here?
Hi, I’m Michael. I’m a software developer and the founder of TinyPilot, an independent computer hardware company. I started the company in 2020, and it now earns $80-110k/month in revenue and employs six other people.
Every month, I publish a retrospective like this one...
mtlynch.io
TinyPilot: Month 28
New here?
Hi, I’m Michael. I’m a software developer and the founder of TinyPilot, an independent...
over a year ago
New here?
Hi, I’m Michael. I’m a software developer and the founder of TinyPilot, an independent computer hardware company. I started the company in 2020, and it now earns $60-80k/month in revenue and employs six other people.
Every month, I publish a retrospective like this one...
Tony Dinh's...
Jun 2022 updates, $100K ARR, reflections, and a screenshot app!
Hello everyone 👋 It’s Tony again with another monthly update! 😄Thanks for reading Tony Dinh’s...
over a year ago
Hello everyone 👋 It’s Tony again with another monthly update! 😄Thanks for reading Tony Dinh’s Newsletter! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work. Phu Yen Province, Vietnam Welcome 313 new subscribers since my last issue! 👋 If you are new here: My name is...
Grow With Less
10 Proven Meta Descriptions Templates Top Blogs Use to Get More Clicks
I face the same problem every time I need to write a meta description.
I have no idea where to...
over a year ago
I face the same problem every time I need to write a meta description.
I have no idea where to start.
Should I first mention the problem the article is solving? Should I use a call-to-action? Is it bad to repeat what I already wrote in the headline?
To find out, I analyzed...
mtlynch.io
Bowling Alone by Robert D. Putnam
The idea of social capital has interested me for a long time, but when I finally sat down to read...
over a year ago
The idea of social capital has interested me for a long time, but when I finally sat down to read this book, it was painfully dry. It offers an eye-opening investigation into the many ways that civic engagement has declined in the US, but it was a real slog to get through.
Tony Dinh's...
July 2022: Aftermath of a viral tweet
I gained 1,500 new users, but how many will convert? And other updates in July 2022...
over a year ago
I gained 1,500 new users, but how many will convert? And other updates in July 2022...
High Signal
Selling a website after learning to code with AI
Andrew Davison is a British founder who built and sold an app by learning to code with ChatGPT. He...
a year ago
Andrew Davison is a British founder who built and sold an app by learning to code with ChatGPT. He had a problem with exporting multiple tables from Airtable databases so he built a tool to help him automate the process. Andrew used new tools like ChatGPT and Replit to a)
mtlynch.io
TinyPilot: Month 39
New here?
Hi, I’m Michael. I’m a software developer and the founder of TinyPilot, an independent...
a year ago
New here?
Hi, I’m Michael. I’m a software developer and the founder of TinyPilot, an independent computer hardware company. I started the company in 2020, and it now earns $80-100k/month in revenue and employs six other people.
Every month, I publish a retrospective like this one...
Tony Dinh's...
Oct 2021 Updates: Vietnam, DevUtils 1.12, and Magic Sidebar ✨
👋 Hello everyone, it’s Tony again. Lots of things happened in October 2021. I released DevUtils...
over a year ago
👋 Hello everyone, it’s Tony again. Lots of things happened in October 2021. I released DevUtils 1.12, worked on a new exciting feature for Black Magic, moved back to Vietnam, and other small updates. Just want to say this quickly: Thank you all so much for following my journey!...
Max Rozen
What it means to not test implementation details in React
Most guides to testing React these days preach: 'Test functionality, not implementation details'....
over a year ago
Most guides to testing React these days preach: 'Test functionality, not implementation details'. This article explains what that means, and how to do it.
mtlynch.io
The Mom Test by Rob Fitzpatrick
A quick, practical guide to interviewing customers during the early stages of a new product idea.
I...
over a year ago
A quick, practical guide to interviewing customers during the early stages of a new product idea.
I expected basic advice about how you shouldn’t ask customers leading questions, but Fitzpatrick goes much more in-depth. The book made me recognize weaknesses in my approach to...
Val Sopi
I'm done making
<p><em><strong>UPDATE:</strong> This post got such a great response that it inspired me to start...
over a year ago
<p><em><strong>UPDATE:</strong> This post got such a great response that it inspired me to start playing and building <a href="https://claritask.com">Claritask</a> while documenting it out in the open</em></p>
<p>—</p>
<p>I'm going to let you in on a great secret.</p>
<p>Do you...
Max Rozen
Indiehacking: a review of my 3rd year
A review of my third year of trying to start an internet business.
over a year ago
A review of my third year of trying to start an internet business.
Val Sopi
Year 2300
<p><i>From all that is currently happening to us, I want to believe that we’re at the dawn of a new...
5 months ago
<p><i>From all that is currently happening to us, I want to believe that we’re at the dawn of a new era </i>✊</p><hr><p>I am predicting year 2300 to be the one when we’re living the progressive dreams of today.<br></p><p>By then we have reached a new...
mtlynch.io
Traction by Gabriel Weinberg and Justin Mares
This book was thoroughly underwhelming. Dozens of people have recommended it to me in the past...
over a year ago
This book was thoroughly underwhelming. Dozens of people have recommended it to me in the past couple of years, and I don’t understand the hype. It has some insightful ideas, but they’re buried under questionable advice and poor writing.
Tony Dinh's...
My new product on Product Hunt today
Not the usual monthly update, just a small update about Xnapper - my latest product
over a year ago
Not the usual monthly update, just a small update about Xnapper - my latest product
mtlynch.io
Run a Simple Go Web Service on NixOS
I have a few toy utility apps that I run 24/7 on cloud infrastructure. One example is PicoShare, a...
2 weeks ago
I have a few toy utility apps that I run 24/7 on cloud infrastructure. One example is PicoShare, a simple web app that makes it easy for me to share files with friends and teammates.
There are several convenience apps I would run if it were easy to run them constantly. But...
mtlynch.io
Per-Project Development Environments with Nix
Nix is a broad product with a steep learning curve. It’s capable of everything from installing a...
a year ago
Nix is a broad product with a steep learning curve. It’s capable of everything from installing a single package to managing every file and application on your OS.
One useful thing you can do with Nix, even as a complete beginner, is manage your dev environments.
Nix lets me have...
Max Rozen
Start your own app with React, GraphQL and Serverless architecture: Part 3 - Let's build a GraphQL...
Start your own app with React, GraphQL and Serverless architecture: Part 3 - Let's build a GraphQL...
over a year ago
Start your own app with React, GraphQL and Serverless architecture: Part 3 - Let's build a GraphQL backend!
Dominik Sobe's...
The Six Best Practices for launching on Product Hunt in 2021
over a year ago
mtlynch.io
Use a Nix Flake without Adding it to Git
When I work in my own repositories these days, I always add a Nix flake to the repo so that I can...
11 months ago
When I work in my own repositories these days, I always add a Nix flake to the repo so that I can spin up a working development environment on any system with a single command.
What do I do when I’m working in someone else’s repo and they don’t want to adopt Nix flakes?
Normally,...
mtlynch.io
Key Mime Pi: Turn Your Raspberry Pi into a Remote Keyboard
Recent versions of the Raspberry Pi support USB on-the-go (USB OTG), which allows them to...
over a year ago
Recent versions of the Raspberry Pi support USB on-the-go (USB OTG), which allows them to impersonate USB devices such as keyboards, thumb drives, and microphones. To take advantage of this, I made an open-source web app that turns my Pi into a fake keyboard. I call it Key Mime...
Max Rozen
Using Tailwind CSS with React and CSS-in-JS
If you're already using a CSS-in-JS library, trying out Tailwind CSS with your existing app might be...
over a year ago
If you're already using a CSS-in-JS library, trying out Tailwind CSS with your existing app might be much easier than you think.
Scott DeLong
AI-Integrated Search: The Latest Way Big Tech Is Stealing From And Crushing Small Businesses
It's Big Tech's latest way to steal the hard work of publishers, and there's nothing you can do...
a year ago
It's Big Tech's latest way to steal the hard work of publishers, and there's nothing you can do about it except adapt.
The post AI-Integrated Search: The Latest Way Big Tech Is Stealing From And Crushing Small Businesses appeared first on Scott DeLong.
Max Rozen
Keeping up with React Libraries
React libraries are hard to keep track of. This article attempts to put the ones worth talking about...
over a year ago
React libraries are hard to keep track of. This article attempts to put the ones worth talking about on one page.
Build In Public...
Build In Public - Announcements Edition 🚀
Hey everyone, It’s been a while since I sent a new edition of this newsletter. There’s a good reason...
over a year ago
Hey everyone, It’s been a while since I sent a new edition of this newsletter. There’s a good reason behind my delay. Let me share what I’m up to via a string of fun announcements today. Let’s get to it. BIG ANNOUNCEMENT: I launched something fun for the larger founder ecosystem...
mtlynch.io
Hiring Content Writers: Part Three - Screening Candidates
Overview: Hiring Content Writers Part One: Finding Writers Part Two - Creating a Detailed Job...
over a year ago
Overview: Hiring Content Writers Part One: Finding Writers Part Two - Creating a Detailed Job Description Part Three: Screening Candidates (this section) Part Four - Working with Writers Part Five - Terminating Writers Screening writing candidates requires you to make decisions...
Max Rozen
Understanding your webpack config
webpack is a complicated beast. The more you get to know it though, the better it can serve you.
over a year ago
webpack is a complicated beast. The more you get to know it though, the better it can serve you.
Max Rozen
A Guide to Commonly Used React Component Libraries
There are a *lot* of React Component libraries to choose from. This guide attempts to put them all...
over a year ago
There are a *lot* of React Component libraries to choose from. This guide attempts to put them all on one page.
👋 Hello, I'm...
Work-n-travel: A practical guide for staying productive while exploring the world.
...
a year ago
mtlynch.io
Hiring Content Writers: Part Four - Working with Writers
Overview: Hiring Content Writers Part One: Finding Writers Part Two - Creating a Detailed Job...
over a year ago
Overview: Hiring Content Writers Part One: Finding Writers Part Two - Creating a Detailed Job Description Part Three: Screening Candidates Part Four - Working with Writers (this section) Part Five - Terminating Writers You can’t judge a writer’s skill accurately until they...
mtlynch.io
My First Impressions of Nix
Nix is a tool for configuring software environments according to source files. I’ve been hearing...
a year ago
Nix is a tool for configuring software environments according to source files. I’ve been hearing more and more about Nix on Hacker News and Twitter. The idea of it appeals to me, so I’ve been tinkering with it over the past few weeks.
My history with infrastructure as code Ten...
Max Rozen
OnlineOrNot Diaries 13
I tried building a monolith.
a year ago
I tried building a monolith.
Val Sopi
High productivity in a workday
<p>On a given workday, you only have a few hours at your disposal to create.</p>
<p>Commit to...
over a year ago
<p>On a given workday, you only have a few hours at your disposal to create.</p>
<p>Commit to relaxed focused work in two blocks of 3-hours each.</p>
<p>Take a 1-hour break in between. Meditating 11 minutes. Walking the rest.</p>
<p>Drink plenty of water. Coffee and...
mtlynch.io
TinyPilot: Month 27
New here?
Hi, I’m Michael. I’m a software developer and the founder of TinyPilot, an independent...
over a year ago
New here?
Hi, I’m Michael. I’m a software developer and the founder of TinyPilot, an independent computer hardware company. I started the company in 2020, and it now earns $60-80k/month in revenue and employs six other people.
Every month, I publish a retrospective like this one...
Build In Public...
Build In Public - Community Edition (Sep 2021)
Hey everyone 👋 Let’s open this edition with a powerful quote: On that note, get ready for...
over a year ago
Hey everyone 👋 Let’s open this edition with a powerful quote: On that note, get ready for September’s round-up highlighting key launches and wins from founders, makers, and creators in the #buildinpublic community. Without further ado, let’s get rolling.
mtlynch.io
Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell
Like all Gladwell books, Outliers does an excellent job of building an engaging narrative out of...
over a year ago
Like all Gladwell books, Outliers does an excellent job of building an engaging narrative out of topics that the average person might otherwise find inaccessible. His exploration into the causes of airline crashes was especially fascinating.
While it provides a nice collection of...
Tony Dinh's...
Sep 2022: I'm on Indie Hackers Podcast!
Also in September: $12K MRR, built a small new app, SEO, and other updates...
over a year ago
Also in September: $12K MRR, built a small new app, SEO, and other updates...
Build In Public...
Meet Turf
Imagine having a Swiss Army Knife for your community use cases
5 months ago
Imagine having a Swiss Army Knife for your community use cases
High Signal
500,000 users per month after quitting his developer job
Today's interview is with Ruurtjan, a Dutch founder whose two sites get 500,000 users a month....
a year ago
Today's interview is with Ruurtjan, a Dutch founder whose two sites get 500,000 users a month. Ruurtjan quit his job to go all in on his business
Grow With Less
Statistics That Prove Blogging Is Not Dead Yet
Is blogging dead?
That’s a question thousands of people ask every day.
I was curious to know the...
over a year ago
Is blogging dead?
That’s a question thousands of people ask every day.
I was curious to know the answer so I looked for statistics
Let’s settle the debate once and for all!
Is blogging dead? Let’s look at trends! According to Google Trends, “blogging” peaked between 2004 and...
Max Rozen
How to choose a median result when running Google Lighthouse multiple times
Running Google Lighthouse five times will half the variability of your test results. So how do you...
over a year ago
Running Google Lighthouse five times will half the variability of your test results. So how do you figure out which run is the median?
mtlynch.io
Designing the Ideal Bootstrapped Business
Jason Cohen’s 2013 Microconf talk, Designing the Ideal Bootstrapped Business with Jason Cohen, is...
a year ago
Jason Cohen’s 2013 Microconf talk, Designing the Ideal Bootstrapped Business with Jason Cohen, is one of the most valuable resources I’ve found for bootstrapped founders. I watched it for the first time in 2020, and I’ve revisited it repeatedly since then.
If you’re new to the...
Tony Dinh's...
$500K milestone – my reflections after 1 year of building Typing Mind
Also in this issue: one-off purchase vs. subscription, selling Xnapper, and other updates from me in...
10 months ago
Also in this issue: one-off purchase vs. subscription, selling Xnapper, and other updates from me in Feb 2024
Dominik Sobe's...
Next Milestone: HelpKit hit $2000 MRR
over a year ago
Grow With Less
The Best Headline A/B Testing Tools (And Why You May Not Want to Use Them)
What if you could bring 28% more visitors to your blog and get 75% more shares just by rewriting...
over a year ago
What if you could bring 28% more visitors to your blog and get 75% more shares just by rewriting your blog post titles?
That’s exactly what content marketing agency Priceonomics did.
And today, I would like to show you how you can do it too by reviewing the main AB testing...
mtlynch.io
TinyPilot: Month 10
Highlights TinyPilot has its first official office space. I tried a marketing experiment that...
over a year ago
Highlights TinyPilot has its first official office space. I tried a marketing experiment that flopped. Designing IT infrastructure for a new office is fun. Goal Grades At the start of each month, I declare what I’d like to accomplish. Here’s how I did against those...
mtlynch.io
The Goal by Eliyahu M. Goldratt
The Goal is an attempt to reevaluate business management from first principles. The book explains...
over a year ago
The Goal is an attempt to reevaluate business management from first principles. The book explains Goldratt’s Theory of Constraints, which states that in any business, the sole determinant of output is the bottleneck resource. To grow, a business has to identify its bottlenecks...
mtlynch.io
My Fourth Year as a Bootstrapped Founder
Four years ago, I quit my job as a developer at Google to create my own self-funded software...
over a year ago
Four years ago, I quit my job as a developer at Google to create my own self-funded software company.
For the first few years, all of my businesses flopped. They all operated at a loss, and none of them earned more than a few hundred dollars per month in revenue.
Halfway through...
Max Rozen
OnlineOrNot Diaries 20
Dipping my toe in enterprise sales
8 months ago
Dipping my toe in enterprise sales
Tony Dinh's...
It's the exciting time of the year!
This is not the monthly update, just a quick announcement 😄
over a year ago
This is not the monthly update, just a quick announcement 😄
mtlynch.io
Should I Invest in iBonds?
In a recent Hacker News thread about preparing financially for a possible recession, a commenter...
over a year ago
In a recent Hacker News thread about preparing financially for a possible recession, a commenter suggested investing in iBonds.
iBonds are one of those investments I’ve seen in passing every time I read a personal finance book, but I’ve never paid much attention to them.
When I...
Max Rozen
How code splitting can make your React app load significantly faster
Chances are, your React app's bundle is much, much larger than it needs to be.
over a year ago
Chances are, your React app's bundle is much, much larger than it needs to be.
mtlynch.io
Want to Buy Is It Keto?
I’m looking for someone to take over my old content website, Is It Keto.
Is It Keto is for sale
I...
5 months ago
I’m looking for someone to take over my old content website, Is It Keto.
Is It Keto is for sale
I worked on the site on and off between 2019 and 2020, but I no longer have time for it, so it’s just been neglected for the past several years. Still, it consistently earns $1-2k/yr...
Val Sopi
Get Lucky
<iframe src="https://share.transistor.fm/e/eb7cbb63" width="100%" height="180" frameborder="0"...
over a year ago
<iframe src="https://share.transistor.fm/e/eb7cbb63" width="100%" height="180" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" seamless="true" style="width:100%; height:180px;"></iframe>
<p>In the past year or so, I’ve been thinking about Luck a lot — in terms of how a chain of random events can...
mtlynch.io
Is It Keto: Month 4
Prior to February 2019, I published all my retrospectives on Indie Hackers:
Is It Keto Month 4: My...
over a year ago
Prior to February 2019, I published all my retrospectives on Indie Hackers:
Is It Keto Month 4: My First Dollar of Revenue
mtlynch.io
A Simple Example of Calling a C Library from Zig
Zig is a new, independently developed low-level programming language. It’s a modern reimagining of C...
a year ago
Zig is a new, independently developed low-level programming language. It’s a modern reimagining of C that attempts to retain all of C’s performance benefits while also taking advantage of improvements in tooling and language design from the last 30 years.
Because Zig is designed...
Max Rozen
How do you use resolve.alias in webpack?
Want to stop webpack from including multiple versions of the same package in your bundle? It only...
over a year ago
Want to stop webpack from including multiple versions of the same package in your bundle? It only takes a couple of lines of code.
Max Rozen
Why early stage startups are the worst for junior developers
Startups can be the best or worst thing for your career as a junior developer. Let's discuss why.
over a year ago
Startups can be the best or worst thing for your career as a junior developer. Let's discuss why.
mtlynch.io
I'm Probably Procrastinating
Highlights A change to Zestful’s website boosted it to the front page of Google results within days....
over a year ago
Highlights A change to Zestful’s website boosted it to the front page of Google results within days. I’m going to try to make a better version of a decades’ old application for managing machine shops. I’m doing lots of coding to avoid talking to customers. Goal Grades At the...
Grow With Less
How to Write a SEO Title Google and Your Visitors Love
Writing a SEO title (also called page title or Google title) is considered difficult because you are...
over a year ago
Writing a SEO title (also called page title or Google title) is considered difficult because you are writing for 3 main audiences.
Visitors coming from search engines.
Search engines.
Visitors from social media.
And writing a SEO title that ranks high on Google and gets shared on...
mtlynch.io
TinyPilot: Month 4
Highlights TinyPilot hit $10k in revenue. That’s a record high for me and exceeds my total revenue...
over a year ago
Highlights TinyPilot hit $10k in revenue. That’s a record high for me and exceeds my total revenue for all of 2019. I interviewed several IT consultants and business owners about what TinyPilot features would be useful to them. I tested several new marketing channels and realized...
mtlynch.io
ArchiveBox is Super Cool
Have you ever used archive.org’s Internet Wayback Machine? It’s a free tool that’s been archiving...
11 months ago
Have you ever used archive.org’s Internet Wayback Machine? It’s a free tool that’s been archiving the web since 1996. So, if you want to see what Google looked like in 1999, they’ve got it.
Internet Archive capture of Google from April 22, 1999
ArchiveBox is like your own,...
mtlynch.io
Chaos Monkeys by Antonio García Martínez
An insider’s story about Facebook in the years leading up to its IPO. It’s surprisingly candid — it...
over a year ago
An insider’s story about Facebook in the years leading up to its IPO. It’s surprisingly candid — it names names and exposes internal Facebook discussions that were never meant to be public.
An engaging read, but the narrator is painfully obnoxious.
Max Rozen
How the React Hooks ESLint plugin saved me hours debugging useEffect
useEffect is great for fetching and rendering data, but are you using it correctly? There's an...
over a year ago
useEffect is great for fetching and rendering data, but are you using it correctly? There's an eslint plugin to check!
Grow With Less
Here Is What a Disappointing Experiment Taught Me About Headline A/B Testing
After reading about the huge conversion boosts many bloggers got after A/B testing their headlines,...
over a year ago
After reading about the huge conversion boosts many bloggers got after A/B testing their headlines, I assumed A/B testing the headlines of 73 articles I have published on my language learning blog French Together would be a no brainer.
I could already picture myself writing a...
mtlynch.io
TinyPilot: Month 8
Highlights TinyPilots revenues dropped for the first time in six months. TinyPilot finished the...
over a year ago
Highlights TinyPilots revenues dropped for the first time in six months. TinyPilot finished the month with $33k in revenue, a 21% drop from January. One of the critical TinyPilot parts I need suddenly disappeared from vendors. Delegating work to others is paradoxically leaving me...
Grow With Less
The Do's and Don'ts of Finding Your Blog Niche
There is a lot of bad advice when it comes to finding a blog niche.
“Write about your...
over a year ago
There is a lot of bad advice when it comes to finding a blog niche.
“Write about your passion.”
“Choose the most profitable niche.”
“Don’t choose a crowded niche.”
This advice is well-intentioned but ignores key psychological principles and causes many bloggers to give up...
Val Sopi
Launching on Product Hunt
<p>
<b>Diary entries, aka Table of contents</b>
</p>
<ul>
<li><a...
over a year ago
<p>
<b>Diary entries, aka Table of contents</b>
</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="#wednesday7">Wednesday, Dec 7</a></li>
<li><a href="#thursday8">Thursday, Dec 8</a></li>
<li><a href="#thursday8">Friday, Dec 9</a></li>
<li><a href="#monday12">Monday, Dec 12</a></li>
...
High Signal
The best no-code newsletters for founders to read
Want to find the best no-code newsletters for learning about what you can build without coding? You...
a year ago
Want to find the best no-code newsletters for learning about what you can build without coding? You came to the right place!
mtlynch.io
Failed Attempts to Install NixOS on the Raspberry Pi 4
In creating the tutorial, “Installing NixOS on Raspberry Pi 4,” I ran into a ton of paths that...
a year ago
In creating the tutorial, “Installing NixOS on Raspberry Pi 4,” I ran into a ton of paths that didn’t work.
I’ve collected them here for the sake of saving others time retrying the same steps.
The standard NixOS aarch64 image doesn’t work When I checked the NixOS download page, I...
Tony Dinh's...
Oct 2022 updates: I will write a book!
Also in October: Speak at JOM Launch Asia 2022, and the thing about Elon Musk.
over a year ago
Also in October: Speak at JOM Launch Asia 2022, and the thing about Elon Musk.
Dominik Sobe's...
What a roller coaster ride
over a year ago
Build In Public...
How I Built This In Public: Joshua Xu
Lessons from building HeyGen from 0 to $1m ARR in 7 months
a year ago
Lessons from building HeyGen from 0 to $1m ARR in 7 months
I Have No Idea What...
6 pricing A/B tests I’ve run (and which ones worked)
How pricing experiments helped me reach $6,000 MRR
a year ago
How pricing experiments helped me reach $6,000 MRR
mtlynch.io
A Survey of Applicant Tracking Systems for Bootstrapped Businesses
I’m a bootstrapped founder of a six-person company, and I spent this week testing different tools...
over a year ago
I’m a bootstrapped founder of a six-person company, and I spent this week testing different tools for hiring candidates.
This post summarizes my experience with the applicant tracking systems (ATS) I found and how well they serve small, bootstrapped businesses.
Note: This isn’t...
High Signal
Making $20k from a job board directory
Rod is a founder who has successfully monetized a directory showing websites for finding a job. He...
a year ago
Rod is a founder who has successfully monetized a directory showing websites for finding a job. He has made $20k from his Job Board Search site.
Val Sopi
The Waiting Room
<p>Growing up I was always told to work hard, wait my turn, and good things will...
7 months ago
<p>Growing up I was always told to work hard, wait my turn, and good things will happen.</p><p>However, I've been the most successful when I didn't wait.</p><p>The "waiting room" is the worst place to be in. </p><p>You're at the mercy of someone else letting you...
High Signal
Making thousands from a German learning online community
Rónán is the founder of Deutsch Gym, an online community for learning German. He's making thousands...
a year ago
Rónán is the founder of Deutsch Gym, an online community for learning German. He's making thousands in revenue from his startup which he made after moving to Berlin and wanting to improve his German language skills. Read on for his tips on making a
High Signal
$270k ARR from a Notion form app
Julien Nahum caught my attention on Twitter by pulling in $22k MRR with his Notion form app, Notion...
a year ago
Julien Nahum caught my attention on Twitter by pulling in $22k MRR with his Notion form app, Notion Forms. Back in August he was at $10k MRR
Scott DeLong
Weeks 40-43: A $5k Month and Billion Dollar Idea
The second to the last update is focused and short. I have just one goal: convert subscribers into...
a year ago
The second to the last update is focused and short. I have just one goal: convert subscribers into paying customers.
The post Weeks 40-43: A $5k Month and Billion Dollar Idea appeared first on Scott DeLong.
Val Sopi
A Successful Product Hunt Launch
<p>blogstatic's <a href="https://www.producthunt.com/products/blogstatic#blogstatic"...
5 months ago
<p>blogstatic's <a href="https://www.producthunt.com/products/blogstatic#blogstatic" target="_blank">first PH launch</a> (documented <a href="https://valsopi.com/launching-on-product-hunt">here</a>) was in December of 2022, three months after the <a...
mtlynch.io
TinyPilot: Month 2
Highlights I paused TinyPilot sales to address a design problem. I’m manufacturing a custom USB...
over a year ago
Highlights I paused TinyPilot sales to address a design problem. I’m manufacturing a custom USB power connector for TinyPilot. Revenue across all my projects was among my strongest ever, at $3.6k total. Goal Grades At the start of each month, I declare what I’d like to...
Tony Dinh's...
$322 → $2K MRR in 60 days by building in public
Hello everyone, this is Tony! 👋 Today is a special day. I want to share with you all this post I...
over a year ago
Hello everyone, this is Tony! 👋 Today is a special day. I want to share with you all this post I originally posted on Indie Hackers, but I think you all will also be interested! It’s a long post about my journey growing Black Magic to $2K MRR in the last 2 months.
Val Sopi
Work less
<p>A friend recently boasted how they're working 15 hour days. To which I replied with a concerning...
over a year ago
<p>A friend recently boasted how they're working 15 hour days. To which I replied with a concerning "Why?" and was met with a distant look.</p>
<p>My friend thought I'd metaphorically pat him on the back.</p>
<p>I didn't. No surprise there.</p>
<p>Supposedly the industry he's in...
mtlynch.io
How to Hire a Cartoonist to Make Your Blog Less Boring
I had just completed a passionate blog post.
Too passionate, maybe, as I had written over 8,000...
over a year ago
I had just completed a passionate blog post.
Too passionate, maybe, as I had written over 8,000 words. That’s 1000x longer than the average Buzzfeed article. Worse, it was a giant wall of text with nary a visual element to break it up aside from some screenshots and a few tables....
Max Rozen
Examples of large production-grade, open-source React apps
All of the to-do apps are great for starting to learn React, but what about real-life? Let's see...
over a year ago
All of the to-do apps are great for starting to learn React, but what about real-life? Let's see what real production React apps are like.
Grow With Less
This 20-Minute On-Page SEO Checklist Could Save Your Rankings
What’s the worst thing that could happen to your blog?
For many bloggers, the answer is getting...
over a year ago
What’s the worst thing that could happen to your blog?
For many bloggers, the answer is getting blacklisted by Google and seeing all their organic traffic vanish overnight.
And a common way this happens is when Google realizes your blog is infected before you do and simply...
mtlynch.io
Building a Budget Homelab NAS Server (2022 Edition)
This year, I decided to build my first ever home storage server. It’s a 32 TB system that stores my...
over a year ago
This year, I decided to build my first ever home storage server. It’s a 32 TB system that stores my personal and business data using open-source software.
The server itself cost $531, and I bought four disks for $732, bringing the total cost to $1,263. It’s similar in price to...
Build In Public...
Build In Public: Spotlight Edition (Nate Washington)
Hi everyone, welcome to the latest spotlight edition of the Build In Public newsletter. Every week,...
over a year ago
Hi everyone, welcome to the latest spotlight edition of the Build In Public newsletter. Every week, I interview one prolific creator or founder and unpack insights, strategies, and actionable advice from their story that can be helpful in your own journey.
mtlynch.io
TinyPilot: Month 29
New here?
Hi, I’m Michael. I’m a software developer and the founder of TinyPilot, an independent...
over a year ago
New here?
Hi, I’m Michael. I’m a software developer and the founder of TinyPilot, an independent computer hardware company. I started the company in 2020, and it now earns $60-80k/month in revenue and employs six other people.
Every month, I publish a retrospective like this one...
Val Sopi
What is leadership?
<p>With so much going on in the world and information traveling faster than ever before in the human...
over a year ago
<p>With so much going on in the world and information traveling faster than ever before in the human existence, it's easy to lose track of the basics.</p>
<p>Feeling overwhelmed is a result of our values, thoughts, being challenged.</p>
<p>The first response is naturally to...
Tony Dinh's...
July 2023: $6K MRR – getting back on recurring revenue
small updates from me in July 2023
a year ago
small updates from me in July 2023
Build In Public...
Your New Brainstorming Buddy 🧠💡
Meet Scrintal, a new canvas that's like a playground for your mind.
2 months ago
Meet Scrintal, a new canvas that's like a playground for your mind.
mtlynch.io
Adventures in Outsourcing: Cooking with TaskRabbit
Overview For the past few years, I’ve been outsourcing tasks from my daily life whenever possible. I...
over a year ago
Overview For the past few years, I’ve been outsourcing tasks from my daily life whenever possible. I tend to be more limited in time than money, so if paying $30 can save me an hour, I consider that a good deal.
I recently started experimenting with the keto diet, which focuses...
Grow With Less
The 27 tools I use to grow my online business
People often ask me what tools I use to build and grow French Together so I thought I would put...
over a year ago
People often ask me what tools I use to build and grow French Together so I thought I would put together a list of my favorites.
These are not necessarily the best and trendiest tools, some may even be considered old-fasshioned. But they are the tools that help me build and grow...
I Have No Idea What...
Rejected from YCombinator
and how I’m using their feedback to change my approach
over a year ago
and how I’m using their feedback to change my approach
mtlynch.io
Hiring: Freelance Blog Illustrator
I’m a blogger, and I often commission custom illustrations for my blog posts like this one:
An...
7 months ago
I’m a blogger, and I often commission custom illustrations for my blog posts like this one:
An example of an illustration I commissioned for the blog, part of my year-in-review series
The blog’s previous illustrator was the awesome Loraine Yow, who worked with me for six years....
Max Rozen
Guidelines for choosing React Libraries
There are a *lot* of React libraries out there. So how do you pick which one to use in your app?...
over a year ago
There are a *lot* of React libraries out there. So how do you pick which one to use in your app? This article provides guidelines for choosing.
High Signal
Making $10k a month from a French learning app
Most founders dream of making $10,000 in monthly revenue. One founder who has made that dream a...
a year ago
Most founders dream of making $10,000 in monthly revenue. One founder who has made that dream a reality is Benjamin Houy
Max Rozen
Fetching Data in React with useEffect
If you're confused about side-effects and pure functions, it can be hard to understand useEffect....
over a year ago
If you're confused about side-effects and pure functions, it can be hard to understand useEffect. Let's learn them both, to fetch data with useEffect.
mtlynch.io
TinyPilot: Month 26
New here?
Hi, I’m Michael. I’m a software developer, and the founder of TinyPilot, an independent...
over a year ago
New here?
Hi, I’m Michael. I’m a software developer, and the founder of TinyPilot, an independent computer hardware company. I started the company in 2020, and it now earns $60-80k/month in revenue and employs six other people.
Every month, I publish a retrospective like this one...
mtlynch.io
How to Do Code Reviews Like a Human (Part Two)
This is the second half of my article about how to communicate well and avoid pitfalls in code...
over a year ago
This is the second half of my article about how to communicate well and avoid pitfalls in code reviews. Here, I focus on techniques to bring your code review to a successful close while avoiding ugly conflict.
I laid the groundwork in Part One, so I recommend starting there. If...
Grow With Less
I was living the dream, then my dream collapsed
Everything was going great.
My blog French Together had just hit 357k monthly visitors, the French...
over a year ago
Everything was going great.
My blog French Together had just hit 357k monthly visitors, the French Together course had exceeded $300k in sales.
Then COVID happened.
My traffic slowly started to decrease, conversions got worse.
I ignored it at first, I guess I was in denial. I...
mtlynch.io
How to Stop Worrying and Start Living by Dale Carnegie
As a big fan of Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends and Influence People, I was interested in this...
over a year ago
As a big fan of Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends and Influence People, I was interested in this book. 70 years after it was published, I still see people recommending it, so I had high hopes.
Sadly, the book fell short of my expectations. When I read How to Win Friends and...
Max Rozen
Deploying Node and React Shopify apps on Vercel
Shopify's tutorial is awesome for getting started, but doesn't let you deploy onto Vercel. In this...
over a year ago
Shopify's tutorial is awesome for getting started, but doesn't let you deploy onto Vercel. In this article, I'll show you how.
Val Sopi
My 2 lessons when it comes to pricing a Saas product
<p>I was listening to two founders on Twitter Spaces talking about both ends of the spectrum when it...
over a year ago
<p>I was listening to two founders on Twitter Spaces talking about both ends of the spectrum when it came charging for their Saas. One wanted to charge (and they are), the other one didn't care about it so much (for now). Then a discussion about the founder of <a...
Val Sopi
Where is blogstatic now?
<p>blogstatic is growing slowly at around 20% month-to-month.</p>
<p>Currently, it's hovering at...
a year ago
<p>blogstatic is growing slowly at around 20% month-to-month.</p>
<p>Currently, it's hovering at ~$700/month in revenue.</p>
<p>Since pricing is currently "yearly" only, each month starts from zero.</p>
<p>It will be interesting come October 2023 when the first yearly upgrades...
mtlynch.io
My Feedback about Hello Base
The cryptocurrency language barrier There’s an unforunate language barrier among technologists right...
2 weeks ago
The cryptocurrency language barrier There’s an unforunate language barrier among technologists right now.
Cryptocurrency enthusiasts are excited about the ecosystem and what’s going on in crypto-world right now. They’re trying to bring new people in, but they’re often so...
mtlynch.io
Debugging VLANs on my TP-Link Managed Switch
I recently bought my first-ever managed networking switch, a TP-Link JetStream TL-SG3428X.
The main...
a year ago
I recently bought my first-ever managed networking switch, a TP-Link JetStream TL-SG3428X.
The main feature of a managed switch is that it lets you segment your network into VLANs. I was excited about this functionality, but it took me hours of trial and error to get VLANs...
Build In Public...
How I Built This In Public: Marie Martens
Lessons from building Tally.so from 0 to $40k MRR all in public
a year ago
Lessons from building Tally.so from 0 to $40k MRR all in public
Max Rozen
Why you should use functional components + Hooks over class components in React
If you find yourself asking whether to use functional components with Hooks over class components,...
over a year ago
If you find yourself asking whether to use functional components with Hooks over class components, you'll find a lot of outdated information out there. Let's settle this once and for all in this article.
Grow With Less
The 8 Best Free Blogging, SEO and Marketing Courses
Blogging is hard and the COVID-19 epidemic is not making things easier.
Luckily, several businesses...
over a year ago
Blogging is hard and the COVID-19 epidemic is not making things easier.
Luckily, several businesses have started offering their blogging, SEO or marketing courses for free to help bloggers and small business owners who are struggling because of the pandemic.
This page lists the...
Tony Dinh's...
Jan 2022 updates: 4K MRR, new release, new features, new learnings
Hello everyone, this is Tony! 👋 In January 2022, I released a new DevUtils version, added a lot of...
over a year ago
Hello everyone, this is Tony! 👋 In January 2022, I released a new DevUtils version, added a lot of features for Black Magic, reached $4K MRR, and learned a ton! Here comes the monthly update! Hope you like it! 🧩 New DevUtils release: 1.13 The latest release of DevUtils comes...
I Have No Idea What...
I Have No Idea What I’m Doing: Introduction
In this blog “I have no idea what I’m doing” I’ll be chronicling the progress and discoveries I make...
over a year ago
In this blog “I have no idea what I’m doing” I’ll be chronicling the progress and discoveries I make as I build a startup for the first time. The name of this blog comes from a talk in 2015 by former Facebook engineer Graham Lee. In his talk, he admits that although at the time...
Val Sopi
On the first page of Hacker News with Subsection
<p><i><a href="https://subsection.io/" target="_blank">Subsection</a> is an app that helps create...
over a year ago
<p><i><a href="https://subsection.io/" target="_blank">Subsection</a> is an app that helps create support docs, such as user guides, knowledge bases, documentation, and changelogs. </i></p><p><i>Below I describe the launch of Subsection of <a...
Val Sopi
Things I love about blogstatic
<p>blogstatic had another above $1K month.</p>
<p>$1,208.38 to be exact.</p>
<p>This was the third...
a year ago
<p>blogstatic had another above $1K month.</p>
<p>$1,208.38 to be exact.</p>
<p>This was the third +$1K month overall, since <a href="https://valsopi.com/blogstatic-chance">rebranding</a> back in 2022.</p>
<figure><img...
Scott DeLong
Weeks 35-39: A $526 Day and a Breakthrough
Domination through iteration. Be sure to continue adapting and maximize your current audience rather...
a year ago
Domination through iteration. Be sure to continue adapting and maximize your current audience rather than chase more pageviews.
The post Weeks 35-39: A $526 Day and a Breakthrough appeared first on Scott DeLong.
High Signal
How Allison monetizes her programmatic SEO knowledge
Allison Seboldt is the founder of PageFactory, a service which helps websites grow their content and...
a year ago
Allison Seboldt is the founder of PageFactory, a service which helps websites grow their content and reach with programmatic SEO.
mtlynch.io
Hiring Content Writers: A Guide for Small Businesses
If you write original content for your business, you know how quickly it drains your time and mental...
over a year ago
If you write original content for your business, you know how quickly it drains your time and mental energy. It’s extremely challenging to write articles or blog posts that readers find engaging, clear, and eloquent.
You may have considered hiring a freelance writer, but it’s...
👋 Hello, I'm...
Why I’m leaving the Shopify Apps business
a year ago
mtlynch.io
Takeaways from Charles Marohn's "Escaping the Housing Trap"
Last week, I stumbled upon a reddit post announcing that the author, Charles Marohn, was giving a...
a month ago
Last week, I stumbled upon a reddit post announcing that the author, Charles Marohn, was giving a free talk near my town the next morning. Marohn is the author of Strong Towns, one of my favorite books of the last few years. So, my wife and I attended the talk and enjoyed it.
The...
mtlynch.io
TinyPilot: Month 35
New here?
Hi, I’m Michael. I’m a software developer and the founder of TinyPilot, an independent...
a year ago
New here?
Hi, I’m Michael. I’m a software developer and the founder of TinyPilot, an independent computer hardware company. I started the company in 2020, and it now earns $60-80k/month in revenue and employs seven other people.
Every month, I publish a retrospective like this...
mtlynch.io
TinyPilot: Month 13
Highlights TinyPilot’s EU distributor is on track to begin sales by the end of August. I’ve freed up...
over a year ago
Highlights TinyPilot’s EU distributor is on track to begin sales by the end of August. I’ve freed up time by delegating responsibilities to my teammates. I miraculously became unstuck on two tasks that have been blocking work for months. Goal Grades At the start of each month, I...
mtlynch.io
Massachusetts Residents Can Sue Online Merchants for Spam
Last week, I saw an interesting article on the /r/legaladvice subreddit. An e-commerce business...
2 months ago
Last week, I saw an interesting article on the /r/legaladvice subreddit. An e-commerce business owner was complaining that a customer was suing because the merchant had been sending the customer promotional emails for years that the customer never agreed to. The author deleted...
Tony Dinh's...
My entire marketing strategy (+ December 2021 updates)
Hello everyone! This is Tony 👋 Hello Hacker News! For context, this post is the latest issue of my...
over a year ago
Hello everyone! This is Tony 👋 Hello Hacker News! For context, this post is the latest issue of my monthly newsletter where I share the progress building BlackMagic.so & DevUtils.app. Check my previous issues to see more details about the products and my journey. Cheers!
mtlynch.io
My Eight-Year Quest to Digitize 45 Videotapes (Part One)
For the last eight years, I’ve carried around this box of videotapes through four different...
over a year ago
For the last eight years, I’ve carried around this box of videotapes through four different apartments and one house. They’re family home videos from my childhood.
After 600+ hours of work, I finally digitized and organized them well enough to throw away the original tapes....
👋 Hello, I'm...
Why I started consulting, why you should too, and why you need to be your own customer!...
a year ago
mtlynch.io
Back Up Encrypted ZFS Data without Unlocking It
I recently built my first home TrueNAS server. I use it to store the bulk of my personal and work...
over a year ago
I recently built my first home TrueNAS server. I use it to store the bulk of my personal and work data, so I’ve been learning how to make the most of TrueNAS and its filesystem, ZFS.
Today, I want to tell you about backing up encrypted data.
My homelab TrueNAS server
One of the...
mtlynch.io
Building My First Homelab Server Rack
Seven years ago, I built my first home server. It made my software development work faster and more...
8 months ago
Seven years ago, I built my first home server. It made my software development work faster and more enjoyable, so I’ve gotten more into the home server scene. I built a custom storage server, another development server, and a dedicated firewall.
At some point, my wife gently...
Max Rozen
OnlineOrNot Diaries 3
Marketing week? More like reliability week
a year ago
Marketing week? More like reliability week
High Signal
Joining a startup as a co-founder
Today's interview is with Iron Brands (he's Dutch, that is his actual name), who joined a privacy...
10 months ago
Today's interview is with Iron Brands (he's Dutch, that is his actual name), who joined a privacy analytics startups as a co-founder after it had already launched. We talked about how he met the original founder of Simple Analytics, how they negotiated the new ownership...
Val Sopi
Year in review: 2021
<p>
I had a solid year compared to the shit-storm 2020 had brought on.</p>
<p>Back in January...
over a year ago
<p>
I had a solid year compared to the shit-storm 2020 had brought on.</p>
<p>Back in January 2021, I had made a pact with myself that I would be more mindful about my time and the things I would get myself into throughout the year (personally and...
Max Rozen
OnlineOrNot Diaries 23
Working with big systems all day can slow you down.
a week ago
Working with big systems all day can slow you down.
Build In Public...
What's your north star while building in public? 🔭⭐️
Hey folks, Recently, I gave a workshop on “BUILDING IN PUBLIC” at On Deck and shared insights,...
over a year ago
Hey folks, Recently, I gave a workshop on “BUILDING IN PUBLIC” at On Deck and shared insights, lessons, war stories and essentially opened up all my playbooks on the topic. The talk seemed to have resonated deeply with many fellows and I was grateful and delighted. Some of them...
mtlynch.io
How I Stole Your Siacoin
A seedy reddit post The night was June 9th, 2017. It was a typical Friday night for me. I was...
over a year ago
A seedy reddit post The night was June 9th, 2017. It was a typical Friday night for me. I was watching Netflix and checking reddit partying with cool kids.
Suddenly, I saw this post on the “New” tab of the /r/siacoin subreddit:
If you’re not familiar with Siacoin, it’s a...
mtlynch.io
TinyPilot: Month 40
New here?
Hi, I’m Michael. I’m a software developer and the founder of TinyPilot, an independent...
a year ago
New here?
Hi, I’m Michael. I’m a software developer and the founder of TinyPilot, an independent computer hardware company. I started the company in 2020, and it now earns $80-100k/month in revenue and employs six other people.
Every month, I publish a retrospective like this one...
mtlynch.io
A Beginner's Guide to Mining Siacoin
This guide is out of date.
This post describes mining Sia with a desktop graphics card (GPU), but...
over a year ago
This guide is out of date.
This post describes mining Sia with a desktop graphics card (GPU), but custom mining hardware is now available for Sia. The custom hardware has made Sia GPU mining non-viable. This guide will still work, but you may never reach payout, even with a...
mtlynch.io
Notes from PyGotham 2019
Overview This past weekend, PyGotham invited me to speak at their annual conference in Manhattan. In...
over a year ago
Overview This past weekend, PyGotham invited me to speak at their annual conference in Manhattan. In an effort to maximize the benefit I get from the event, I’ve prepared notes that capture what I learned by attending. I’m sharing them in hopes that it might be interesting or...
Build In Public...
Build In Public: Spotlight Edition (Prakash Chandran) ⭐️
Hi everyone, welcome to the latest spotlight edition of the Build In Public newsletter. Every week,...
over a year ago
Hi everyone, welcome to the latest spotlight edition of the Build In Public newsletter. Every week, I interview one prolific creator or founder and unpack insights and actionable advice from their story that can be helpful in your own journey. In today’s edition, I wanted to...
mtlynch.io
Is It Keto: Month 7
Highlights Is It Keto’s visits reached a record high of 11k pageviews. Revenues reached a record...
over a year ago
Highlights Is It Keto’s visits reached a record high of 11k pageviews. Revenues reached a record high of $40.84 in affiliate income. Despite this, Is It Keto didn’t satisfy its critical goals, so I’m putting it on the backburner. Goal Grades At the start of the month, I laid out...
Build In Public...
🚨 Announcement Alert 🚨 I'm dropping a mega Twitter resource on BUILD IN PUBLIC
Hey everyone, Some of you know my story but if I have to summarize the last 3 years in 10 bullets of...
over a year ago
Hey everyone, Some of you know my story but if I have to summarize the last 3 years in 10 bullets of inflection points, here’s how it would look like: Jan 2018, I was a nobody in startups, stuck in a dead-end corporate job due to visa challenges Oct 2018, read a book called...
mtlynch.io
Sia-Minio Integration Postmortem
One of the best things I learned from working at Google is the practice of blame-free postmortems....
over a year ago
One of the best things I learned from working at Google is the practice of blame-free postmortems. When something goes wrong, you wait until the dust settles, then write a report analyzing what happened. The report explains how the problem occurred and defines concrete steps the...
mtlynch.io
Update: Stripe's Response Regarding User Tracking
Last week, I published a blog post describing how Stripe recorded visitor behavior on their...
over a year ago
Last week, I published a blog post describing how Stripe recorded visitor behavior on their customers’ websites. In short, Stripe’s JavaScript library collected information about URLs users visited and telemetry about their mouse movements, even when the site never displayed any...
High Signal
Making $6k MRR from a Notion website builder
Noah Bragg is the founder of Potion, a website builder based on Notion. It lets you simply publish a...
a year ago
Noah Bragg is the founder of Potion, a website builder based on Notion. It lets you simply publish a website straight from Notion without any coding skills! Noah has done a great job growing Potion to $6k MRR. I interviewed him about how he created Potion, his best marketing...
High Signal
Is Ruby on Rails dead in 2024? No!
Ruby on Rails, or 'Rails' for short, is a framework for making websites with the programming...
10 months ago
Ruby on Rails, or 'Rails' for short, is a framework for making websites with the programming language Ruby. The idea behind it is to simplify how programmers create websites and it caused a storm amongst developers when it was released in August 2004 by software engineer David...
Tony Dinh's...
Another 6-figure exit, and the future
I sold Xnapper, here is a quick update about the acquisition details
9 months ago
I sold Xnapper, here is a quick update about the acquisition details
mtlynch.io
On Migrating from Cypress to Playwright
Cypress is an open-source tool for testing web applications end-to-end. I first saw Gleb Bahmutov...
over a year ago
Cypress is an open-source tool for testing web applications end-to-end. I first saw Gleb Bahmutov demo Cypress at a 2018 web dev meetup in New York, and I was blown away.
I’ve been using Cypress since I saw it demoed at a dev meetup in 2018.
Before discovering Cypress, I had...
Max Rozen
OnlineOrNot Diaries 2
In which I ship a CLI (for real this time), and improve a few things
a year ago
In which I ship a CLI (for real this time), and improve a few things
mtlynch.io
I Regret My $46k Website Redesign
Two years ago, I created a website for my business. By combining my terrible design skills with a...
over a year ago
Two years ago, I created a website for my business. By combining my terrible design skills with a decent-looking template, I created a site that looked okay. I told myself that if the business took off, I’d hire a real designer to make it look professional.
TinyPilot website,...
mtlynch.io
Is It Keto - Month 9
Highlights After six months of consistent gains of ~30% in revenue and traffic, Is It Keto’s growth...
over a year ago
Highlights After six months of consistent gains of ~30% in revenue and traffic, Is It Keto’s growth finally flattened out. I’m preparing to sell premium meal plans on Is It Keto. I’m ready to make bigger bets on my businesses. Goal Grades At the start of each month, I declare...
mtlynch.io
Automated Prosper Investing with ProsperBot
Overview I started investing in peer to peer lending in 2014 through a site called Prosper. I...
over a year ago
Overview I started investing in peer to peer lending in 2014 through a site called Prosper. I thought peer to peer lending was a neat idea and could potentially earn lucrative returns.
When I began, I chose each of my loan investments manually, but over time, I have automated...
Max Rozen
The Definitive Guide to Commonly Used Words in React
Do some words in React have you scratching your head? Ref? Stateless component? Let's learn some...
over a year ago
Do some words in React have you scratching your head? Ref? Stateless component? Let's learn some words!
Max Rozen
Introducing PerfBeacon - Continuously Measure Site Speed via API or Schedule
PerfBeacon was a wrapper around Google Lighthouse that lets you continuously measure your site's...
over a year ago
PerfBeacon was a wrapper around Google Lighthouse that lets you continuously measure your site's performance via API, or a schedule
mtlynch.io
TinyPilot: Month 34
New here?
Hi, I’m Michael. I’m a software developer and the founder of TinyPilot, an independent...
a year ago
New here?
Hi, I’m Michael. I’m a software developer and the founder of TinyPilot, an independent computer hardware company. I started the company in 2020, and it now earns $60-80k/month in revenue and employs seven other people.
Every month, I publish a retrospective like this...
mtlynch.io
Go Programming Blueprints by Mat Ryer
I’m a fan of Mat Ryer’s work, and his blog posts have had a significant impact on the way I program...
a year ago
I’m a fan of Mat Ryer’s work, and his blog posts have had a significant impact on the way I program in Go. I found the book hit or miss. Some chapters were fascinating and taught me valuable Go lessons, while others felt boring and got too bogged down in the minutiae of...
mtlynch.io
TinyPilot: Month 5
Highlights TinyPilot revenue grew 20% to $12k. I released a new high-end model of TinyPilot. I...
over a year ago
Highlights TinyPilot revenue grew 20% to $12k. I released a new high-end model of TinyPilot. I launched my first ever paid course. Goal Grades At the start of each month, I declare what I’d like to accomplish. Here’s how I did against those goals:
Release a high-end version of...
Build In Public...
No-Code is Hitting an Inflection Point. Are You Ready?
Here’s a long-form article I co-authored on the state of the no-code that I thought you might enjoy....
over a year ago
Here’s a long-form article I co-authored on the state of the no-code that I thought you might enjoy. Let me know if you have any feedback or questions :) Much like Shopify ‘armed the rebels’ by allowing anyone to build an e-commerce store, a slew of no-code tools are empowering...
mtlynch.io
Notes from PyTexas 2019
Overview This past weekend, PyTexas invited me to speak at their annual conference in Austin,...
over a year ago
Overview This past weekend, PyTexas invited me to speak at their annual conference in Austin, Texas.
It was a fun trip, and I learned a lot. It was also expensive, both financially and in terms of time. I’m taking these notes partly to share what I learned and partly to help me...
Max Rozen
Demystifying useEffect's clean-up function
useEffect's clean-up function can be pretty confusing, especially if you're still trying to think in...
over a year ago
useEffect's clean-up function can be pretty confusing, especially if you're still trying to think in lifecycle methods. Let's clarify the clean-up function in this article.
Grow With Less
Minimalist Seo: How to Save Time and Ditch the Overwhelm
What do you do when you spent hours writing awesome articles only to realize your mom and your best...
over a year ago
What do you do when you spent hours writing awesome articles only to realize your mom and your best friend Dave are the only people reading them?
That’s the question I asked myself 7 years ago after writing dozens of articles for my new blog French Together.
I followed 10,000...
Max Rozen
Preventing infinite re-renders when using useEffect and useState
React's useEffect hook is an incredibly useful tool for fetching data, but if you're not careful,...
over a year ago
React's useEffect hook is an incredibly useful tool for fetching data, but if you're not careful, can cause infinite re-renders.
mtlynch.io
TinyPilot: Month 15
Highlights TinyPilot had its highest-revenue month ever. One of TinyPilot’s competitors raised $800k...
over a year ago
Highlights TinyPilot had its highest-revenue month ever. One of TinyPilot’s competitors raised $800k almost overnight. I’m working with a design firm to improve TinyPilot’s brand and website. Goal Grades At the start of each month, I declare what I’d like to accomplish. Here’s...
Val Sopi
What a year!
<p>One of the things I'm most proud of in 2022 was that I stuck to some personal habits like going...
a year ago
<p>One of the things I'm most proud of in 2022 was that I stuck to some personal habits like going to the gym, eating well, and meditating.</p>
<p>I believe these habits helped me get more in tune with myself and get the confidence necessary to take bold steps, like taking out a...
Max Rozen
@forge/api: Cannot read properties of undefined (reading ‘fetch’)
How to fix a cannot read properties of undefined error in Forge
over a year ago
How to fix a cannot read properties of undefined error in Forge
Val Sopi
The Word that guides my year
<p>Sort of without fail and unplanned, every year in December, I usually think of a word that I want...
over a year ago
<p>Sort of without fail and unplanned, every year in December, I usually think of a word that I want to live by the upcoming year.</p>
<p>Depending on what kind of year I have had, the Word for the upcoming one should represent the practical step ahead for...
High Signal
Productized service businesses - the ultimate guide
Productized services are growing rapidly in popularity. For founders, they offer a way to make a six...
a year ago
Productized services are growing rapidly in popularity. For founders, they offer a way to make a six figure salary relatively quickly. For companies, it means paying top talent without the downsides of hiring an employee like paying for a recruiter, paying extra taxes etc.
...
Grow With Less
64 Weak Words and Flabby Expressions That Clog up Your Writing
Weak words are everywhere.
Like ants invading your home in summer, they slip through the cracks and...
over a year ago
Weak words are everywhere.
Like ants invading your home in summer, they slip through the cracks and slowly distract your reader.
They turn fascinating ideas into never-ending articles people can’t wait to run away from.
Worse, they undermine you and make you sound...
mtlynch.io
Using Zig to Unit Test a C Application
Zig is a new, independently developed low-level programming language. It’s a modern reimagining of C...
a year ago
Zig is a new, independently developed low-level programming language. It’s a modern reimagining of C that attempts to retain C’s performance while embracing improvements from the last 30 years of tooling and language design.
Zig makes calling into C code easier than any other...
Dominik Sobe's...
Five videos that shaped my life so far
over a year ago
Tony Dinh's...
TypingMind is live
It's my first product launch of the year!
a year ago
It's my first product launch of the year!
👋 Hello, I'm...
The real reasons why your boss wants you back in the office
a year ago
mtlynch.io
Deploying Syncthing on a Fly.io Cloud Server
I recently discovered Syncthing, an open-source tool for syncing files across multiple...
a year ago
I recently discovered Syncthing, an open-source tool for syncing files across multiple machines.
Setting up Syncthing on my personal devices was easy, but I went on an interesting journey deploying it to a cloud server.
Why run Syncthing in the cloud? Syncthing synchronizes files...
Max Rozen
How do you make relay-compiler run automatically?
Getting tired of running the relay-compiler every time you change your GraphQL schema/resolvers?...
over a year ago
Getting tired of running the relay-compiler every time you change your GraphQL schema/resolvers? There's a plugin in webpack for that!
mtlynch.io
Start Small, Stay Small by Rob Walling
I wish that I had found this book nine years ago. It taught me a great deal about choosing the right...
over a year ago
I wish that I had found this book nine years ago. It taught me a great deal about choosing the right product to build and the advantages of targeting small niches. The author makes compelling points about the importance of marketing and small founders’ common pitfall of treating...
mtlynch.io
Running Sia on a Synology NAS via Docker
Overview Sia is a decentralized, peer-to-peer network for buying and selling computer storage space....
over a year ago
Overview Sia is a decentralized, peer-to-peer network for buying and selling computer storage space. If you have extra storage space, Sia allows you to sell it to others who want to store their files on the Sia cloud network.
Hosting a Sia server on your personal laptop or...
Max Rozen
OnlineOrNot Diaries 11
On building table-stakes features, and breaking through a plateau.
a year ago
On building table-stakes features, and breaking through a plateau.
mtlynch.io
A Follow-Up and Space Duck
The response to yesterday’s post about leaving Google has been unexpected and overwhelming.
It was...
over a year ago
The response to yesterday’s post about leaving Google has been unexpected and overwhelming.
It was extremely gratifying to hear that my story resonated with so many people. Hundreds of readers from a variety of industries all across the globe have written me to tell me how they...
mtlynch.io
Import from a URL in Nix
I’m still a Nix beginner, and one thing I couldn’t figure out until recently was how to keep parts...
a year ago
I’m still a Nix beginner, and one thing I couldn’t figure out until recently was how to keep parts of my configuration.nix file under source control.
My goal I’d like for my Nix configuration files to be modular and reusable, so depending on the system or flake, I can pull in...
Grow With Less
Do Headline Analyzers Work? A Data-Driven Answer
Headline analyzers are a popular way to come up with great headlines and try to predict their...
over a year ago
Headline analyzers are a popular way to come up with great headlines and try to predict their effectiveness.
All you need to do is write your headline and the tool will give it a score telling you how effective it’s likely to be.
But can these free headline analyzers accurately...
mtlynch.io
Happy City by Charles Montgomery
Given how much urban design affects our lives, it’s surprising how little we think about and...
over a year ago
Given how much urban design affects our lives, it’s surprising how little we think about and participate in it. This book was eye-opening in terms of the way I look at cities and how its inhabitants interact with them.
I took for granted the idea that cities should be friendly to...
Tony Dinh's...
April 2024 updates, new product!
Traveled to Bali and Sydney, some updates on Typing Mind, and a new product.
7 months ago
Traveled to Bali and Sydney, some updates on Typing Mind, and a new product.
Max Rozen
How to style react-select with styled-components or emotion
Styling react-select can be annoying. Here's a quick guide on how to do it with popular CSS-in-JS...
over a year ago
Styling react-select can be annoying. Here's a quick guide on how to do it with popular CSS-in-JS libraries.
Max Rozen
OnlineOrNot Diaries 21
I was young, and needed to ship...
3 months ago
I was young, and needed to ship...
Val Sopi
AI will make humans better
<p><i>Context: Read <a...
a year ago
<p><i>Context: Read <a href="https://www.theredhandfiles.com/chatgpt-making-things-faster-and-easier/" target="_blank">Nick Cave's letter</a> first.</i></p>
<p><i></i>—</p>
<p>ChatGPT (or similar) are just tools!</p>
<p>Nothing more.</p>
<p>They're akin to when tools...
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