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mtlynch.io

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
207
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...
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
180
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...
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
165
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
TinyPilot: Month 33 New here? Hi, I’m Michael. I’m a software developer and the founder of TinyPilot, an independent...
a year ago
158
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
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
153
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...
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...
10 months ago
153
10 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...
mtlynch.io
Installing Jellyfin on TrueNAS Core I always run into issues installing Jellyfin on TrueNAS core. I fix them, and then I forget a few...
a year ago
152
a year ago
I always run into issues installing Jellyfin on TrueNAS core. I fix them, and then I forget a few months later, so these are just my notes to myself of how to install Jellyfin on TrueNAS core. Instructions Install based on these...
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
148
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...
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
148
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...
mtlynch.io
Questions to ask a potential 3PL vendor Over the past six months, I’ve been transitioning the fulfillment processes at my e-commerce...
a year ago
146
a year ago
Over the past six months, I’ve been transitioning the fulfillment processes at my e-commerce business to a third-party logistics (3PL) vendor. I didn’t know anything about 3PLs before starting this process, so there were a lot of things I didn’t know to ask about. Here are the...
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...
11 months ago
146
11 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
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...
a year ago
142
a year 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
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
142
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...
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,...
8 months ago
140
8 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...
mtlynch.io
TinyPilot: Month 31 New here? Hi, I’m Michael. I’m a software developer and the founder of TinyPilot, an independent...
over a year ago
139
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
Reset Month No update this month I’m skipping my normal retrospective this month, as I sold TinyPilot and am...
8 months ago
139
8 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
Hiring: Freelance Blog Illustrator I’m a blogger, and I often commission custom illustrations for my blog posts like this one: An...
9 months ago
135
9 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....
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
135
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...
mtlynch.io
Strong Towns I found it eye-opening in terms of understanding how municipal governments work in practice and how...
a year ago
133
a year ago
I found it eye-opening in terms of understanding how municipal governments work in practice and how perverse incentives lead to poor community outcomes. It had a huge impact on the way that I think about where to live and what policies I support in local government. This book...
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
133
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...
mtlynch.io
TinyPilot: Month 21 Highlights TinyPilot had its best sales month ever, with $69k of total revenue. I’m now five months...
over a year ago
131
over a year ago
Highlights TinyPilot had its best sales month ever, with $69k of total revenue. I’m now five months and $32k over budget on a website redesign. I launched PicoShare, and it’s the fastest-growing project I’ve ever published. Goal Grades At the start of each month, I declare what...
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
128
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
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
127
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
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
127
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...
mtlynch.io
TinyPilot: Month 32 New here? Hi, I’m Michael. I’m a software developer and the founder of TinyPilot, an independent...
a year ago
125
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
TinyPilot: Month 18 Highlights I’ve launched a new TinyPilot product and debuted a new logo. TinyPilot’s revenue...
over a year ago
123
over a year ago
Highlights I’ve launched a new TinyPilot product and debuted a new logo. TinyPilot’s revenue finished the year strong at $55k for December. I’ve learned to manage design projects more aggressively. Goal Grades At the start of each month, I declare what I’d like to accomplish....
mtlynch.io
Configure a Git Shell Prompt Under Nix I recently read Julia Evans’ latest zine about git, and one of her tips was to configure your...
7 months ago
122
7 months ago
I recently read Julia Evans’ latest zine about git, and one of her tips was to configure your terminal shell prompt to show the git status. Julia’s terminal prompt looks like this: ~/work/homepage (main) $ main is Julia’s current git branch. When she’s in the middle of a git...
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
121
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
Fixing Memory Exhaustion Bugs in My Golang Web App Earlier this year, I created an open-source app called PicoShare. It’s a simple Golang web app for...
over a year ago
121
over a year ago
Earlier this year, I created an open-source app called PicoShare. It’s a simple Golang web app for sharing files. I use it to send files that are too large to be email attachments, but I don’t want the recipient to deal with Dropbox or Google Drive. A few months ago, I started...
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
120
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...
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
119
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...
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
119
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
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
119
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
TinyPilot: Month 19 Highlights I published my fourth annual retrospective about being a bootstrapped founder. TinyPilot...
over a year ago
118
over a year ago
Highlights I published my fourth annual retrospective about being a bootstrapped founder. TinyPilot sales continue running strong despite a delay in launching our next product. I analyze how I’m spending my time and figure out ways to allocate my hours better. Goal Grades At the...
mtlynch.io
TinyPilot: Month 36 New here? Hi, I’m Michael. I’m a software developer and the founder of TinyPilot, an independent...
a year ago
117
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 43 New here? Hi, I’m Michael. I’m a software developer and the founder of TinyPilot, an independent...
a year ago
117
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
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
117
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
TinyPilot: Month 16 Highlights I announced a new product and then discovered it was a mistake. I simplified the...
over a year ago
116
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
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...
over a year ago
114
over 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
ArchiveBox is Super Cool Have you ever used archive.org’s Internet Wayback Machine? It’s a free tool that’s been archiving...
a year ago
111
a year 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
TinyPilot: Month 30 New here? Hi, I’m Michael. I’m a software developer and the founder of TinyPilot, an independent...
over a year ago
111
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
Using Zig to Call C Code: Strings Zig is a new, open-source programming language designed to replace C. I’m still a Zig beginner, so...
a year ago
111
a year ago
Zig is a new, open-source programming language designed to replace C. I’m still a Zig beginner, so I’m trying to learn the language by using Zig to rewrite parts of existing C applications. One of the first challenges I encountered with Zig is understanding strings. I couldn’t...
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
110
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...
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
109
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 45 New here? Hi, I’m Michael. I’m a software developer and the founder of TinyPilot, an independent...
10 months ago
108
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 $80-110k/month in revenue and employs six other people. Every month, I publish a retrospective like this one...
mtlynch.io
TinyPilot: Month 20 Highlights I hired TinyPilot’s first support engineer. I learned that hiring a support engineer is...
over a year ago
108
over a year ago
Highlights I hired TinyPilot’s first support engineer. I learned that hiring a support engineer is even harder than I expected. I’m evaluating platforms for paying international contractors. Goal Grades At the start of each month, I declare what I’d like to accomplish. Here’s how...
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
108
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
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
107
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
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
105
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...
mtlynch.io
TinyPilot: Month 22 Highlights TinyPilot generates $58k/month in revenue yet somehow loses money. It’s more important...
over a year ago
104
over a year ago
Highlights TinyPilot generates $58k/month in revenue yet somehow loses money. It’s more important than I thought to have low-latency insight into developers’ hours. I’m trying paid advertising again for the first time in almost two years. Goal Grades At the start of each month, I...
mtlynch.io
TinyPilot: Month 42 New here? Hi, I’m Michael. I’m a software developer and the founder of TinyPilot, an independent...
a year ago
103
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
Educational Products: Month 2 Highlights I learned a few techniques that make it easier for me to record videos for my course....
6 months ago
103
6 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...
mtlynch.io
GUIs are Antisocial Last week, I was listening to the CoRecursive podcast interview with PowerShell’s lead architect,...
7 months ago
102
7 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
TinyPilot: Month 40 New here? Hi, I’m Michael. I’m a software developer and the founder of TinyPilot, an independent...
a year ago
101
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
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
101
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...
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...
over a year ago
100
over 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...
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
99
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
Badass: Making Users Awesome by Kathy Sierra Overall, this was an interesting read, but I found it hard to apply the lessons to my product. The...
over a year ago
99
over a year ago
Overall, this was an interesting read, but I found it hard to apply the lessons to my product. The book contains compelling case studies and ideas from the field of meta-learning, but most of the ideas were either too theoretical or too specific to large companies.
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
97
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...
mtlynch.io
How to Republish or Adapt this Content All original writing and images on this blog are released under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0...
a year ago
96
a year ago
All original writing and images on this blog are released under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. That means you can republish the content or adapt it as long as you honor the license. What you’re allowed to do Republish the content in any medium or...
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
96
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...
mtlynch.io
TinyPilot: Month 25 Highlights My blog post about redesigning the TinyPilot website became my second most popular...
over a year ago
96
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
TinyPilot: Month 38 New here? Hi, I’m Michael. I’m a software developer and the founder of TinyPilot, an independent...
a year ago
95
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 14 Highlights A redesign of TinyPilot’s website seems to have increased sales. TinyPilot now has a...
over a year ago
94
over a year ago
Highlights A redesign of TinyPilot’s website seems to have increased sales. TinyPilot now has a European distributor. After three years, I’ve earned back my investment in Zestful (and I might sell it). I’m still ruthlessly delegating every task I can. Goal Grades At the start of...
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....
8 months ago
94
8 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...
mtlynch.io
TinyPilot: Month 15 Highlights TinyPilot had its highest-revenue month ever. One of TinyPilot’s competitors raised $800k...
over a year ago
93
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...
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
91
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
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
91
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
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
91
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...
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
89
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
TinyPilot: Month 10 Highlights TinyPilot has its first official office space. I tried a marketing experiment that...
over a year ago
85
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
TinyPilot: Month 41 New here? Hi, I’m Michael. I’m a software developer and the founder of TinyPilot, an independent...
a year ago
85
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
How Litestream Eliminated My Database Server for $0.03/month Here’s a riddle. My web app keeps all of its data in a SQL database. I can spontaneously tear it...
over a year ago
83
over a year ago
Here’s a riddle. My web app keeps all of its data in a SQL database. I can spontaneously tear it down, deploy the code to a different hosting platform, and the app will still serve all the same data. Running my app in production costs $0.03 per month. How is this possible? That’s...
mtlynch.io
TinyPilot: Month 12 Highlights I’m struggling to get unstuck in two areas that have stalled for months: hardware...
over a year ago
83
over a year ago
Highlights I’m struggling to get unstuck in two areas that have stalled for months: hardware development and hiring. I’m partnering with a distributor in Germany to begin selling TinyPilot within the EU. Goal Grades At the start of each month, I declare what I’d like to...
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
83
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...
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
79
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
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
77
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
TinyPilot: Month 9 Highlights I plan to open TinyPilot’s first real office next month. TinyPilot’s revenues continue to...
over a year ago
77
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...
mtlynch.io
My Third Year as a Solo Developer Today is the third anniversary of quitting my job at Google to build my own software business. I...
over a year ago
75
over a year ago
Today is the third anniversary of quitting my job at Google to build my own software business. I posted updates at the end of my first and second years, so it’s time to share my progress. The year things clicked into place In my first two years working for myself, I earned less...
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...
5 months ago
75
5 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
TinyPilot: Month 11 Highlights Despite $30k in monthly revenue, TinyPilot barely covers costs. I’m exploring options to...
over a year ago
75
over a year ago
Highlights Despite $30k in monthly revenue, TinyPilot barely covers costs. I’m exploring options to get big companies to pay more for TinyPilot. I need to come to terms with the fact that managing people is a real job. Goal Grades At the start of each month, I declare what I’d...
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
72
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...
mtlynch.io
Shoe Dog by Phil Knight I bought this book hoping for lessons to apply to my business, manufacturing and selling physical...
over a year ago
72
over a year ago
I bought this book hoping for lessons to apply to my business, manufacturing and selling physical products. I didn’t find many business insights, but it was still an engaging and funny story.
mtlynch.io
TinyPilot: Month 7 Highlights TinyPilot achieved astonishing growth in revenue, jumping from $15k in December to $42k...
over a year ago
72
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...
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
72
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
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
71
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...
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
71
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...
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
71
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
Stripe is Silently Recording Your Movements On its Customers' Websites Among startups and tech companies, Stripe seems to be the near-universal favorite for payment...
over a year ago
70
over a year ago
Among startups and tech companies, Stripe seems to be the near-universal favorite for payment processing. When I needed paid subscription functionality for my new web app, Stripe felt like the natural choice. After integration, however, I discovered that Stripe’s official...
mtlynch.io
Is It Keto: Month 12 Highlights I added 88 new programmatically-generated articles to Is It Keto. With 100k monthly...
over a year ago
70
over a year ago
Highlights I added 88 new programmatically-generated articles to Is It Keto. With 100k monthly pageviews, it’s time to explore new ways of working with Is It Keto’s audience. I created a KVM over IP device that requires <$100 in hardware. Goal Grades At the start of each month, I...
mtlynch.io
Zestful: Month 4 Prior to February 2019, I published all my retrospectives on Indie Hackers: Zestful Month 4:...
over a year ago
70
over a year ago
Prior to February 2019, I published all my retrospectives on Indie Hackers: Zestful Month 4: Shipping Too Late
mtlynch.io
TinyPilot: Month 1 Highlights This is my highest revenue month ever, at $9.8k across all of my projects. Tiny Pilot had...
over a year ago
69
over a year ago
Highlights This is my highest revenue month ever, at $9.8k across all of my projects. Tiny Pilot had the biggest first month of anything I’ve ever launched, at 52 sales and $8.7k in revenue. The sudden surge in customers also made it one of my highest-stress months since going...
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
68
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
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
68
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....
mtlynch.io
How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi I had a mixed reaction to this book. Some of Ibram X. Kendi’s ideas felt novel and compelling. It...
over a year ago
68
over a year ago
I had a mixed reaction to this book. Some of Ibram X. Kendi’s ideas felt novel and compelling. It broadened my perspective in thinking about race. And there’s a lot of historical discussion of race and slavery that covered details I don’t remember from school. At the same time, I...
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
67
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...
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
67
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...
mtlynch.io
Is It Keto: Month 13 Highlights I sold my first pre-order for KVM Pi. Finding new ways to monetize Is It Keto is proving...
over a year ago
66
over a year ago
Highlights I sold my first pre-order for KVM Pi. Finding new ways to monetize Is It Keto is proving more difficult than I expected. I sold an Enterprise plan for Zestful. 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
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
66
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
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...
10 months ago
66
10 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
Why Good Developers Write Bad Unit Tests Congratulations! You’ve finally written so many lines of code that you can afford a beach house. You...
over a year ago
65
over a year ago
Congratulations! You’ve finally written so many lines of code that you can afford a beach house. You hire Peter Keating, an architect world-famous for his skyscrapers, who assures you that he has brilliant plans for your beachfront property. Months later, you arrive at the grand...
mtlynch.io
TinyPilot: Build a KVM Over IP for Under $100 TinyPilot is my inexpensive, open-source device for controlling computers remotely. It works even...
over a year ago
65
over a year ago
TinyPilot is my inexpensive, open-source device for controlling computers remotely. It works even before the operating system boots, so I use TinyPilot to install new OSes and debug boot failures on my bare metal homelab servers. This post details my experience creating TinyPilot...
mtlynch.io
Educational Products: Month 1 Highlights I’m rebooting my blogging course from 2020. htmx is pretty good but not everything I wish...
7 months ago
65
7 months ago
Highlights I’m rebooting my blogging course from 2020. htmx is pretty good but not everything I wish it could be. I’m looking for a buyer for Is It Keto, my old keto website. Rebooting Hit the Front Page In 2020, I created a video course about blogging called “Hit the Front Page...
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...
7 months ago
65
7 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...
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
65
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.
mtlynch.io
Paternity Leave: Month 2 Highlights I’m finding it surprisingly difficult not to work. Sleep is getting a little better. I...
4 months ago
64
4 months ago
Highlights I’m finding it surprisingly difficult not to work. Sleep is getting a little better. I used Nix to create a slick and reusable fuzz testing workflow. 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 Making of Prince of Persia by Jordan Mechner This book follows the author of the hit 90s computer game Prince of Persia through the game’s...
over a year ago
64
over a year ago
This book follows the author of the hit 90s computer game Prince of Persia through the game’s development, release, and several years after. The book consists of diary entries that author Jordan Mechner wrote during that time, with margin notes and accompanying photos and...
mtlynch.io
Guidelines for Freelance Developers Working with Me I’ve been hiring software developers and other freelancers for the past seven years. Even though I...
over a year ago
63
over a year ago
I’ve been hiring software developers and other freelancers for the past seven years. Even though I write most code myself, hiring other developers is a tremendous force multiplier that frees up time for other parts of my business. Freelancers work well if you manage 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
63
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...
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
62
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
Editing and Sharing Home Videos with MediaGoblin Goal This tutorial shows you how to edit digitized video captures into smaller clips that you can...
over a year ago
62
over a year ago
Goal This tutorial shows you how to edit digitized video captures into smaller clips that you can publish on your own password-protected MediaGoblin server. You’ll use a free Heroku dyno, so your only ongoing cost for running this private media server is the cost of storage on...
mtlynch.io
Noah Bragg's First Stoke Fire Livestream I’ve been interested in Ethereum the past year, especially the Base ecosystem. The problem is that...
5 months ago
62
5 months ago
I’ve been interested in Ethereum the past year, especially the Base ecosystem. The problem is that after hours of reading about Base, I still don’t get what Base is. Every few months, I check back in on the Base website’s developer section to see if there’s a path to building on...
mtlynch.io
How I Hired a Freelance Editor for My Blog A year in blogging I started this blog in May of last year. I don’t mean to brag, but by last April,...
over a year ago
61
over a year ago
A year in blogging I started this blog in May of last year. I don’t mean to brag, but by last April, after less than a year of blogging, I was pulling in upwards of 20 visitors per day, several of whom were not spam bots. That number reached as high as 50 visitors on days when I...
mtlynch.io
Is It Keto: Month 5 Highlights Is It Keto’s user visits continued to grow rapidly. Revenues increased substantially from...
over a year ago
61
over a year ago
Highlights Is It Keto’s user visits continued to grow rapidly. Revenues increased substantially from the previous month but missed targets for January. I figured out an easy and inexpensive way to attract users via Twitter. Goal Grades At the start of the month, I laid out some...
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
61
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
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
60
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...
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
60
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...
mtlynch.io
Paternity Leave: Month 3 Highlights I’m finding it easier to balance my time as a new father. I moped about two of my blog...
3 months ago
60
3 months ago
Highlights I’m finding it easier to balance my time as a new father. I moped about two of my blog posts doing poorly, and then they did well. I experimented with a stacked diff workflow for software development and liked it except for git’s weaknesses. Goal grades At the start of...
mtlynch.io
Is It Keto: Month 11 Highlights Two of my blog posts reached the front page of Hacker News. I may have finally discovered...
over a year ago
59
over a year ago
Highlights Two of my blog posts reached the front page of Hacker News. I may have finally discovered a way to scale my keto site profitably. I’m putting Portfolio Rebalancer on the backburner due to lack of traction. Goal Grades At the start of each month, I declare what I’d like...
mtlynch.io
An Unsuccessful Experiment with Nemotron A few weeks ago, NVIDIA released Nemotron, a large language model that they derived from Meta’s...
3 months ago
59
3 months ago
A few weeks ago, NVIDIA released Nemotron, a large language model that they derived from Meta’s Llama 3.1 70B. NVIDIA claimed at release that Nemotron outperformed GPT-4o and Claude 3.5 Sonnet on certain benchmarks. That was exciting news, as my experience with self-hostable AI...
mtlynch.io
TinyPilot: Month 44 New here? Hi, I’m Michael. I’m a software developer and the founder of TinyPilot, an independent...
11 months ago
59
11 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...
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
58
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...
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
57
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
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
57
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...
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
57
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...
mtlynch.io
Paternity Leave: Month 4 Highlights I found ways to procrastinate writing my book. I had fun fuzz testing open-source...
2 months ago
56
2 months ago
Highlights I found ways to procrastinate writing my book. I had fun fuzz testing open-source projects. I picked out components for a new high-end desktop computer for software development. Goal grades At the start of each month, I declare what I’d like to accomplish. Here’s how I...
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
55
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
What Got Done - Month 1 Highlights I launched my task journaling app, but it hasn’t attracted many users. Interviewing...
over a year ago
55
over a year ago
Highlights I launched my task journaling app, but it hasn’t attracted many users. Interviewing potential customers gave me a good idea for my next project. I earned $107 from Is It Keto and $123 from Zestful without working on either. Goal Grades Publish a minimum viable product...
mtlynch.io
I'm Still Confused About Base A year ago, I listented to an interview with Jesse Pollak on an episode of Into the Bytecode. Jesse...
5 months ago
55
5 months ago
A year ago, I listented to an interview with Jesse Pollak on an episode of Into the Bytecode. Jesse works for Coinbase, and he noticed that lots of developers building apps on top of Ethereum were solving the same problems over and over again. He started a project at Coinbase to...
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
54
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...
mtlynch.io
Installing NixOS on Raspberry Pi 4 Nix is a tool that allows you to define your software environment from code. Nix has several...
a year ago
54
a year ago
Nix is a tool that allows you to define your software environment from code. Nix has several components to it, and one of the most interesting to me is NixOS, which lets you use Nix tooling to define your entire OS configuration using plaintext files. I only recently started...
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
54
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
TinyPilot: Month 8 Highlights TinyPilots revenues dropped for the first time in six months. TinyPilot finished the...
over a year ago
53
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...
mtlynch.io
TinyPilot: Month 3 Highlights TinyPilot generated $3,800 in revenue with zero marketing. I went from zero to a...
over a year ago
53
over a year ago
Highlights TinyPilot generated $3,800 in revenue with zero marketing. I went from zero to a complete, custom manufactured product in 26 days. I’m still struggling to manage my inventory. Goal Grades At the start of each month, I declare what I’d like to accomplish. Here’s how I...
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
53
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...
mtlynch.io
How I Collected a Debt from an Unscrupulous Merchant A few years ago, I learned a handy technique for resolving disputes with uncooperative businesses....
over a year ago
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over a year ago
A few years ago, I learned a handy technique for resolving disputes with uncooperative businesses. It’s simple to understand and easy to implement. You don’t need lawyers or a prominent social media presence. All it requires is for you to behave like an organized professional....
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
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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
The Dumbest Task I Ever Outsourced I derive immense satisfaction from outsourcing my chores. All of my friends have heard me encourage...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
I derive immense satisfaction from outsourcing my chores. All of my friends have heard me encourage them to place a higher value on their free time and delegate their errands. Few of them heed my advice, and it’s probably because they know about the time I paid someone $96 to...
mtlynch.io
Resurrecting a Dead Library: Part Three - Rehabilitation I love refactoring. Nothing satisfies me more than untangling spaghetti code to reveal its...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
I love refactoring. Nothing satisfies me more than untangling spaghetti code to reveal its underlying logic in a clear, intuitive way. I’ve learned that refactoring requires diligence. In my younger and more reckless days, I would rush into a legacy codebase and tear apart the...
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
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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...
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
52
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...
mtlynch.io
How I Tricked Myself into Shipping Too Late Many software founders fail for a simple reason: they ship too late. They spend years developing a...
over a year ago
52
over a year ago
Many software founders fail for a simple reason: they ship too late. They spend years developing a product in a vacuum only to see it crumble the first time a real customer touches it. The Indie Hackers podcast features many such stories. The show’s stated mission is to help...
mtlynch.io
Nonviolent Communication by Marshall B. Rosenberg, Ph.D. Nonviolent Communication describes a communication style centered around sharing vulnerability and...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
Nonviolent Communication describes a communication style centered around sharing vulnerability and offering empathy. One of its biggest strengths is in how it highlights common patterns of lazy communication that exclude personal feelings or critical thinking. I also found its...
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
52
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....
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
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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...
mtlynch.io
Resurrecting a Dead Library: Part Two - Stabilization In this post, I demonstrate how to retrofit automated tests onto an untested legacy library. This is...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
In this post, I demonstrate how to retrofit automated tests onto an untested legacy library. This is part two of a three-part series about how I resurrected ingredient-phrase-tagger, a library that uses machine learning to parse cooking ingredients (e.g., “2 cups milk”) into...
mtlynch.io
Using Nix to Fuzz Test a PDF Parser (Part One) Fuzz testing is a technique for automatically uncovering bugs in software. The problem is that it’s...
4 months ago
51
4 months ago
Fuzz testing is a technique for automatically uncovering bugs in software. The problem is that it’s a pain to set up. Read any fuzz testing tutorial, and the first task is an hour of building tools from source and chasing down dependencies upon dependencies. I recently found that...
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
50
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...
mtlynch.io
A Simple Pre-Rendered Web App Using Vue + Nuxt In this post, I’ll show you how to pre-render pages using Vue and Nuxt. This method combines the...
over a year ago
50
over a year ago
In this post, I’ll show you how to pre-render pages using Vue and Nuxt. This method combines the convenient development experience of Vue without forfeiting critical features like social sharing or search engine optimization. This tutorial assumes no experience with Vue or Nuxt....
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
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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
Massachusetts Residents Can Sue Online Merchants for Spam Last week, I saw an interesting article on the /r/legaladvice subreddit. An e-commerce business...
4 months ago
50
4 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...
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
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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
Zestful: Month 5 Prior to February 2019, I published all my retrospectives on Indie Hackers: Zestful Month 5:...
over a year ago
49
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 Sixth Year as a Bootstrapped Founder Six years ago, I quit my job as a developer at Google to create my own bootstrapped software...
a year ago
49
a year 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...
mtlynch.io
Recovery Month Highlights Is It Keto’s revenue doubled to $82.44 with zero effort on my part. My task journaling...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
Highlights Is It Keto’s revenue doubled to $82.44 with zero effort on my part. My task journaling app is almost ready for publication. I’ve begun setting up meetings with potential customers about my next project ideas. Goal Grades At the start of the month, I gave up on Is It...
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
49
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
Notes from PyTexas 2019 Overview This past weekend, PyTexas invited me to speak at their annual conference in Austin,...
over a year ago
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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...
mtlynch.io
How to Make Your Code Reviewer Fall in Love with You When people talk about code reviews, they focus on the reviewer. But the developer who writes the...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
When people talk about code reviews, they focus on the reviewer. But the developer who writes the code is just as important to the review as the person who reads it. There’s scarcely any guidance on preparing your code for review, so authors often screw up this process out of...
mtlynch.io
Creating a Nix Workflow to Fuzz netconsd Recently, when I’m having trouble sleeping, I look for software to fuzz test. Earlier this week, I...
3 months ago
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3 months ago
Recently, when I’m having trouble sleeping, I look for software to fuzz test. Earlier this week, I thought back to Fady Othman’s post “Meta Bug Bounty — Fuzzing ’netconsd’ for fun and profit.” It’s a good tutorial about fuzzing code exhaustively. Like most fuzzing blog posts, I...
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
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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...
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
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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
Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell Like all Gladwell books, Outliers does an excellent job of building an engaging narrative out of...
over a year ago
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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...
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
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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...
mtlynch.io
The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey Before reading The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, I thought of it as the canonical cliché...
over a year ago
47
over a year ago
Before reading The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, I thought of it as the canonical cliché self-help book. But as the saying goes, clichés become clichés because they’re true. The book’s insightfulness surprised me, and I found many of its ideas useful in my everyday...
mtlynch.io
Is It Keto - Month 10 Highlights I sold my first meal plan on Is It Keto. I then tried five different experiments for...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
Highlights I sold my first meal plan on Is It Keto. I then tried five different experiments for increasing sales. Is It Keto’s revenue dropped for the month as I redirected resources toward its failing meal plans. Goal Grades At the start of each month, I declare what I’d like to...
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
46
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....
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...
4 months ago
46
4 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
Reset Month No update this month I’m skipping my normal retrospective this month, as I sold TinyPilot and am...
7 months ago
46
7 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.
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
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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...
mtlynch.io
Pursuing a Business I'll Love Highlights Zestful had its biggest month ever, with $3,936 in revenue. Is It Keto also had its best...
over a year ago
46
over a year ago
Highlights Zestful had its biggest month ever, with $3,936 in revenue. Is It Keto also had its best month ever, at $393 in revenue. After lots of research and customer interviews, I gave up on my idea for creating sheet metal software. I published my first version of an app for...
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
46
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.
mtlynch.io
Is It Keto - Month 8 Highlights Is It Keto continued its streak of growth, with a 72% jump in revenue to an all-time high...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
Highlights Is It Keto continued its streak of growth, with a 72% jump in revenue to an all-time high of $389 for August. Given that Is It Keto is doing better than any of my other projects, I decided to stop ignoring it. I finally got a high-ranking domain to link to Is It Keto,...
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 months ago
45
2 months 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
How to Grow Quickly and Never Turn a Profit Early last year, I launched a nutrition site called Is It Keto. From November 2018 until March 2019,...
over a year ago
45
over a year ago
Early last year, I launched a nutrition site called Is It Keto. From November 2018 until March 2019, the site was my full-time focus. Every month, visitors increased by 50% to 150%, an exhilarating growth rate that far outpaced any of my previous projects. There was only one...
mtlynch.io
Why I Quit Google to Work for Myself For the past four years, I’ve worked as a software developer at Google. On February 1st, I quit. It...
over a year ago
45
over a year ago
For the past four years, I’ve worked as a software developer at Google. On February 1st, I quit. It was because they refused to buy me a Christmas present. Well, I guess it’s a little more complicated than that. The first two years Two years in, I loved Google. When the annual...
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...
3 months ago
45
3 months 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
Eliminating Distractions from Social Media, Email, and StackOverflow You open Gmail to write a note to your friend. Before you begin, you notice that you’ve received six...
over a year ago
45
over a year ago
You open Gmail to write a note to your friend. Before you begin, you notice that you’ve received six new messages. It pains you to leave emails unopened, so you read them immediately. Two hours later, you realize that you never wrote that note to your friend. This happened to me...
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
45
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...
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
45
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
Is It Keto: Month 6 Highlights Is It Keto’s user visits plateaued in February, but that still represents progress....
over a year ago
45
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
An Unexpected Reset Month Highlights My loved ones and I are safe and healthy. WanderJest is on hiatus due to the nationwide...
over a year ago
45
over a year ago
Highlights My loved ones and I are safe and healthy. WanderJest is on hiatus due to the nationwide shutdown. I’m working on a product to help investors rebalance their portfolios. COVID-19 and me Obviously, the most relevant thing to happen in the last month has been the global...
mtlynch.io
Projects TinyPilot (2020 - present) TinyPilot is a small, inexpensive device that gives you remote access to...
over a year ago
44
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
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
43
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
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
43
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...
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
43
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
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
43
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...
mtlynch.io
if got, want: A Simple Way to Write Better Go Tests There’s an excellent Go testing pattern that too few people know. I can teach it to you in 30...
a month ago
43
a month ago
There’s an excellent Go testing pattern that too few people know. I can teach it to you in 30 seconds. Instead of writing Go tests like this: // The common, unrefined way. username := GetUser() if username != "dummyUser" { t.Errorf("unexpected username: got %s, want: %s",...
mtlynch.io
What Got Done - Month 3 Highlights I’m shelving What Got Done, as customers seem uninterested in the idea. Zestful has...
over a year ago
42
over a year ago
Highlights I’m shelving What Got Done, as customers seem uninterested in the idea. Zestful has become my greatest challenge in not sweating the small stuff. Is It Keto continues growing in the background, with a 22% increase in revenue and a 35% rise in traffic. Goal Grades...
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
42
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.
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
42
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
About Michael Lynch is a developer and blogger. He graduated from Columbia University in 2007 with a BS in...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
Michael Lynch is a developer and blogger. He graduated from Columbia University in 2007 with a BS in Computer Science. He has worked as a software engineer at Microsoft and Google and as a security engineer at NCC Group. Michael is available for weddings, bar/bat mitzvahs, and...
mtlynch.io
KetoHub: Month 2 Prior to February 2019, I published all my retrospectives on Indie Hackers: KetoHub Month 2
over a year ago
mtlynch.io
The Case for Open Borders by John Washington If you’re a liberal who’s interested in becoming a radical progressive, this is a good book for you....
a month ago
40
a month ago
If you’re a liberal who’s interested in becoming a radical progressive, this is a good book for you. If you’re anyone else, you’re probably not the target audience.
mtlynch.io
GreenPiThumb: A Raspberry Pi Gardening Bot Introduction This is the story of GreenPiThumb: a gardening bot that automatically waters...
over a year ago
40
over a year ago
Introduction This is the story of GreenPiThumb: a gardening bot that automatically waters houseplants, but also sometimes kills them. The story begins about a year ago, when I was struck by a sudden desire to own a houseplant. A plant would look nice, supply me with much needed...
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
39
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
KetoHub Update: Month 3 In early October, I launched a new website, KetoHub, a recipe aggregator for keto meals. Each month,...
over a year ago
39
over a year ago
In early October, I launched a new website, KetoHub, a recipe aggregator for keto meals. Each month, I’ve evaluated the site’s progress to decide how it’s doing and what areas need improvement. I’m doing my evaluation of December publicly. Here’s what was good, bad, and learnable...
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
39
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
Delete the Timestamps from your Static Blog I build this blog using Hugo, a popular static site generator. The way Hugo works is that when I...
3 months ago
38
3 months ago
I build this blog using Hugo, a popular static site generator. The way Hugo works is that when I create a new blog post, Hugo generates a default template that looks like this: --- title: "My New Post" date: 2024-11-16T20:33:09-04:00 --- The boilerplate for the post contains a...
mtlynch.io
How to Do Code Reviews Like a Human (Part One) Lately, I’ve been reading articles about best practices for code reviews. I notice that these...
over a year ago
38
over a year ago
Lately, I’ve been reading articles about best practices for code reviews. I notice that these articles focus on finding bugs to the exclusion of almost every other component of a review. Communicating issues you discover in a constructive and professional way? Irrelevant! Just...
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
37
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...
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
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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
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
36
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....
mtlynch.io
WanderJest: Month 1 Highlights Three businesses agreed to form affiliate partnerships with WanderJest. Two of my blog...
over a year ago
36
over a year ago
Highlights Three businesses agreed to form affiliate partnerships with WanderJest. Two of my blog posts reached the front page of Hacker News. Is It Keto earned its all-time-highest monthly revenue, doubling its previous record. Goal Grades At the start of each month, I declare...
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
36
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...
mtlynch.io
Educational Products: Month 3 Highlights I published the first chapter of my book and was happy with the reception. My attempt to...
a month ago
35
a month ago
Highlights I published the first chapter of my book and was happy with the reception. My attempt to hire a book cover designer flopped. I may have figured out how to support large files on PicoShare. Goal grades At the start of each month, I declare what I’d like to accomplish....
mtlynch.io
Overcoming Gotchas in Samsung Secure Erase I have a few Samsung SSDs, and I always have trouble remembering the process of secure erasing them,...
a month ago
34
a month ago
I have a few Samsung SSDs, and I always have trouble remembering the process of secure erasing them, as Samsung Magician software is terrible. Here are my notes for overcoming Samsung Magician’s gotchas in the process of secure erasing a Samsung SSD. You need a Windows or MacOS...
mtlynch.io
Create Your Own Low-Cost Cloud Storage App with Sia and Nextcloud In today’s post, I’m going to show you how to set up your own cloud storage web app, similar to...
over a year ago
34
over a year ago
In today’s post, I’m going to show you how to set up your own cloud storage web app, similar to Dropbox or Google Drive, but with substantially lower costs. This solution provides cloud storage at ~$0.60 per TB/month. By comparison, the same storage would cost $8.25 per month on...
mtlynch.io
Increase Your Reply Rate on Cold Emails to Me The term “cold email” refers to emailing someone who you’ve never spoken to before. There are lots...
a month ago
33
a month ago
The term “cold email” refers to emailing someone who you’ve never spoken to before. There are lots of guides on writing cold emails. This one is a bit niche, as it’s about cold emailing a particular person: me. But I guarantee you that it’s the best guide you can find on this...
mtlynch.io
How to Resolve Local Hostnames in OPNSense My router runs OPNSense Business. I like having an open-source router, but I have a few gripes with...
a month ago
30
a month ago
My router runs OPNSense Business. I like having an open-source router, but I have a few gripes with it. My biggest issue is that, by default, OPNsense can’t resolve hostnames on my local network. Why can’t OPNsense resolve local hostnames? For every other router I’ve owned in my...
mtlynch.io
Lessons from my First Exit In April of this year, I sold TinyPilot, the bootstrapped hardware company I founded and ran for...
3 months ago
30
3 months ago
In April of this year, I sold TinyPilot, the bootstrapped hardware company I founded and ran for four years. I wrote a post in May that told the story of the sale, but I’d like to share more about the practical lessons I learned from the experience. In this post, I’m sharing what...
mtlynch.io
My Feedback about Hello Base The cryptocurrency language barrier There’s an unforunate language barrier among technologists right...
2 months ago
27
2 months 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
The Cline AI Assistant is Mesmerizing I tried out the Cline AI assistant yesterday, and then I went into a trance for five hours where I...
3 weeks ago
16
3 weeks ago
I tried out the Cline AI assistant yesterday, and then I went into a trance for five hours where I couldn’t do anything but stare transfixed at Cline fixing bugs for me. As a professional developer, it was both enchanting and terrifying. It’s enchanting that AI has reached this...
mtlynch.io
My Seventh Year as a Bootstrapped Founder Seven years ago, I quit my job as a developer at Google to create my own bootstrapped software...
2 weeks ago
13
2 weeks ago
Seven years ago, I quit my job as a developer at Google to create my own bootstrapped software company. Every year, I post an update about how that’s going and what my life is like as an indie founder. I sold my company My most significant professional development of the last...
mtlynch.io
Install NixOS on a Free Oracle Cloud VM Oracle is not a very popular cloud hosting service, but they have an unusually attractive free tier...
2 weeks ago
11
2 weeks ago
Oracle is not a very popular cloud hosting service, but they have an unusually attractive free tier offering. You can run the following two VMs for free 24/7: 4 CPU / 24 GB RAM Ampere A1 ARM VM 1 CPU / 1 GB RAM AMD CPU The AMD one is not that exciting, but a 4-CPU / 24 GB system...
mtlynch.io
My Zig Configuration for VS Code I finally found a solution that makes VS Code work consistently with Zig, so I’m sharing my setup in...
a week ago
9
a week ago
I finally found a solution that makes VS Code work consistently with Zig, so I’m sharing my setup in the hope that it saves someone else a headache. Zig extension for VS Code working correctly Before I landed on a working solution, I kept running into issues with Zig version...
mtlynch.io
Educational Products: Month 4 Highlights I’m having doubts about sitting out the AI revolution. I should prove to myself that...
a week ago
9
a week ago
Highlights I’m having doubts about sitting out the AI revolution. I should prove to myself that customers are willing to buy my book before investing more time into it. I’m probably the last person on the planet to discover that RSS is a great way to read blogs. Goal grades At...