So on Monday I wrote an email to Shawn Blanc of shawnblanc.net about my iPhone app. On Wednesday this happened. Surreal.
Surreal, but extremely helpful. I really have been trying to figure out the whole marketing thing for apps. One thing that doesn’t help is I think of writing an email as about the same thing as walking on hot coals. It is not.
In actuality, I actually kinda like writing in general. Email is just a form of writing that is going to one (or more) very specific person. That should make it better. You’re not shouting into the void, you’re talking very specifically to one person and can tailor your words to tickle their fancy. That can be fun, because you can feel good about your ability to make them feel good.
Email, then, is a way to try and make a very specific someone smile over the internet. I am all about that. One additional plus is that I can talk about something I want to talk about anyway.
This is so friggin basic, I can’t believe I have to psyche myself up. I mean, seriously, this is just the kind of thing that everyone has been talking about when they elaborate on how popular alpaca message boards are online even though no one really meets alpaca fans in real life. Online people genuinely share the same interests as you. They all do. Well, at least the ones who will end up listening to you. The nice thing about the internet is that if you don’t share the same interest in something or someone it’s super easy to ignore.
When you come to a fork in the road, take it.
So there’s been some substantial news and hubbub in the coffee world that I love so dearly. Mark Prince, high priest or the people’s best friend, announced the imminent availability of a scale-driven grinder from quality home enthusiast manufacturer Baratza. This is big news.
For a long time now (at least the couple years I’ve been paying attention) the coffee world has been pushing the importance of knowing the mass of coffee and water used when brewing. We’ve heard talk of integrating scales in espresso machines, in water boilers (and has happened), and now there’s the first bit of momentum with scale-enhanced grinders.
But not all is wine and roses. Cool heads have looked to pour cold water on good enthusiasm. Steve Leighton has his eyes on the prize, wanting the industry to put its resources into grind quality:
I really wish someone would build a great grinder before producing an ok one with a set of scales built in
He’s right, of course. Sizzle sells, but the steak matters. There are other ways, many other ways, to weigh ground coffee. You can time it, grind a pre-weighed amount, or even weigh after grinding. The point is, we can get around a lack of scale-based grinding on our own. We cannot get around poor grind quality.
But this isn’t a zero-sum game. There’s more than one grinder manufacturer! So, Baratza is making a scale for their grinder. Great! Uber is making a better grind.
And that’s how a healthy industry operates. Way to go, team!
Usage is like oxygen for ideas.
Now that BrewControl has launched I’m able to think about how to optimize the way I release software. I think this quote is incredibly valuable. You probably don’t have to be in my shoes to understand why.
When you develop a product, you can become so insulated from the outside world in how you view that product. You are invested in the small details, because you want to get the small details right, because that’s how great products are made. Since our brain doesn’t see all levels at once we will miss the big picture of how the thing is working if we know the dozen little details that must be addressed. We can’t do both.
Getting people who want to use the product to use it is oxygen. It breathes life into a project. It makes you happier to work on it and it helps the project grow in the right direction. The sooner my project gets oxygen the sooner it transforms from great to really great.