PodSearch

Under the Radar

Under the Radar 25: The Calm Before the Storm

 

00:00:00   welcome to under the radar a show about

00:00:02   independent iOS app development I'm

00:00:04   Marco Arment mm David Smith under the

00:00:07   radar is never longer than 30 minutes so

00:00:09   let's get started so today we wanted to

00:00:11   talk about kind of what we're calling

00:00:13   the calm before the storm

00:00:14   basically what to do and what to work on

00:00:17   and what not to work on in the few

00:00:20   months leading up to WB DC because the

00:00:23   idea here is you know as iOS developers

00:00:26   or Mac developers know if any of you are

00:00:28   listening WDC usually includes some kind

00:00:32   of major changes especially for iOS you

00:00:35   know some kind of major API changes

00:00:36   possibly design changes possibly

00:00:39   business or marketing changes so there's

00:00:42   always there's always a lot to do in

00:00:45   response to what's announced at WTC for

00:00:48   the fall and so the question is like you

00:00:51   know what you know right now as we

00:00:53   record this it's late April and you know

00:00:55   everybody sees in mid June so it's it's

00:00:58   close enough that like you don't

00:01:00   necessarily want to get started on some

00:01:02   kind of big project now right before WTC

00:01:06   or months before the video you see and

00:01:09   so the question is kind of like what do

00:01:11   you do in this quiet time so David what

00:01:14   do you do usually so I just got finished

00:01:17   with activity post applause which was

00:01:20   like my last probably the last new app

00:01:22   that I launched before WTC and it was

00:01:24   only launched when it was because 9.3

00:01:28   was new had this new API this new

00:01:30   capability like otherwise this time of

00:01:32   year tends to be a sort of a cleanup

00:01:37   phase like I wasn't seen about this in

00:01:39   preparation for the show of kind of what

00:01:41   my normal year looks like which is

00:01:43   probably a good place to start in some

00:01:44   ways we're so in many ways like my

00:01:48   development

00:01:49   year starts at WWDC on whatever Monday

00:01:52   that is like this year it's like June

00:01:54   13th is essentially like the new like

00:01:56   developer New Year's where at that point

00:02:00   we will sort of have the roadmap of what

00:02:03   to come what's coming what to expect

00:02:05   what's going to be important for the

00:02:06   next for the next year until the next

00:02:08   WWDC

00:02:09   and like really new years we also might

00:02:11   have a hangover at

00:02:12   that's it's it's true he is from there

00:02:17   we have a few months of time until

00:02:21   whatever is announced WC actually gets

00:02:24   released

00:02:24   so typically recently this has been in

00:02:26   June everything's announced in September

00:02:29   ish late late September early October

00:02:31   somewhere on there whenever the new

00:02:32   iPhones come out typically is the sort

00:02:36   of the window we have to before from

00:02:39   when the new stuff is announced to when

00:02:41   the new stuff is available so it's

00:02:42   usually a pretty busy time for most

00:02:44   developers because especially if it's

00:02:46   like a big sweeping change you know it's

00:02:48   like I think iOS 7 where it's like okay

00:02:50   all if this new UI stuff needs to be

00:02:52   done or those types of changes or it's

00:02:55   like with the watch this like here's an

00:02:56   watch OS 2 it's going to be coming out

00:02:58   you have these bay this this very busy

00:03:00   period essentially over the summer and

00:03:03   then you get all that out then you are

00:03:07   at least conceptually for me my goal is

00:03:09   then to get everything nice and tidy for

00:03:11   the holidays you know so I want to be

00:03:14   like it's not as pronounced of a bump as

00:03:17   it used to be but around you know around

00:03:20   Christmas there's usually a nice solid

00:03:22   bump in app downloads and sales and

00:03:25   things because there's just a lot of

00:03:26   people getting new devices and you know

00:03:28   people getting new devices seem to be

00:03:30   more apt to go and download things so

00:03:32   you get you want to be sort of after the

00:03:34   summer sort of intense phase you have

00:03:36   this cleanup phase sort of running

00:03:39   through Christmas and then the early

00:03:42   part of the year when I tend just to

00:03:45   kind of look at it as it's like it's a

00:03:47   good opportunity for doing like point

00:03:50   releases like do we doing these kinds of

00:03:52   big updates but not like massive change

00:03:57   you know and not like new apps tepa

00:03:58   typically it's more just these big

00:04:00   changes right and then you get into this

00:04:01   period right around now where I don't

00:04:04   want to tackle anything that I don't

00:04:05   think I'm going to finish by June and I

00:04:08   don't want to really like make new new

00:04:13   praten like new small things because

00:04:15   they may just become you know worthless

00:04:17   or or kind of you know deprecated or all

00:04:20   these types of things in June and so

00:04:22   right now it tends to be more kind of a

00:04:23   cleanup phase for me so I look

00:04:25   kind of the process I'm going through

00:04:26   right now as I look through my apps

00:04:28   which of which there are many and I will

00:04:30   kind of see like what are the little

00:04:32   niggling things that I can do and things

00:04:35   that have been on my to-do list for a

00:04:36   while that I you know overall would make

00:04:40   the apps better and these tend to be

00:04:41   updates that are more quality of life

00:04:45   updates you know things that are just

00:04:46   like making the app easier to use or

00:04:49   better or more stable that kind of thing

00:04:51   rather than like I'm gonna implement

00:04:53   this whole new you know radical approach

00:04:55   to something it's like these are things

00:04:57   that a lot of them the users won't see

00:04:59   directly or if they do they'll just

00:05:01   notice them and things are better rather

00:05:03   than like totally different but for me

00:05:05   that's kind of this cycle and what a

00:05:07   year looks like and so now is this kind

00:05:10   of fun place where you know I get to

00:05:11   it's a bit more experimental like I'm

00:05:13   just going in and doing lots of

00:05:14   tinkering which is kind of nice I guess

00:05:16   and it's like nice to kind of to also

00:05:19   rest a bit before the crazy sprint

00:05:22   vergis marathon that is June to

00:05:25   September oh yeah I mean I I'm in pretty

00:05:29   much complete agreement with everything

00:05:30   you just said in fact you guys cover

00:05:31   basically my entire outline for this

00:05:32   episode in four minutes

00:05:34   all right but yeah basically like you

00:05:37   know this this is a great time you know

00:05:39   as you just mentioned for anything any

00:05:42   kind of like administrative tasks like

00:05:45   you clean up especially clean up that is

00:05:47   not like the code of your app

00:05:49   necessarily you know administration

00:05:51   stuff changing like updating your

00:05:53   website or your marketing structure you

00:05:57   know some kind like that if you want to

00:05:58   like make you know make a better side or

00:06:01   play with certain kinds of advertising

00:06:03   or whatever else like this is a decent

00:06:05   time to do that kind of stuff and as you

00:06:06   said it's also a really good time to

00:06:08   take vacations or to spend time with

00:06:10   hobbies or with family or whatever else

00:06:13   because a lot of people take vacations

00:06:15   stuff in the summer time but you know as

00:06:17   we'd because of the schedule that we are

00:06:19   on a lot of time developers can't take

00:06:21   vacation or shouldn't take vacation in

00:06:23   summer time because some are so busy for

00:06:25   us tackling all the stuff that's gonna

00:06:27   be in the new version of iOS and so this

00:06:30   is a great time for all that I mean

00:06:31   mainly the main thing is what you what

00:06:33   you don't want to be doing during this

00:06:35   time ideally unless you really have to

00:06:37   but if you ideally you don't want to be

00:06:39   cackling major updates to existing apps

00:06:42   it's not a terrible time to write new

00:06:44   apps which we'll get to you know to do

00:06:47   with given certain parameters but this

00:06:50   is a this is not a great time to do

00:06:52   major updates to existing apps because

00:06:54   in June when when we get that WBC Happy

00:06:58   New Year Monday and we start and you

00:07:00   know we see the state of the unions and

00:07:01   we start seeing some of the new api's

00:07:03   what we usually find is that the new API

00:07:07   is that are that are released in June to

00:07:09   developers and mobile to be released in

00:07:10   the fall to customers usually they will

00:07:13   make our jobs easier in some big ways in

00:07:17   our code and even if even if they wanted

00:07:19   to make our jobs easier they will at

00:07:21   least make our jobs different and so

00:07:23   there's a any any amount of code that

00:07:25   you write in the months before WDC it's

00:07:29   kind of a liability that you might need

00:07:31   that everything you're writing now you

00:07:32   might need to adapt or rewrite in a few

00:07:35   months you know and only and it's that

00:07:37   there's always liability that when

00:07:38   you're writing code but here the

00:07:40   timeline is so close that it's kind of

00:07:42   non-ideal if you can avoid writing tons

00:07:44   of new code or tons of adjustments to

00:07:48   your app now that's good this is

00:07:50   especially true at least it used to be

00:07:52   especially true if you're writing

00:07:53   Swift's and Swift is still so young and

00:07:55   changes so much although at least now

00:07:57   with the open-source roadmap that that

00:07:59   should eliminate most of these surprises

00:08:01   that are coming with Swift and it's

00:08:02   getting more mature but you know in

00:08:05   general the ground will shift in June so

00:08:08   you don't want to build a whole bunch of

00:08:10   new code on top of the old ground until

00:08:13   you know what the shift will be and then

00:08:16   you know maybe you can start taking a

00:08:17   vanishing api's and it used to be the

00:08:19   case that a lot of developers really

00:08:22   couldn't take advantage of the new API

00:08:23   yet because they just they had to

00:08:25   support older versions of iOS I think

00:08:28   over time that that need has has

00:08:30   diminished somewhat is certainly not

00:08:32   gone and certainly there are a lot of

00:08:34   people who still need to support old

00:08:35   versions of iOS and if you do then

00:08:37   they're for like you know the some of

00:08:39   the some of the ground shifting stuff

00:08:40   might not apply to you yet but I think

00:08:44   most severely especially most indie

00:08:46   developers now can get away with

00:08:47   supporting just the current version of

00:08:50   iOS and the vast majority of their

00:08:52   customers in most cases are

00:08:53   okay with that because adoption rates

00:08:55   are so good these days so really you

00:08:58   want to avoid being incompatible or

00:09:01   causing more work for yourself for the

00:09:03   new stuff coming in the fall and this

00:09:05   applies not only to code but also to

00:09:07   design marketing business because you

00:09:10   know design wise like there's obviously

00:09:12   there might be design changes to iOS

00:09:14   there you know there's been rumors of

00:09:16   like you know more things related to

00:09:18   true tone and nightshift so maybe like a

00:09:20   system-wide dark mode or something like

00:09:22   that you got to consider that there

00:09:24   might be designed tweaks to the built-in

00:09:26   widgets or to just the conventions there

00:09:28   might be new new styles that are you

00:09:31   know new navigation controller

00:09:32   structures like a split view kind of

00:09:34   thing like you know new stuff like that

00:09:35   that might come out that might become

00:09:37   like a new standard thing that people

00:09:39   expect or want in the next version of

00:09:40   iOS so it is not like right now is not a

00:09:43   good time to redesign your UI because

00:09:45   you don't know what those changes will

00:09:46   be yet also marketing wise you know

00:09:50   there's there's considerations of like

00:09:52   do you want to do any kind of small or

00:09:55   medium sized releases now and then also

00:09:58   do like another medium size release in

00:10:01   the fall or do you want to cluster them

00:10:03   together and just wait you know hold the

00:10:04   stuff back now and then in the fall do a

00:10:07   bigger release and of course there's

00:10:09   pluses and minuses to that as well it

00:10:10   was obviously more competition in the

00:10:11   fall but there's also more people

00:10:13   looking and there's chances to be

00:10:15   featured and we'll probably cover that

00:10:16   at a later date but also just it's worth

00:10:20   considering that any any assumptions you

00:10:22   make now about the business of selling

00:10:25   your app however you're making money

00:10:27   whatever your structure is for

00:10:29   collecting money from people or not

00:10:31   whether you're doing ads whether you're

00:10:33   doing upgrade payments whatever you're

00:10:35   doing the business model that you have

00:10:37   now might need to change once we learn

00:10:40   what we're going to learn in June you

00:10:41   know so as you learned David like I add

00:10:44   is showing down so like if you were if

00:10:46   you were depending on I add a couple

00:10:47   months ago well now you have work to do

00:10:49   in June there might be other changes

00:10:51   announced there might be changes to the

00:10:53   App Store there might be new policies or

00:10:54   maybe what you're doing now won't be

00:10:56   allowed anymore or maybe it won't work

00:10:58   as well anymore

00:11:00   and maybe there will be new things that

00:11:01   we can do new business models that

00:11:03   become available or possible or more

00:11:06   practical than they used to be

00:11:07   so this is all just a way to say like

00:11:10   you should generally try to avoid any

00:11:12   kind of major changes to existing apps

00:11:15   during this time period because you

00:11:18   might have to change it all again in two

00:11:19   months yeah and I think there's in

00:11:21   general it's like a lot of this speaks

00:11:24   to a more fundamental thing that I know

00:11:26   is important it like an important thing

00:11:28   for me to learn in sort of the

00:11:30   discipline of of app creation was the

00:11:32   rather than just as it's so easy to do

00:11:36   like just keep barreling ahead on like

00:11:39   opening up Xcode every morning and just

00:11:40   getting in there and writing the codes

00:11:42   and whatever you think of building is

00:11:45   trying to instead make sure that you're

00:11:48   being thoughtful about it and like being

00:11:49   somewhat disciplined about it because

00:11:51   when I think about these types of like

00:11:53   considerations for getting ready for

00:11:55   June is a lot of what I'm trying to do

00:11:57   is make sure that I'm setting myself up

00:12:00   so that on June 14th I am ready to dive

00:12:05   head headlong into whatever is announced

00:12:07   and I may or may not like maybe what

00:12:11   they announce isn't really relevant to

00:12:12   me or my app or maybe it's just not that

00:12:15   interesting whatever it is but what I

00:12:17   want is to make sure that I'm ready to

00:12:19   do that and like I'm poised and capable

00:12:22   of doing that like oh but I don't want

00:12:24   to do is to just like have been

00:12:26   barreling along doing something that's

00:12:27   like creating all of these sort of

00:12:30   responsibilities or commitments debt

00:12:33   that I'm gonna then have to be

00:12:34   responsible for in June July and August

00:12:37   like that's where it would become very

00:12:39   problematic and so I need to think about

00:12:41   it I like look you know it's a struggle

00:12:43   I know for myself that when I used to

00:12:45   work in a more corporate environment

00:12:48   there was a certain amount of structure

00:12:49   imposed on me by like having a manager

00:12:52   and my manager having a manager and so

00:12:54   on and we'd have to go through things

00:12:56   like sprint planning only work out what

00:12:58   are we going to work on for the next two

00:12:59   weeks and go through all these exercises

00:13:02   that in a corporate environment are kind

00:13:05   of just the way you manage larger teams

00:13:08   but when you're working for yourself or

00:13:10   with a very small team that discipline

00:13:11   has to come from yourself and so you

00:13:14   have to look at these things and say

00:13:15   well like I would love to add this

00:13:17   feature to this app or I'd love to

00:13:19   implement this new thing

00:13:21   or do you know whatever it whatever that

00:13:23   activity is you want to do there's a

00:13:25   certain amount of actually having to

00:13:26   look at it and say there's I think 44

00:13:29   days till WDC like can I get this done

00:13:32   and then and if I do is that gonna set

00:13:35   me up to be free and available

00:13:37   afterwards or is it the kind of thing

00:13:39   that's like this is this big

00:13:40   experimental thing that I'm working on

00:13:42   that I'm gonna release and I'm gonna

00:13:43   expect to have to do a ton of customer

00:13:45   support or management of it or like I'm

00:13:47   creating this thing that's gonna then

00:13:49   require a lot of my time down the road

00:13:51   like those types of considerations you

00:13:54   have well the only person who's going to

00:13:55   be doing those is like me I can't rely

00:13:59   on someone else to come in and say this

00:14:01   is what you need to work on for the next

00:14:02   month in the run up and so I have to do

00:14:05   to have that discipline myself to look

00:14:07   at it and say yeah I think I can get

00:14:09   this done like the things that I'm

00:14:10   working on myself are these sort of

00:14:13   small improvements to all my apps that I

00:14:16   kind of had these lists of things and

00:14:17   they're just like these small

00:14:18   improvements most of them are probably

00:14:19   like a week's worth of work and oh and

00:14:22   that all of them are things that I think

00:14:23   won't require maintenance in June or you

00:14:27   know sort of a follow up they're very

00:14:28   self-contained and neat and tidy and

00:14:30   that's by choice and intention you know

00:14:33   I'm not really the kind of person I know

00:14:35   it's like I have a Gantt chart like this

00:14:37   big organizational thing that I'm like

00:14:38   okay well I'll do this and this and you

00:14:40   know this task is dependent on this task

00:14:42   and so you'd like that's not what I'm

00:14:45   saying and I don't know some people love

00:14:47   Gantt charts that's they don't really

00:14:48   work for me in the way I had to think

00:14:49   about things but I mean that kind of

00:14:53   discipline of thinking about it

00:14:54   consciously and saying like am i

00:14:56   realistically going to be done with all

00:14:57   these things so that I'm poised and

00:14:59   ready when the new stuff and the new

00:15:01   opportunities appear because ultimately

00:15:02   that's all this all this comes down to

00:15:04   is like there's going to be new

00:15:05   opportunities because they'll be change

00:15:07   am I going to be in a position to set

00:15:10   myself up to take advantage of those

00:15:11   opportunities

00:15:12   cuz like that's most of what like being

00:15:14   lucky in a lot of these types of you

00:15:18   know every nough is where you look at

00:15:20   subjects like ah man you know it's like

00:15:21   they really lucked out and that's why

00:15:22   their business is a success it's like

00:15:23   maybe or or they were just ready and

00:15:27   prepared for when the opportunity

00:15:29   presented itself that they could dive in

00:15:31   had the head first it's probably more

00:15:33   that usually some of both

00:15:35   a little bit of both but you can't do if

00:15:37   you don't know if though if you don't

00:15:38   have the one the other ones not gonna

00:15:39   really matter nearly as much that's true

00:15:42   alright so we are sponsored this week

00:15:44   once again by our friends at Pingdom you

00:15:47   can start monitoring your websites and

00:15:49   servers today at Pingdom comm with a

00:15:51   free 14-day trial when you enter offer

00:15:54   code radar at checkout you get 20% off

00:15:56   your first invoice now Pingdom is a web

00:16:00   monitoring service and I have I said

00:16:03   last time that I've been using Pingdom

00:16:04   for a long time a very long time today I

00:16:07   actually looked up how long exactly it

00:16:08   was that I used that we use Pingdom and

00:16:11   and so I looked I found the very first

00:16:14   email I got from David Carr but we were

00:16:16   both making tumblr from April 2nd 2007

00:16:20   and he says I think I'm going to sign us

00:16:22   up for this and then message body

00:16:24   penguin comm and sure enough he did sign

00:16:27   up for it and so that we've been using

00:16:28   Pingdom first me and me and that David

00:16:32   now me and this David

00:16:33   we've been using picked them for a very

00:16:35   long time I've been using it personally

00:16:38   since spring of 2007 so for nine years

00:16:42   now and Pingdom is great for monitoring

00:16:46   your web sites and web services anything

00:16:49   you can monitor through a basic HTTP

00:16:52   access of some kind Pingdom can monitor

00:16:56   that and so this is useful for of course

00:16:59   making sure your website is up making

00:17:01   sure your service is up you can also do

00:17:03   things like monitor for changes so you

00:17:07   can do things like monitor somebody

00:17:09   else's website like we mentioned last

00:17:10   time you can would monitor the WWDC

00:17:13   website to see when WTC was announced

00:17:16   each year and that which mattered a lot

00:17:18   especially back when it was like

00:17:19   first-come first-serve for tickets and

00:17:21   so you can monitor any site you want for

00:17:23   changes you can monitor your own sites

00:17:25   for uptime and you can also monitor any

00:17:27   anything that you can represent by like

00:17:29   a kind of a binary like good or bad

00:17:32   status so for instance if you have some

00:17:35   kind of health page or health check for

00:17:37   your apps your your services you can

00:17:39   have the health check returned a

00:17:40   different string and then you can have

00:17:42   Pingdom search for that string on the

00:17:43   page so that when things are not just

00:17:46   debt you know not even down but when

00:17:48   things are just not I

00:17:49   deal like one of your servers is running

00:17:51   low on disk space or something like that

00:17:52   you can be alerted of that with a

00:17:54   separate check and you can have

00:17:56   different alert levels you can say or I

00:17:57   will if a servers load is spaced email

00:17:59   me about that but I don't need to be

00:18:01   like texted or notified with tons of

00:18:02   alarms about that but if the whole

00:18:04   website is down set everything on fire

00:18:06   and let me know like don't do whatever

00:18:08   it takes to notify me that the website

00:18:10   is down and there's so many

00:18:11   customization options with Pingdom it's

00:18:13   a great service they they're widely used

00:18:16   now they say they detect around 13

00:18:19   million outages every month because over

00:18:22   400,000 outages every day so you can

00:18:25   really do a lot with Pingdom and a lot

00:18:26   of people do and I've been doing it

00:18:27   myself for nine years now so check it

00:18:30   out Pingdom comm you need to be the

00:18:33   first one to know when your website or

00:18:34   service is down not everybody else so

00:18:37   you need to know first go to Pingdom

00:18:38   calm for a 14-day free trial and 20% off

00:18:41   when you enter the offer code radar at

00:18:43   checkout thank you very much to Pingdom

00:18:45   for sponsoring our show once again so I

00:18:47   wanted to talk a little bit about you

00:18:50   know I think we both kind of agreed that

00:18:52   this is a good time for cleanup and

00:18:54   minor improvements of our apps I want to

00:18:57   go a little bit more into what that is

00:18:58   what that means I've been doing a lot of

00:19:01   this myself with overcast recently in

00:19:03   the last couple of months I've

00:19:05   integrated analytics I've integrated

00:19:07   what used to be called crashlytics and

00:19:09   is now called fabric located on my

00:19:11   Twitter that whole thing integrated

00:19:13   analytics and crash reporting more

00:19:14   deeply into the app before I was just I

00:19:16   was for a while using haki then I was

00:19:18   using Apple's built-in stuff and now

00:19:20   found fabric to be a good combo for me

00:19:22   and the main reason why is that I really

00:19:26   wanted to take this time to improve

00:19:27   quality and so this is a great time to

00:19:31   you know minimize crashes to go through

00:19:34   and fix like little bugs like that just

00:19:35   little little bugs little annoyances to

00:19:38   your users anything that causes crashing

00:19:40   or failures this is a great time to do

00:19:42   that because like that's the kind of

00:19:43   stuff that generally like whatever is

00:19:44   announced that everybody you see is

00:19:45   probably not going to effect that kind

00:19:47   of code it's also a good time to pay off

00:19:49   any kind of low-level technical debt as

00:19:53   long as it's not a ton of work and you

00:19:55   know will cost tons of bugs but any kind

00:19:57   of like you know if you have a technical

00:19:58   debt like in your in your sink or data

00:20:01   layers this is a good time to pay that

00:20:02   if you can and and to do like minor

00:20:05   feature experimentation like if you want

00:20:07   to tweak like small changes to the app

00:20:09   not any kind of big overreaching change

00:20:12   or redesign but if you just want to

00:20:13   tweak small changes this is a good time

00:20:15   to do that as well it's also a good time

00:20:17   to solicit or investigate customer

00:20:20   feedback about what kinds of things you

00:20:23   want to be doing this summer so ask your

00:20:26   existing customers or look at your

00:20:27   analytics or implement analytics of some

00:20:29   kind don't be creepy but implement some

00:20:31   kind of analytics to to say like you

00:20:34   know what should I be thinking about

00:20:35   this summer when all this stuff is

00:20:36   announced what should I have in my

00:20:38   roadmap feature wise for my app what are

00:20:41   what are my customers really asking for

00:20:43   how is the app actually being used and

00:20:45   not being used this is a great time for

00:20:48   all that stuff it basically everything

00:20:49   that isn't massive code design or

00:20:52   business changes this is a great time

00:20:53   for all those things and so me

00:20:55   personally I have as I mentioned

00:20:57   integrated crashlytics and fabric and

00:20:59   and analytics there and so I've taken

00:21:02   this time to drop my crash rate to

00:21:04   nearly zero and through the combination

00:21:07   of the last few versions plus the

00:21:08   version that I just submitted this

00:21:09   morning just a whole bunch of minor

00:21:11   updates focused on getting the crashes

00:21:14   reduced as low as I possibly can just

00:21:16   trying to eliminate like crashlytics

00:21:18   tells you like a crash free users

00:21:20   percentage because kind of cool it's

00:21:22   kind of cool metric and it used to be

00:21:24   like 99 point something low now at 99.9

00:21:28   and the new version I have in review now

00:21:31   should raise that even higher it's just

00:21:33   a very satisfying like kind of technical

00:21:35   debt payoff period I'm going through

00:21:36   here we're just like let me just fix as

00:21:38   much as I possibly can that that I can

00:21:41   fit in this time span and then it's also

00:21:44   it's a great time to do any kind of

00:21:47   experimentation with other things that

00:21:50   are not your app that are not like the

00:21:53   code of your app so you know I mentioned

00:21:55   experimental you know small features or

00:21:57   small changes but this is actually a

00:21:59   great time to step away from your iOS

00:22:02   apps and to look at other kinds of

00:22:05   larger kinds of experimentation so

00:22:08   things like learning a new language

00:22:09   learning a new API is just learning

00:22:12   something new that will probably not

00:22:13   change dramatically in June so you know

00:22:15   other languages

00:22:16   non-apple platforms things like that and

00:22:19   also just making new apps on different

00:22:22   platforms so if you if you want if

00:22:24   you've wanted for a long time to make an

00:22:26   android app or a web app maybe arguably

00:22:30   even a Mac app which I'm kind of

00:22:32   implying with a little bit because the

00:22:33   Mac doesn't change that much usually WC

00:22:35   so maybe a Mac app would also qualify

00:22:37   here but any kind of app on different

00:22:39   platforms this is a great time to

00:22:41   experiment with that because that's

00:22:43   probably not gonna change much in June

00:22:45   doesn't really matter and you kind of

00:22:47   have to like save your iOS and juices

00:22:48   for for then you know and it's also a

00:22:51   great time to just enter an entirely new

00:22:54   business if you wanted to like start a

00:22:56   podcast start a blog you know start

00:22:59   selling t-shirts or something like if

00:23:01   you wanted to start something new that

00:23:03   is not an app that won't necessarily

00:23:05   take up your entire life this is a good

00:23:08   time to experiment with that as well so

00:23:09   basically it's a time for

00:23:11   experimentation of all kinds as long as

00:23:14   it's not going to be a problem come June

00:23:16   exactly and I think there's also

00:23:17   something to be said for I haven't

00:23:20   actually I mean it knowing me I'll

00:23:22   probably pull a chart for this after the

00:23:24   show but I'm like I imagine the number

00:23:26   of new submissions this time of year is

00:23:29   lower than the typical like seasonal

00:23:33   rate and so if you have something that

00:23:37   you've been thinking about launching

00:23:38   like a small little project or something

00:23:40   like there's a certain amount of wisdom

00:23:42   and launching it at a time when things

00:23:44   are quieter when there's less going on

00:23:46   when in general like there's not a whole

00:23:49   lot of tech news that's come out like

00:23:52   we're kind of in this quiet bit between

00:23:55   the spraying announcements and the

00:23:58   summer announcements and so if you have

00:24:00   something that you have been working on

00:24:02   there's certainly some advantage to

00:24:03   pushing to make sure that you get it out

00:24:05   in the quiet time you know that's now

00:24:09   because if you try and do it over the

00:24:12   summer there's gonna be a lot more

00:24:13   competition on the news side and if you

00:24:17   try and do it in the fall then you're

00:24:19   gonna have a lot of competition just on

00:24:21   the competing apps side you think

00:24:23   there's just a lot of new apps a lot of

00:24:25   big updates you know the this if you

00:24:27   think about things like the you know the

00:24:29   featured page

00:24:30   in the AppStore like there in this in

00:24:33   the fall it's gonna be full of like the

00:24:36   the apps that take advantage of the new

00:24:37   stuff you know like last fall it was

00:24:39   like hey here's all the apps that are

00:24:40   updated for 3d touch or things like that

00:24:44   like Apple tends to push those types of

00:24:45   things but I don't really can't think of

00:24:48   like there's not there's not a lot of

00:24:49   huge big sweeping things right now that

00:24:51   would push something out and so there's

00:24:54   certainly an incentive to you know if

00:24:56   either if you've been working on

00:24:58   something and you might be able to get

00:24:59   it out this is a pretty good time you

00:25:02   know it's I can tell from you know

00:25:04   launching activity plus plus a couple

00:25:05   weeks ago that it was easier in some

00:25:08   ways to get attention for something

00:25:09   around now and you know if you just

00:25:12   think about the volume of tech news like

00:25:14   if you just you know if you're the kind

00:25:15   of person who keeps up on tech news like

00:25:17   it's a quiet ish time right now because

00:25:19   most Apple is probably not going to be

00:25:21   announcing much new because they'll save

00:25:23   that for June and a lot of other the big

00:25:26   organizations that you know like you

00:25:30   know create tech news they're in that

00:25:31   same kind of cycle that they have their

00:25:32   big events in the summer or around then

00:25:36   and that's when they'll be doing it so

00:25:37   there's some advantage to doing that too

00:25:39   like just taking advantage of it as a

00:25:40   quiet time to maybe get a bit more

00:25:42   attention for yourself yeah totally you

00:25:45   know cuz that's you know as you

00:25:47   mentioned like there there really isn't

00:25:48   a lot else going on for the most part

00:25:51   right now so if you have something where

00:25:52   you don't necessarily need to wait until

00:25:55   WDC so if it's something if it's a small

00:25:58   app or something that is that doesn't

00:26:01   really rely too heavily on the

00:26:04   frameworks and the platform staying

00:26:07   identical and things that might include

00:26:09   things like games you know we don't know

00:26:10   anything about games for the most part

00:26:12   but but that might include things like

00:26:13   games were like you're not usually using

00:26:15   most of the platform api's for games

00:26:17   usually you're using like OpenGL or or

00:26:20   more likely some kind of higher level

00:26:22   cross-platform game engine and doing all

00:26:25   your custom coding in there and you're

00:26:27   not really using like UI kit directly

00:26:29   for most stuff and things like that so

00:26:30   like you know that games are my

00:26:32   everything we just said might be totally

00:26:33   invalid we really have no idea but this

00:26:36   is a good time for like things that will

00:26:38   not likely be strongly affected by WTC

00:26:42   happening

00:26:43   yeah and the last thing I wanted to

00:26:44   mention too is if you are going to be a

00:26:47   W or DC something else you should be

00:26:48   doing in this time is preparing yourself

00:26:51   for it in terms of keeping an eye and a

00:26:54   list and a checklist of like the things

00:26:57   that you are going to the conference to

00:27:00   get answered like I have a list in in my

00:27:02   life in my task management system that's

00:27:04   just like WWC questions and any time

00:27:08   between now and do you see that I

00:27:11   encounter something that I'm thinking

00:27:13   like hey maybe this would be a good

00:27:14   introductory question to ask an Apple

00:27:16   engineer it just goes in there and I'll

00:27:18   just try and keep you know keep track of

00:27:20   these things and a lot of them it's

00:27:22   probably good to like say it doesn't

00:27:24   have don't have to be amazing questions

00:27:26   like these groundbreaking novel concepts

00:27:28   they're mote think of them as

00:27:30   icebreakers like it's night it's so much

00:27:33   easier to get a conversation going if

00:27:35   you are able to go to a lab at WWDC if

00:27:38   you have you know something like a

00:27:40   jumping-off point that you can start

00:27:41   from and so just be thinking about that

00:27:44   so that rather than you know the morning

00:27:47   of the Tuesday of WotC you go into the

00:27:49   lab and you're like huh

00:27:50   what would I like to invoke what I like

00:27:52   to know like it's going to be a harder

00:27:53   thing to think of the things.when versus

00:27:55   now when you're kind of in think of it

00:27:57   in your code running into little issues

00:27:59   running into the little gotchas things

00:28:01   that would be helpful to you know talk

00:28:03   to someone an apple about and if they

00:28:05   are if it would be relevant always good

00:28:07   to file a radar about them and have that

00:28:10   with have that number with you when you

00:28:11   go to WWDC it just avoids the dance that

00:28:15   you'll end up doing otherwise with an

00:28:16   Apple engineer we're like Oh have you

00:28:17   followed the radar about this and they

00:28:19   say no it's like well you should

00:28:20   probably do that and then kind of kits

00:28:22   kind of a conversation killer versus if

00:28:24   you can go in and say like yes I did

00:28:26   here's the number and then you can

00:28:27   continue the conversation from there so

00:28:29   just a little tip that I've found very

00:28:31   helpful for myself to get ready for WotC

00:28:33   every year sounds good and with that I

00:28:37   think we're out of time this week so

00:28:38   thank you everybody for listening good

00:28:40   luck with your technical debt at an

00:28:42   experimental period that we're entering

00:28:44   now and I hope you'll listen next week

00:28:47   thanks a lot for listening and we'll see

00:28:49   you then bye