Under the Radar

◼   ► welcome to under the radar a show about

◼   ► independent iOS app development I'm

◼   ► Marco Arment and I'm David Smith under

◼   ► the radar is never longer than 30

◼   ► minutes so let's get started

◼   ► so this week as as is often the case I

◼   ► think when topics can come out of a

◼   ► current work that where did that do

◼   ► we're doing I feel like we tend to get

◼   ► the best topics and and this week's

◼   ► topic I think comes from work I'm doing

◼   ► currently in my Apsley plus plus which

◼   ► is a sleep tracker where I'm working on

◼   ► doing automatic sleep detection and

◼   ► sleep analysis which is a feature that

◼   ► I've long been along been asked for by

◼   ► my users but I've never hadn't quite

◼   ► quite gotten to and so I'm good for the

◼   ► last week or so this is what I've been

◼   ► working on and the process so far has

◼   ► been pretty promising that this is

◼   ► something that I'm going to be able to

◼   ► do but I think there's an interesting

◼   ► topic and a broader thing to talk about

◼   ► in just sort of generally talking about

◼   ► things that are kind of feel like

◼   ► original research or a primary research

◼   ► you could call it so often when we're

◼   ► developing something when we're making

◼   ► up an app or a product it's there's much

◼   ► of it that is is not new or novel in any

◼   ► real sense you know if you're you know

◼   ► the process of you know taking data

◼   ► putting it in a database taking that

◼   ► data out putting it in a table view like

◼   ► that there's nothing original and

◼   ► special there but and often if you want

◼   ► to have something at an app that's

◼   ► really compelling or has a hook to it

◼   ► you're going to have to do things that

◼   ► are beyond that and so in many ways you

◼   ► end up kind of doing this kind of

◼   ► research you kind of inventing something

◼   ► in a real sense of the word invention

◼   ► and not every app has to have this

◼   ► certainly but it is something that I've

◼   ► found that is good to have in your

◼   ► toolbox as something that you're not

◼   ► scared to try that if you have an idea

◼   ► about I wonder if I could do this kind

◼   ► of you know usually there's some kind of

◼   ► processing involved you know maybe it's

◼   ► image processing you're working on a

◼   ► camera app and you want to do some kind

◼   ► of image filters or an audio app and

◼   ► maybe you're doing some audio processing

◼   ► or in my case I'm doing you know I'm

◼   ► analyzing a user's movement and heart

◼   ► rate and

◼   ► that kind of thing there's usually some

◼   ► kind of processing involved and doing

◼   ► this kind of research I think gives your

◼   ► app an advantage both in terms of it

◼   ► being more useful to your customers

◼   ► which is probably far more important

◼   ► that you know my goal with doing

◼   ► automatic sleep detection is that more

◼   ► people will track their sleep more often

◼   ► because they won't have to remember to

◼   ► start and stop the motion tracking like

◼   ► they do currently it'll just happen

◼   ► automatically which sounds great but

◼   ► it's also creates this nice little sort

◼   ► of competitive advantage that there's

◼   ► now this little moat around your app

◼   ► that anybody who wants to compete to

◼   ► feature by feature with you now has to

◼   ► go through and build it themselves they

◼   ► have to do that research they have to

◼   ► work out how to do it in fair enough

◼   ► it's easier the second time you know

◼   ► somebody looking at what you have done

◼   ► even if they'd never see your code or

◼   ► understand your methodology and simply

◼   ► knowing that a solution exists with a

◼   ► given set of inputs is you know a

◼   ► tremendous advantage versus the number

◼   ► of times that I've gone down a road

◼   ► where I'm like I wonder if I could and

◼   ► then I spend a week and I work on

◼   ► something and it doesn't work out and so

◼   ► I give up and that never sees the light

◼   ► of day it's easier knowing that a

◼   ► solution does exist but it's totally

◼   ► competitive advantage it's still a road

◼   ► that they have to go down and work that

◼   ► they have to have to do so it's an

◼   ► advantage in that regard and as I was

◼   ► working on my stuff I was thinking with

◼   ► you buy you Marco and how voice boosts

◼   ► and smart speed are two kind of similar

◼   ► types of things that weren't necessarily

◼   ► like your app was the first one to ever

◼   ► do them but the way that you've done

◼   ► them and the work that you did to you

◼   ► know to add those to your app is now

◼   ► this competitive advantage that you know

◼   ► you can sort of hold over your

◼   ► competitors yeah I mean I I've said

◼   ► before that I think kind of a recipe for

◼   ► a pretty good useful app that is kind of

◼   ► a good balance between diving in and

◼   ► spending a whole bunch of time on hard

◼   ► stuff nobody will ever notice versus

◼   ► being really basic and having no

◼   ► competitive advantage and having no

◼   ► compelling features I think a really

◼   ► good balance between those two is do

◼   ► like

◼   ► or to hard things in your app and do

◼   ► everything else doesn't need to be like

◼   ► a hard impressive technical thing but if

◼   ► you have like one or two that can really

◼   ► make an app and you know for instant

◼   ► paper originally that was the text

◼   ► parser and later on I did like some

◼   ► Kindle stuff that was a little bit crazy

◼   ► and and like you know weird like things

◼   ► with pagination on the iPhone like but

◼   ► that was a relatively small number of

◼   ► features ultimately the the great value

◼   ► of that app was pretty boring stuff and

◼   ► then you know the text parser was like

◼   ► the big one and for overcast yeah I

◼   ► think smart speed and voice booster are

◼   ► pretty significant features that are you

◼   ► know that are hard and and you know

◼   ► require some some deep learning or not

◼   ► deep learning require like some deep

◼   ► knowledge of low-level audio

◼   ► manipulation and and audio mastering and

◼   ► stuff like that to really do that well

◼   ► and I had to learn a lot of that stuff

◼   ► and it was hard I happen to like that

◼   ► kind of hard work so it was it was fun

◼   ► for me and it still is fun and whenever

◼   ► I work on it today but that was really

◼   ► hard stuff I had to learn mostly by like

◼   ► Google searches and trial and error of

◼   ► things like DSP audio processing like

◼   ► how to do that and what I'm actually

◼   ► manipulating with the audio signals and

◼   ► and how not to do it and all the

◼   ► different ways to do it that make it

◼   ► sound crappy so I can avoid those ways

◼   ► and and eventually figuring out ways to

◼   ► do it that sound good or that that can't

◼   ► be noticed that that is all really hard

◼   ► work but I've always enjoyed like that

◼   ► kind of like low-level data work not

◼   ► necessarily in a sense like big data but

◼   ► like just like working like working them

◼   ► in low-level C functions on in

◼   ► performance in performance critical like

◼   ► large blocks of numbers and operations

◼   ► using things like the like the

◼   ► accelerate functions in iOS like I

◼   ► always like that stuff but if I spend

◼   ► all of my time doing that in overcast

◼   ► dial I would be unbalanced like you know

◼   ► right now like I'm kind of battling my

◼   ► in with my self-discipline what I really

◼   ► want to be working on a lot of the time

◼   ► is the work I'm doing for voice boost

◼   ► too which is just rarely voice boosts

◼   ► but just it's gonna sound better

◼   ► work better with more stuff and that's

◼   ► all this wonderful low-level stuff

◼   ► making my own audio processing functions

◼   ► and everything and it's gonna be it's

◼   ► it's exactly this kind of thing but what

◼   ► my customers actually want is not it's

◼   ► for me to make voice boos to for the

◼   ► most part but my customers really want

◼   ► is boring stuff like everybody wants me

◼   ► to give them like a smart playlist that

◼   ► shows all their starred items that's a

◼   ► really boring thing that I need to do

◼   ► because that's what they actually want

◼   ► most of the app is boring stuff like

◼   ► that like download management and you

◼   ► know basic you know UI for things I

◼   ► still don't have a way for people to

◼   ► change their email address on their

◼   ► account because it's stuff like that

◼   ► that's what people actually want so it's

◼   ► important at when you're doing like

◼   ► these kind of like cool fun like low

◼   ► level math type features or data

◼   ► analysis type features it's important to

◼   ► make sure you also keep that balance

◼   ► though of not spending too much of your

◼   ► time on it and as much as that this is

◼   ► kind of cynical but not wasting too much

◼   ► time on stuff that's really hard to

◼   ► market to people like one of the one of

◼   ► the reasons why a lot of people assume

◼   ► that overcast invented silence skipping

◼   ► and dynamic processing on podcasts is

◼   ► because I was the first one to figure

◼   ► out how to market those features to

◼   ► people and that like and a lot and that

◼   ► isn't just like you know dumping money

◼   ► into ads I didn't actually ever really

◼   ► do that like it not until recently have

◼   ► I tried that marketing that you know

◼   ► this kind of feature is about making

◼   ► sure people know it's there and telling

◼   ► them why it's so good in some way and so

◼   ► for these features like I gave them

◼   ► names that were not just like you know

◼   ► plain text descriptions I didn't say

◼   ► like shortened silences and I didn't say

◼   ► boost the volume or use a dynamics

◼   ► compressor like I didn't mean those

◼   ► features those things I gave them

◼   ► branded names I trademarked those names

◼   ► I put those names on everything

◼   ► I added features like it showed you how

◼   ► much time you had saved with the silent

◼   ► skipper feature because I need to show

◼   ► people that this

◼   ► that when it's turned on they don't

◼   ► really notice is doing something for

◼   ► them and all of that was to help market

◼   ► these features that I spent a lot of

◼   ► time on this low level fun stuff because

◼   ► otherwise nobody would know they were

◼   ► there and the few people who would find

◼   ► them and turn them on wouldn't really

◼   ► understand how good they are because

◼   ► they're both kind of like subtle effects

◼   ► most of the time and so they both kind

◼   ► of like they help you out in a subtle

◼   ► way but if you don't know that if you're

◼   ► not being shown or told that in some

◼   ► compelling way then a lot of that effort

◼   ► is wasted and so it's very important

◼   ► when you're when you're planning these

◼   ► kind of features to make sure that a

◼   ► you're not spending too much time on

◼   ► them to the exclusion of features that

◼   ► people actually need or want more and be

◼   ► that you're not going to invest a ton of

◼   ► time into something like this that is

◼   ► unmarketable in some way like you have

◼   ► to include in your planning for features

◼   ► like this how you're going to

◼   ► communicate the existence and the value

◼   ► of these features to your customers yeah

◼   ► and I think what's cool is that once

◼   ► you've done that like if you work out a

◼   ► way to communicate to your customer that

◼   ► you do this you do some hard work you

◼   ► can find a way to communicate that to

◼   ► your customer you end up with a

◼   ► something that is really compelling in a

◼   ► weirdly insidious way that like I

◼   ► struggled to I feel bad if I listen to

◼   ► podcast type

◼   ► like a long-form audio without the

◼   ► silences removed now because that in my

◼   ► back of my mind I feel like I'm wasting

◼   ► time and so like that is a hook that you

◼   ► now have like placed in me that if I

◼   ► listen to something long form I will

◼   ► find a way to turn that into is

◼   ► something that I can listen to with

◼   ► something like smart speed just because

◼   ► it's now that's what I expect because

◼   ► you've wrapped it out you've wrapped up

◼   ► this kind of original like it's not

◼   ► original in the sense that you were the

◼   ► first person to come up with it but

◼   ► original in the sense that you had to do

◼   ► a lot of a hard low level work to make

◼   ► it happen

◼   ► you don't just build it it's not just

◼   ► like av you're not just doing your ABA v

◼   ► player dot you know remove silence is

◼   ► equal true like

◼   ► that was the case I wish it was that

◼   ► easy like that would be great right but

◼   ► that's not the case you had to do all of

◼   ► this her whole cloth development to make

◼   ► it work I think now you have this great

◼   ► little advantage that you know it one of

◼   ► the things that would keep it keeps me

◼   ► an overcast rather than another podcast

◼   ► player is that I don't want to lose that

◼   ► the this thing that I now have and so

◼   ► it's this little mote that other people

◼   ► could certainly build it it's not like

◼   ► it's technically crazy to build a smart

◼   ► speed or to build build voice boost but

◼   ► it's you know building building an app

◼   ► in general is difficult and then taste

◼   ► tackling one of these features you know

◼   ► is also kind of hard so it's just this

◼   ► nice little it's it's undertaking one of

◼   ► these I think you're definitely right

◼   ► though be careful that you're like

◼   ► taking on something that you can show

◼   ► you can show you have something to show

◼   ► for at the end but if you do and it does

◼   ► make sense like it's a wonderful little

◼   ► it's a wonderful way to create value

◼   ► that is heart you know it's defensible

◼   ► rather than you know easily easily

◼   ► copied by somebody else but it's also

◼   ► it's important to also realize that like

◼   ► nothing is gonna be yours forever like

◼   ► overcast was the only mass-market

◼   ► podcast player that had these features

◼   ► for a while but now it isn't and in you

◼   ► know and it ever really was the absolute

◼   ► only one but it was it was you know the

◼   ► only like really mass-market one and now

◼   ► it's not and it's and more of them are

◼   ► gonna keep adding features like this

◼   ► like I had a couple good years there it

◼   ► bought me some time you know similar to

◼   ► like Apple with the iPhone launched the

◼   ► original iPhone and you know Steve

◼   ► famously said that it was five years

◼   ► ahead of the competition and that

◼   ► basically proved to be true it that was

◼   ► that was roughly correct like it took

◼   ► Android a long time to to reach like the

◼   ► minimum quality that the iPhone had you

◼   ► know years earlier and so it you know it

◼   ► buys you some time when you have

◼   ► something like this but not necessarily

◼   ► tons of time and it's definitely a

◼   ► limited amount like it it will it will

◼   ► end and so it's important not to rest on

◼   ► your laurels and and not to assume that

◼   ► something cool you do is going to be

◼   ► yours forever so maybe that's doing

◼   ► cooler things maybe that's finding other

◼   ► ways to remain competitive you know in

◼   ► in the future but you know keep in mind

◼   ► that you know when you're when you're

◼   ► deciding what to do when you're planning

◼   ► out

◼   ► your app when you are trying to allocate

◼   ► time keep in mind again the value of

◼   ► these features will not last forever so

◼   ► let that inform how much time that you

◼   ► allocate to them anyway we are brought

◼   ► to you this week by Squarespace enter

◼   ► offer code radar at checkout to get 10%

◼   ► off your first purchase make your next

◼   ► move with Squarespace

◼   ► Squarespace lets you easily create a

◼   ► website for your next idea with a unique

◼   ► domain award-winning templates and much

◼   ► more whether you want to create an

◼   ► online store or a portfolio site or a

◼   ► blog or even a podcast Squarespace is an

◼   ► all-in-one platform that lets you do any

◼   ► of those things or all of those things

◼   ► there's nothing to install no patches or

◼   ► updates to worry about no upgrades to do

◼   ► you don't have to worry about any of

◼   ► that stuff because Squarespace has it

◼   ► covered and if there's anything that you

◼   ► need help with or if anything goes wrong

◼   ► they have award-winning 24/7 customer

◼   ► support if you need any help they let

◼   ► you quickly and easily grab a unique

◼   ► domain name and your getting started and

◼   ► all of these award-winning templates

◼   ► they have are beautifully designed for

◼   ► you to show off your great ideas and you

◼   ► can customize the template to your

◼   ► heart's content really make it yours

◼   ► Squarespace plans start at just $12 a

◼   ► month and you can start a free trial

◼   ► with no credit card required by going to

◼   ► Squarespace com

◼   ► when you sign up make sure to use the

◼   ► offer code radar to get 10% off your

◼   ► first purchase and show your support for

◼   ► under the radar

◼   ► we thank Squarespace for their support

◼   ► Squarespace make your next move make

◼   ► your next website so now that you

◼   ► decided that you're going to go down the

◼   ► road of doing some kind of an original

◼   ► research project to like add a new

◼   ► feature to your app I was thinking how

◼   ► do you say it's like it's like there's

◼   ► lots of different approaches I think you

◼   ► can take to something like that and one

◼   ► thing that I wanted to start off talking

◼   ► about is how when I do these types of

◼   ► things I always take a very guess you

◼   ► call it the empirical approach rather

◼   ► than the theoretical approach that I try

◼   ► and just you know I get in there and I

◼   ► just start to build things I try a lot

◼   ► of things and it's just experiment I try

◼   ► and generate a lot of data as best I can

◼   ► and then we will run you know run the

◼   ► test a test you know test cases through

◼   ► my system whatever it may be because I

◼   ► find that I'm just not very academic and

◼   ► I used to I think earlier in my career

◼   ► be intimidated about by the fact that I

◼   ► just wasn't particularly academic in

◼   ► that way that I'm not coming at it from

◼   ► a you know a theoretical approach that

◼   ► I'm then trying to work out how to

◼   ► implement ice in many ways I start with

◼   ► implementations I start with just like

◼   ► well let me see if this works well let

◼   ► me see if this works and I in theory a

◼   ► theoretical approach would help you get

◼   ► to the right solution more directly or

◼   ► at least in a more straightforward way

◼   ► but it would encourage anybody who

◼   ► doesn't have who's slightly intimidated

◼   ► by the feeling that oh man's like this

◼   ► needs to be super theoretical it's like

◼   ► maybe medium depending what you're

◼   ► working on but often a more direct

◼   ► empirical just like kind of where do

◼   ► your do your best approach will often

◼   ► get there and in my experience you know

◼   ► gets you gets you there well enough and

◼   ► can you know that allow you to create

◼   ► these features without needing a lot of

◼   ► theoretical knowledge without a lot of

◼   ► deep and potentially like the deep

◼   ► understanding you may not understand

◼   ► exactly why yeah particularly method is

◼   ► working but it can work for you and you

◼   ► know you could bargain with it that's

◼   ► good or not but I found it to work well

◼   ► so do you know just an encouragement it

◼   ► don't be don't be too scared of things

◼   ► if you can just sort of approach them

◼   ► more directly yeah I I too am pretty

◼   ► weak on the academic side I'm especially

◼   ► weak in in the advanced math really like

◼   ► things like you know calculus I really

◼   ► never took or I took it but failed it um

◼   ► you know most of the advanced like

◼   ► linear algebra stuff I have a very very

◼   ► weak understanding of really almost all

◼   ► advanced math I really just either never

◼   ► took in college and just never learned

◼   ► it afterwards or I took it and took it

◼   ► so poorly that I really just know

◼   ► nothing about it

◼   ► so whenever I'm looking up online

◼   ► looking up some kind of algorithm and

◼   ► and I started to see the mathematic

◼   ► notation I'm just like ah crap I'm

◼   ► probably not gonna figure this out and

◼   ► sometimes like try and plow through and

◼   ► the simpler ones I can I can kind of

◼   ► work out like the pseudocode of how to

◼   ► do in my language that I know what there

◼   ► trying to tell me how to do but like you

◼   ► know once something comes to like oh you

◼   ► have to read these academic papers to

◼   ► understand how to do this algorithm or

◼   ► something that's usually when I bail out

◼   ► because I try sometimes but it's I can't

◼   ► usually get through them and so what I

◼   ► do with with a lot of my approaches to

◼   ► like these hard you know math or data

◼   ► problems is really fairly simple things

◼   ► like I I'm pretty good at coming up with

◼   ► just all semi I'll stop my head coming

◼   ► up with some kind of heuristic of like

◼   ► oh maybe if I you know look for this

◼   ► pattern and I give it this some kind of

◼   ► like wait in a scoring you know

◼   ► algorithm that maybe this will be better

◼   ► and sometimes that works most of the

◼   ► time it doesn't but occasionally I get

◼   ► something out of it that that is pretty

◼   ► useful and and that's that's how I tend

◼   ► to do that these kind of things it's

◼   ► it's basically like trial and error to

◼   ► develop some kind of heuristic or

◼   ► algorithm that is really not a very

◼   ► mathematically advanced algorithm it's

◼   ► really just like you know large amounts

◼   ► of dumb math large amounts of like basic

◼   ► arithmetic that I can do but you don't

◼   ► need necessarily an advanced knowledge

◼   ► of you know sophisticated math and you

◼   ► know the more advanced stuff that being

◼   ► said I do think my lack of knowledge

◼   ► there holds me back to some degree like

◼   ► there's a lot of you know statistical

◼   ► methods things like you know especially

◼   ► when dealing with things like large data

◼   ► sets dealing with things like data

◼   ► clustering and and you know statistical

◼   ► analysis of large pools of data I

◼   ► basically don't understand any of that

◼   ► and that is holding me back to some

◼   ► degree so I do want to want to get

◼   ► better at some of that stuff but

◼   ► ultimately you don't necessarily need to

◼   ► if you if you can't or don't want to

◼   ► like you can get pretty far without the

◼   ► knowledge of some of that advanced math

◼   ► stuff yeah and the thing that's key

◼   ► there is that you can your solution may

◼   ► not be optimal but you may get a

◼   ► solution I mean it's sort of in a weird

◼   ► way it makes me think of how like if you

◼   ► don't under if you didn't understand

◼   ► what multiplication was but you knew how

◼   ► to do addition you could still end up

◼   ► with the same result

◼   ► you're writing for loop the best

◼   ► sure right like which is obviously kind

◼   ► of like a trivial example of this but

◼   ► that is often I think the approach that

◼   ► the impression that I have is that often

◼   ► my approach is repeated addition

◼   ► rather than multiplication because I

◼   ► don't understand the higher concept but

◼   ► you don't get it like like I still end

◼   ► up with 20 with 4 so you know 4 times 5

◼   ► I just may even add the fact that I add

◼   ► 5 to itself 4 times versus just enough

◼   ► to do it directly with multiplication

◼   ► that's less efficient but this is the

◼   ► answer the same is still 20 and I'm like

◼   ► computers are so fast even on our phones

◼   ► and our watches like micro processors

◼   ► theses are just so ridiculously fast

◼   ► that for a lot of problems like this

◼   ► even if you just have kind of like a

◼   ► brute force solution or even if it's

◼   ► like an imprecise solution that is

◼   ► probably both fast enough and good

◼   ► enough for a lot of times yeah and so

◼   ► you know it's it's it's which is an

◼   ► encouragement that it's like yeah it's

◼   ► like you did you it's okay and that's

◼   ► like that's fine and it's you know as

◼   ► with any all out of these kind of

◼   ► discussions you can get into like is it

◼   ► well well is it certainly better is it

◼   ► more efficient to have this have a more

◼   ► theoretical approach or fundamental

◼   ► understanding of course but you know if

◼   ► in order to gain that level of

◼   ► understanding you almost certainly have

◼   ► to be spend a lot more time and you know

◼   ► like like to become an expert in that

◼   ► area is gonna take a lot of time and be

◼   ► a lot of distractions away from other

◼   ► things so it may not be worth getting

◼   ► that level of understanding so you know

◼   ► just worth worth keeping in mind yep

◼   ► definitely um in terms of the actual

◼   ► building of these things I think it

◼   ► seemed worth to actually sort of diving

◼   ► into the way that the approach that I've

◼   ► taken I'll talk to my recent example

◼   ► with automatic sleep tracking where so

◼   ► you know I'm gonna add this to an app my

◼   ► usual approach is to create a completely

◼   ► separate app I've try and then

◼   ► eventually it'll end up being a branch

◼   ► in the main ow but usually I just create

◼   ► a completely new app that has none of

◼   ► the overhead and none of the other

◼   ► things going on and mostly I do that

◼   ► because then I can just kind of if it

◼   ► goes if I go down if I go down a bad

◼   ► line of thinking and it just ends up in

◼   ► a dead end I can just throw it away and

◼   ► start again and it's it's easier I find

◼   ► me to just kind of have the Super's

◼   ► focused lightweight app you know I don't

◼   ► need to go to a particular place in the

◼   ► app like often I end up doing stuff just

◼   ► in the you know view did finish

◼   ► launching like it's basically a command

◼   ► line app just running on an iPhone like

◼   ► I end up doing that kind of thing where

◼   ► you make it as quick and as simple as

◼   ► possible and it's focused in on exactly

◼   ► what the problem is now I find that to

◼   ► be a very helpful approach I tend to do

◼   ► my work there to validate that the you

◼   ► know is that something is possible and

◼   ► then I'll start to work on how will I

◼   ► take that and turn it into the you know

◼   ► the final version and that first version

◼   ► I have no consideration at all to code

◼   ► quality often I will completely throw

◼   ► that code away I will just repeat you

◼   ► know how we'll end up reimplemented it

◼   ► just using all the lessons I learned

◼   ► from all of that throwaway code but by

◼   ► taking such a quick and dirty approach

◼   ► to it it means that I can work much more

◼   ► quickly and iterate on it that I don't

◼   ► need to feel like you know I'm writing

◼   ► code that is going to end up needing to

◼   ► be production quality you know I can

◼   ► ignore all the errors I can just sort of

◼   ► make it so that it just works on exactly

◼   ► what I'm trying to do you know and so in

◼   ► this case I have yeah hadn't had us you

◼   ► know built a separate app that you know

◼   ► tries to automatically detect and

◼   ► analyze you know lease lease leaked data

◼   ► out of all the various health inputs

◼   ► that we have and I just sat there and

◼   ► iterated on and that until I got it to

◼   ► work and then now I'm going through the

◼   ► process of actually you know turning

◼   ► that understanding and the data that I

◼   ► can get out of that yeah completely

◼   ► reimplemented from from scratch that all

◼   ► those algorithms and methods that I came

◼   ► up with again in this case was actually

◼   ► slightly amusing because I built my

◼   ► prototype app in Swift and then my

◼   ► supposed suppes plus is an objective-c

◼   ► app and so I was I was going to be

◼   ► implemented anyway and it actually kind

◼   ► of worked well to keep me from being

◼   ► lazy and just copy pasting things that I

◼   ► actually went through and had to be

◼   ► thoughtful in that translation from the

◼   ► prototype app to the actual app to make

◼   ► sure that I'm actually taking care of

◼   ► all the edge cases and things but that's

◼   ► an approach that I find works pretty

◼   ► well and then once you can get it into

◼   ► the app then you can actually start

◼   ► you sort of start working through the

◼   ► actual you know making it of a higher

◼   ► quality but I find you're doing it as

◼   ► developing and prototyping in a separate

◼   ► app and then graduate and then moving in

◼   ► once you kind of have the basics worked

◼   ► out works pretty well for me so and I'm

◼   ► curious you know because I think it goes

◼   ► back to are like you know competitive

◼   ► advantage argument earlier why are you

◼   ► at in this feature mostly because I

◼   ► think it makes the app better and I

◼   ► think I wish I I wish I did it and I

◼   ► know I often hear from people who use my

◼   ► competitors app because they do it and

◼   ► so and it turned out to be much easier

◼   ► than I thought it was gonna be I had in

◼   ► my mind it was gonna be really hard and

◼   ► so I've been putting off working on it

◼   ► and I because I have a lot of existing

◼   ► sleep data calculated my old method I

◼   ► was able to much more quickly I think

◼   ► work out and work out a way to process

◼   ► all this data and end up with very

◼   ► similar results because I could just

◼   ► kind of try lots of things and I could

◼   ► very quickly see if it worked or worked

◼   ► or wasn't gonna work and I think it will

◼   ► you know it's a competitive advantage

◼   ► and I know it's a feature that I will

◼   ► use myself you know the ability to have

◼   ► your Apple watch just track your sleep

◼   ► without all you have to do is wear it

◼   ► while you sleep and then it's all taken

◼   ► care of and so I think it's an advantage

◼   ► in that regard because you'll actually

◼   ► use the app more because right now you

◼   ► have to remember to use it which is

◼   ► always difficult yeah and that makes a

◼   ► lot of sense like that that obviously is

◼   ► a compelling feature and you know i-i've

◼   ► heard podcast when people talk about how

◼   ► you know they're comparing your app to

◼   ► one of the competitors that there's

◼   ► automatic stuff and like and I thought

◼   ► oh that sounds compelling but you know I

◼   ► too would have assumed that was really

◼   ► hard and that's also kind of a you know

◼   ► another I think it may be good close

◼   ► note here is like a lot of the like if

◼   ► you're a developer and and you think of

◼   ► or you see some other app that that you

◼   ► know or you know you were to think of a

◼   ► feature that you want to do that sounds

◼   ► really hard or impossible try it because

◼   ► it might not be like I first thought

◼   ► that you know like that doing pagination

◼   ► and Instapaper would be really hard and

◼   ► it turned out it really wasn't i'm

◼   ► similar like if you think like oh you

◼   ► know i would love to do this kind of

◼   ► analysis on you know some feature in

◼   ► with but with data but the iphone

◼   ► probably can't handle it it's probably

◼   ► like you know to but

◼   ► to computationally intensive try it

◼   ► because it might not be yeah that's

◼   ► another area where I've found like I

◼   ► always assume that oh maybe I I probably

◼   ► can't do things like run a live FFT on

◼   ► the audio stream without having a big

◼   ► battery impact and the answer so a lot

◼   ► of times is nope you totally can it's

◼   ► totally fine the device is really fast

◼   ► these days yeah and it's just kind of a

◼   ► nice thing to be like there is something

◼   ► just really fun and encouraging when you

◼   ► hit on something that you thought would

◼   ► be really hard that actually turned out

◼   ► to not be crazy hard and like that was a

◼   ► really fun thing and it speaks to

◼   ► actually the last thing I want to

◼   ► mention too is I've found tremendously

◼   ► valuable as quickly as I can working out

◼   ► how to visualize the problem that I'm

◼   ► working on in a way that I can see

◼   ► rather than just like data that's you

◼   ► know being NS logged out to the console

◼   ► that's a good time so in a lot in like

◼   ► in a lot of my apps like in this book in

◼   ► this case with you know sleep tracking

◼   ► there's a lot it's essentially it's very

◼   ► timeline based you know I'm looking at a

◼   ► variety of inputs over time and so I

◼   ► just have a really simple app or a view

◼   ► controller that just has a has a scroll

◼   ► view in it and all of the data points

◼   ► that I have on it I just create a UI

◼   ► view and they throw it into it which is

◼   ► horrific aliy you know unperformed I

◼   ► have like 10,000 UI views in one scroll

◼   ► view it's fine there's better ways to do

◼   ► graphing you know like actually doing

◼   ► pagination and stuff so I'm only

◼   ► rendering the stuff that I need to but

◼   ► like it's fine it's in this purse iPad

◼   ► but visualizing it making it so that I

◼   ► can see the connections and like in this

◼   ► case it was you know I ended up

◼   ► visualizing the outputs of my first

◼   ► first couple of attempts and aligning

◼   ► them with the outputs of my previous

◼   ► method and they lined up perfectly and I

◼   ► was like well this works well that's

◼   ► amazing

◼   ► and so visualizing that as quickly as

◼   ► you can it's just some that I can't

◼   ► emphasize enough that and I know you

◼   ► know something I think I saw you were

◼   ► talking about with your your voice boost

◼   ► to stuff you do the same thing but like

◼   ► as soon as you can see it it's both

◼   ► motive motivating in terms of

◼   ► encouraging you that you're on the right

◼   ► track as well as you know very quickly

◼   ► showing you the areas that aren't

◼   ► working and the things you need to

◼   ► change exactly it makes a huge

◼   ► difference yeah anyway so go forth do

◼   ► some

◼   ► research try and you know not be

◼   ► intimidated by things do you think are

◼   ► too hard and see no see what you can

◼   ► come up with because I think if you can

◼   ► come up with these things like and it

◼   ► turns out that they're easier than you

◼   ► thought maybe like you can make it you

◼   ► can create it creates a tremendous value

◼   ► in your app that I think you know as

◼   ► especially if you as a smaller team or

◼   ► as a smaller developer there is an

◼   ► immense advantage to having these little

◼   ► things that are hooks that are marketing

◼   ► lines that are reasons why someone might

◼   ► want to try your app versus something

◼   ► else

◼   ► Thanks listening everybody I'm gonna

◼   ► talk to you next week bye