0:00:00Hello and welcome to Developing Perspective.
0:00:05Developing Perspective is a podcast discussing news of note in iOS development, Apple, and the like.
0:00:07I'm your host, David Smith. I'm an independent iOS and Mac developer based in Herne, Virginia.
0:00:12This is show number 116, and today is Thursday, March 21, 2013.
0:00:16Developing Perspective is typically not longer than 15 minutes, so let's get started.
0:00:22All right, so first, if you didn't get a chance to listen to the previous episode in this series,
0:00:26in this series where I had a conversation with Sean Blanc
0:00:29about interacting with the press,
0:00:31about what that can look like, about some tips
0:00:32and approaches that you can take.
0:00:34I highly recommend it.
0:00:35I mention that mostly because I know a lot of pod catchers
0:00:37only download the most recent feed,
0:00:39so if you missed that one, definitely check it out.
0:00:42Today I'm gonna talk about two things primarily.
0:00:45The first one is about split attention,
0:00:48and the other one is gonna be about competition.
0:00:50So first, I'm gonna talk a little bit about split attention,
0:00:52And this is something that I've run into this last week,
0:00:57where I'd been cruising along focused on getting my My Recipe
0:01:00Book update out.
0:01:01Big update, big update, lots of big features, a lot of testing.
0:01:04And it got basically to the point that I would think I'd put
0:01:07out my-- internally, my release candidate three,
0:01:10I think was what I had put out.
0:01:12Kind of had gone through.
0:01:13It was basically just getting really
0:01:14ready to put those final finishing touches on
0:01:16and then ship.
0:01:18And then, of course, last week, Google Reader announces,
0:01:22we're going to close down.
0:01:24My back burner project, the thing
0:01:25that I've been working on for the last couple of months
0:01:27but hadn't quite gotten ready yet, feed wrangler,
0:01:30all of a sudden gets pushed to the forefront.
0:01:32And suddenly I find myself in this really strange place.
0:01:35It's like, what should I work on?
0:01:36What should I do?
0:01:38And this is something that I've run into a lot of times.
0:01:40How do you split your attention if you
0:01:42have a lot of different hats you're trying to wear
0:01:44or different things you're trying to juggle?
0:01:46And of course, this applies to a lot of other things, too.
0:01:48Because in addition to doing feed wrangler and my recipe
0:01:52all my other apps, and doing things like this show,
0:01:55you're doing Developing Perspective, writing on my blog.
0:01:57All those things take time and effort,
0:01:59and as I've talked about many times,
0:02:01I try very hard to limit the amount of time
0:02:03I spend on work stuff each day.
0:02:05And so what do I do?
0:02:06The reality is, and this is the,
0:02:09it's like, it's one of those things where I wish
0:02:11there was some way I could just like,
0:02:12the next few words out of my mouth
0:02:14were some amazing shortcut or hint or tip
0:02:16that like maximizes your productivity
0:02:18and boosts you to the moon.
0:02:20But the reality is you just have to get comfortable with neglecting things and being comfortable
0:02:24and tolerant of the fact that you can't do everything that you might want to do.
0:02:29I think the sooner you accept that, and the sooner you understand that, the more productive
0:02:33you can ultimately be.
0:02:34Because rather than trying to take on too much and just kind of balance it all, just
0:02:39accepting that you know what, maybe sometimes you can't do the things you want to do, and
0:02:44lets you focus on whatever the most important thing to be doing right now is.
0:02:48and lets you focus on that now,
0:02:49rather than trying to think about the four things
0:02:52you could or should be doing.
0:02:53Just focus on the one thing you should be doing,
0:02:55most that you should most be doing right now,
0:02:57and just drive on that.
0:02:59And when you hit a point where that may not be
0:03:01the most important thing to do,
0:03:02you can switch gears and hit something else.
0:03:04But that's the only technique that I've ever found
0:03:06or approached that keeps me sane and seems kind of rational.
0:03:09And so, you know, it's like I'd started a thing
0:03:12where I was writing articles on my blog,
0:03:14trying to do five a week.
0:03:16That's not gonna happen.
0:03:17And I'll try and keep up something like, you know,
0:03:20to increase my volume a little bit,
0:03:22but the reality is in the range of things
0:03:24that I'm focused on right now,
0:03:26there's too many other things that are too important for me
0:03:28to be continuing to put that focus there.
0:03:30And that's disappointing.
0:03:31I'm sad about that.
0:03:32I was excited about starting this new kind of
0:03:34project and emphasis.
0:03:36And I hope to pick that back up as time or focus allows,
0:03:39but I'm okay with that.
0:03:41And developing that tolerance
0:03:42and not kind of beating yourself up about it
0:03:44is an important thing.
0:03:46And I think the important thing is to be conscious about that, too.
0:03:48It's not just saying, "You know what?"
0:03:50It's like, "Oh, man, I've got so much going on.
0:03:52I'm trying to do this and that and this."
0:03:54It's understanding, like, "I've got a lot going on, and these are the things I'm saying
0:03:56no to.
0:03:57These are the things that I'm ignoring right now."
0:03:59And just becoming tolerant and accepting of that is, I find, to be very important.
0:04:04So the next thing I'm going to talk about is something that...
0:04:07I don't know how to even really get into it, but it's a concept that I've run into many
0:04:13times of competition and about entering into markets where there's lots of other people
0:04:20doing what you do or into a market where it's entirely possible that there will be other
0:04:24people who do what you do.
0:04:26And so this is something I've recently just run into with Feed Wrangler, but it happens
0:04:30with almost all my other apps.
0:04:31Where for Feed Wrangler specifically, obviously working on an RSS platform, a syncing solution,
0:04:37iOS apps, those types of things isn't a new concept.
0:04:40It's something that's been around for a while.
0:04:41main dominant player who recently exited. But generally
0:04:44speaking, it's a very competitive market. And I would
0:04:47think that I ran into a lot this last week was I kept, I kept
0:04:50finding more and more and more and more services who are
0:04:53offering roughly the same, at least conceptual service that
0:04:57I'm looking to offer that I'm looking to build that I'm
0:04:59getting close to building and hopefully going to be launching
0:05:02in a few weeks. But it's an interesting thing when you look
0:05:06at every time every time I run into a new one, I'm like, Oh,
0:05:08man, should I still be doing this? Is this worth my
0:05:11my time, you know, am I just going to be launching something into a market where there's just
0:05:16no demand for what I'm doing? And for five minutes, I'm super discouraged. I'm like,
0:05:21here's another one? You know, it's like I keep, I kept feel like I kept running into
0:05:25into new services. And then it was like big major companies were announcing that they're
0:05:28entering it too. And now I'm going up against dig and I'm going up against Feedly and news
0:05:33blur. And there's all manner of these services that are out there. And it's the same thing
0:05:40a lot with me in the app store where you'll think you'll have an idea, you'll have a problem
0:05:46or an itch or something that you want, you open up the app store and you do a search.
0:05:49You say, "Hey, does something like this already exist?" And you'll think to yourself, you'll
0:05:55see the results, you'll see like three or four things, like apps that already kind of
0:05:58do sort of what you're thinking about. And you'll say, "Oh, well, forget it." Now, the
0:06:02real question there is how do you distinguish between the times when that is really the
0:06:06the case that you're kind of launching something that really doesn't have a future because
0:06:12it's very competitive. That because you're launching the next another and just another
0:06:20one, just kind of like your Me Too app, and versus when you're launching something that
0:06:24is really going to have some legs. And the first thing to know is that it's impossible
0:06:29to know that ahead of time, as there's some hints and some things that I'll talk about.
0:06:34But the reality is, you have to be doing something,
0:06:37not just because it'll be a commercial success, I think,
0:06:41or that you think it'll give traction.
0:06:44The only reason you're doing it is because
0:06:47you think there's a market opportunity
0:06:49and you're kind of going after it.
0:06:51That might work, but you're ultimately setting yourself up
0:06:54for a lot of frustration, 'cause there's a lot of things
0:06:56outside of your control that can make it not a success.
0:06:59So if you're not doing it because you enjoy it,
0:07:01because you like it, because it's a product
0:07:03you'll use or like on a regular basis, it's going to be really problematic for you, I
0:07:08think, down the road. Or, at the very least, if you're not building something and being
0:07:13very understanding and tolerant of the fact that it may not go anywhere.
0:07:18Two, you have to be able to answer the simple question of what is it that you're doing that
0:07:27differentiates you from someone else? And that's a different question than perhaps saying,
0:07:33How would you market your app against someone?
0:07:37In what ways are you better than someone else?
0:07:39Because better is a really subjective thing.
0:07:42You want to have something, at least in general, I would say that it's objectively different.
0:07:45That is, that you're doing that anybody could see and immediately understand and determine
0:07:51that that is a difference, and if they like that difference, then you have their interest.
0:07:56If they don't like it, then you don't.
0:07:58But it lets you very straightforwardly differentiate yourself.
0:08:01And so like say I like on something like Feed Wrangler,
0:08:04right, what I'm doing there is a very similar solution
0:08:09to a common problem, and this is something
0:08:12that a lot of people deal with and address.
0:08:14And there's a few parts of how I do it
0:08:16that maybe are novel or interesting.
0:08:18The thing that I really am driving towards,
0:08:20mostly though, is that I want to create a platform
0:08:23that is focused on the customer and focused on longevity.
0:08:28focused on longevity.
0:08:29And my goal isn't necessarily to dominate the market.
0:08:35In fact, that's probably, in some ways that worries me,
0:08:38if I ever had that much success.
0:08:40My goal is longevity and quality.
0:08:43And so that's something that I'm trying
0:08:46to differentiate myself into.
0:08:48And I'm trying to build up my business model
0:08:50and my sort of support approach and the way that I do it
0:08:54as distinct from that.
0:08:56like I don't expect, for example, to have any level of
0:08:59free account. It's possible that that'll change. But that's not
0:09:03something that I really am expecting to do right away. It's
0:09:06something that it's like, if you the kind of person who wants to
0:09:09use the service would be using it because they understand that
0:09:12there's an individual who cares a lot about it, who's working on
0:09:15it and maintaining it down the road, and they're getting
0:09:18building into that relationship, rather than into necessarily all
0:09:21the nuances of what I'm building. And so that is kind
0:09:25the way I think about it. And I think it's really important to
0:09:28kind of differentiate those types of things. If is your
0:09:31goal, it would you consider success be being being the
0:09:37number one, or is a success being making sufficient revenue
0:09:42that is worth it worth working on and sort of having a sort of
0:09:47interest in it, but then also being able to have a sustainable
0:09:50business model that lets you continue that indefinitely. And
0:09:54And for me, the latter is what I'm interested in.
0:09:57And so it gives me a lot of comfort
0:09:59when I look that I'm going up against these large, bigger
0:10:03companies, venture funded, often with very different goals
0:10:08or business models in mind, that when I look at them,
0:10:12I look at the resources they have,
0:10:13I look at the things they can bring to bear on something,
0:10:16and say like, oh, man, am I going crazy,
0:10:20going up against somebody like that?
0:10:22And the reality is there's a little bit of insanity about it,
0:10:24sure. But my goal is just for a few thousand people to like what I do and to support it.
0:10:32And if I can get that, then I'm golden. Then I can continue doing it. And that's my goal.
0:10:37And as soon as I start focusing on that, I think it really helps me to understand what
0:10:43makes me special and what makes the work I do different and lets me emphasize that and
0:10:49focus on that and the way that I build things and the way that I market things and the way
0:10:52that I communicate about them. You know, part of in some ways,
0:10:55you and I imagine it's like this show where I talked to a few
0:10:58thousand people on a weekly basis about what it's like to do
0:11:01what I do to make apps to run an independent business to do all
0:11:06these kinds of things. Part of the benefit of that is that
0:11:09hopefully if you like what I do here, you may have some of you
0:11:11may like what I do for an RSS reader or for a podcatcher or
0:11:16for a recipe manager or an audio book app or a weather app. And
0:11:19you're building the, you guys, you could call it a brand in
0:11:25that sense that you're building a philosophy and a way of that
0:11:29people understand about if you're getting an app from this
0:11:31view, for me, this is hopefully what you'll get what you expect.
0:11:34And something that I think I'd encourage a lot of people to try
0:11:36and encourage to engender into your software that it's like,
0:11:41what do you want to be known for? And hopefully, you can
0:11:44define that in terms that you'll be proud of that it's not, I'm
0:11:48known for a large user base is not something I ever really want
0:11:52to be known for. I want to be known for quality, I want to be
0:11:56known for attention to detail responsiveness, and
0:12:01independence, honestly, that it's something that I pride
0:12:05myself in, in that I have, you know, what I do, I do myself,
0:12:10and there's benefits and there's pros and cons to that. But what
0:12:12it allows me to do is to be very agile, I guess for abusing the
0:12:17the term, to allow me to make quick decisions, to allow me to be very focused and kind of
0:12:21ruthless in a lot of the ways, things that I say no to, things that I say yes to.
0:12:26And that's kind of how I approach competition.
0:12:28A lot of times I like to think about it, too, that I'm competing with rather than against
0:12:33a lot of the similar apps in my categories or services in my categories, because I'm
0:12:38not trying to take their customer from them.
0:12:42what I'm looking for is I'm, you know, if anything, I'm trying to appeal to a different
0:12:48set of customers in the first place. And that allows us to kind of, you know, coincide coincide
0:12:54in a really happy place, which I enjoy. And that's kind of competition. There are a couple
0:13:00of things I wanted to just sort of wrap up talking about. First, I wanted to mention
0:13:04that I am going to be at CocoaConf DC tomorrow, which I think is Friday, March 22. I won't
0:13:11I won't be able to be there for the whole conference,
0:13:12but if you're gonna be in town for that,
0:13:15I'll be around at least in the morning.
0:13:17So I hope to see you there if you're gonna be around.
0:13:19Other random topic, thought, and this is just something
0:13:22that is probably timely for people in the US.
0:13:24I had a lot of great experience this year
0:13:27getting a CPA to do my taxes, and it's something that
0:13:31for the first year ever, I did both my business
0:13:33and my personal, and I highly recommend it.
0:13:35It is one of these things that I think I've mentioned
0:13:36many times on the show, that outsourcing,
0:13:38the things that you're not good at,
0:13:40things that you don't add a lot of value to
0:13:42can really help enhance your time, your energy,
0:13:45and your focus.
0:13:46And so I did that this year, and it was awesome.
0:13:48She, A, did a great job and found things that caught things
0:13:52that I just wasn't aware of that I wasn't taking advantage of
0:13:54that can help reduce the taxes I pay
0:13:57and all those kinds of things.
0:13:58So highly recommend it there.
0:14:00And then I also wanted to mention--
0:14:01there'll be a link in the show notes--
0:14:03but one of the-- there's an interesting project Ash
0:14:06Furrow is working on that I wanted to mention here
0:14:09that could be applicable to a lot of you.
0:14:11He's working on a book for beginning iOS developers.
0:14:14And so I think it's sort of like a Kickstarter,
0:14:16but it's on Indiegogo.
0:14:18Anyway, check it out.
0:14:19There's a link in the show notes.
0:14:21Basically, he's trying to create a guide for your first app,
0:14:24which sounds pretty interesting to me.
0:14:26And so I just wanted to mention it here.
0:14:28Anyway, that's it for today's show.
0:14:29As always, if you have questions, comments, concerns,
0:14:31complaints, I'm on Twitter @_davidsmith.
0:14:33I'm on appnet @davidsmith.
0:14:35You can email me, david@developingperspective.com.
0:14:38Have a great weekend, happy coding, bye.
0:14:40Thank you.