Indiedotes Podcast

Show Notes:

Artist, web designer Lynn Fisher is a serial creator. Her projects include: A Single Div, AirportCod.es and Why.AZ among others.

I specialize in light-hearted projects.

Lynn shares why she started A Single Div, why she loves using constraints for her creative projects and why she finds CSS an expressive medium to experiment with.

Show Links:

• Lynn and Tonic
• A Single Div
• Airportcod.es
• Top Chef Stats
• Why.az
• Hollywood Age Gap

Show Notes:

Prolific creator Kate Ray shares her experience of working on Crying in Public, a community-based map based in New York City. The project was one of her more technically complicated ones.

“Users create all of the problems even while they create all of the value.” 

Kate talked about:

• getting labeled as “offensive content” by Facebook’s API
• how she knew she was on the right path when designing the project
• the unifying element for all her side projects
• how she decided when to launch Crying in Public,
• her working style

Show Links:

• Kate Ray website
• Crying in Public
• Kate Ray on Twittere

Show Notes:

Software developer, screencaster and author Avdi Grimm gives Indiedotes a look behind the scenes of the creation of Ruby Tapas and Master the Object-Oriented Mindset in Ruby and Rails. 

“You can delegate more than you think…the only really essential part of what I do is my taste.” 

Avdi talks about how he determined what to delegate and what to keep for himself, the importance of taste when creating something and what to do when your product becomes a hamster wheel. He also shares how he made the decisions about what to include in the MOOM course, how he determines pricing of a product and talks marketing his products.

Show Links:

• Avdi codes
• Ruby Tapas
• Ira Glass on taste

Show Notes:

Leah Culver talks about building Breaker, iOS app focused on podcast discovery. 

"I’m the kind of person who just plugs away at something until it’s done.”

She shared the one test she uses to know when it’s time to bring in others, the approach they took to get users, how she picked Erik Berlin to work with, the two week product process they use to build features, and how to determine what tasks to give to others vs trying to do it all yourself.

Show Links:

• leahculver.com
• Breaker
• Leah Culver Twitter
• Leah on Github
• Michael Seibel product development cycle

Show Notes:

Sean Griffin built Diesel to answer the question he was asking himself: Can Rust work as a high level language?

“I decided pretty early on that I didn’t want this to be my project, I wanted this to be the community’s project.” 

Sean went back through his early commits to understand how the project started and evolved. He shared why he writes detailed commit messages, the formation of Diesel core team, how he grew the community and how he decided what to put into Diesel 1.0.

Show Links:

• Diesel
• First commit
• Second commit
• Comment for future Sean
• `sql_function!`
• Diesel core team
• First Diesel core team member
• "Name it!"
• Ruby @ Railsconf
• Announcing Diesel 1.0
• "Diesel 1.0 will ship this year"

Show Notes:

Software developer and community manager Elizabeth Barron is an avid nature photographer who longed to find more places to shoot so she created Find a Shot.

"We're all strapped for time....what can I do in a half hour?"

Elizabeth talks about how she finds places to photograph, why she decided against open sourcing the project, crafting a community and why its important to bring play back into your work or hobby.

Show Links:

• Find a Shot
• ElizabethNPhoto
• Creative Live
• Lightroom
• Shorebreak documentary

Show Notes:

Tracy Osborn is an author, designer and developer who has run four successful Kickstarter campaigns.

"You can't just press the button..."

Indiedotes spoke to Tracy about her latest Kickstarter campaign for Hello Web App 2.0 and what it really takes to run a successful Kickstarter. Tracy also shared her tips for running a successful Kickstarter campaign, why she chose to self-publish her books, and the downside of using Amazon for self-publishing.

Show Links:

• Hello Web Books
• Tracy's Kickstarter
• Lime Daring
• Tracy Osborn on Twitter
• Hello Web Books Twitter
• Hello Web Books Instagram
• Product Hunt Launch Recap

Show Notes:

Serial maker and one of the founders of Botlist, Seth Louey shares the back story and how Botlist successfully launched on Product Hunt.

“You just need to make an impact for a handful of people.”

Seth shares: his advice for launching on ProductHunt, why Botlists launch was so successful, how the site makes money and why Botlist transitioned from a directory to a community.

Show Links:

• Botlist
• Cryptomod
• Botjobs
• Seth Louey Twitter
• Jab, jab, jab, right hook

Show Notes:

Brian Hogan built Codecaster to get the most out of the time he had with students in class by maximizing practice. 

“If you’re the teacher it’s your responsibility to create a welcoming teaching environment.”

 The creator of Codecaster on creating a product to solve your own problem, why he built it in a language he’d never used before, the features he shipped in the beta version and how he built feedback loops into his project.

Show Links:

• Brian Hogan Twitter
• Codecaster
• Exercises for Programmers
• The Accelerated Learning Handbook
• Second system effect

Show Notes

Experienced software developer Andy Croll has helped shut down a number of projects. Rather than being a low point, it helped him gain more clarity. 

“You go in full of enthusiasm.” 

Andy shares why he doesn’t consider shutting a project down a total loss, and how a project ending helped him figure out his technological preference, what he’s best at and enjoys the most. 

Show Links

• Andy's site
• The impermanence of software
• Andy on Twitter
• Brighton Ruby
• Chad Fowler RubyConf 2017