Trying something new
Hello on this fine Friday. Thanks again for wanting to keep up with me.
I hope to turn this newsletter into something useful for you, so I'm going to experiment with a new format of offering a few random recommendations every time I send out a message.
I'm not sure what the theme will be beyond "Stuff Levi Likes", but maybe that's still useful 😊
Recommendations
Reading: This piece from Ryan Holiday on career advice resonated deeply. I found myself nodding vigorously to his lessons learned in humility, adaptability, and prioritizing relationships and health.
Watching: My wife and I have fallen in love with Taskmaster, a lighthearted British panel show that provides cry-level laughter from time to time. Watch humans do "infuriating challenges" and endure "a wheelbarrow of withering putdowns", all for free on YouTube. Thankful my brother turned me on to this one!
Listening: This podcast from aquired.fm on the history of Nintendo was a fascinating, incredibly well-researched listen. Did you know they've been around for 100+ years and started as a card company? There's a followup on their Console War with Sega in the 1990s that will prompt some nostalgia from any 90s kid.
Updates
I've been slowly chipping away at adding more features to Yesterdays, my first iOS app. If you missed it, you can now...
🔊 Add audio to memories, via a simple in-app recorder or importing from voice memos. I love listening back to audio clips of my kids. There's something magical about only hearing the audio.
🔐 Lock the app with Face ID. You know, if you keep track of embarrassing memories or something.
📤 Share photos, text, and audio into Yesterdays. Useful for sending voice memos into Yesterdays or photos you've already taken.
📆 You can now quickly Jump to Dates in the past if you want to see what you were up to in 2022 for example.
I also spent some time recently dialing in the messaging of Yesterdays and zhuzhing up the website.
It's been so much fun learning how to design and code an iOS app from scratch, but also how to promote one. I'm currently deep in the world of running ads, sponsoring podcasts, or getting newsletter placements, all in service of just seeing what works.
What's Next?
I've been tinkering with a few todo app ideas, but have yet to land on anything that feels 10x more compelling than anything in the overly saturated market. Even if I have a handful of unique ideas, it would be tough to stand out. So, I think I'm going to turn my attention to some simple business-related tools, along with a nagging niche idea I have around "collaborative UX design, but with words". Stay tuned!
Levi