I enjoyed the How I Built This interview with Roku founder Anthony Wood. What really struck me was the insight that Roku could compete by building purpose-made software to beat more generic platforms on price and performance. wondery.com/shows/how…

Specifically, Anthony pointed out that he knew a “web browser” based solution would be too expensive for TV manufacturers. I don’t face the same exact challenges competing with @WordPress for web, for example, but I do relate! Native apps, FTW.

When I worked at Apple over 20 years (!! 😱) ago, I learned habits for managing build and release cycles. When you pick a date and plan to ship, you ship. You make tough choices. You punt. You ship. I’m doing that now as I look forward to shipping MarsEdit 5 in just over a week.

I appreciated what @siracusa said on a recent ATP, that if you’re an indie developer, you have experience “managing” to some extent. “My team” is about to ship a major upgrade to MarsEdit, after major upgrades to Black Ink and FastScripts during the pandemic. Yeah, I rule.

All of this while never printing a page of source code or diagramming a single architecture on a whiteboard. Elon Musk can’t afford coders like me.

Just published the first public beta of MarsEdit 5! No time to write extensive release notes yet, so only the adventurous need install. Key features include Markdown syntax highlighting and a dedicated “Micropost” panel for short-form blogging! redsweater.com/blog/3946…

The secret to shipping is to convince yourself that owning your goals matters. Follow through. Do what you have to do, even if you'd be more comfortable putting it off.

I'm going to ship MarsEdit 5.0 in two weeks. It's highly unusual for me to ship on such a rigid schedule, and also unusual to ship a major upgrade with limited beta testing. I'll probably release a public beta tomorrow.🤞🏻

It’s pretty cool that MarsEdit is about to save the internet. We’ve been waiting for the world to realize that owning your own content is vital. Thank you Elon Musk for ruining Twitter. I’ll be ready to help you with your Microposting soon…

As somebody who totally failed at high school, it’s hard to orient myself to being a good father for a kid who is thriving in it.

My 14yo and all his 9th grade friends are going ice skating together instead of attending the homecoming dance. I wish I had an ice-skating posse when I was in 9th grade!

Nobody wants to hear about colonoscopies, but I had my second one this week, after the first one three years ago revealed some areas of concern. I’m only 47yo and it’s very likely that without intervention I would have faced serious health problems later. I’m healthy as can be.❤️

I was going to wait to share this until a public beta is available, but one of the ambitions for MarsEdit 5 is to support a new streamlined “Micropost” interface to make it easier to write short-form posts to a regular blog. Who knows, could come in handy soon…

I went with my kid’s 5th grade to Boda Borg, which is a pretty great escape-room type venue that I’d heard many great things about. The best part of the whole thing was being the hero dad who knew that Super Mario Bros was released in 1985, advancing us in a trivia room.

On a field trip bus filled with 5th graders screeching “99 bottles of juice on the wall.” Nature is healing.

I didn’t know that British pronounce St. John “Sinjin”, but I’m rarely surprised anymore by these things.

What really got me was learning why: apparently the French Saint-Jean morphed into it.

What REALLY got me was learning that Sinclair is evidence of the same: St. Clair! 🤯

I am legitimately stupefied that Elon is just burning $44 billion. Twitter’s brand already feels like trash. What an incredible, rapid downfall.