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The Coefficiencies NewsLetter - Issue 1

·4 mins
newsletter Tech

Welcome to the first issue of the new Coefficiencies newsletter! I thought I’d try the newsletter thing after running the blog for a while to see if I can find a new audience for my writing. While RSS is still my “ride or die,” I know a lot of folks like the simplicity of having something drop in their inbox every week. And I have say, there are a few newsletters I’ve really come to look forward to, especially The Installer from the Verge and the Hiro Report from, well, Hiro!

In fact, I like both of those newsletters so much that I’m going to shamelessly borrow their their style: a mix of interesting tech links and deeper dives. So this newsletter will be a collection of interesting links I’ve collected, usually of software and gadgets, as well as an “idea of the week” where I write about some sort of automation project I’ve come up with, or maybe a productivity hack or something. With that said, let’s get into it!

  • IA Presenter came out with an update this week that introduces new templates and typography. I love the concept of IA Presenter, where you write your presentation in plain text and then choose from a set of themes with which to display your text. The idea is it lets you focus on the ideas and instead of obsessing over lining up graphics. It’s not really compatible with my professional life, where slide decks are a collaborative affair that relies on Google Slides. But it sort of makes me long for a world where I’m presenting talks at conferences or whatnot just so I can use it more.
  • Speaking of plain text, I’m not currently in resume-writing mode, but I always like to be ready just in case. So resume.md really caught my eye this week. It’s a Python script that will take a markdown file of your resume and convert it into a webpage that you can make a PDF from your browser. I like the idea a lot because I can just keep my resume as a text file I update (in Obsidian), and offload the hassle of design spacing and whatnot when I need a PDF to share.
  • I came across a review of Wheel World recently and I’m intrigued. It’s a cel-shaded game about riding a bicycle. I love cycling — not in a Lance Armstrong kind of way — but in cities, where I can get into a sort of zen flow of weaving in and out of traffic and feeling a little bit like i’m flying. This is the first video game I’ve seen that seems like it might capture that vibe.

Idea of the Week - Starting with What #

There’s a semi-well-known book by business guru Simon Sinek called “Start with Why.” I haven’t read it, but the basic idea is that great businesses start first by defining their “why” before their “what”. What’s the purpose of what they’re doing, their core beliefs, and how does what they make serve those things. Which, on its surface, is a great idea! But — again with the giant caveat that I have not read this book — I have a bit of a different angle on this.

As an IT professional, working a lot with software, one of the most important things to keep in mind (that often gets lost) is the goals of a particular piece of software. What’s the underlying problem the software is trying to solve? What are the principals? Sometimes software projects can go off the rails if they get caught up in trying to deliver something that seems cool but doesn’t actually solve a problem anyone had. So it’s sort of been drilled into me over the years to start with why by making sure the goals of a software project are well-defined and communicated.

At the same time though? I’ve found that when introducing a product or concept, sometimes actually starting with what helps your audience understand what the hell it is you’re actually doing a bit better. If you didn’t think about why this thing exists, you’ve probably built something that doesn’t hit the mark. But sometimes I’ve found that if you start with stating the goals of a product or concept in some hifalutin way, you start to lose your audience. And if you really do have something compelling, just explaining what it is and what it does will often resonate a lot better. If you’ve done your homework and this really is a useful idea, just hearing about what it does will get them onboard if it solves a problem they have.

Wrap-Up #

That’s it for this week! Hope you enjoyed, and please pass on any feedback or links. If you think someone would like this, pass it on to them and suggest they subscribe!