phlsa's comments

phlsa | 10 months ago | on: Ask HN: How are you acquiring your first hundred users?

When I built my little side project (B2C iPhone app, not a SaaS [1]), I documented the development process on LinkedIn with short "developer diary" videos. That has led to a good amount of engagement at launch, which briefly lifted the app into the top-paid section on the App Store for a short time. That was enough to reach the first 100 users within a few days.

Since it's a side project, I haven't worked on the app in a while, but recently picked up development again. So if you have any ideas or suggestions, they are very welcome.

[1] https://apps.apple.com/app/dorepeat-checklists-todos/id15615...

phlsa | 2 years ago | on: Figma and Adobe abandon proposed merger

I feel like there are actually more great options out there today than back in the pre-subscription days of Adobe. It all depends on what parts of Photoshop you're actually using, but between Affinity Photo, Pixelmator, Capture One and many others, there's a good chance that you can find something for your needs.

phlsa | 2 years ago | on: iPhone 15 Pro Max vs. DSLR photos: Real world camera comparison

In the “just point at something and press the shutter” scenario, phones have been just as good (and in some cases better) than dedicated cameras for a while.

For me, the main reasons for using a dedicated camera are ergonomics and creative control. I rarely hold the device at eye level when taking a photo, since it makes for more interesting compositions. Somehow my fingers are always in the wrong position when I want to press the shutter button. And once you try to adjust some settings manually in a dedicated app like Halide, it gets extra fumbly and (to me) just takes all the fun out of it.

The big benefit of the phone is that it’s always with me of course. I’m contemplating the purchase of a Ricoh GR, which is a great camera that is just as pocketable as a phone but with much better ergonomics.

phlsa | 2 years ago | on: Ask HN: How do you not take criticism of your work personally?

I noticed that there's a huge difference between receiving criticism on something that is work in progress versus something I consider being "done".

When something is still a work in progress in my mind, it is much easier to have a positive attitude towards criticism and see it as something that helps me improve. There's something I can _do_ with the criticism in these cases.

However, when I consider something as done and it is criticized, I can get frustrated and defensive. It's a bigger mental leap that's necessary to make the criticism actionable.

The simple (though not easy) solution is to consider nothing as permanently done.

phlsa | 2 years ago | on: How to quit cars

Your comment made me smile because I experienced the exact opposite just two days ago.

I usually get around either by bike or public transit, but I had to move some inconveniently shaped items (studio lights for photography), so I decided to rent a shared car. It took me almost 40 minutes for a trip that takes 10 minutes by bike and 15 minutes by public transit. It was also highly unpleasant, because the "weirdos" you mention also exist in car traffic. Only in this case, the "unpredictable idiots" are texting while driving and drifting out of lanes.

I'll need to transport the same things again next week and I'll either find a way to pack things more compactly so that I can take public transit, or I'll take a taxi (still takes longer, but at least I'm not the one dealing with traffic).

For context, this is in Munich, Germany.

phlsa | 4 years ago | on: Google Analytics 4

Hm, maybe it has something to do with your location? I'm in Germany and the pricing is in Euros for me.

phlsa | 4 years ago | on: Google Analytics 4

Looks cool, thanks for the tip!

I’m glad that there are more and more such simple, single-purpose tools now. It took me a long time to learn this, but I’m now actively staying away from anything that markets itself as “enterprise-ready”. Too much hidden cost in keeping up with all the shifting trends and mental models.

phlsa | 4 years ago | on: Move and resize windows in macOS using keyboard shortcuts or snap areas

Long time user of Rectangle here. It is definitely one of my top 3 utility apps on the Mac. I have the num pad keys set up to move windows to various edges and corners of the screen, which is fantastic on an ultra wide monitor.

Somehow never realized that there was a version I could pay for – Purchasing now. Thank you for saving me so much window management frustration in the past years!

phlsa | 4 years ago | on: Google Analytics 4

I wonder if Google realized that Analytics has become unfathomably complex for non-power users and wants a clean break now.

I run a side business[1] that is lucky to not be dependent on search ads. We started using GA 10-ish years ago because it was free and took almost no effort to set up. But over the years it just got more and more complicated to use, to the point where it got hard to act on the results.

Last year, I switched to Plausible[2] for data protection reasons. The unexpected side effect was that I suddenly understand every single metric in my analytics tool. As a result, I use it a lot more for actual decision-making.

[1] https://push-conference.com

[2] https://plausible.io

edit: typos

phlsa | 4 years ago | on: Minimal Viable Product is old and busted

Like every method that gets condensed to an acronym, MVP has been used to justify lots of bad decisions.

For example, I worked in very engineering-driven environments where “viable” meant nothing more than “it compiles”. Especially when combined with an over-reliance on quantitative metrics (and an under-appreciation of qualitative research) this leads to lots of ideas being killed prematurely. This meme has helped me a lot when communicating in these situations: https://imgur.com/a/pSY7IrF

From that point of view, I can understand the author, but “you should just know what’s going to be successful” isn’t a very useful alternative.

Even with great knowledge of your customers and domain, your first (or second, or third) solution might not be the right fit. Just think of all the personal projects that never end up getting used, even by the author.

In the end, the problem with MVPs and similar methods that get popular is that people think they can replace good judgement with a method. The methods can help, but they won’t do the thinking for you and they won’t make anything risk-free.

phlsa | 9 years ago | on: Firefox Hardware Report for Web Developers

Mozilla collects a limited set of aggregate data by default, but it can be opted out. Users can also opt in to send a more extensive data set (also aggregate AFAIK), but that's not the default.

The screen shot from your preferences section is odd - all the boxes are there on Windows and macOS for me. Perhaps you can file a bug on bugzilla.mozilla.org

phlsa | 11 years ago | on: Lightspeed – A Browser Experiment

Hi, I'm one of the people who worked on this and I wanted to provide a little background and a few clarifications.

Lightspeed is currently not a product. It's a collection of sketches and thoughts. It is also NOT the next version of Firefox. While some ideas might find their way into mainline Firefox at some point, many of the assumptions on which Lightspeed is based are the exact opposites of Firefox core values (e.g. no settings or customization in Lightspeed).

More than anything else, Lightspeed helps us think outside the box that Firefox is. It's a place where we can dare to explore more radical thoughts like not having any settings or or even menus. Having constraints like these stimulates creativity much like, for example, the character limit on tweets forces you to make your message more concise.

Ideas are worthless when they just exist in your head. Sketching out Lightspeed has helped us to make make lots of ideas more tangible, so they can be evaluated.

That being said, just reading through this thread has sparked some interesting new thoughts – we'll keep experimenting :)

phlsa | 11 years ago | on: I made a patch for Mozilla, and you can do it too

You can create patches that change the interface and/or propose UI changes. They will go through an additional ui-review though. Sometimes the result will be that writing an add-on would be a better fit for a feature or UI change.

Also, if your proposal is around reverting something to a pre-29 state, it has probably already been discussed a lot.

phlsa | 14 years ago | on: Is there a point to paginating articles online?

Pagination -- from a user's perspective -- has nothing todo with computation.

To appreciate what pagination does, just imagine a 500 page book. Now imagine having to read it on an ancient scroll. Pages make it easier for our brains to segment the information of a book or a long article by giving us a higher order rhythm within the content.

Or just take it one step further: why not eliminate line breaks? They're just as arbitrary as page breaks and there is no technical limitation on horizontal scrolling. But again, segmentation helps to form a mental model of the content.

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