Just a quick one on a mindset that I have been trying to apply to the things that I have been working on, or committing to, in 2024. The concept revolves around two requirements to meet when committing to a project/client/etc. Those two requirements are, the project either has to be interesting, whether that is interesting to work on, an interesting topic, or potentially an interesting technical challenge. Or, alternatively, but not mutually exclusive, would embarking on this project/collaboration/client engagement generate interest (ie. make money/margins) both in the short-term, but also potentially in the long-term or over time.

In a perfect world, the project(s) would both be very interesting, while also providing the potential to earn a healthy level of interest over time. At least, that is my goal with the personal projects that I am working on, and plan to work on in the future.

Another thought that comes out during this episode is some reflection on the debate of working on multiple things, or going all-in on a single project. I am of the mindset that the people going “all-in” on something are potentially leaving money and some optionality on the table when they abandon an existing user base to pursue a new niche customer market that no longer aligns with the initial product offering. A few questions that I have been debating as I hear people weigh-in on this topic are:

• Would potentially maintaining that existing product, while exploring a new target customer with an altered, or new product, really impact the success of the new initiative?
• Would maintaining the existing customers, even if growth is plateaued, allow for you to retain them and the current MRR while supporting the development of the new product?
• If the new initiative is not a success and you potentially want to re-engage with the previous customers that you abandoned, is there even a pathway back to your previous state?

I hope to be able to explore and play with some of these questions as I am building and growing the projects I am working on. And I look forward to sharing those insights and internal debates in future episodes of the show.

To follow along, you can find me at ryanhefner.com, follow me on Twitter @ryanhefner, and keep up with the show on allplay.fm and @allplayfm.

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Reflecting on Laravel vs. React debate that went down a few weeks back, got me thinking about Context. Context switching. The context that influences the decisions we make. Really, just about context in general.

My focus has been to try to minimize the amount of context switching that I am doing, which is already difficult while managing multiple clients and trying to focus on my personal stuff. I get into some of those trade offs, along with a few other things that have been popping up that have been requiring additional context switching, resulting in ultimate flow wreckage.

Some references from the show:

• Inception this one to find the tweet that kicked off the Laravel vs. `react-remix` debate
• laravel-pwa / laravel-pwa-demo
• My service that has been getting DDOS’d, Link Cards

To follow along, you can find me at ryanhefner.com, follow me on Twitter @ryanhefner, and keep up with the show on allplay.fm and @allplayfm.

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The struggle is real-ish. In this episode I get into the tension I have been feeling as I am in my -1 to 0 phase, trying to figure out which project/product I want to place my energy towards (first), and some of the technical stuff I plan on incorporating in the projects I am planning on taking on.

Some of those core technology areas include:

• Event Sourcing
• Progressive Web Apps (PWAs)
• Push Notifications
• Local-first development
• Embracing the open web
• WebAssembly (WASM)
• Performance

During the portion of the episode where I focus on local-first development, I make reference to a few podcasts that dig into the topic, the Muse Podcast and localfirst.fm.

I will be digging into the actual project that I will be sharing the evolution of on this project, so please subscribe and sign up for the newsletter for updates.

To follow along, you can find me at ryanhefner.com, follow me on Twitter @ryanhefner, and keep up with the show on allplay.fm and @allplayfm.

Help yourself, while supporting the show, by trying some of the services that I use, and highly recommend:
Transistor FM
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