#TheCommitals: Weekly Check In (Week 36)

Just over a week now on getting this done. That completely confirms it was the right thing to start out with a personal developers account.
Hopefully there's some advantage on switching (not convinced yet).
They still required me to register under my personal name instead of the company name, something with sole proprietorship.
As long as this isn't changed I cannot release anything on macOS, luckily I have some time now.

LOL, yes. I'm all for working on the software side. Sometimes less motivated to look at the other parts that need to be done. The course and marketing parts had been moved into next week... (looks like I just shoved them another week forward )

The work for the new client is great.
Wrapping an enhanced javascript diagram control from a library for use in another programming language (DataFlex).
Good fun, nice techy, no end users to worry about, just helping out a software house.

Getting landing page views and a couple early mailing list signups. Just put up a class list last night and got some faster cheaper page views. I am temporarily OK with the free account setup but not for long. Am getting very close to putting up the first class for ticketing and it’s not going to be a free one. Things marching in the same direction and refining.

They have an awesome site! Thanks for pointing it out

OK, here's some irony re.. competitors. I was talking over the proposed format for the weekly show tonight. It was meant to be a kind of hosted social wrap-up for kids for their school week and give them a place to "see" each other so they could decide who to invite as friends. They way you get to in school, you get to observe other kids and form opinions as to who you want to be friends with. Something to look forward to each week. So we're going over what an hour long show schedule could look like and start digging into some of the smaller details.

I wanted to do breakout rooms (Zoom call) and have smaller groups meet up and do something organized and fun for 15 minutes. I didn't have any detail here, so I asked for some ideas. My planning buddy dug deep into this and came up with basically the concept where the group comes up with a name and a logo and does something fun together, then each group competes in something. And it's got one leader, and kids take turns over various weeks being the leader.

I was stunned, because she basically just came up with the concept of a Scout patrol. Which I had forgotten about, it's been so long. She's never been to a Scout meeting, but that's exactly what it's like.

So.. it turns out that I really wanted to run the shows like an online Scout troop meeting, where kids break off into subgroups, are youth-led, etc. With all the hyper-positivity, acceptance, leadership and life skills training that goes into it.

Which makes The Scouts another competitor (if it was purely online).

Competitive differentiation....a focus on acceptance and modern activity vs camping, and an online format which is considerably safer than in-person activities (for now anyway). And Scouts has a bad bad rep right now. So yeah, I guess another competitor is the Scouts. But we can co-exist :) Also, the notion of reproducing Scouts online is extremely intimidating to me at the moment. But there are certainly strong parallels.

Outschool is a competitor, they dominate the “extra/supplemental” learning stuff. But it’s just an online class medium. No socialization. If they added more community it would compete there. Parents will see it as a competitor, option to add what’s missing this year.

I’m really going for what the Boy Scouts would be if it was purely online. That might not mean much to some people but to me it means leadership development, coaching, crazy learning opportunities, fun, and socialization.

I’m going to try a live interactive show as a weekly event, which is something I’ve never done before. So I’m really going to try and work the fun angle vs hey let’s do math.

It’s evolving.

It seems like everything is moving really fast, because we are constantly bombarded by the most insane news all the time.

The problem with diversity needing to be addressed will still be there after your holidays. It's an age old problem and it won't be any less urgent when you get back.

The mid-October release sounds good as long as you allow yourself time to relax. It's too exhausting to be on vacation worried about how you will end up after vacation, you will come to that bridge. It might be what you need everything that comes your way isn't on accident nor are the decisions that you have to make. It might be a sign that you feel like you've put in enough work for the time being. Praise yourself for putting in the effort and progress.
I'm proud of you!

It could be that feeling of needing to smile every day too and be the person you’re portraying. It might feel like you’re an imposter. I have it, all the time. Right now. And then in the meantime people left and right are pushing through and doing their thing. I’d much rather crash and burn than never try.

But since you asked, enjoy your vacations, you might be too busy to take one for awhile and the time goes by SO FAST anyway ;)

Slow progress! But steady progress!