Dear friends, I hope 2024 has started off well for you.
Our new year has been a bit choppy. Several of us have been dealing with influenza and other illnesses, one had a burst pipe at home, and another one has been complaining about not getting enough sleep because of his baby child. But the six of us are here today and I have a newsletter for you.
First, some not-so-great news: this newsletter will no longer go out on a weekly cadence. The high quality of this newsletter is the result of considerable time and effort, which we can no longer provide for at least the next few months. Our focus, instead, will be on: 1) completing and launching Pika, 2) developing our next product, which will be more ambitious and complex than any weāve attempted so far.
I understand that for some of you, A Good Enough Newsletter is the highlight of your week. To you I say: thank you, but may I implore you to explore a broader array of interests? āShawn
1. Studio Update
The most notable thing that happened in the past two weeks was Dr. James Adamās visit to New York City! I was the only one on our team who had never met him in person, and it was a truly joyous occasion. I smiled. He smiled. We hugged (twice).
[Correction: Barry hasnāt met James yet. Oops.]
The mostly decent people at Good Enough have been diligently working on Pika. The plan is to launch next week. That means: a better theme selector, several improvements to the editor, and billingāso we can take your money thank you very much. There will also be other small delights, such as this little pika:
Pika might not be the worldās best blogging software, but it will have the cutest mascot.
(Actually, what even is the best blogging software? Blogging software is like a notebook. We all have our preferences, and whatās good for me might not be for you. The only way to find out is to try and use the software yourself. For us, Pika is the shit, and itās not really comparable.)
2. SO MANY ALBUMS ON THE WHALE
Holy moly people have been busy making album lists on Album Whale.Ā
And speaking of music, Patrick has started a blog (on Pika, of course) about listening to music. So far heās written about two albums: Sgt. Pepperās Lonely Hearts Club Band and Guts. I may not agree with his music taste, but I do enjoy his writing. Give his blog a chance, will ya?
3. Sharing is caring
Matthew put Letterbird on Product Hunt. If youāre on Product Hunt, give it a vote?
Patrick shared a video about these identical twins and urged us to watch it. (I havenāt seen it yet, donāt tell him.)
Barry came across this CSS framework inspired by the old Nintendo Entertainment System.
Patrick pinged me about this ingenious art project: Prompt Brush 1.0. Itās so clever and the drawings are šØš¼āš³š.
Matthew likes this delicious font named Cosmica Mono. Me too!
One more thing! Have you heard of Be My Eyes? Itās a fascinating volunteer service that lets people with vision impairments to call someone for help. Patrick has volunteered for them in the past, and he shared his experience:
In my experience, itās been people asking to differentiate between things in their house. One guy called and wanted to know which shirt in his closet was white because he was playing a saxophone gig that night and that was the required color.
The calls usually get right down to business since theyāre looking for help, not a friend. And they usually only last a minute or two. My shortest was like 20 seconds.
Iāve identified money, shirt colors, cheeses, soup, and whose lunch was whose.
I love it and wish it rang me more, but they have too many volunteers
4. See you in a couple of weeks?
I wish I had something wise to conclude this email with, but I just ate two pieces of bread with peanut butter and jam and Iām feeling sleepy. So Iāll just end with a screenshot I took this morning:
Have a splendid weekend now, yeah? Mhm.