Season 4, Issue 12: 💓🎧
We continue. We persist.
1. Introducing The Pika Pulse (alpha)
We’ve had many and numerous requests from Pika peeps who want to be able to see what other Pika folks are writing (and who want others to be able to see what they are writing). Finally, for you and for us, we are introducing The Pika Pulse (Please note: For the moment you must be logged in to Pika in order to see The Pika Pulse).
Shawn and Barry started by building a manually-curated feed of Pika writing. Along the way we decided to put up a page for ourselves showing the latest Pika posts in a stream layout. It turns out the stream of posts really got us excited. There were some lovely posts being written on Pika every day!
We prefer a feed that helps you discover Pika blogs rather than just another tool that enables “consuming more content.” The Pika Pulse is not an endless stream of posts back to the beginning of Pika. It’s a recent, but limited, view. When you reach the end, you reach the end. Hug your partner and start making dinner. While we love it when folks read your Pika posts, we don’t want to provide one more endless stream of words on the internet.
We’re still playing with the layout, design (thanks Lettini!), and some playful tools to live alongside The Pulse. Certainly more to come, and a public release soon!
2. Our Voices, Revealed
Are you curious to hear more about Good Enough, how our little collective was formed, and why we build the things we build? Have you ever wanted to hear our voices through unprofessional microphones? Well you’re in luck, because Barry, James, and Matthew were recently invited to have a conversation about all that and more on the IndieRails podcast.
We are very thankful to Jeremy and Jess for this opportunity to talk about some of Good Enough’s short history, and how we got from then to now. And luckily for you, we hardly talk about Rails at all! Give it a listen, and then invite us to talk on your podcast next. Please and thanks.
3. Studio Update
With the year coming to an end, we’re all fighting the desire to start hibernation early, but we have managed to get at least some shit done. Specifically, we’ve been digging deep into Jelly code and fixing some memory issues (thanks Cade!).
We’re also excited to welcome some new paying Jelly customers! The early reception to our take on a shared inbox app has been encouraging, and we are now planning our next few months based on all the great early feedback (and Gmail forcing us to make some behind-the-scenes tweaks). One thing we heard is a desire for a more personal touch when conversing through Jelly, so we’re thinking about what that might look like…
Lastly, a new year brings new energy and often a time when people consider trying new tools. We are rethinking how we market and talk about our products, and are planning a light refresh for both Pika and Jelly. If you love these products: How would you market them, and to whom? What’s your elevator pitch? We want to know.
4. Sharing is Caring
Last links of the year, maybe?!
Barry is really feeling Willow’s new album empathogen, but Cade not so much. Meanwhile, Patrick’s top artist this year was Caspar Babypants.
Are you cod in the middle? We are cod in the middle. We are also delighted to learn why it’s sung like that now.
We’re reading and digesting Facebook’s old Little Red Book, but taking it with many grains of salt.
Patrick will be thinking twice now before asking someone to take his picture.
Take a crash course in design principles through the lens of iconic Lego control panels.
Matthew and Barry really want to fiddle with Orchid, the newly created instrument by Tame Impala’s Kevin Parker.
We encourage you to encourage someone else to Continue and Persist. We are not lawyers.
They are not lawyers, either. And finally:
In an era when “cultivated” people purport to care so much about the origins of the stuff they put into their mouths, will they be as cautious with the stuff they put into their minds? Will they be able to resist the information sausage meat that AI is about to serve them?
5. In Conclusion
We have every intention of writing you one more newsletter this year. At 2024’s newsletter pace, that will be quite an achievement for us. Stay subscribed to find out if we make good on our promise. Either you will not notice the non-arriving email or you will get a wonderful reflection on the Good Enough (?) year that was 2024. There is no in-between. THERE IS NO GRAY AREA.
Not wishing you a happy holiday now because we will for sure, definitely, 100% speak again before then. Yay!