“Perfect is the enemy of good.” I thought it was a line from the long- and appropriately (based on its horrendous second season) forgotten 90s sitcom, Ned & Stacy. That’s the show where Debra Messing wore a padded bra to get her start. But, nope. I have it on good authority that Voltaire said it. Since my head makes spurious connections and foregoes research and self-chequeing to get stuff out fast, I’m going to assume my good authority knows this because she saw the 80s Cabaret Voltaire poster on Ferris Bueller’s wall and remembered that band remade Carly Simon 70s hit, Procrastination, the one with the line, “… it’s making me wait.”
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There. If you’re thoroughly confused. Then we’re ready to start. Because so am I.
I try (pretty hard) not to mix business and play here. A kind of blood-brain business barrier. I don’t want bloody business stuff to muck up these brainy stories. Ha. This story is going to breach that highly selective semipermeable border of endothelial cells. And, to think, I failed ninth-grade science. And, English.
A while ago I started working on an app. The details are unimportant. It should have been ready months ago. But, I can’t seem to push the damn thing over the finish line. It’s like I’m launch adjacent. Which is odd. Because I’m not a procrastinator by nature. In fact, my undiagnosed, unmedicated, but all too real, hyperactivity normally pushes me to hit send too fast.
Posts here attest. They are riddled with typos, grammatical mistakes, and incorrect use of negatives. They draw bizarre conclusions by connecting the wrong dots in illogical ways. No, no. It’s true. Some of the ideas may be good. The execution is always sloppy. This seems like a good time to apologize and thank you for your continued patronage.
So why is my app sitting on the sidelines? First, because I just can’t seem to get comfortable telling people about it.
That ended the other day.
An all-too-polite reader here… one who I have never spoken with… emailed me about the Aggregator story. Maybe there was a crack in the door. Or maybe I just wanted to see one, but, I unleashed on the poor guy.
We need a process to get people to stop app-crastinating. You have to start by admitting you’re building an app. My email started like this, “OK, here goes. Deep breath. And, apologies in advance, because you’re the first person to hear this story. I’m building an AI for sports fans. …”
He didn’t hate the idea. Or, he was too polite to say so. Either way, his lengthy reply ended with, “It’s a really good idea!” Yes, the exclamation mark is a verbatim quote.
That gave me the confidence to find hope. I’m going to believe that a power greater me — a big media company — could help launch this and restore my sanity.
In short order, I hope to surrender to Apple’s terms of service and turn over 30% of revenue to access their installed user base. Take inventory of sign ups to figure out growth patterns. Share inventory data with partners and maybe the odd VC or two. Become ready to debut version two with video features in the discover feed. Ask higher authorities to remove bugs. And, then, do some other stuff until I pray and meditate that people understand what the app is supposed to do without having to re-write our FAQs or create a new lexicon. One day, if all this works, I may make enough money to start a seed fund to help other app-crastinators so they don’t struggle with launch as I have.
The thing to do is to ask you folks… out there… in reader land, if you’d be willing to guinea pig this thing. And, give me some feedback.
Or, I could pick a new font for the logo because I noticed that the kerning on the BadaBoom font is a little off. In which case, this app will be 26 years old and still living on my couch.
Good ideas are a dime a dozen. It’s the folks who do something with them who win. So, here you have it, a multi-step program to get an app off your couch and into people’s hands.
So, today, I promised myself this. I will launch my AI app for sports fans. Not tomorrow, not next week. Today. Even if it’s not entirely ready for prime time. Or, even daytime. If you’d like to know what it is or would like a test drive, email, text, or call me.
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Tomorrow, we will return to my non-promotional stories. Promise.