A few days ago, I wrote my first line of code in almost a month.
It was wonderful.
I don’t think I’ve gone that long without coding in… 15 years?
It made me realize that between my Covid essay and my year-in-review I’ve been spending a looooooot of time writing lately
and not nearly enough time coding and making Pegasus (more) awesome.
So, once again, I’m going to publish a slightly abbreviated retro and get back to work.
Onwards!
Last Month’s Profit
January was a solid month, and a good way to kick off the year.
I was worried about a big dip with Pegasus no longer benefiting from the Black Friday fallout, and Place Card Me doing its
usual January slump (which did happen), but overall it turned out ok!
Last Month’s Goals
| # |
Goal |
Grade |
| 1 |
Publish my year in review |
B |
Publish my year in review: B
I wasn’t sure how to grade this.
I did publish it. Titled “A Five-Year Journey to Financial Freedom…and Beyond”—it
took a more zoomed-out perspective than past years, documenting the whole passive-income and search-for-meaning journey that I’ve been on.
And I’m reasonably proud of it. I think it appropriately captures my motivation over the past few years, the difficulty and perseverance required to get
to where I am, and the complex and ever-shifting quest for something more “meaningful”.
I had hoped it might get some traction outside my own existing audience, but it didn’t. Maybe it was too braggy, or too preachy.
My best theory is that the overlap of solopreneur/developer content with do-gooding/Covid-related content is just too weird
and niche to be relatable to anyone other than me. That’s ok.
Anyways—hoping your content gets widely shared is like playing the lottery—so while I was a little disappointed, I’m
not surprised or depressed about it.
The bigger issue for me is that I still don’t have a very clear picture of what my big next steps are with Pegasus or Griffin.
Pegasus can carry onwards with regular care and feeding, but I’m feeling like I need a bit more big-picture vision to push for the year—else
I’ll just end up making incremental improvements while not necessarily taking big enough swings.
And Griffin… Griffin is just a big unknown at this point.
But maybe that’s fine.
I think Griffin will pull at me when the time is right, and in the meantime I can spend more time coding!
Time
Time breakdown for January 2021
For the first time since going solo, Pegasus didn’t come in first.
It didn’t even come in second—since my year-in-review bumped up my “personal projects” bucket above it.
Between “Coming Clean” going viral, taking a two week holiday, and writing my year in review, it feels like this
was highly unusual month. But I’ll keep an eye on this breakdown moving forwards in case it turns into a trend.
I think it would be bad for me in multiple ways if Pegasus is not usually #1 on the list.
This Month’s Goals
- Ship a substantial Pegasus release. I’m back into coding and it feels good!
I’ve almost finished a new feature, and am aiming to have at least one major release this month.
I’m also planning to keep this a recurring goal for most of 2022.
- Come up with a few big-ticket plans for Pegasus in 2022. One problem with the monthly release cadence is
that it makes it a little harder to work on more ambitious things. I want to make sure I can still make
a few big bets this year, and I need to spend some time reflecting on what those might be.
- Start the next Griffin project. I’m keeping my ambitions around Griffin intentionally low this month—in
part because I’ve been neglecting Pegasus and in part because I’m a bit burnt out and directionless on the topic at the moment.
Mostly, I’d like to have some sense of what I’m going to do next. An essay? A website? A partnership?
I have no idea what this will be, but I’m interested to figure out something to try next.
Recommendations
- Documentary(?): The Religious Wars of the Pandemic Endgame by Rebel Wisdom
is a really thoughtful treatment of the current Covid dialog. While most media outlets are unilaterally supporting their
own echo-chamber positions, Rebel Wisdom is taking the time to find and talk to high-rung thinkers on all sides and synthesize
things into a bigger, more balanced picture. They’re doing great work, and their positions often mostly reflect my own.
Just be warned it’s more than 2 hours long!