3-2-1 Tech - Issue #11

Same author, new format. Drew’s Journal will now consist of 3 tips for your side project, 2 web dev articles, and one project update from me.

Side project tips

1. Take time to investigate new technology, but don’t lose focus on your main thing. Suhail shipped @tunesproject, an NFT in the music space, and immediately refocused on MightyApp.
2. Avoid cargo culting and looking to your peers for validation. If 90% of IndieHackers fail to generate revenue, then why should you be doing what the average IndieHacker is doing? (listen to this great podcast)
3. Garry Tan had a great tweet this morning (see below). Start today and try to think in decades. A thing to keep in mind: it won’t likely be obvious why you should stick with it for the first year.

garrytan.eth 陈嘉兴 🥑🌐🦇🔊🍌🔺(∞, ∞) @garrytan Two years ago I started to vlog People definitely overestimate what they can do in one year. But if you stick with something it becomes clear how much happens in the next 9. That’s why we underestimate what we can do in 10. Here is to another decade of making videos! September 12th 2021 24 Retweets 562 Likes

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Web dev

1. ​Next.js Conf is 43 days away! Sign up to claim your ticket. Over 8,000 people have registered as of this writing (check out my ticket.)
2. Be careful when naming and making API decisions, they might end up set in stone:

Jan Schaumann @jschauma Here’s why we use h, j, k, l as motion keys in vi and vim: Bill Joy used an ADM-3A terminal, which (besides a 80x24 screen) had a keyboard that looked like this: This is also where the “~” shortcut for “$HOME” comes from. pic.twitter.com/y4LDhUh1qy September 4th 2021 1,561 Retweets 4,925 Likes

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Project update

I’ve been working behind the scenes to validate a side project idea I’ve had since 2018. After chatting with a few successful early-stage founders, I’m confident I can build a tool that will help them.

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I’m building Helpful to help founders, IndieHackers, and makers (who are already short on time) start an affiliate program for their SaaS.

Most end up building this themselves, but I want to help founders build a privacy-friendly and transparent affiliate program with zero development time required.

Affiliate program make MRR go brrr (reference).Interested in learning more? Sign up here.