Don't Be A Dummy

February 11, 2025

Ian and Aaron discuss the release date of Fusion, winning money at poker, ideas for Laracon swag jackets, and a whole lot more. Sponsored by: - Bento https://bentonow.com/ - Moonbase Labs https://moonbaselabs.com/ - Packetly https://packetly.com/ Interested in sponsoring Mostly Technical? Head to https://mostlytechnical.com/sponsor to learn more. 00:00 Disney Adults 04:55 Birthday Release Date 08:30 Are You Rich? 12:00 Big Aaron Francis Week 23:03 Aaron Francis Mindset 29:27 TUI Testing 36:36 Monarch & Wanderlog 44:13 Laracon EU Followup
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Transcript

Ian
00:00:00 – 00:00:01
Hello?
Aaron
00:00:01 – 00:00:02
How we doing?
Ian
00:00:02 – 00:00:03
We are doing well.
Aaron
00:00:04 – 00:00:10
Yeah? Yes. Is anything contributing has anything contributing to the well or just an overall good life?
Ian
00:00:11 – 00:00:16
Overall good, I think. I do have a first big vacation in a while coming up.
Aaron
00:00:16 – 00:00:17
Okay. Where are you going?
Ian
00:00:19 – 00:00:26
My daughter every time when the kids turns 12, I think we might have talked about this, we do a big trip with them.
Aaron
00:00:26 – 00:00:26
Mhmm.
Ian
00:00:26 – 00:00:39
So her birthday's coming up. So we are doing Disney World, horse, equestrian stuff, and the beach all in Florida. So, it's gonna be bit of a trip, which we might have to do as soon as we go
Aaron
00:00:39 – 00:00:44
to Disney World. What? Yeah. You know what is what what Disney World is great for? Kids.
Aaron
00:00:45 – 00:00:47
That's who should be going to Disney World.
Ian
00:00:47 – 00:00:49
Well, she has a kid, so that works.
Aaron
00:00:49 – 00:00:50
I know. It's perfect.
Ian
00:00:51 – 00:00:51
But to be
Aaron
00:00:51 – 00:00:54
fair, I love this too. Disney adult business. No. No. No.
Aaron
00:00:54 – 00:00:54
No.
Ian
00:00:54 – 00:00:58
No. Producer Dave's a big Disney adult guy. You know? We already insulted producer.
Aaron
00:00:58 – 00:01:02
I know. I know. I think, Caleb's wife, Hannah,
Ian
00:01:02 – 00:01:02
is a
Aaron
00:01:02 – 00:01:06
big Disney adult. Yeah. I'm just Mhmm. I just don't get it. I don't get it.
Aaron
00:01:06 – 00:01:08
But that'll be great. Great for a kid.
Ian
00:01:09 – 00:01:29
I've never gone as an adult by myself other than, like, when I was in my twenties probably, like, for a conference or something that did, like, the drink night drink thing at Yep. In Disneyland's. If you're not in Disney, I forgot what they call it, but it's, like, bars and restaurants and stuff. But it's, like, attached to Disney. It's, like, Disney Springs or something.
Ian
00:01:29 – 00:01:43
So did that. But I think that once the kids are out, I will still do Disney. Although it's gonna be tricky because Jamie is over Disney. She was fine when the kids were little, but she doesn't wanna party Disney anymore. So I'm gonna be myself.
Aaron
00:01:43 – 00:01:44
Stand your stand your ground.
Ian
00:01:44 – 00:01:52
I'm gonna be just be adult Disney. I'm gonna be by myself alone, 58 year old man in Disney.
Aaron
00:01:52 – 00:02:00
Listen. Be me. Listen. I'm all for just doing things, but going to Disney by yourself as a grown man alone. Oh, man.
Ian
00:02:00 – 00:02:07
Disney's so great, though. It's so perfect, and everything's clean. Everything's nice. I love Disney.
Aaron
00:02:07 – 00:02:14
You're gonna you're gonna have one person in the control room dedicated to watching you walk around the park on all the cameras. Like, uh-oh.
Ian
00:02:15 – 00:02:16
We got a solo dude.
Aaron
00:02:16 – 00:02:18
We gotta watch this weirdo.
Ian
00:02:18 – 00:02:20
I'm kinda surprised you're not a Disney guy.
Aaron
00:02:21 – 00:02:21
I think you're just
Ian
00:02:21 – 00:02:23
on your stick. No?
Aaron
00:02:23 – 00:02:25
No. No. Not really.
Ian
00:02:25 – 00:02:30
This feels cynical to me. I thought you're not you're not the cynical guy. It feels cynical that you're cynical about Disney.
Aaron
00:02:30 – 00:02:38
Oh, wow. That's like, it's like a second derivative or something. No. I don't know that I'm even cynical about it. I just don't wanna go.
Aaron
00:02:39 – 00:02:51
I mean, it just it just feels like schlepping, you know? Like, I don't wanna go I don't wanna go walk around the hot park with a bunch of fried foods in my face and Mhmm. Wait in line for stuff.
Ian
00:02:51 – 00:02:52
They have a lot of good food, actually.
Aaron
00:02:52 – 00:02:56
It just feels it feels like 6 Flags. It's like, I don't really wanna go to 6 Flags.
Ian
00:02:56 – 00:02:57
Have you been to Disney?
Aaron
00:02:58 – 00:03:01
I went when I was a kid, and it was great because I was a kid.
Ian
00:03:01 – 00:03:01
Yeah.
Aaron
00:03:01 – 00:03:17
And then I went as an adult. Ernst and Young had their, like, you know, global intern conference there. And so we all went to Disney, and I went to, like, Harry Potter World, which was super fun. It was great.
Ian
00:03:17 – 00:03:18
Had a good time.
Aaron
00:03:18 – 00:03:20
It's close, though. Right? Isn't it universal?
Ian
00:03:20 – 00:03:21
Yeah. To Universal.
Aaron
00:03:21 – 00:03:22
It was great.
Ian
00:03:22 – 00:03:24
Wait. Were you in Disney or you were in universal or both?
Aaron
00:03:26 – 00:03:28
That time, I must have just been in universal.
Ian
00:03:29 – 00:03:31
Yeah. So that's a totally true thing. It was great.
Aaron
00:03:31 – 00:03:34
So it's So Disney still sucks. Universal's great.
Ian
00:03:35 – 00:03:48
I did a corporate thing at Universal too. This must be a universal thing with I don't think Disney does this where they, like, rent out the park. Universal does do it. Like, I was at a thing also where I, like, you were in Universal, and it was just some I forget what it was.
Aaron
00:03:48 – 00:03:55
There there's a 60% chance. I don't know the difference between Disney and Universal. But Apparently not. That's okay.
Ian
00:03:55 – 00:04:01
Yeah. So you're basing this all because it's not Disney is nothing like Six Flags. Let's just start there. It's nothing at all.
Aaron
00:04:01 – 00:04:11
Isn't it? Epcot Center and a bunch of bunch of people walking around with, like, you know, mouse ears on, eating fried cotton candy. Is that not Disney? That that's Disney.
Ian
00:04:12 – 00:04:21
Six Flags is, like, all about the roller coasters. You know? You're, like, there for roller coasters and funnel cake. Like, that is six flags. Disney is much broader than that.
Ian
00:04:21 – 00:04:30
There's all kinds of other stuff going on. It's not really about roller coasters at all. There are some roller coasters. There's no looping roller coasters at all. There's should be a few big roller coasters.
Ian
00:04:30 – 00:04:37
I'm not really a roller coaster guy, so it works. I'm finding my little boat rides. No. Small world. There's people singing.
Ian
00:04:37 – 00:04:44
There's little animatronics doing No. No. No. No. There's probably some command line tools in there doing command line stuff to run this whole thing.
Aaron
00:04:44 – 00:04:50
Now we're talking. Yeah. That's what I'm talking about. Yeah. Well, happy whatever.
Aaron
00:04:50 – 00:04:56
Twelfth twelfth birthday? Happy twelfth. You know, you know, Friday is my birthday, Ian.
Ian
00:04:56 – 00:04:58
Oh, shoot. Really? Yep.
Aaron
00:04:58 – 00:05:01
There you go. Number '36.
Ian
00:05:02 – 00:05:03
Valentine's Day? I think we've
Aaron
00:05:03 – 00:05:04
Every year.
Ian
00:05:04 – 00:05:05
Right? Yeah. Yeah. Valentine's Day.
Aaron
00:05:06 – 00:05:07
Yep. Wow.
Ian
00:05:07 – 00:05:20
That's what my I think we're about to talk about this. So it's my, first date anniversary, which I consider the real anniversary, more than the wedding anniversary. So we are, yeah, we're going to do we're going to celebrate your birthday.
Aaron
00:05:20 – 00:05:21
That's nice of you. I
Ian
00:05:21 – 00:05:24
appreciate that. Type of thing. All that stuff.
Aaron
00:05:24 – 00:05:25
That's very nice.
Ian
00:05:25 – 00:05:28
So what are you doing for your birthday? What do you what do you say? Thirty six? Thirty '7?
Aaron
00:05:28 – 00:05:29
Thirty '6.
Ian
00:05:29 – 00:05:30
Okay.
Aaron
00:05:30 – 00:05:42
Old man, River. So I think for my birthday, one week from today, so next Monday, I will be checking into a hotel here in Dallas by myself.
Ian
00:05:43 – 00:05:43
Okay.
Aaron
00:05:43 – 00:05:52
And I'll I'm gonna go get I'm gonna go get a massage. Oh. Order some room service. I might you know what? I might play, like, a video game or something.
Ian
00:05:52 – 00:05:55
Oh, bring the PlayStation with you and hook it up to your hotel TV.
Aaron
00:05:55 – 00:06:02
No. I don't have a PlayStation. I might play I might play some Factorio. Alright. Mhmm.
Aaron
00:06:02 – 00:06:09
I might play there's another game. I forget what it's called, but it's another, like, world building game. I might place I might play that.
Ian
00:06:09 – 00:06:14
Overnight or just hide out? Overnight. Yeah. Yeah. Are you gonna work?
Aaron
00:06:15 – 00:06:17
I'm gonna try not to.
Ian
00:06:17 – 00:06:21
Okay. Yeah. I like this. Are you going outside the city or downtown or.
Aaron
00:06:21 – 00:06:22
No downtown.
Ian
00:06:23 – 00:06:23
Okay.
Aaron
00:06:24 – 00:06:24
So I like the
Ian
00:06:24 – 00:06:25
sound of this.
Aaron
00:06:25 – 00:06:34
I'll come here on on Monday, record with you, give the people what they want, and then head out to the hotel and have a nice little staycation.
Ian
00:06:34 – 00:06:35
Look at that.
Aaron
00:06:35 – 00:06:36
Isn't that nice?
Ian
00:06:36 – 00:06:37
Clear the brain. I like that.
Aaron
00:06:37 – 00:06:45
Yeah. Jennifer came in the other day and was like, so for your birthday, what do you think if you just go to a hotel by yourself? I was like,
Ian
00:06:45 – 00:06:47
that sounds amazing. How about yes?
Aaron
00:06:47 – 00:06:50
Yeah. I love that idea. So that's the plan.
Ian
00:06:51 – 00:06:56
That's why we gotta get you into poker because poker, you get some built in things like that. It's like you're going to play poker.
Aaron
00:06:56 – 00:06:57
Yeah. You're gonna spend
Ian
00:06:57 – 00:07:06
the night. You're gonna stay up late. You can get a little little it's sort of like a staycation. You're not rested after is the downside, but you're, like, exhausted out
Aaron
00:07:06 – 00:07:11
there. Yeah. You you're not rested. You're broke, and you smell like smoke. But other than that, it seems awesome.
Ian
00:07:11 – 00:07:12
No. You don't smell
Aaron
00:07:12 – 00:07:13
like smoke.
Ian
00:07:13 – 00:07:14
There's no more smoke getting in there. No smoke.
Aaron
00:07:14 – 00:07:17
Yeah. We used to be a country. You know? What is this? It's unbelievable.
Aaron
00:07:17 – 00:07:25
Maybe I'll you have been posting a lot of, pictures of fat stacks on poker. People love
Ian
00:07:25 – 00:07:26
the fat stacks.
Aaron
00:07:26 – 00:07:41
I wanna hear about that. But before we do, this podcast is brought to you by Packetly. Prevent malicious content by using our simple s three compatible content identification API at packetly.com. Pretty good.
Ian
00:07:41 – 00:07:42
Yeah. Not bad.
Aaron
00:07:42 – 00:07:44
That's pretty good. Smooth. Right?
Ian
00:07:44 – 00:07:45
It was very smooth.
Aaron
00:07:45 – 00:07:46
That's smooth. Okay. Let's hear,
Ian
00:07:47 – 00:07:49
So so this is the week we're trying out the sprinkling ads.
Aaron
00:07:49 – 00:07:50
We are.
Ian
00:07:50 – 00:07:58
So everybody needs to let us know. Last week, we did them all together. Yep. Last week, we're sprinkling. So if you let us know if you like sprinkling or all together.
Aaron
00:07:59 – 00:08:08
So side note side side note about Packetly. I found out it's, it's Simon Bennett. Do you know him? The guy that did Snap Shooter sold Snap Shooter to DigitalOcean?
Ian
00:08:08 – 00:08:10
Sounds familiar to me.
Aaron
00:08:10 – 00:08:19
He d m'd me after the last episode and was like, hey. It's fun to hear, you know, my name. And I was like, I'm sorry. We didn't talk about Snap Shooter at all. What are you saying?
Aaron
00:08:19 – 00:08:21
And he's got a new business. Back at least.
Ian
00:08:21 – 00:08:23
So It's Snap Shooter. That's the old thing.
Aaron
00:08:23 – 00:08:28
I know. Learn something new just from the ads. Great great value we're providing here.
Ian
00:08:28 – 00:08:29
Yeah. Very
Aaron
00:08:29 – 00:08:31
cool. Are you rich?
Ian
00:08:32 – 00:08:35
No. Not yet. But from not in poker anyway, but I'm working.
Aaron
00:08:36 – 00:08:38
Okay. So what's the deal? You played in tournaments or what?
Ian
00:08:38 – 00:08:47
No. No. No. Tournaments. Just, like, occasionally, you know, not every week, but, you know, every third week, I've been going to, play some potluck in Omaha on Fridays.
Ian
00:08:47 – 00:08:53
Friday, I do. We have we have afternoons off on Fridays at UserScape. So All year? Yeah. All year.
Aaron
00:08:53 – 00:08:54
Oh, that's amazing.
Ian
00:08:54 – 00:09:15
And, this week, I actually switched it, and I worked in the afternoon. But, anyway, after work at some point, I will go to play, PLO. And, it's been going pretty good. I would start off super hot, like, the end of last year and this year, and I was just, like, crushing. Then I had a couple couple, setbacks there where I had losing sessions.
Ian
00:09:15 – 00:09:27
Got righted the ship. Nice little winning session this week. So, yeah, it's good. It's fun. Portland, Omaha, definitely the best game to play if you're into poker, if you're willing to study up a little bit.
Ian
00:09:28 – 00:09:34
That's where all the degenerates are now. See Yeah. You can't play no limit anymore. Everybody's too good at it. Everybody's too trained.
Ian
00:09:35 – 00:09:38
Yeah. All the, like they're 22, and they're just, like, a little mini computer.
Aaron
00:09:38 – 00:09:39
Bunch of quants. Yeah.
Ian
00:09:39 – 00:09:48
All the odds and stuff. I mean, whatever. I can hang with those guys if I have to, but I don't you're not, like, winning a lot of money in that scenario because, like, you are just So
Aaron
00:09:48 – 00:09:51
are all the rubes playing pot limit Omaha?
Ian
00:09:51 – 00:09:53
You wanna be in with the rubes. You wanna be
Aaron
00:09:53 – 00:09:53
in Yeah.
Ian
00:09:54 – 00:09:58
More with with the gamblers, even people who know what they're doing, but they're they're a little bit more gambly.
Aaron
00:09:58 – 00:09:59
Right.
Ian
00:09:59 – 00:10:25
Because the pot limit in Omaha, you can't it's not so easily solved, and it's definitely not pretty much impossible to memorize. So, like, you have to just go with more broader stroke rules because, like, in no limit, there's, like, the number starting hands is, like, 1,600 or something like that. And in problem in Omaha, the number starting hands is, like, 280,000 or something. So, you know, there's a lot of different you just can't memorize everything the way you kinda know limits, which, you know, the the computer guys don't love because they wanna just know the answers. Right?
Ian
00:10:25 – 00:10:55
Like, you wanna give yourself the best odds, and the, you know, rubes slash, gambler types don't wanna play against the super computer guys because they know they're just right outmatched. So in PLO it's more even, you know, it's one of these things where like you're more likely to win. But over the long term, you're also much more likely to lose, I would say, if you're not studied up because, you know, the odds get you eventually. It just takes longer. Right.
Ian
00:10:55 – 00:11:01
So oh, no. It's fun. Four cards. You see a lot of flops. It's more entertaining than the loop.
Ian
00:11:01 – 00:11:03
You have to fold a lot if you're playing right, and folding's boring.
Aaron
00:11:04 – 00:11:05
Folding is boring.
Ian
00:11:05 – 00:11:05
The gambler
Aaron
00:11:05 – 00:11:07
is boring. Yeah.
Ian
00:11:07 – 00:11:08
Yeah. Nobody likes folding.
Aaron
00:11:08 – 00:11:10
Nobody likes folding.
Ian
00:11:10 – 00:11:13
Yeah. Yeah. So there you go. We gotta get you in the pot limit, Omaha.
Aaron
00:11:14 – 00:11:20
I don't know. I I will play I will play Hold'em. Hold'em's fun. I don't I don't think I'm gonna learn a new a new game, though.
Ian
00:11:20 – 00:11:21
It doesn't take long.
Aaron
00:11:22 – 00:11:27
When we have mostly technical comp, we can have a little we can have a little night of, gambling.
Ian
00:11:28 – 00:11:33
Oh, yeah. We gotta do it in a city that's got got a casino, so we no no doubt.
Aaron
00:11:33 – 00:11:37
We could do it in, we could do it in Oklahoma. We could go to Choctaw.
Ian
00:11:37 – 00:11:44
There we go. I've never been there. Every time I go to a new casino, bring home a $5 chip. I got my big collection of chips.
Aaron
00:11:44 – 00:11:45
Oh, that's fun.
Ian
00:11:45 – 00:11:53
Yeah. It's a fun little thing. So I got them from all over the world. I got my chips. So I have I always mean to right now, they're in a mug.
Ian
00:11:53 – 00:11:54
I need to
Aaron
00:11:54 – 00:11:56
Gotta turn that into art, man.
Ian
00:11:56 – 00:12:04
Yeah. I gotta build, like, a display or something, but I don't know. Alright. So it's big it's a big Aaron Francis week, though. Let's not Is it?
Ian
00:12:04 – 00:12:06
It's a big Aaron Francis week.
Aaron
00:12:06 – 00:12:07
Oh, wow. Alright.
Ian
00:12:07 – 00:12:11
Traveling. You had Mhmm. Today is Fusion release day.
Aaron
00:12:11 – 00:12:15
Yeah. Built it today was was fusion release day.
Ian
00:12:15 – 00:12:23
Oh, okay. Okay. It was because you already did it, or it was because it didn't get I'm not doing it until Friday. Yeah. Oh, man.
Ian
00:12:24 – 00:12:27
I know. Well, I guess it's less of a big error for Francis week. But we are
Aaron
00:12:27 – 00:12:28
Still same week. Same week.
Ian
00:12:28 – 00:12:29
Same week.
Aaron
00:12:29 – 00:12:36
Still counts. Yeah. Okay. So traveling home, traveling home was fine. Got back.
Aaron
00:12:36 – 00:12:55
Mhmm. Everyone was sick at home, which was part of part of the reason we're pushing fusion release day. Just came home to an infirmity ward. And so my my oldest son had flu a and flu b and a sinus infection. And then my oldest daughter got the flu.
Aaron
00:12:56 – 00:13:06
Our au pair got the flu, but she just kept working because she's German. She's like, I'm fine. She's not too. Yeah. And then so I come home and, like, you know, everybody's sick.
Aaron
00:13:06 – 00:13:13
I'm exhausted. It's a mess. But everybody's well now, so everybody's we're we're all good. Back back to our feet.
Ian
00:13:14 – 00:13:29
Do you find this? Because I've had a similar thing this week where, I just feel like whenever I go somewhere, like, shit happens at home, you know, like, just inevitable. And, like, so this week, I went to play poker Friday night. So I'm gonna spend the night at the place because I'm gonna be up late. Whatever.
Ian
00:13:29 – 00:13:40
And, like, literally an hour in, Jamie messaged me that she sliced her finger open with a knife cutting carrots or whatever. She'd go into the thing, get stitches. Yep. You know? Max is on his way home from school.
Ian
00:13:40 – 00:13:44
Like, you know, and it was all fine, and I didn't actually have to go back or whatever. But it's just, like, there's always
Aaron
00:13:45 – 00:13:46
Every single time.
Ian
00:13:46 – 00:13:50
Happens. It's never just like, oh, we sat around and everything was fine. It's always like
Aaron
00:13:50 – 00:13:50
Yep.
Ian
00:13:51 – 00:13:53
Something some drama some drama happens. But,
Aaron
00:13:53 – 00:14:18
anyway, everybody's sick. Every time I'm about to go out of town, Jennifer and I joke that, like, we don't believe in the universe, but, like, hopefully, the universe doesn't get everyone sick again because it happens every single time, and it happened again this time. So, yeah, I got home. Everybody's well. So then, like, you know, Thursday, I did not catch it this time.
Aaron
00:14:18 – 00:14:22
I know. I know. Baby. Got lucky. Right.
Aaron
00:14:23 – 00:14:39
So then Thursday, Friday were less productive than I would have hoped. And then, of course, weekends are just out of out of the question. So, I, late last night, was still working and decided, you know what? I can just push it to Friday. That's not the worst thing that has ever happened.
Ian
00:14:39 – 00:14:41
I think it'll be fine.
Aaron
00:14:41 – 00:14:43
It'll be totally fine. Nobody's gonna care.
Ian
00:14:43 – 00:14:44
Nobody's gonna care.
Aaron
00:14:45 – 00:14:48
And I thought, well, I'll just push it to Tuesday, and I thought, woah. Woah. Woah. Woah. No.
Aaron
00:14:48 – 00:14:48
No.
Ian
00:14:48 – 00:14:49
No. No. No. Don't do that.
Aaron
00:14:49 – 00:14:51
Don't do that. Don't be a dummy.
Ian
00:14:52 – 00:14:56
Don't be a dummy. Give yourself give yourself a few days.
Aaron
00:14:56 – 00:15:02
So I'm pushing it to Friday. It'll coincide with my birthday. So, yeah, it'll be good. There
Ian
00:15:02 – 00:15:05
you go. Birthday release date helps follow until my birthday. So
Aaron
00:15:06 – 00:15:06
Yeah. Good
Ian
00:15:06 – 00:15:07
luck in the birthday release date.
Aaron
00:15:07 – 00:15:20
Good luck. Yes. So I've been writing just furiously writing documentation. And then as you do, you're, like, writing documentation and you're making notes like, oh, be sure to look out for this thing. And then you're like, what if I just made that thing go away?
Aaron
00:15:20 – 00:15:31
Like, what if it's just that thing was just better? Right. And so then you go back and change the implementation. And so it is a refining process that is valuable, but it is not, like, just super straightforward. You know?
Ian
00:15:31 – 00:15:44
I have to say I've never written documentation, I would say. Like, I've written documentation for my product, but it feels different than open source documentation. You know? There's something different about open source documentation, like, just the big thing with all the docs and things. Yes.
Ian
00:15:44 – 00:15:51
Like, I don't know. That's a big that's one of the things that keeps me from open source, like, in terms of writing a thing. Like, it's like, oh, documentation.
Aaron
00:15:52 – 00:15:54
I I enjoy I enjoy writing the documentation. You
Ian
00:15:54 – 00:15:55
like the documentation.
Aaron
00:15:55 – 00:15:57
I do. I like writing I like writing documentation.
Ian
00:15:58 – 00:15:58
Mhmm.
Aaron
00:15:58 – 00:16:08
And I do like if I can't explain it well enough or easily enough in the docs, then the implementation is just bad. And I find that to be, like, a forcing function.
Ian
00:16:09 – 00:16:12
Are you going doc sites, or are you going to, right now, docs in the
Aaron
00:16:13 – 00:16:14
Just GitHub repo.
Ian
00:16:14 – 00:16:15
Yeah. Okay.
Aaron
00:16:15 – 00:16:40
So I'm trying to keep I'm trying to keep my eye on on the goal here, which is release the thing. And so just GitHub repo for now. And then I've got, Will King who did all the logos for the actual, open source stuff. I've got him working on, touching up the AaronFrancis.com redesign so that then we can push everything there. So
Ian
00:16:41 – 00:16:41
Okay.
Aaron
00:16:41 – 00:16:45
All all docs for all projects will go there, articles, podcasts, everything.
Ian
00:16:46 – 00:16:46
Right.
Aaron
00:16:47 – 00:17:01
So that's in the works, but I'm I have this bad habit of, like, I can't do anything until I do everything. And so I'm trying, like, every day trying to overcome that by saying, no. You can just put it all in the GitHub. Read me.
Ian
00:17:01 – 00:17:02
And it'll be fine. And it'll be fine.
Aaron
00:17:02 – 00:17:04
It'll be totally fine.
Ian
00:17:05 – 00:17:16
Yeah. So a lot of big projects work that way where it's just a huge whatever. It's a giant file. As long as you have, like, maybe, like, a little table of contents or, like, some kind of organization there, you can kind of jump to where you need to be. Yep.
Ian
00:17:16 – 00:17:17
I think you'd be alright.
Aaron
00:17:18 – 00:17:35
Yeah. I think it'll be totally fine. So that's coming on Friday, documentation and everything. The thing I'm working on right now is, like, just the bare minimum tests to ensure that once it's out there, I don't go backwards. Like, there's still gonna be a lot of tests that need to be written.
Aaron
00:17:35 – 00:18:10
Mhmm. But I just wanna ensure that the critical paths work and stay working. Yeah. So that's kinda that's kinda where I got hung up last night was it's a it's a relatively complicated thing to test because it's got, it's got a PHP angle or a PHP component, a Vue component and a Vite component. And so, like, you really do need to build like, you need to have a Vue component that you run through Vite, and then you test kind of in the browser to make sure that the whole thing is working.
Aaron
00:18:11 – 00:18:14
And so getting that test harness set up was kind of a nightmare.
Ian
00:18:15 – 00:18:19
So are you doing, like, a dusk thing, or are you via your own thing? Okay.
Aaron
00:18:19 – 00:18:40
Yeah. I'll do a dusk thing. But the way that I'm gonna do it is I'm gonna have a full Laravel application inside of the package that doesn't ship. Like, when you compose or require it, it's get ignore get attribute ignored. But that way, I can have, like, a Vue application, a React application Right.
Aaron
00:18:40 – 00:19:11
And maybe a Svelte one. And I can run all the tests inside that application rather than inside the package test directory, if that makes sense. So then I can install view 3.7 and run the test, view 3.8 and run the tests and not have to worry about, like, polluting the whole package area. So, yeah, kinda weird, like, just the amount of stuff that needs to be tested. But it just lends itself very nicely to, like, I guess, what would be called an integration test where you just, like, see if the thing works.
Aaron
00:19:11 – 00:19:16
And if it works, hey. It works. And that's kinda where you wanna be. Yeah. Yeah.
Ian
00:19:16 – 00:19:19
Exactly. The right thing to the brow hose or you're probably okay.
Aaron
00:19:19 – 00:19:20
Yeah. Exactly.
Ian
00:19:21 – 00:19:27
So so, since we last talked, it was like you just stepped off the stage, and I was there waiting
Aaron
00:19:27 – 00:19:27
for you.
Ian
00:19:28 – 00:19:38
What what's the feedback, Ben, that you had a chance to, like, assimilate the Internet's, viewing of it? I assume there's people on Twitter and whatnot. Like, what's
Aaron
00:19:38 – 00:19:38
the word
Ian
00:19:38 – 00:19:39
on the street?
Aaron
00:19:40 – 00:20:20
Word on the street is overwhelmingly positive except for parts of Reddit and some YouTube comments, which tracks with, like, the sentiment of the Internet as a whole. So I think the people that get it really, like, are very excited about it. They look at they look at it and they see, like, a kinda like a souped up inertia, and they're like, yeah. This makes perfect sense to me. The people that don't get it look at it and say, why are you putting like, why are you using PHP as a templating language when you also have Vue right there next to it?
Ian
00:20:20 – 00:20:20
And I'm
Aaron
00:20:20 – 00:20:27
like, I'm actually not. Like, PHP is not a templating. It makes no sense for it to be a templating language.
Ian
00:20:27 – 00:20:30
It is It is a templating language, but you're using it that way in this case. Yes.
Aaron
00:20:30 – 00:20:41
It is the controller. That's basically what it is. It's like you're writing the controller next to the view. And so, of course, that means single responsibility people are like, oh, you're breaking. It's a violation of SRP.
Aaron
00:20:41 – 00:20:44
And I'm like, I don't super care about that.
Ian
00:20:44 – 00:20:46
People are out there. They're Patterned. Looking for you.
Aaron
00:20:47 – 00:20:54
Yes. They're out with their patterned torch or torch, whatever. Yeah. Pitch works. And pitch works.
Aaron
00:20:54 – 00:21:08
There you go. And what are the other criticisms? The single file thing was a big criticism. Like, you're supposed to have separation of concerns. And I think that's about it.
Aaron
00:21:08 – 00:21:23
The people that are excited about it, they're very they're very excited about it. Lots of people are like, this will bring me over to Laravel. I can finally, like, leave next. So stuff like that is Okay. Very exciting to me.
Aaron
00:21:23 – 00:21:25
Because that to me, that is That's
Ian
00:21:25 – 00:21:26
who you're after. Yeah.
Aaron
00:21:26 – 00:21:47
That is who I'm after. I'm not after I'm not after Livewire people. I'm not after, you know, plain blade people. I'm after next and next people. People that are like, I like the, I like the ability to just kinda seamlessly reach into the back end of the application, but then when you get back there, it's just an empty warehouse.
Aaron
00:21:47 – 00:22:01
And so I that's the people I'm after is like, hey. You can do that over here. And then when you get back there, you've got all these affordances that you can use. And so my goal is to siphon off, next, honestly, next mostly, Next. Js people.
Ian
00:22:02 – 00:22:08
Can you? I never bothered to look into this. So a little tangent. What the hell is the difference between next and next?
Aaron
00:22:09 – 00:22:18
Boy, these people with their names, man. Next and next. It's like, come on, y'all. Vue and React. That's it.
Ian
00:22:18 – 00:22:19
Oh, okay.
Aaron
00:22:19 – 00:22:24
Next is a React meta framework, and Nuxt is a Vue meta framework.
Ian
00:22:24 – 00:22:32
But they're the like, is it conceptually the same just using React and Vue, or they're actually quite different? I don't know. Port of the other?
Aaron
00:22:32 – 00:22:42
I don't know if one is a port or I don't I don't know about that. But, fundamentally, I think they're solving the same problem for different audiences. Yeah.
Ian
00:22:42 – 00:22:44
Okay. I want that's the most I wanna know about
Aaron
00:22:47 – 00:22:47
that. I don't
Ian
00:22:47 – 00:22:49
wanna know anything more than that.
Aaron
00:22:49 – 00:22:49
Yeah.
Ian
00:22:49 – 00:22:50
Okay.
Aaron
00:22:50 – 00:22:53
Yeah. That sounds good. Yeah. People are very excited.
Ian
00:22:54 – 00:22:55
Okay.
Aaron
00:22:55 – 00:23:01
I'm very excited about the reception. I'm I I think it is the reception so that is a good thing.
Ian
00:23:02 – 00:23:06
Hold on. I wanna go deeper I wanna go deeper for a second into the Anne Francis mindset.
Aaron
00:23:06 – 00:23:07
Oh, wow.
Ian
00:23:07 – 00:23:09
So you're on there cruising the Internet.
Aaron
00:23:09 – 00:23:10
Yeah. Always.
Ian
00:23:11 – 00:23:16
See, two good posts, one negative post. Two good posts, one negative post. Right? Whatever. Something like that.
Ian
00:23:17 – 00:23:31
Do the negative posts outweigh the good posts to you? Are you able to put them in their place and be like, no. People there's overwhelming positivity here. I'm gonna latch on to that. Or are you or is it weighing you down those negative posts?
Aaron
00:23:31 – 00:23:33
In fact, they are not weighing me down at all.
Ian
00:23:34 – 00:23:34
Oh, very good.
Aaron
00:23:34 – 00:23:50
I know. So I like it. It's the this is a little bit different, I think, because many of the negative posts clearly missed what was actually happening. And so that's easy to write off and be like, oh, okay. Well, that's not how it works.
Aaron
00:23:50 – 00:23:51
So I don't care about that.
Ian
00:23:51 – 00:23:52
Yeah. Different. Right. Yeah.
Aaron
00:23:52 – 00:23:55
Great. Good luck. Have fun. That's not my problem. Yeah.
Aaron
00:23:55 – 00:24:17
So those are easy. The people that are, like, that do understand what it does but hate it, I'm fine with that. Totally fine with that. Doesn't bother me whatsoever. The things that, like, really bums me out is when I do a course and people come in and are like, this guy has no idea what he's talking about.
Aaron
00:24:17 – 00:24:38
And I'm like, yes, I do. Like or, like, oh, this is just another course boy trying to get a grift. And I'm like, I mean, those people exist, but that's not that's not me. Those are the ones that are like, oh, this kinda sucks. But, you know, clean coder, uncle Bob, people being like, this violates SRP.
Aaron
00:24:39 – 00:24:41
I could care. Could not care less.
Ian
00:24:42 – 00:24:44
Alright. Very good. I like it. Yeah. That's a good skill.
Ian
00:24:44 – 00:24:50
If you're gonna be open source on the Internet, you gotta be all that that stuff Oh, I know. Run off a little bit.
Aaron
00:24:50 – 00:25:01
I know. I take I take historical encouragement from Taylor and Adam because nobody liked Laravel and everyone hated Tailwind, and it's like, who cares? They're great. Who cares?
Ian
00:25:01 – 00:25:04
Yeah. Yeah. They won in the end.
Aaron
00:25:04 – 00:25:05
Yes. Exactly.
Ian
00:25:05 – 00:25:23
Okay. Oh, let's, stop here for a quick second and thank sponsor to the show, Moonbase Labs. They're the rocket fuel for your Laravel project to reach escape velocity. Houston, we have a solution at MoonbaseLabs.com. Thank you to them for sponsoring the show.
Aaron
00:25:23 – 00:25:24
Thank you, Moonbase Labs.
Ian
00:25:25 – 00:25:30
Okay. So what else is going on with fusion? Do we have other fusion topics you're you're releasing Friday?
Aaron
00:25:30 – 00:25:32
Releasing Friday. Things are going okay.
Ian
00:25:32 – 00:25:34
Documenting. Yeah.
Aaron
00:25:35 – 00:25:44
Yep. I'm in I'm enjoying it. I'm having I'm having a lot of fun. It's a good, it's a good outlet. Love love the programming.
Aaron
00:25:46 – 00:25:48
Yeah, I think that might be it on fusion.
Ian
00:25:49 – 00:25:59
Do we have, what about courses and stuff like that? Or is there is Steve getting antsy for the return of Aaron Francis to the course creation board?
Aaron
00:25:59 – 00:26:14
No. Because, Steve is Steve is currently working on, recording his own courses for screencasting. So he is recording the, editor or, yeah, editor specific courses
Ian
00:26:15 – 00:26:15
Mhmm.
Aaron
00:26:15 – 00:26:29
For the three or four or five major editors, however many we end up doing. Yeah. So he's working on those now. And then before before February is over, I will have my portion of screencasting rerecorded. Mhmm.
Aaron
00:26:30 – 00:26:46
So the whole thing will be fresh. And so, yeah, by the end of this month, we'll have Screencasting.com souped up, ready to go with three or four new courses, one redo, new site. It'll be we'll be, we'll be cooking on that one. So no. He's Did you say you're
Ian
00:26:46 – 00:26:48
gonna have it done by the February?
Aaron
00:26:48 – 00:26:49
Yes.
Ian
00:26:49 – 00:26:53
Okay. That seems that seems fast.
Aaron
00:26:53 – 00:26:55
Seems smart. Oh, what did you say? Did you say fast?
Ian
00:26:55 – 00:26:56
I said fast. Yeah.
Aaron
00:26:56 – 00:27:04
Smart. Yeah. So, the good news is this course is already done. I've already recorded this course twice. Right?
Aaron
00:27:04 – 00:27:36
And so now it's just a matter of, watching it, rerecording it with new and updated knowledge and tips, tricks, and stuff like that. So the the thing that is quite easy for me is to redo a course. The thing that is very difficult is to write the content from scratch the first time. And so this will be this will be very easy. I imagine it'll take me, frankly, a week or two just because I've already written and recorded everything twice.
Aaron
00:27:36 – 00:27:39
Good. So I'm not I'm not worried about that timeline.
Ian
00:27:39 – 00:27:40
Do you have eighteen days left?
Aaron
00:27:41 – 00:27:44
Yeah. But this week's kind of a loss because it's fusion week. So let's just knock that down
Ian
00:27:44 – 00:27:45
to Yeah. We got fourteen days
Aaron
00:27:45 – 00:27:50
left. Yeah. We got fourteen days left, which that fits in perfectly. That's my two weeks. Yeah.
Aaron
00:27:50 – 00:27:53
Alright. That's great. I see no problems with that.
Ian
00:27:53 – 00:27:57
How's the other course going? The the the rails SQLite for rails. I forget the name.
Aaron
00:27:57 – 00:28:01
That will launch probably next week.
Ian
00:28:01 – 00:28:04
Okay. So Yeah. You announced it. This video. Right?
Ian
00:28:04 – 00:28:06
There wasn't there, like, a release video coming?
Aaron
00:28:06 – 00:28:09
Yep. Yeah. Yep. And he But it's not actually author no. Not yet.
Aaron
00:28:09 – 00:28:19
Okay. The good news, the the nice experience about that one is by the time we announced it, all the videos were recorded. And so it's just been, like, pretty easy.
Ian
00:28:19 – 00:28:19
The Not just in the
Aaron
00:28:20 – 00:28:42
author has been doing the rounds on, Ruby podcasts, and so he's out there doing interviews and and doing that kind of stuff. And then we've gotten it edited, and I think, Steven, the the author, is watching all of the videos back now for any edit mistakes or anything like that. And then we should be good to go. Nice. Yeah.
Ian
00:28:42 – 00:28:48
I I went to TryHard Studios to just pick out the name while you were talking, and there's there's no there's nothing on there. There's no
Aaron
00:28:48 – 00:28:48
Oh, there's
Ian
00:28:49 – 00:28:50
There's no links there to your courses.
Aaron
00:28:50 – 00:28:58
No. Very little on TryHard Studios. Yeah. Yeah. John Drexler gave a talk at Laracon EU and put our logo on there.
Aaron
00:28:58 – 00:29:06
He said, hey. I, I went to tryhardstudios.com and was gonna grab your logo, and it's just it's just text. It does. Right? Yeah.
Aaron
00:29:07 – 00:29:13
No. There's no logo. It was just, like, interior aerial versus do. That is yes. That is the goal.
Aaron
00:29:14 – 00:29:17
So we're still, you know, we're still making the empire cohesive.
Ian
00:29:19 – 00:29:19
Mhmm.
Aaron
00:29:19 – 00:29:22
But we're move we're moving forward regardless.
Ian
00:29:22 – 00:29:29
Okay. Alright. What else is in Aaron France this week? We had TUI testing. Now I thought you testing.
Ian
00:29:30 – 00:29:38
I thought you built a thing, but it seems like you didn't really build a thing. You kind of just built a little thing for yourself, but it's not a package you are releasing. Or maybe
Aaron
00:29:39 – 00:29:44
I did build a thing. Now the shape of that thing may be different than what you were expecting, but I definitely built a thing.
Ian
00:29:44 – 00:29:45
You did build a
Aaron
00:29:45 – 00:29:47
It's a good it's a good thing. It is good.
Ian
00:29:48 – 00:29:50
So I like it better than the twoies themselves, to be honest.
Aaron
00:29:50 – 00:30:18
It's unbelievable, these twoies. Solo has its own GitHub organization now, and I think there's definitely room to pull this out into a standalone package. But what it does is it, like, it automates the running of the underlying process and, like, feeds in input and makes assertions about output and the whole you can watch the whole thing happen. And so it's very, very cool.
Ian
00:30:19 – 00:30:19
Yeah.
Aaron
00:30:19 – 00:30:37
And, yeah, I think I could pull it out. I think there are maybe a few packages I could pull out of solo and make them kind of the standalone packages to increase the surface area of that empire. Yeah. And the testing the testing would be one of them, and then the ANSI screen, like, buffer thing
Ian
00:30:38 – 00:30:38
Right.
Aaron
00:30:39 – 00:30:51
Would definitely be another. So, yeah, pulling at some point, pulling those out, make offering them as, like, installable packages, is is on the road map, but not there yet.
Ian
00:30:51 – 00:30:56
Yeah. That seems like a bit of a project, actually. Yeah. I don't know. Maybe not.
Ian
00:30:56 – 00:30:57
But it feels
Aaron
00:30:57 – 00:31:01
like It's definitely a bit of a project. I don't know if it's worth it, but it's definitely something.
Ian
00:31:01 – 00:31:02
Yeah.
Aaron
00:31:02 – 00:31:22
But I feel good. Like, I feel like, you know, having having fusion more or less out there, I'm not, like, in secret anymore working on stuff. And so even that one, I, like, recorded it and edited it myself and published it that day. It was like, great. I've got, like, I've got to do more of these.
Aaron
00:31:22 – 00:31:45
And now it's just like, hey. Whenever whenever inspiration strikes, just make a new video. And I put the whole thing on Twitter for the first time and then also publish it on YouTube. Just trying to, like, lower lower the bar or the barrier of, like, every YouTube video has to have, you know, a hook and a payoff and an open loop and just be like, no. No.
Aaron
00:31:45 – 00:32:08
No. That creates a ton of pressure to make YouTube videos, and then I end up not making them. Right. And so now it's just like, if I see something cool, do something cool, have an idea, let's just make a video and put it out there. And let's focus let's focus on momentum, and we can tinker at the margins on on, like, strategy later.
Ian
00:32:08 – 00:32:31
I wonder if there's, like, more of, like, like a template you can use to them so you don't have to like overthink so you can integrate the key part that sort of make YouTube videos work without like every time sort of reinventing the wheel on it. You know what I mean? Like, I'm gonna start them this way. Always I'm gonna end them this way always. I'm gonna have a certain point in the middle I always do.
Ian
00:32:31 – 00:32:47
Like, whatever. I don't know the right things, but, like, like, in that mister beast thing that he released to Doc. Right. I think you read the right like, the key is, like, this is our strategy and whatever. So you had something like that to, like, guide you, but, like, to also let you move quickly versus, like, literally scripting it and editing it and, like, then recording it and editing it.
Ian
00:32:47 – 00:32:54
Well, you know, so it's like, yeah, that becomes, like, obviously a much more complicated and time consuming thing when you have these things that are lighter and you don't really care about, like
Aaron
00:32:55 – 00:32:55
The the last
Ian
00:32:56 – 00:32:57
super polished.
Aaron
00:32:57 – 00:33:12
The last two that I've done, I started immediate with no preamble or anything, started immediately showing the screen and being like, this is look at this. This is what I'm gonna show you. Isn't this cool? Right. And then shown a little bit of that and then pulled back and been like, hey.
Aaron
00:33:12 – 00:33:19
Here's what we're doing. Now let's get into it for real. Yeah. Yeah. Better than starting with the preamble of, like, here's what we're doing.
Aaron
00:33:19 – 00:33:34
Just say, like, open basically in first, like, half second, I'm already talking about like, I'm mid sentence, basically. So, yeah, I'll keep that going because I feel like that is a little bit more engaging. It's also easy like, it's an easy way to start for me.
Ian
00:33:34 – 00:33:34
Yep.
Aaron
00:33:35 – 00:33:40
But, yeah, the goal the goal is just publish more things, and so we gotta get gotta get that train moving.
Ian
00:33:40 – 00:33:42
I know. Your goal is a hundred videos.
Aaron
00:33:42 – 00:33:43
I know.
Ian
00:33:43 – 00:33:45
You're on, like, five, so we gotta get moving.
Aaron
00:33:45 – 00:33:52
I know. And it's already, you know, February 10, and this week is shot. So there goes that week. So what we know what am I gonna do? This week.
Aaron
00:33:52 – 00:33:56
Maybe a video Maybe I will. I probably will. I I probably will.
Ian
00:33:56 – 00:34:00
Will or some kind of fusion video. You can kind of another fusion video at the end. Right?
Aaron
00:34:00 – 00:34:02
Oh, there's gonna be yeah. There's gonna be a lot of fusion videos.
Ian
00:34:03 – 00:34:09
Yeah. So you need some of that stuff. You watch severance? No. I know.
Ian
00:34:09 – 00:34:10
Good. Good this week.
Aaron
00:34:11 – 00:34:18
I know that the only thing that's keeping us from having, like, a fun pop culture podcast is that I don't consume any pop culture. But other than that,
Ian
00:34:18 – 00:34:25
it would be desperately trying to drive you into it. Yeah. I want I want to turn this into a pop culture podcast. I know. Literally impossible.
Ian
00:34:25 – 00:34:28
I can't get did you watch the Super Bowl? How about the Super Bowl?
Aaron
00:34:28 – 00:34:29
Not a minute. Not a minute.
Ian
00:34:29 – 00:34:33
Oh my goodness. Nope. Boy, I can't
Aaron
00:34:33 – 00:34:33
even work
Ian
00:34:33 – 00:34:36
with you on this stuff. You got nothing for me. Just zero.
Aaron
00:34:36 – 00:34:50
We Jennifer was like, after we got the kids down, you know so first of all, kids we don't get done putting kids down till, like, 07:15, seven thirty. By that time, it's 08:30 eastern. I think the game started at, what, five eastern?
Ian
00:34:50 – 00:34:56
You don't even know how lucky you are, man. When those 07:30 bedtimes end Yeah.
Aaron
00:34:56 – 00:34:58
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I know. Then brace it.
Ian
00:34:58 – 00:35:00
Love it. Enjoy it.
Aaron
00:35:00 – 00:35:00
Oh, I I do.
Ian
00:35:00 – 00:35:01
Suck it in.
Aaron
00:35:01 – 00:35:03
I do. It's great. It's great. I love it.
Ian
00:35:03 – 00:35:04
It's so good. It's so
Aaron
00:35:04 – 00:35:05
good. So put the kids down.
Ian
00:35:05 – 00:35:07
Yes. The game started at 06:30.
Aaron
00:35:07 – 00:35:09
It's now 07:30 central
Ian
00:35:09 – 00:35:09
It's a long time.
Aaron
00:35:09 – 00:35:16
Eastern. And Jennifer's like, hey. Should we put the game on just for, like, vibes? I'm sure. That sounds great.
Aaron
00:35:16 – 00:35:23
And I pull up the Apple TV, and I just kinda stare at it. And I'm like, yep. We have no way to I I don't know. Can't turn it on. No way to watch
Ian
00:35:23 – 00:35:24
it again.
Aaron
00:35:24 – 00:35:29
No way. I'm like, great. Let's watch Friends reruns. And so we did, and then I went and got back to work.
Ian
00:35:29 – 00:35:31
So don't, no YouTube TV?
Aaron
00:35:31 – 00:35:33
No YouTube TV.
Ian
00:35:33 – 00:35:36
Mhmm. Yeah. You're hosed then. You got nothing?
Aaron
00:35:36 – 00:35:41
We're hosed. Pay pay for everything else, but YouTube TV's, like, $80 a month.
Ian
00:35:41 – 00:35:47
I know. It's crazy. And then we still pay for all this other stuff. But it's the only way to watch. If you wanna watch live sports, that's where they get you.
Ian
00:35:47 – 00:36:04
That's the last thing you have to pay for is live sports. So if you ever wanna watch live sports, you kind of have to have YouTube TV or cable or whatever, but it's so annoying. The internet was supposed to, I don't even know what I pay for. I don't know what we're using. Then I cancel some, but then I need to rebuy it because there's something we actually wanna use it for.
Ian
00:36:04 – 00:36:06
Then I gotta cancel it again. I just wanna
Aaron
00:36:06 – 00:36:07
Oh, this brings us cable.
Ian
00:36:07 – 00:36:09
I just wanna buy everything in one place.
Aaron
00:36:09 – 00:36:30
This brings us back to a story point that I need to follow-up with you on. Oh. Before we do, this podcast is brought to you by Bento. Bento is the email service provider that we use at TryHard Studios to send marketing and transactional emails. Find out more at bentonow.com.
Aaron
00:36:30 – 00:36:32
Thank you, Bento, for sponsoring the show.
Ian
00:36:33 – 00:36:34
Good friends of the show.
Aaron
00:36:34 – 00:36:41
Good friends of the show. Here's my here's my callback question. Monarch budgeting, are you still using it?
Ian
00:36:41 – 00:36:41
We are.
Aaron
00:36:42 – 00:36:43
Tell me about this budgeting tool.
Ian
00:36:43 – 00:36:47
Okay. You're you're still are you thinking about getting into the game?
Aaron
00:36:48 – 00:36:57
I'm I'm observing from the sidelines. I'll I'll be honest. I signed up for Monarch and then was like, I don't think this is it, and then canceled. Yeah. Yeah.
Aaron
00:36:58 – 00:36:59
So you're still using it?
Ian
00:36:59 – 00:37:09
I'm still using it. Yeah. We still use it. I I mean, I do hate budgeting, so I don't like it. But it's still clearly the best of the budgeting apps in my opinion.
Ian
00:37:09 – 00:37:15
K. And I think we used all the big ones. So I don't know. The interface is modern enough. So far, it's been reliable.
Ian
00:37:15 – 00:37:33
We haven't had any, like, weird, seen missed things or stuff went off the rails. The only thing I don't like, which is obviously the screen you kinda use most, it's a transaction screen. Yeah. It's like go to the transactions and categorize them and whatever. And it just defaults to showing you all the the transactions, which is what all of them do.
Ian
00:37:33 – 00:37:40
And I don't understand why because, like, when I go to the transaction screen, the default is I wanted to see the things I haven't reconciled.
Aaron
00:37:40 – 00:37:41
Yes. Same.
Ian
00:37:41 – 00:37:50
Right? Like, that's what I wanna see. All of them just show you all the transactions. And then you have to, like, go to some this menu and, like, whatever. It's not a huge deal, but it's annoying.
Ian
00:37:50 – 00:38:01
Because, like, I never wanna go there and look at the list of transactions. I always just wanna see the unreconciled transaction. But okay. But, otherwise, it's pretty good. You can have rules and auto categorize stuff, which is okay.
Ian
00:38:01 – 00:38:06
Again, this isn't really a monarch thing. It's just like whatever. Oh, there's a bunch of Amazons. I don't know. You know?
Ian
00:38:06 – 00:38:13
It doesn't know what they were for, like, whatever. So you still have to do all that. But yeah. No. I do like it.
Ian
00:38:13 – 00:38:25
The mobile app's decent. I think the transaction entry is good. Sucking in from all the apps seems to be working and is good. And, yeah. Has budgeting been useful?
Ian
00:38:25 – 00:38:34
I would say slightly. It's helped with some expense control in certain spots. So I think it's okay. Journey's still out a little bit, but,
Aaron
00:38:35 – 00:38:36
I like it. Still using it.
Ian
00:38:36 – 00:38:37
I'm still using it. So we're a
Aaron
00:38:37 – 00:38:39
couple months in, I guess. So pretty big endorsement.
Ian
00:38:39 – 00:38:44
Yeah. Still using it. Do like it. I also signed up for another app. I don't know.
Ian
00:38:44 – 00:38:49
Did we talk about this? What's it called? Was it wanderlog? Yeah. Wanderlog.
Ian
00:38:50 – 00:39:05
Wanderlog? Yeah. So, like, I have to come in and I don't like when all the trip stuff is just, like, in an email. So I usually, like, pull it out and, like, create, like, a note page or something, but that's kind of annoying. So this is an app that just tracks your trip stuff.
Ian
00:39:05 – 00:39:18
You could, like, forward to emails and whatever. So we're gonna see how it goes. So for the big Disney trip and ancillary stuff around it, I was like, alright. There's, like, a ton of moving parts. We got, like, three different hotels we're staying in.
Ian
00:39:18 – 00:39:29
We got a rental car, all this stuff. So I gotta use this tool, see if that helps with that. I also have, like, a summer trip being planned and stuff like that. So so far so good. I haven't used it in angry yet.
Ian
00:39:29 – 00:39:41
Like, it's all set up, and it seems to be Right. Good, but I haven't been on the trip with it yet. So we'll be on this trip in March, and I'll see how it goes. But, yeah, it's pretty cool. I'd say it's pretty good.
Aaron
00:39:42 – 00:39:48
The first, the first, like, startup I worked for did this exact same thing.
Ian
00:39:48 – 00:39:48
Oh.
Aaron
00:39:49 – 00:39:59
They were a consumer trip planner thing, Traxo. They've gone they've since gone upmarket. I don't think they've done very well. But it's a very, a very appealing idea. Just forward it everything.
Aaron
00:39:59 – 00:40:01
Trip It used to be the good one. Right?
Ian
00:40:01 – 00:40:05
Trip It. That's the other one. Yeah. Yeah. But, it didn't do something.
Ian
00:40:05 – 00:40:08
I think I looked at it before I went wander log, and
Aaron
00:40:08 – 00:40:12
and there was something weird with that. Way yeah. Way long in the tooth at this point.
Ian
00:40:12 – 00:40:16
Yeah. Maybe that was just that, but there was there was something a little off with it. But,
Aaron
00:40:17 – 00:40:19
that Wanderlog looks pretty cool.
Ian
00:40:19 – 00:40:27
One weird thing is wanderlog's logo and monarch's logo are identical, so it's a little weird. Like, they have them next to each other.
Aaron
00:40:27 – 00:40:28
They really are.
Ian
00:40:28 – 00:40:40
They're, like, literally identical butterfly abstract butterfly things. And so I'm almost like, which one is this? And then, you know, whatever. But it is very weird. I'm like, how can this be?
Ian
00:40:40 – 00:40:41
But it is beep.
Aaron
00:40:42 – 00:40:56
Yeah. That's the that that idea of keeping it all in an app is nice. Because when I was traveling to Amsterdam, I was definitely looking through emails and, like you know, I'm at the gate and, like, oh, shoot. Where's the freaking I gotta find the thing. Yeah.
Aaron
00:40:56 – 00:40:57
Your white number.
Ian
00:40:57 – 00:41:19
It's all different apps and everything. It's all my confirmation numbers, all my everything in one app. I know I can go there and just get it, and it's all right there. So, hopefully it's useful. And I was on the free thing, but then to send it like a random attachment email, not like you could send it like a hotel or car for free in the free plan, but not if you have just other stuff.
Ian
00:41:19 – 00:41:28
And I think I had like the Disney confirmation email and stuff to love like that. I was like, whatever. I'm just gonna upgrade. They got me. I'm gonna pay $39.
Ian
00:41:28 – 00:41:40
Gotcha. Send this app this random attachment in and, does whatever. Obviously, the pro thing gives you some other stuff. So, yeah. So we'll see how it goes, but I'm I'm liking it so far.
Ian
00:41:40 – 00:41:41
So that's another new app that's in the fold.
Aaron
00:41:42 – 00:41:49
Getting so much better with all the, AI stuff because now the AI can read the receipt.
Ian
00:41:49 – 00:41:49
Right. That was
Aaron
00:41:49 – 00:41:55
one of that was our big problem at Trexo. It was like Yep. What does this receipt say?
Ian
00:41:55 – 00:41:55
Right. What does
Aaron
00:41:55 – 00:41:58
it have to do with a trip? And it was it was very difficult.
Ian
00:41:59 – 00:42:03
Yeah. Every time the hotel updates its email slightly in your regex break
Aaron
00:42:03 – 00:42:03
Exactly.
Ian
00:42:03 – 00:42:05
Now. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yep.
Ian
00:42:05 – 00:42:07
I didn't know you did that. Look at that.
Aaron
00:42:07 – 00:42:08
Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.
Ian
00:42:08 – 00:42:32
That does seem like there should be I would think about that quite a bit of, like, what are things like that where, like, AI would be cool little side project or yeah. Where, like, it can read stuff now. It can read emails. It can read things. Like, there's gotta be new new categories of tools out there for this where, like, yeah, doing you could do it before with a million regexes and, obviously, then it would not work well and everybody would hate it.
Ian
00:42:32 – 00:42:52
But I would think chat g p t is gonna be pretty good at, like, pulling out a confirmation number Oh, yeah. Or those kind of things. So yeah. This thing had the wanderlog thing has, like, an AI assistant, which I actually haven't even used. But I was gonna ask it a few things to see how it did just to test it out and see if it's really cool.
Ian
00:42:52 – 00:43:11
But, yeah, it's cool. You can, like, send a link, like, if you're this is just me and my daughter on this trip. But it's, like, for the summer vacation, it's, like, my brother and my cousin. So, like, I could send them things so they can access it, and they could have access to everything and blah blah blah blah blah. So if you're planning, like, a multi person trip, that's kind of cool.
Aaron
00:43:11 – 00:43:14
Nice. Yeah. I like that. Yep. Offline access.
Aaron
00:43:14 – 00:43:19
Good. Good for them. That's very smart. We need more apps like this.
Ian
00:43:19 – 00:43:23
I like I like these kind of, like, quasi unit tasker apps.
Aaron
00:43:23 – 00:43:25
Yeah. This is good. This is a good app.
Ian
00:43:26 – 00:43:42
Yeah. Like, the design is good. UI's been good. So, yeah, it's the first new app I've Monarch and that are, like, the new apps I've added into the fold in the last year or two and, I mean, in both just in the last few months. And it's pretty good.
Ian
00:43:42 – 00:43:51
Pretty good. I like the I do like that kind of idea of, like I don't know. I was I always think about those kind of apps, like, well, it'd be cool. It'd be, like, kinda less stressful, but then it's not really because it's like, boy, if
Aaron
00:43:51 – 00:43:54
you like to run one? Like, you an owner of one. Yeah.
Ian
00:43:54 – 00:44:04
Right. But if you mess up somebody's vacation, they can't if you're down and they're, like, on vacation, like, I need my confirmation code and you're offline, like, that's probably pretty stressful. So Yeah. Yeah. Everything's stressful.
Ian
00:44:04 – 00:44:05
If you're gonna run a SaaS, it's all
Aaron
00:44:05 – 00:44:14
Everything's stressful, man. Everything is stressful. There's there's no free lunch. Yeah. There's no you're gonna build any apps with, PHP?
Aaron
00:44:14 – 00:44:16
Any native iOS apps with PHP?
Ian
00:44:16 – 00:44:23
I am not gonna do that. But Got any ideas? That it exists. No. I have no desire to do that.
Ian
00:44:23 – 00:44:35
I mean, that would be like a I'd have to, like, be retired or something, and I'm like, I'm just gonna futz around on this iOS app. Like Yeah. IOS. I mean, it's like, woah. Let me do something that's more competitive than help the software.
Ian
00:44:35 – 00:44:52
Oh, how about an iOS app? Like, there's only 14,000,000,000 of them in every single category. Like so, yeah, I don't know. I'm trying to get away from the app. Like, I'm trying to make a future version of HubSpot here where, like, it's just a progressive web app, and we get rid of our mobile apps, which are annoying to maintain and Mhmm.
Ian
00:44:52 – 00:45:08
Nobody's ever happy with. So, yeah, trying to go the other way. But it is cool. Like, I would, if I was going to build an iOS app, I would probably start with this if it continues to be a thing and it actually works out. The native PHP program is what we're talking about, project.
Ian
00:45:08 – 00:45:22
But so it's it would be definitely cool to just be able to, like, bam, throw something together and have it work and with all the stuff I know already without, yeah, going down that whole rabbit hole. But, yeah. I don't know. What about you? You that sounds like a total Aaron Francis thing.
Ian
00:45:22 – 00:45:24
Like, oh, man. I got an iOS app for something.
Aaron
00:45:25 – 00:45:45
I don't have any ideas yet. I think I think it does open up a new, a new vector for ideas. Yeah. I'm curious to see, you know, the first, like, three to six months of people using it, you know, how far it goes and what they discover and stuff like that. So I will let the whole thing settle a little bit.
Aaron
00:45:46 – 00:46:13
But, yeah, it's very interesting, and I think it it could be it could be a fun experiment to, like, build I would I think the only thing I would probably build ever for mobile is a companion app for something else. Right. I don't think I would go pure, like, mobile play. But now the like, if you have a SaaS and you could build a companion app with similar tooling pretty quickly, that seems kinda cool to me.
Ian
00:46:13 – 00:46:19
Yeah. Yeah. I make, try hard studios course watcher app.
Aaron
00:46:19 – 00:46:19
There you go. That
Ian
00:46:19 – 00:46:20
would make sense. Like,
Aaron
00:46:21 – 00:46:21
it makes sense.
Ian
00:46:21 – 00:46:40
Especially if you get, like, some point you have some sort of all inclusive plan or subscription where you just get all the courses or whatever, something like that. Yeah. What so this we didn't talk about this last week. What did you see anything else there? So native PHP, any other talks at Larracont, EU that tickled your fancy?
Ian
00:46:40 – 00:46:42
I don't know how much you got to watch, but
Aaron
00:46:42 – 00:46:47
I didn't get to watch too many, because I was, you know, frantic.
Ian
00:46:48 – 00:46:48
Right.
Aaron
00:46:48 – 00:47:03
But John John Rudolf Drexler's about product or project management, his was quite good. Of course, Jess's on, Night Watch was really interesting. It's gonna be so good.
Ian
00:47:03 – 00:47:04
This is like Nightwatch.
Aaron
00:47:05 – 00:47:05
I feel like I'm more
Ian
00:47:05 – 00:47:14
excited about Nightwatch than the cloud, to be honest with you. Like, it just seems like it's so far out. It's like level cloud is, like, the obvious thing. Right? It's like we do forge.
Ian
00:47:14 – 00:47:19
We'll do level cloud. It makes total sense. Like, I've expected this forever. Right? Like, so okay.
Ian
00:47:19 – 00:47:27
It's gonna be awesome and they're doing a great job with it, but that's also what I expect. Right. But it's like night watch is like, boy, here's this thing. It's like out of left field. It's crazy.
Ian
00:47:27 – 00:47:28
It's, like, big data.
Aaron
00:47:28 – 00:47:29
Crazy. It's all
Ian
00:47:29 – 00:47:41
you know, it's just a totally different thing, from what Taylor has done before. It's so I think that's gonna be really cool. I know that's in this, like, Australian division. It's like, yeah. We just got the Aussies down under, like, working
Aaron
00:47:41 – 00:47:43
on this crew working on it.
Ian
00:47:43 – 00:47:52
Working on it. It's I assume it's probably bigger than that now, but at least seen for a while, anyway. It was, like, kind of just the Australians on it, and, that's sort of a fun
Aaron
00:47:53 – 00:47:58
sauce. Those Australians, man, they're wildly effective. You don't wanna mess with the Australians.
Ian
00:47:58 – 00:48:09
That's because they get to operate at complete opposite time of the rest of the world. It's just, like, such an advantage. Like, they're just overnight cranking even though it's not overnight for them. I mean, nobody's bothering them. You know what I mean?
Ian
00:48:09 – 00:48:10
Like, somebody's watching
Aaron
00:48:10 – 00:48:11
them. Can you imagine?
Ian
00:48:11 – 00:48:15
Nobody's got questions. They are just out there on an island all on their own
Aaron
00:48:17 – 00:48:19
grinding. Just making it happen.
Ian
00:48:19 – 00:48:20
Yeah.
Aaron
00:48:20 – 00:48:26
Yeah. Her talk was great. All the all the talks were good. All the ones that I saw were good. Yeah.
Ian
00:48:26 – 00:48:29
Did you do anything to Amsterdam? Did you go anywhere? Did you do anything? Did you see
Aaron
00:48:29 – 00:48:35
anything? Of course not. No. I don't go I don't go anywhere. It Just there's a good to see.
Aaron
00:48:35 – 00:48:35
You're
Ian
00:48:35 – 00:48:36
in and out.
Aaron
00:48:36 – 00:48:43
In and out, man. I got a family to get home too. We did take a a boat to dinner the first night.
Ian
00:48:43 – 00:48:43
Okay.
Aaron
00:48:43 – 00:48:56
So, like, a water taxi. So one of those big, yeah, the speaker dinner, one of those big boats we all piled on, had a glass of wine on the water, and that was fun. Very cool. Very, like, very euros. Yes.
Aaron
00:48:56 – 00:49:04
But no. Beyond that, I was in the hotel, the venue, and the place across the street for the after dark party, and that was it.
Ian
00:49:04 – 00:49:05
Were you cold? Was it cold there, I mean?
Aaron
00:49:05 – 00:49:08
It was cold. Yeah. It was very cold. Yeah. Mhmm.
Aaron
00:49:08 – 00:49:08
Yeah.
Ian
00:49:09 – 00:49:14
We were in the hotel next to the conference before you were at the faraway one. Yeah.
Aaron
00:49:14 – 00:49:16
No. Right next door, which is good. Very important. Way
Ian
00:49:16 – 00:49:17
to do it. Yeah.
Aaron
00:49:17 – 00:49:22
Yeah. That's what I do. Yeah. So that that was great. Europeans are very cool.
Aaron
00:49:22 – 00:49:25
They all smoke. I walked outside
Ian
00:49:25 – 00:49:25
still smoking. Yeah.
Aaron
00:49:26 – 00:49:38
At lunch, and I was, like, in a cloud of smoke and all these, like, hipster Europeans just looking awesome and smoking. I'm like, man. Yeah. If y'all knew who James Dean was, I would give you a compliment, but y'all have no idea who James Dean is. So American.
Aaron
00:49:39 – 00:49:41
But, yeah, that was cool. Did you fly.
Ian
00:49:41 – 00:49:51
That's the other thing with Europeans. Like, you talk to Europeans, like, we don't take the train ever. And even though, like, train you know, like, train through Europe and not the whole thing, they're like, no. We just fly everywhere on whatever that, like, Ireland.
Aaron
00:49:51 – 00:49:51
Ryanair?
Ian
00:49:51 – 00:49:53
Is. Yeah. Ryanair for, like, $20.
Aaron
00:49:54 – 00:49:54
Airline. We
Ian
00:49:54 – 00:49:55
do. Yeah. Yeah.
Aaron
00:49:56 – 00:49:58
Did you buy a ticket for Laracon US?
Ian
00:49:58 – 00:50:00
I did. I'm gonna try and go this year.
Aaron
00:50:00 – 00:50:01
Are you gonna come?
Ian
00:50:01 – 00:50:10
Nothing breaks off me, and I get to go. But, yes. We got the whole cruise coming. Denver, that's one of my trips. I actually didn't put that in the wanderlog.
Ian
00:50:10 – 00:50:11
Yeah. I put that in there.
Aaron
00:50:11 – 00:50:12
Put that in the wanderlog.
Ian
00:50:13 – 00:50:20
Yes. I did buy I, I guess you don't have to buy a ticket because you're I'm seeing. Mhmm. But, I think we're gonna go with this one. I got the fancy swag one.
Ian
00:50:20 – 00:50:24
I want the jacket. You want the jacket? Special swag that is coming.
Aaron
00:50:24 – 00:50:24
I want
Ian
00:50:24 – 00:50:25
the swag. Swag. Swag. Swag. Is coming.
Ian
00:50:25 – 00:50:25
I want the swag.
Aaron
00:50:25 – 00:50:27
Coffee with the team, man. That's what you want. Yeah.
Ian
00:50:27 – 00:50:30
I want coffee with the team so I can meet everybody for the you know?
Aaron
00:50:30 – 00:50:30
That's right.
Ian
00:50:30 – 00:50:31
Say hi.
Aaron
00:50:31 – 00:50:33
They can kiss the ring.
Ian
00:50:33 – 00:50:40
Yeah. I think that'll be cool. I mean, hopefully, they do something cool for the meet the team. That'll be fun. Yeah.
Ian
00:50:40 – 00:50:44
I don't know. Just seemed cool. Mostly, I just want the jacket. And then I I want
Aaron
00:50:44 – 00:50:47
a jacket too. I gotta figure out since I'm not buying a ticket, I gotta figure out
Ian
00:50:47 – 00:50:47
how do
Aaron
00:50:47 – 00:50:48
I get a jacket.
Ian
00:50:49 – 00:50:58
And then I put willing to buy a jacket. In Taylor's ear because Matt Stenson works at YouDescribe. He had the idea that it should be, like, a, a lounge jacket or, like, a smoking jacket.
Aaron
00:50:58 – 00:50:59
Like a smoking jacket?
Ian
00:50:59 – 00:51:05
Yeah. Like, with a little seal. So I hope that they scrap whatever plants they have. I wanna I wanna I wanna smoke
Aaron
00:51:05 – 00:51:09
You wanna crest? You want a maroon with some gold
Ian
00:51:09 – 00:51:11
details? Yeah. Or something. Yeah.
Aaron
00:51:11 – 00:51:12
I get it.
Ian
00:51:12 – 00:51:13
Oh, how great would that be?
Aaron
00:51:13 – 00:51:14
That would be pretty cool.
Ian
00:51:14 – 00:51:15
Next level.
Aaron
00:51:15 – 00:51:16
That would be pretty cool.
Ian
00:51:16 – 00:51:24
And they charged a fair amount for this upgrade. It wasn't cheap upgrade. It's like a $300 upgrade. So, like, you know, it's a little budget there for some badass jackets.
Aaron
00:51:25 – 00:51:30
The SNL five year or five time host jackets. Are you familiar with those?
Ian
00:51:30 – 00:51:32
Like that. Right? Yeah. That sounds familiar. Not you say.
Aaron
00:51:32 – 00:51:39
Steve Martin, Martin Short, Tina Fey, they all have these five time host jackets, and they're very cool. They're like smoking smoking robes.
Ian
00:51:39 – 00:51:44
That's what we need. Yes. Yes. I hope they make it happen.
Aaron
00:51:44 – 00:51:46
They won't, but that sounds very cool.
Ian
00:51:46 – 00:51:48
That does seem like It's a weird ass.
Aaron
00:51:48 – 00:51:50
Guarantee you that they won't.
Ian
00:51:50 – 00:51:56
Yeah. But maybe maybe they'll make a special one just for me. How about that? Maybe. How about that?
Ian
00:51:56 – 00:51:59
Maybe. Put that out in the ether. I'm just gonna let them go out.
Aaron
00:51:59 – 00:52:00
Sure. Sure. Sure. Sure. Yeah.
Aaron
00:52:00 – 00:52:04
Totally. Totally. Totally. Alright. Do we have anything else?
Aaron
00:52:04 – 00:52:04
I
Ian
00:52:04 – 00:52:10
don't know. I don't know. I don't think I have anything else. I don't think so.
Aaron
00:52:10 – 00:52:11
I think that's it.
Ian
00:52:11 – 00:52:15
That's it. You got stuff to do. We can't be this we can't artificially make this long.
Aaron
00:52:15 – 00:52:16
No. You guys got so much
Ian
00:52:16 – 00:52:26
stuff to do. So wrap it up there. Thanks, everybody. MostlyTechnica.com. If you wanna sponsor the show, that's linked there as well.
Ian
00:52:26 – 00:52:36
Get your ad on here. Very affordable. Got good feedback on so far. Still testing the format as you heard. So, we'll that'll be going here.
Ian
00:52:36 – 00:52:42
But, yeah, get get your ads in, and, we will see you next week. Talk to you later.
Aaron
00:52:42 – 00:52:43
See you.
Ian
00:52:43 – 00:52:43
Bye.
Me

Thanks for reading! My name is Aaron and I write, make videos , and generally try really hard .

If you ever have any questions or want to chat, I'm always on Twitter.

You can find me on YouTube on my personal channel or the Try Hard Studios channel.

If you love podcasts, I got you covered. You can listen to me on Mostly Technical .