The $0 experiment I should have tried months ago
Tolerating bad tools, the hidden cost of 'good enough', punk albums, and dinner dates
I’ve spent the last few months internally screaming at podcast editing tools. In what has been an almost laptop-defenestrating process I’ve struggled with Descript’s weird UI choices, editing glitches, and SquadCast’s infuriatingly slow upload process.
This week I finally tried Riverside. The trial was free, the setup took 5 minutes, and it immediately solved every problem I'd been battling. I've already saved hours of work and my workflow is dramatically smoother.
The cost of experimenting was zero and the upside was huge but I still waited months because I “had to get the episodes out”. I’ve essentially been refusing to try a different route to work because I was "too busy" sitting in traffic.
It’s been a nice reminder that, left unchecked, “good enough” can be expensive.
This has popped up a few times for me recently. At work, I’ve heard engineers put off trying out new AI tooling because "they take too long to get used to, I’ll be faster doing it myself." But honestly, most tools take a few hours to try out, and if they work, you quickly save way more time than you spent learning them.
Product companies A/B test everything for good reason: small experiments lead to big opportunities. There's no reason we can't do the same with our creative work, our tools, or our processes.
I'm starting to reframe everything as tiny experiments. It also helps to remove the fear of failure or needing to be perfect, since everything you try is just gaining you another data point.
I like how Evelyn put it on the podcast: "YouTube is just an experiment I'm committed to." She's made it her full-time job and is crushing it, but the experimentation mindset never died.
May this be a tiny reminder to go out there and try those tiny experiments on your list, so you don't have to share my 'I should have tried this months ago' pain.
On the pod
No new episode this week, but if you missed it, my chat with Michael Box about juggling film production, day jobs, ADHD, and parenting, is one of my favourite conversations so far.
Next week I’m very excited to share an episode with
about his experiences quitting his job to become a full-time indie hacker building WriteStack, and spoiler alert, the message is in line with the above: experiment, get feedback, iterate, repeat.Worth your time
🔥 The case for making art when the world is on fire - a wonderful, short talk from Amie McNee. I like the framing that “art is anything with an intention to connect”.
🎪 This (long) interview between Joe Hudson and Ali Abdaal has a lot of interesting takes in it, like the idea that “enjoyment is efficiency”, meaning the more you enjoy something, the more effective you’ll actually be. I definitely agree that most of the time it’s about finding the fun.
🎵 To my surprise, my experiment to share music in this newsletter got positive feedback and the most clicks of any link in this section! So here’s an album I still have on repeat since it came out: Lambrini Girls - Who Let the Dogs Out (expect modern Brit punk).
🍕 This week I learnt about Timeleft - meet strangers (matched up via a personality test) for dinner and make new friends. I have mixed thoughts but I am very tempted to try it (tiny experiments, etc).