Matt Warren

Category: Productivity

Systems, habits, workflows, and personal optimization

  • Biting Off More Than You Can Chew

    If there is one fault that I have it is that I continually make ambitious plans and take on every little project that someone suggests.  The big iOS game that I was working on for the last month is looking like it’s too much for one person to complete in a reasonable amount of time.

    Lesson learned:  If a company of 50 is developing an application and it takes them 6 months to complete then it will not be possible to do something similar on my own in half the time.

    God.  That is actually hard to admit.

    So the big project is going in storage for a while and I will focus on smaller deliverables.  More easy to build games and build up the infrastructure, code libraries, and cross-promotion network of apps needed to push a good game to higher heights.

    There are two factors I have found to being able to be productive:

    1. Setting small goals and short timelines seems to be the best way for me to make progress on things.  I love to ship products and updates.  Give me just a handful of features to add to an application and I’ll be able to hammer it out quickly and deliver the update.  Too big of a change makes me nervous that I’m going to break too many things.
    2. Headphones.  Removing distractions and getting into the zone with my code is crucial.  With the headphones on I can work for hours without getting distracted by people or what might be on TV.  It’s amazing how often you forget to go to bed or eat when you can maintain your focus on the task at hand.

  • Going to be a Great Year

    I have a feeling that 2013 is going to be a great year. A real turning point.

    My achievement goals for the year is to create a top notch Farmville type game for iOS and to do a kitchen renovation. This year there is a real potential for my businesses to take off and give me the chance/money to upgrade the kitchen.

    My fitness goal for the year is to get in a routine for lifting weights and make some steady progress on improving my max lifts. Perhaps a gym membership is in order. Since hitting 30 I definitely am starting to notice that things take longer to heal and I want to be one of those energetic 40 year olds who does downhill mountain biking, skydives and can still take big air on skis. A focus this year on building general strength should be a good base for the future.

    My educational goal for the year is to learn how to delegate and manage teams. Something I’ve never been good at and is required for me to take my businesses to the next level. I’m not entirely sure how to learn this other than by hiring some people and just jumping into it.

    I can’t put my finger on it but for 2013 so many things are on the cusp of a tipping point that it’s hard to imagine this not being a great year.

  • Schrödinger’s Programmer

    Schrödinger’s Programmer is a thought experiment. A real-life paradox which comes as a result of the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics. The thought experiment presents a programmer that may or may not have written software.

    You have a closed office. In this office is a computer (with internet access) and a software programmer. She is tasked with writing a piece of software that can be written in an hour. However there is an equal chance that she will instead find and read something interesting on reddit.com and accomplish nothing in an hour.

    After an hour has elapsed one would say that the software is finished if meanwhile she did work. The psi-function of the entire system would express this by having in it the both project completed and nothing done state mixed or smeared out in equal parts.

    It is typical of these cases that an indeterminacy originally restricted to whether or not something of interest is on reddit.com becomes transformed into macroscopic indeterminacy, which can then be resolved by direct observation by opening the office door. That prevents us from so naively accepting as valid a “blurred model” for representing reality. In itself, it would not embody anything unclear or contradictory. There is a difference between a shaky or out-of-focus photograph and a snapshot of clouds and fog banks.

  • Ben Franklin’s Daily Schedule

    Came across this today.

    The thing that struck me is

    1. Ben and I go to sleep at the same time, but he got up 2 hours earlier in the morning than I do.
    2. Two hour lunch breaks — good idea.
    3. Time to plan and time to reflect each day.

    I’m going to try to work this schedule for a few days and see how it works.