If your new year resolution has the word app in it...

If you have a new years resolution and you have the word app in it then what are you waiting for? Go ahead and get that app into production. Either:

Do it yourself
Hire somebody to do it
Do a combination of both

If you want to do it yourself you can learn online. If you want somebody else to do it go to elance. Or if you want to do a little of both design it and then go to elance.

But what ever you do...

...don't make excuses.

Learn the hotkeys

If there is anything that will make production go faster it's learning the hotkeys. Programs with good hotkeys have much faster workflow than programs that don't. Whenever I choose a program to make something I always look at the hotkeys first. Learn how to use the hotkeys and your product will be releasable faster.

40 Billion in sales, 7 billion for developers

http://www.networkworld.com/community/blog/itunes-app-store-tops-40-billion-downloads-generates-7-billion-developers

Releasing apps has been the best decision of my life. Even if you are not a top seller on the app store you can still make some pocket change. The best part about the app store is that you can sell to a whole bunch of people the worst part is that you either have to make it free or a dollar. It would be awesome if  apple just eliminated dollar apps and made the lowest 1.50. Microsoft is doing that and it's a fantastic idea.

In theory the price of apps should rise around 3% to adjust for inflation but I feel that won't happen.

If you have an app idea that needs to be released, what are you waiting for?

Why you might not need funding

The typical excuse for any entrepreneur is "I don't have funding". Because money solves everything right?

When it comes to money I see lots of different things entrepreneurs do. Sometimes if there is no money on the table then some startups don't work. They don't do anything, as if the money they are about to receive will change everything. The other things that I see startups do is actually get way too much money. This can't be a bad thing right? Money makes a business go up, right?

Well both of these can actually be really bad. The first is that you should be working on whatever you are doing regardless of what investment capital you have. You can release and promote whatever it is your doing by yourself before you ask for any amount of money.

The second is getting too much money. Sometimes I see really lame ideas get a ton of money for investments. It happens all of the time. The startup feels fantastic because they got some money and they get clout in the startup community.

But what happens if the startup makes no money? As an entrepreneur who sells products, it is very hard to make money. I personally wouldn't accept capital because I have no idea if my idea will make money or not. Nobody knows if your startup will make money in the prototyping phase. You have to test the market first and see what your startup will make before you go and ask for money. That also means testing it more than a couple of months.

Remember: you only get one chance at startup money, if you blow it you're finished. If you get a 100k investment and don't return that, then good luck finding more capital. Perhaps you can coax more investment but at the end of the day is that really useful?

If you want your idea to work, try turning 1-10k into more money. Start with that first and then move on. If you can make that small amount of money make more money with your startup then consider asking for more.

Teaching satisfaction

When I quit teaching in class I was frustrated with pretty much every aspect of the job. I was fed up with the system of education, I was fed up with parents, I was fed up with pretty much everything. I quit and it was awesome. It was like a huge stone was lifted from my chest. I felt like it was the best decision of my life.

I flew into my hometown the other day to visit some family and friends. One of my friends is in a band and I attended. To my surprise one of my former students which I had taught many years ago was also playing in the band afterward. It was nice to see him get to a new level and to produce something awesome.

Since it has been so long since I have been teaching in class I forgot what it feels like when a student actually does something awesome. I only teach online now because it takes away pretty much every headache a teacher can have. If there was a problem with teaching in person, teaching online solves any problem. I even get the satisfaction of people making apps.

The best part about teaching is showing somebody they could do something when they thought they couldn't. Getting somebody from A to B is really the only thing that matters. I can't imagine ever going back to teaching in a classroom, the benefits are simply not there.

It's good to see people succeed.

Why self directed learning should be more ubiquitous

It seems that a few schools in the great white north aslo known as Canada have it bang on when it comes to education.

I think most of us know that high school and school is essentially daycare for older kids. However, a few kids actually want to do something more than just sit in class. Thanks to the Canadian council of self directed learning there is this wonderful program where kids can learn at their own pace. There are only 5 in the country and if some of you don't know the population of Canada is roughly the population of California. But 5 in the country is still pretty small.

Here you can read the wikipedia article on both of them

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bishop_Carroll_High_School_(Calgary,_Alberta)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Ward_Catholic_Secondary_School

It isn't a new idea but it is one of the best. Frankly 30% of high schools should be like this. This is one of those times where the solution already exists but change won't happen. 

Imagine a world where kids go to a self directed school in their electric cars powered by wind turbines while they eat no processed food and have tons of safe sex, get good grades, start their own businesses, stimulate the economy and are generally happy.

One can only dream. 

The real joy of teaching

I have taught for many years and in those years I have learned many things such as.

1. My teaching style is different
2. Most people don't want to do something new and exciting
3. Most people don't want to do anything if it isn't for credit

Since I started teaching at a younger age and without getting a masters in education, I found these points a little hard to take in. Before I quit teaching in the classroom I tried very hard to get people to do amazing things that only a percentage of the population can do. A lot of times it isn't that hard as it sounds. 

But as usual, it fell on def ears and only a few people kind of produced something. Today I try and get people who have never coded or designed anything to go and do something amazing. The only barrier I have is people's own mental blocks. Most people think they can't do anything and therefore they won't.

It's kinda like Bilbo Baggins in the hobbit. Basically somebody forces him to do something few hobbits have ever done. And what happens at the end? Well Bilbo has this wonderful adventure few hobbits will ever have.

You should really do something that scares you. Eventually you will find yourself in a better place.

But back to the joy of teaching. Last year I made this course on how to make HTML 5 games. The best part of this course is that I show everybody everything. The goal of this was to get people who always liked games but didn't know how to make them actually make a game. Well somebody actually did. They put it up on the chrome store. You can see the link here.

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/jetpack-jacks-adventure/edchicllpogjmmifdadhcabjcgbooeoo

AWESOME!

This is the best part of my day when I actually get somebody to do something amazing!

One of the biggest problems I had as a teacher is trying to convince people to do stuff like this. I would say:

"Hey, you're pretty awesome how about you try and release ____. You can totally do it and it looks great on your resume."

The answer I usually got was (especially from parents):

"[Id rather have my kid get 95% in math]"

Of course Im paraphrasing it. But essentially convincing people was the hardest part. The best part about Udemy is that the convincing doesn't happen people who love online education go there and they know what they are going to get. Im sure people see Udemy and say: 

"[No credit? No thank you]"

The best part is that I don't have that conversation, I don't waste my time on that conversation and I can just go back to working on something new. 

The funny thing is that the "Udemy" way of education is slowly getting more and more traction and it's about time. From a teaching point of view this is the best way to give your lectures. From the students point of view, it is the best way to learn something as fast as possible.

Really isn't that was teaching and education is about? You know, results. When did teaching become this war of attrition for marks and credit? This brings me to my final point. As a person who loves learning marks were never a priority. Activities and learning were always paramount. Maybe we can call it academic hedonism. But the real shock is that mostly everybody is not like this. Most people would rather get an 'A' and do nothing than get a 'C' and learn something.