“

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better.

The credit belongs to the man actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; because there is not effort without error and shortcomings; but who does actually strive to do the deed; who knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotion, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement and who at the worst, if he falls, at least falls while daring greatly. So that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory or defeat.
— 

— Theodore Roosevelt, “Man in the Arena”.

Setbacks in achieving your goals are to be expected. Don’t let the naysayers and doubters stop you from getting back up, dusting yourself off and trying again.

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Focus on Progress

To get yourself and your team off to a good start for the new year, focus on progress. Our research discovered that fostering progress in meaningful work is the most important way to keep people highly engaged at work — even if that progress is a “small win.”

We call this phenomenon the progress principle; it works because people want to feel that they are contributing to something that matters. The new year presents a great opportunity for managers to put the progress principle into action.

From Start the New Year With Progress, at Harvard Business Review.

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“ Action is the foundational key to all success.
—  Pablo Picasso
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“ People who say that yesterday was better than today are ultimately devaluing their own existence.
—  Karl Lagerfeld
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“ So put the work in and believe in yourself, believe in your ability to change yourself, if not the world, because changing the world does actually start with changing yourself. I think any individual can make a difference if they apply themselves and I think to accept a defeatist “Well what are you going to do?” is a sure way of guaranteeing that you won’t change anything, that you won’t achieve anything
— Alan Moore, Writer
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Bug Fix Update

Version 1.23 of Choice by Choice is now on the App Store, as a free upgrade.

It fixes a bug under iOS 5 that caused the app to crash when deleting goals.

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I saw this advert posted up in the second week of January (in London, UK). To everyone who has “Eat Healthily” as one of their New Year’s Resolutions or goals, this advert more than any other sums up how the fast food industry views you, and their customers. They want you to fail. And they want you to quit at the first point of failure. You shouldn’t view your resolutions as an all or nothing proposition. Setbacks and failures are going to happen - the trick is to persevere regardless.

I saw this advert posted up in the second week of January (in London, UK).

To everyone who has “Eat Healthily” as one of their New Year’s Resolutions or goals, this advert more than any other sums up how the fast food industry views you, and their customers.

They want you to fail. And they want you to quit at the first point of failure.

You shouldn’t view your resolutions as an all or nothing proposition. Setbacks and failures are going to happen - the trick is to persevere regardless.

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New Years Resolutions

Are you going to stick with them this time - or give up at the first hurdle or failure?

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Quicksilver is a great - albeit no longer supported - Mac application. I only found out about it’s awesome About screen today.

Quicksilver is a great - albeit no longer supported - Mac application.

I only found out about it’s awesome About screen today.

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Respecting Your Privacy - An Outdated Idea?

The Wall Street Journal published an article “Your Apps are Watching You”, which detailed the behaviour of some very well known and popular apps. Some of these apps send information (including location and contacts data) to third parties, such as advertising companies.

The app market is tough and fiercely competitive. A lot of great, high quality apps are free or priced so cheaply that they rely on advertising money from third parties to remain viable. There is after all, no such thing as a free lunch.

As an an app developer and a user of apps I am not particularly keen on the advertising supported business model for a number of reasons. Firstly, a lot of users simply don’t understand that a lot of their apps are collecting data about them (and these apps certainly don’t make it clear that they do). This strikes me as disingenuous at best, and dishonest at in the worst case.

Secondly, once you are in the ad-supported business model, your users cease being your primary customer. The customer becomes the advertiser, and as a developer you are effectively selling them your users. Needless to say, this can affect your product design decisions. I’d much rather make a product that serves it users’ in the best way possible, than build something that has had to be compromised to try and generate more ‘sticky eyeballs’.

Finally, call me old-fashioned, but I still like the idea of privacy. I dislike the idea that data about me is being harvested as I use my phone or computer, in ways I may or may not understand. In the age of Facebook and Google, this might seem like a very outmoded idea to some people - but I know I am not alone in feeling this way.

Choice by Choice & Privacy

Given the above I want to be very, very clear about how Choice by Choice treats your data and your privacy:

  • Choice by Choice does not collect any data about you or transmit it to third parties
  • You own all the data you enter into the app, and no-one else gets to see it unless you show it to them
  • In the latest version, by popular request, I have added a passcode lock feature. This is to help secure your data and keep it private from anyone who might get hold of your iPhone or iPod Touch. There are no backdoors or secret unlock codes that can unlock the app, once it has been locked.

This has implications for the product and it’s development. It can’t be priced as cheaply as some of the other apps on the app store (the only money I get from the app is from sales - I don’t get a kickback from some marketing company because I am selling them your data).

In short, Choice by Choice respects your privacy, and respects the fact you own your own data.

Still, I can’t help ask myself maybe I should make an ad-supported version of Choice by Choice (or future apps). Would people prefer a cheaper or free version, knowing that their data might be passed on to advertisers, or that adverts would be within the app? It’s not something I am keen on, but I’d love to hear your feedback about this issue.

All the best,

Krishna

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