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SaaS Startup Thread, 2nd Time Entrepeneur

A detailed account of a Fastlane process...

Young-Gun

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Dropping a same-day, evening SaaS update on Tuesday:

- Had unexpected free time in the second half of the day, and spent it on Coding Escape II until late at night (it's almost 11 pm now).
Made serious progress on the game, and have been learning more Coding non-stop.
As I mentioned before, every hour of Coding time (even when I'm just stuck/struggling) has helped me get better and more confident.

For Coding nerds - specifically, tonight I've hit another small target I set for the Escape II:
Remember, yesterday I had gotten the new, more complex Game Loop running.
But, you could only stand inside the starting room and enter the basic interface commands.

Today though, I took it to the next level:
I got 3 connected rooms up-and-running, each with descriptions, action options, and other small features.
You can step between them and everything works as intended!

Even my own code has parts I don't quite understand:
There are still little bits of my own Game Loop code that I don't completely understand...
Like, I fiddled with a couple high-level elements that still confuse me, but I got the whole thing working as intended.
So I'm sure as I build out the rest of the game, that little part will make more and more sense to me.
And 95% of the code makes perfect sense to me.

From here, it's a pretty simple matter to finish re-building the rest of the rooms of the game from v1.0.

Then it's on to add more features and cool new details.

This is so freaking fun. I'm having a great time learning this, with the Game project and my friends / brother to learn from and show my work to.

One of my best friends says he wants to play the game the moment it's finished.

All in all, even if I don't make $100 mil, this is a really fun thing to do :)

More updates soon!
I may stay up and code more, but I need to step away and stretch (mentally, physically) for a bit.
And have some dinner.

Good luck to all!
 
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Young-Gun

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Daily Update for Wednesday:
It's about 9 pm, and it's been another GREAT day of progress!
Man I've felt good all day, knocking down problems left and right.

Today was all about Coding Studies, and I reached a new level!
I spent almost all my free time today working on the text adventure.
Everything from v1.0 has been transferred over and updated.
Now I'm working on brand-new features that are completely new challenges.

Here's an example of the type of problem I solved today:
- I want there to be a Secret Door in the Bedroom of a mansion in the game.
- If Secret Door is not discovered yet, it must not display in the list of Available Actions for the room.
- The game must also "play dumb" and reject the user input to use the secret door before it's discovered. (For example, as the creator I know the correct Action Input to use the Secret Door, but I still can't see or use the door until I find corresponding Secret from a different room in-game.)
- To discover this hidden secret in the Bedroom, you must 'look' around a different room: a Workroom in a high tower.
- When you 'look' in the Workroom, you gain access to the secret door in the Bedroom.
- The secret in the Workroom must be "removed" so that you can't get the same thing twice.
- The secret actions must be added to the Bedroom options.

Honestly, so far Coding has been much easier than expected:
Truly, this is not nearly the challenge I thought it would be.
It's mostly about TIME, not difficulty.
My comfort and confidence levels are SKY-HIGH right now.
Is there a ton I don't know yet? Sure. I accept that 100%.
But the last month has proven that I can handle everything Coding can throw at me.
At least, more than enough to design Software for a huge variety of profitable applications.
In terms of technical complexity, I may not start the next Facebook or Palantir, but that has never been my goal.

There's so much info on the internet, I'll just keep Googling to overcome every problem.
And my friends and little brother gave me even more advice, encouragement and help today.

It's getting closer to the point where I'll return to full-on Customer Development.
I think I want to spend another 4-8 weeks on Coding studies... still have to look at Django, for example.
And I need to make a plan for my continued learning (to get through the "Intermediate" phase and on to "Advanced" skills with coding).

But, if I can keep Learning to Code at this rate, then I think I can start Customer and Product Development sooner rather than later.
From the beginning, I've planned to learn a lot on the job.
Building the SaaS concepts will teach me as I go.

But, before I get deep into the weeds of Customer Development, I want to be:
A) Able to identify the technical / software challenges behind the NEEDS.
B) Ready to move FAST and build the Minimum Solution rapidly.
C) Determine if a specific technical challenge is too big (or too small) for me.

So, for now I'll keep pushing hard - every day - to get better at Coding.

I've made some coffee, so I'll probably stay up a bit longer working on the text adventure.
More updates tomorrow! Thanks for reading!!

--------------------------

Edit:
Haven't done one of these in a while!

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Young-Gun

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Your company name should be "whatever floats your boat"
Haha, if it didn't have a name already that would be a pretty good choice :) Thanks for stopping by, hope you get a chance to read and comment more on our journey!
 
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Young-Gun

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Early-Evening Update for Thursday:
Today has been super-packed with Life and Tutoring Biz stuff.
Also I stayed up very late last night... just doing a bit of coding and daydreaming and reading.
So today, I'm taking it a little easier on myself than the past few days.

Instead of trying to get SaaS stuff DONE with today's limited time and energy, I'm using every spare minute to LEARN something.
Then massive free time tomorrow (Fri) and Saturday will be all about measurable Coding progress.

So, my SaaS time today has been about reading, brainstorming, and high-level thinking... things like:
- Researching Growth Industries and potential Explosive Niches in 2017 - 2020.
- More Startup reading in 4 Steps to the Epiphany.
- Intro to Higher-level Software concepts (building scalable software, MVC framework for web apps, and comparisons of the strengths and weaknesses of various programming languages).
- Reading about other successful SaaS entrepreneurs and SaaS companies.
- Looking for "Universal" rules of 9- and 10- figure Enterprises, similar to the CENTS framework in TMF . (Hints I've seen so far: fast billionaires come from riding the wave of brand-new industries with explosive growth and global reach.)

Interesting Thoughts:
- Andrei Melnichenko, Russian self-made billionaire, from $0 to $10 billion in 25 years. He was 21 when Russia accepted Capitalism. He dropped out of school immediately, and started opening businesses. This led to founding one of Russia's biggest banks while he was still in his 20s. Now he owns the world's largest sailing yacht, and he's just 45 years old.

-
Shipping and Railroad tycoons of past eras: they jumped on the newest transportation and motor technology, built it out to a National / Global industry.

- Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, Larry Ellison, Steve Jobs, Larry Page, Jack Ma: Rode various converging waves of Technology, Economics, and Social Trends to become self-made Billionaires in their own lifetimes.

- Andrew Carnegie. Henry Ford. The Rothschild family.

What do they have in common?
- All entrepreneurs.
- All rode a wave of massive technological and/or social or economic CHANGES.
- All built businesses around massive Real-World NEEDS (or new 'Wants' for consumer-sales companies).

Seek massive WAVES OF CHANGE, and only build products with a proven REAL-WORLD NEED.

Even if you don't become a billionaire, you'll be following in their footsteps.

Coming Plans: Friday and Saturday
The next two days give me a HUGE amount of free time to work.
Tutoring biz should be slow for a couple days (it's a weekend AND Spring Break)

I still think Learning to Code is where I should be right now.
My goal is to finish 95% of the text adventure game before Sunday.
That means I have to move really fast with new features on Friday and Saturday.

I want to A) Finish the game. B) Finish Learn Python the Hard Way and C) Move on to learning Django.
The goal is to do this within the next 7 days.
Onwards!!

SailingyachtAfront.jpg

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Andrei Melnichenko's 'Sail Yacht A' - the largest sail yacht in the world.
 
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Young-Gun

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Quick Mid-day Update and a couple of thoughts on Friday:

I've been following my energy this morning / afternoon.
Instead of Hands-On Coding, I've been reading about Coding like crazy.

Forcing myself to get a preview of upcoming SaaS Coding Issues...
The technical challenges I will face, beyond learning Python and Django.
Beginner mistakes to avoid.
How to build Scaling, Enterprise-Level SaaS software.

Of course, I was worried that none of it would make sense, but the AWESOME news is this:
Not only did a lot of new concepts make sense today, but I even understood something brand-new: the basic concept of a Database, and why MongoDB is probably the perfect database choice for my software.

For Nerds:
So, I delved hard into the basics of MongoDB and was blown away by what I was reading.
The level of FREE, open-source power I was looking at.
At times I was like, "Am I reading this correctly? Is this for real? This is actually insane."
Not only is MongoDB better than competition of Oracle / MySQL, but far, far cheaper.
It scales almost automatically, knows how to route information globally, backs itself up almost automatically, it's user friendly, and costs almost nothing.

OK back to non-nerds:
Anyway, I was so thrilled that I could start putting these concepts together.
Python, Django, MongoDB, Model-View-Controller framework...
And without even knowing the exact PAIN I'll be solving for businesses yet, I can just feel the mental picture of my Software coming together in my head, bit by bit.
Along with my abilities to build the damn thing.

Random Thought:
Something has stuck with me all day.

It's a quote - I can't remember where I read it.
But I remember it almost word-for-word.

"Everyone talks about Mark Cuban's 5.7-billion-dollar sale of Broadcast.com like he was some kind of overnight success.
But do they talk about the late nights, long hours of pouring over Cisco router manuals in his bedroom?
No. No one ever talks about that, do they?"

That's the exact kind of feeling I've had all morning. And it feels F*cking good.(pardon the french)

-----

EDIT 1: Took a brief break, now back at it.
Just found (and started using) Trello.
It's free at my current level.
And, it's also a SaaS, very simple, and interesting to learn from.

Trello is a card-based Task Management cloud software.
So, I've made/making about 4 'boards' like "Food, Weapons, Inventory" or "Keys and Locked Doors".
Then, you make 'lists' on each board like "Need to Do," "In Progress," and "Done."
Finally you add all your tiny subtasks under "Need To Do."
As you choose one or two to work on, it moves to "In Progress," then "Done."

Very simple, and clear.
Helps ADD people like me, lol.

Other great thing? You can use it with a *team*.

Obviously I'm late to the Trello party, but it's pretty cool software.
Took 30 seconds to learn 90% of its main features.

Ok, back to work on Escape II!
 
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Young-Gun

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Quick late-night update, same day:
Ok, been grinding on some new Text Adventure features, and feeling a little brain dead.
Definitely made concrete progress (and I have the Trello cards to prove it, lol).

But, the biggest lesson today was respect for the Code.
Damn, my head hurts from some of the problems I've been trying to solve today.
Nothing groundbreaking, just tough (for me) comprehensive applications of what I've learned so far.

But, I think that's exactly where I need to be right now.
And, because of the Trello cards, I can see *exactly* how much more the Text Adventure has until completion.
It's going to take a few more days than I want, but I think that's important:
This will help reinforce *completing* a finished coding product that I can put in other people's hands.

Remember, I have the immediate motivation of showing this Coding Project to my little brother and my best friends for feedback.
I'll definitely say this has added "urgency" to my work, on what could otherwise be a solitary coding exercise.
Highly recommend that if you're following a similar path, you find people to share your early work with.

Plans for tomorrow:
I have the whole day off, and only a few Life / Tutoring Biz things to take care of.
The Trello cards give me a *very* clear list of things to keep Coding into the text adventure. Most of these are "new" to me in some way, so I'll have to accept a bit of slow-going for now.
I also have a list of Coding Topics I want to research online and make Flashcards for. Definitely think it's good to keep "previewing" the most advanced Coding topics I'll have to deal with to build my SaaS. That way, the hardest parts will feel more familiar, and I have a better chance to avoid beginner mistakes.
So, we'll see how I feel throughout the day tomorrow. Either Coding or Flashcards (or both) would be a great way to keep moving forward.

More updates tomorrow! Thanks for reading, I'm glad to have you with me as always! :)
 
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Young-Gun

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Awesome progress Young-Gun, pm me Escape II when it's finished and I'll try playing it too :)

Thanks man, I needed that encouragement this morning!

It has been a lot of awesome progress - I counted, and it's been less than 45 days since I finally accepted that I need to leave the Tutoring Business for Software! I feel like I've learned (and done) a lot in the past 6 weeks. Life is good again with a new project (and wider opportunities).

When finished I would really love to share this game with as many people as possible.
Some can play, others can critique the code, and others can do both.
It's really nothing fancy at ALL, but it has been a labor of love, so I hope it gives a few people a couple minutes of enjoyment :)

I'll make sure that I put it online, somewhere that anyone who reads this thread can check it out (both the game and the code).

Based on my Trello card list and my upcoming work-week, I'd be busting my a$$ to finish the game in less than a week, but I'd be lazy if it takes me more than two weeks.

So it should be out soon!
 
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Young-Gun

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Can you post the git repo? I'll critique the code

Hey I absolutely would love your feedback on my code!

I will post to github soon! There are a few other people who keep asking me to do that, so I need to hustle.

As mentioned in the response above, I'm on a timeline of 1-2 more weeks to complete the game to my satisfaction.
Then I will definitely release the game and code to anyone reading this thread.

I would SO happy for any feedback. So I'll be sure to let you know when I put it up!!
 

Young-Gun

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Progress Report for Saturday Evening:

Today was a very hands-on day for Learning to Code and Text Adventure, marked with some good progress and a couple moments of MAJOR frustration (like physical anger level)... as I will report below.

But mostly great progress for a single day, I think I'm just feeling a little tense and not sleeping all that well this week.

Once I relaxed, here's the way I see it: If I can learn from today's frustrations, it's all good.

That frustration is the barrier to ENTRY. Every time I get frustrated while Learning to Code, so does someone else. And maybe they give up that day, but I keep going.

Day after day, more Coding competition drops out.
And, of the people who DO push through and learn to Code, the majority do NOT want to start their own business.
And of the people who push through AND want to start a Software business, many will fail because of rookie Business mistakes that I will avoid because of my experience and planning.
And of the people who push through and start a business and avoid rookie business mistakes, most will NOT do the Deep Customer Development that I will do. They will build "introverted" products based on their "great ideas," while I build "extroverted" products based on Extensive Pain and Need Research in Large Markets.

The short version - 95% of my hypothetical competition will fail to:
  • Push through the Coding Frustration.
  • Start their own business.
  • Avoid rookie business mistakes.
  • Do deep Customer Development on Large Markets.

So, the more frustration I push through, the more blue the oceans on the other side.

Glad I have this forum to vent in and apply some Reason to my current emotions.

Here's what we got done today for Learning to Code:
  • Started adding keys and I've made progress. Still need to do more before they are functional. Definitely some tough problem solving (for me). But I feel stronger in Coding now than when I started this morning.
  • Added several more rooms and descriptions (about 12x new rooms) to support the additional locks and keys part of the game.
  • Worst part of the day by far: Spent nearly an hour trying to fix a complex section of code that had a tiny error in it. The program was reporting an extremely vague "syntax error" and pointing to a part of the code that had nothing wrong with it. To make things worse, I assumed the error was literally where the computer was saying it was, so I spent half an hour re-writing the same thing in different ways. I was looking for the wrong mistake the whole time. In the end, I didn't realize I had left off a single close-parentheses in a different line right above it. Lesson learned: Respect the Close Parentheses. And try to make my code simpler and clearer...
  • Second worst part of the day: realizing I'd made the Key-finding part of the game too complex, and it would be better if it were simpler. So I have to undo all the complicated parts without breaking anything, and remake it in a simpler way. But, this is good practice for Real SaaS Coding. I'm sure there will be many times I Code things a certain way, only to have to back up and change them.
Anyway I'm on the verge of falling asleep, earlier than usual which I think is good.
More Tutoring Biz stuff for tomorrow, but maybe that will help give a fresh perspective on Coding.

Updates soon!
 

daru

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May be worth spend some time at this point to set up and learn Git (or Mercurial). With Git one can "time travel" in the code. As soon as you do a code change that works you commit it and add a clear comment about the changes. This builds a history list for your code. Then you find out that you need to rewrite this or that part of code. Luckily you can now revert back in the code without having to remove stuff by hand and potentially break something.

On my smartphone so pardon the bad explanation and spelling errors.
 
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rpeck90

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Hey I absolutely would love your feedback on my code!

I will post to github soon! There are a few other people who keep asking me to do that, so I need to hustle.

As mentioned in the response above, I'm on a timeline of 1-2 more weeks to complete the game to my satisfaction.
Then I will definitely release the game and code to anyone reading this thread.

I would SO happy for any feedback. So I'll be sure to let you know when I put it up!!

Just post it.

If you don't know do this:

1. Install GIT on your system (Git)
2. Once installed, CD into your project dir in CMD
3. Type "git init" & hit "enter"
4. Go to Build software better, together and register for an account
5. Create a repository
6. In your CMD type "git remote add origin https://github.com/username/repo.git" & hit "enter"
7. Type "git add ." & hit "enter"
8. Type "git commit -am "Initial Commit"" & hit "enter"
9. Type "git push origin master"
10. Put link to repo on here
 
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Young-Gun

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Just post it.

If you don't know do this:

1. Install GIT on your system (Git)
2. Once installed, CD into your project dir in CMD
3. Type "git init" & hit "enter"
4. Go to Build software better, together and register for an account
5. Create a repository
6. In your CMD type "git remote add origin https://github.com/username/repo" & hit "enter"
7. Type "git add ." & hit "enter"
8. Type "git commit -am "Initial Commit"" & hit "enter"
9. Type "git push origin master"
10. Put link to repo on here

Thank you so much for writing the steps out. I was honestly getting kind of frustrated and stuck with Github.
I will use these steps to post the code tomorrow. Thank you, Rep transferred!
 

Young-Gun

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Update for Sunday:
Was coming down with a throat sickness of some kind, no fun.

Stepped back from Coding hands-on to learn more about supporting stuff.
I kind of needed a day's break from staring at the green glow of the text editor.

For example, spent time today reading / flashcarding on:
- More Github details
- Python standard library (additional features I can use later)

I also wanted to do some reading, so finished the big Customer Development chapter in Four Steps to the Epiphany.
Started the next chapter, but realized, it's not relevant to me yet.
And, there's more than enough to keep me busy in the chapter I just finished.
So, I'm going to stop here for now.

Actually, I'd like to re-skim this massive chapter on Early Customer Development and commit the best ideas to flashcards.
There was a lot of Customer Development gold, from a billioniare Silicon Valley-type.
He's one of the most in-demand lecturers at Stanford and Columbia.
So, I think it's worth reviewing the chapter on Customer Development (considering he's the man who invented the term).

Not a ton of "concrete" progress today...
But, considering I wanted to take a "cheat" day today based on my throat pain and woozy head... I think I did pretty well.
I feel "a little" smarter about Coding stuff than I did this morning - not as much as some other days, but better than nothing.

This was a "cheat day" in the sense I didn't work on Text Adventure.
Must *finish* Text Adventure. And learn Github.

Have to finish Text Adventure to truly finish Learn Python the Hard Way.
Then, I can move on to learning Django.
Then, I can learn whatever else I need to build my SaaS.

Not real proud of my work ethic today, but it happens.
Slow and steady wins the race, I don't have to be Steve Jobs to get where I'm trying to go.

More updates tomorrow! Thanks for reading!
 
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Young-Gun

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Sorry I missed my update yesterday. Got allergies or some sickness in my throat and head - took a little Benadryl, and passed out early.

The past 2 days (being somewhat sick) have focused on LEARNING what I can.
And, I've been trying to drink from a firehose of knowledge.
Cramming in as many new ideas, so my brain can start sorting through them.
When it's time to get DEEP on these concepts, I'll already be familiar with the basics.
This also "de-mystifies" some of the SaaS-building process for me.
Even if there are a lot of pieces, they are still limited. There may be 8-15 different pieces of a SaaS, but still... that's manageable, once you know what to learn about.

Here's what I've studied on Mon/Tuesday:
  • Speed-re-read The Lean Startup. I read it a few years ago, but this time it makes much more sense. Mostly, I was excited that the book confirmed my own approach to Customer Development. It also reinforced skills and focus on Validated (Actionable) Learning, building things people NEED, and making scientific, data-driven decisions to rapidly move a new company forward towards Product-Market fit. Bonus Points for describing a startup as "an organization working under conditions of extreme uncertainty," which fits me to a tee (no customers, no idea, no product yet.) That's where I'm supposed to be. That's what a startup is, by definition. I already knew that, but it's still very comforting to get expert confirmation.
  • Drilled a new stack of Python flashcards for Coding techniques.
  • Started an introduction to key concepts and terms in Django. It was video-based, and pretty confusing, but I have a much better idea of what Django is like. I need to get into a hands-on Django course soon, but it's not the right time to start. Need to tie some other loose ends first.
  • Learned some basics of Front-End SaaS Development. The names and types of software tools, key concepts that I'll need to understand in the future to build my SaaS.
  • Learned some early basics of front-end frameworks to help me build a prettier product faster. Visual Design is a weak area of mine, so I'll probably be leaning on available frameworks. Discovered the popular (free) solution Bootstrap, as well as key competitors. Bootstrap is probably my best option - full featured, most popular, highly documented.
  • Preliminary Research on my Full Tech Stack (Back-End and Front-End). Learned about common solutions for each piece of a full-blown SaaS.
Today was basically a "CTO Training Day."
In a fully-staffed startup company, a CTO (Chief Technical Officer) would be responsible for these sorts of decisions and knowledge.
Technical Knowledge is my one serious weakness for my SaaS Business.
I have years of hands-on experience as a small-business "CEO" (Executive Big-Picture Leadership), "COO" (Daily Operations), "CFO" (Business Finances), and "CMO" (Marketing). All these roles are comfortable... even fun!
It's only the "CTO" technical role that I feel completely uncertain and out of my element.
That's why I'm continuing to put so much emphasis on LEARNING technical stuff, rather than DOING it.
It will probably be at least several more weeks - and possibly 2-3 more months - of TECHNOLOGY LEARNING - before I'm ready to jump into Customer Development interviews.

Once I start Customer Development, my life will get VERY busy. And, the whole business will begin moving faster and faster.
I'll have less and less time to learn new stuff, and I'll need to focus on building the product AND talking to customers constantly.
So, now's my best chance to learn. And I need to stuff my brain to capacity EVERY day, if this is the "action" I'm taking right now instead of making phone calls, emails etc.

Still, I need to prevent total Introvert mode:
My need to learn should not be an excuse to go 100% introvert.
I'd like to do SOME (Extroverted) Customer Development and NEED-hunting, before I spend months learning to code in a vacuum (Introverted).

I have no doubt the Customer Development phase will succeed with enough time and patience... it's just that I should start following principles of Testing my Assumptions as soon as possible.

And, I'm sure I'll learn new interesting things, once I've done a few dozen Customer Development interviews. So, I don't want to delay that stage for too long.

If you're reading today, it might seem like I'm all over the place right now, but I'm confident in what I'm doing.
Every action I've taken still fits the original vision / plan perfectly.
Everything I've done in the past 5 weeks has either on A) Find Real-World NEEDS and B) (Learn to) Build the Solution.

If my NEED Research is good, and my Building Skills are solid... then I can build a useful product that solves a Real-World NEED in a market with significant Scale.
It's not worth rushing. "Move Quickly" is not the same as "Skip Important Steps" or "Jump In Without A Foundation."
If the project is a success overall, a few more weeks (or months, for that matter) won't make a bit of difference.

I'll focus on enjoying the process - glad to be alive and engaged with my work.
Slow and steady wins the race.

If you read back over this whole thread (not that I expect you to!), you'll find that the essence of my original plan has NOT changed. I feel certain that I've continued to make progress and execute every single day to get closer to my goal in each 24 hour waking day.

Everything I've learned about Coding has moved me forward towards Building the Solution.
And everything I've learned about Startup Business has confirmed and supported my "New Approach" to entrepreneurship, based on Widespread, Real-World Market NEEDS, scientific hypotheses and research, continual rapid data-based experiments, and using an Extroverted approach.

I'm not ready to start Customer Development Interviews in earnest, but still 110% confident in my planned approach.

The more I learn about the Technology, the more clear my Solution concepts can be.

Feeling great, even with the sore throat.

dominator-800-yacht-exterior-004.jpg

Dominator 800


-------------------------------------------

EDIT: Staying up a bit later to make HTML flashcards.
This way I can get a huge jump-start on a critical Front-End language.

Good news, HTML is much, much simpler than Python.
It's a *display* language, not a *programming* language.

So, mostly it's just about learning what HTML can do, and making a flashcard for each concept... that gets me 80% of the way.

By the time I've finished my Learning phase, I'm going to be insanely employable by technology companies, lol.
Ironic, since I have no interest in ever being an employee !!

EDIT 2: Stayed up pretty late with a show in the background. Drilled my complete HTML flashcard stack (easily 60 cards) twice through.

For anyone who tries flashcards of their own -
When I drill the new concepts, I've been distinguishing between "I get this, but I can't remember it yet" and "I actually don't understand this concept."

The "Can't remembers" get extra review in a special pile, and I try to think of memory tricks.

But the "I actually don't understand this" goes to a separate pile that needs extra research. I add to these cards until I think I understand them, then I drill them again for memory.

Hope this makes sense - it has REALLY continued to help me learn as fast as possible.

More updates tomorrow!
 
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Young-Gun

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Late-Night update from next day (not even sure what day it is anymore..)

Wow.

I simply cannot remember the last time I've learned this much in a single day.
Probably college, or cramming for a high school final, or something.

  • In morning, set out to learn more about Front End Development (still wasn't even sure exactly what this was).
  • Learned more about Bootstrap, still feeling confused what it was / what it did?
  • Figured out I could set YouTube videos to 1.5x speed, started doing this.
  • Learned more about HTML along the way.
  • Re-drilled the new HTML <tags> flashcards that I made last night. Got 48 right out of 50.
  • In late morning, started learning what CSS is and what it does (almost began with nothing; I only had an inkling what CSS was for).
  • Started using YouTube videos at 2x speed to squeeze every possible second.
At this point, I was literally shunning ALL distractions including food, video games...
Hunched over my computer, sometimes standing, sometimes pacing, listening, taking notes...
Watching these videos at 2x speed, stretching my attention skills to the max.

  • By late afternoon, had finished a complete, dense, 4-hour Intro Course to CSS (it only took 3 hours to watch because of the sped-up video, but I had to pause frequently to think, take notes, stretch, etc).
  • By early evening, I feel moderately comfortable reading both HTML and CSS (*slowly!*).
  • I still have a *lot* of CSS and HTML flashcards to make, and to drill. But it's not 'hard', just takes a bit of time and focus. Actually it's probably only 200 cards or less, which (now I know from experience) is not very many - just 2-3 days' worth of heavy study.
-------- Stepping Back in Late Afternoon -------------

At this point, I had learned a shit-ton about Coding for one day, pardon my french.

I took a step back, and reviewed my whole planned "Tech Stack" (the complete arsenal of Coding Languages, Frameworks, Toolkits I will use to build my SaaS).

This, I mapped out by hand, on paper, in several styles of lists and diagrams - trying to increase my overall clarity about Coding.

Evaluated my next learning priorities. I identified two key rankings for each Coding Language or Toolkit:
1) Most Crucial/Least Crucial for SaaS Project.
2) Most Confusing/Most Clear to me at the moment.

Then I said to myself, "I'm fine with 80% confidence and understanding."
In other words, if I "truly get" 80% of Django, or HTML, or MongoDB, that is probably more than enough to work with.

I started visually picturing all the things I need to learn about (there are about 10 different major languages/frameworks/concepts to learn).
Tried to rate between "I really don't get this part" and "I'm at least 80% confident about this part."

After I hand-made some visual diagrams, the two topics that emerged then as "most crucial" and "most confusing" were Python and Django. In other words, the Backend of my Software. This makes sense, since Backend is the hardest / most technically challenging. But I can do it.

With this in mind - and the end of the day approaching - I resolved to lock-in the knowledge I have acquired today.

Python and Django will both require days, possibly weeks more of study and practice.
So, I didn't bother returning to those languages today.
Instead, I've focused the evening on locking in the new things I've learned today.
  • Re-drilled my 50 HTML <tag> flashcards. Got them all right, easily!
  • Got advice from two best friends and my little brother about JavaScript language. The agreement seems to be that JavaScript would be useful for my project, but not mandatory. So, I've decided to completely ignore JavaScript for a while longer. However, in the near future I will do a quick but focused overview of JS to make sure I'm not missing anything important.
  • Reviewed what Bootstrap is / what it does. Holy crap, it makes 10x more sense tonight than it did this morning.

------------Tomorrow, tutoring biz starts up again.--------------

There is no doubt I've sacrificed some Tutoring Biz time with all this Coding study.
I am really, completely, 100% committed to changing to a completely new business.

I can feel everything aligning.

As I learn to build a Software company, I realize that it's not so hard after all.
The main things are focus, persistence, consistency.
Using every possible minute, and shunning distraction.
Most of all, having a vivid, desperate goal that drives everything else (trust me, there's much more behind all this than just getting a yacht for myself... even if I don't talk about it much.)

Getting good at Building a Software Company is just like getting good at anything / everything else.

For what it's worth, this has also been a full, rich day of LIFE:
  • Talked a lot to my little brother, gave him advice on motorcycles in exchange for Coding advice.
  • Talked to my friends.
  • Took a long walk on a beautiful day.
  • Looked a ton of cool yacht pictures and daydreamed.
  • Pet three (3!!!) different kittens in one day, and they all liked me.
  • Wrote to the awesome readers of my crazy journey.
  • Spoke to a couple parents who may purchase from my Tutoring company.
Hope yall are killing it today. I am exhausted and I feel that I've earned my rest.

Hasta manana!
 
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OAK

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New here and just read over your whole thread. Great to see how much progress you are making and it really inspires me. I am trying to build a SaaS product as well and have been coding for about 2 years with a 7 month coding bootcamp under my belt. My problem is, I know I can solve most problems and the technical 'product' won't be hard, its how to find a need and the marketing/copywriting etc.

I have some advice for you about coding:

-Udemy - this has great courses and much better resources than Learn Python the Hard Way. That book is a joke compared to what you will need to learn; however, it will provide fundamental concepts.

- BUILD apps instead of LEARNING. The beauty about coding is, if you set out to build something, you can always look everything up on the internet when you get blocked. This in turn complements your learning. By building you learn and you move forward and build and learn etc. for every block you will hit. **Also it is easiest to build something, like your product, when you KNOW exactly what you are building. Problem is, people try to make something and don't know where to start. If you are crystal clear, all the answers and path when building a product come to you. (This is based off of freelance experience of building exactly what my clients on Upwork wanted).

- Learn about APIs and building web apps. Not sure if your product will incorporate this, but if it will... I believe Django and Flask are frameworks for Python. I don't want to get too technical you can PM me for any questions you might have.

Good luck and god speed!!! Will be looking at this thread to see progress
 

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This is an awesome post! Wow so much you have done in so little time.

Not trying to derail you on another idea, have you considered a tutoring on demand model? Think AirBnB of tutoring. Where people can go to your site and search by rating and area for tutors? The tutors would sign up and create an account for free. You would provide the marketing, scheduling and handling of transaction for a fee on every transaction. Since you have an extensive knowledge and network of tutors I thought I would throw that out there. See Find a ride to rent | Spinlister for an example. They have marketplace website builders that are simple and do not cost al ot of money. DM me for more details if interested.

Best to you
 

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Flask is great for REST APIs by the way. ;)
 
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Young-Gun

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Thursday night update:
Similar to yesterday, but had to handle a lot more Tutoring Biz stuff.

With my free time I focused more today on grasping what Django is.
What it can do, why I need it, how to use it to build Web Apps.

I feel a good bit more clear on how it works.

There's a lot more to learn. Decent progress today on Coding Studies considering how much other stuff there was to do.

Stuff for tomorrow:
Tomorrow a bit more free time than today, priorities for tomorrow are more understanding Django and a huge list of flashcards for programming terms / commands / libraries that I need to make and memorize quickly.

There's also some accounting / tax stuff to take care of for Tutoring Biz, fun fun.

I do feel like everything is moving the right direction.
There are a "finite" amount of Coding things to learn before I can build, and I by now have a decent idea what most of them are.

Basically, as a Software "Carpenter" I think I almost understand what my basic tools can do to build a house - even if I'm not experienced with using any of them. But, I know where to get help, and where to find all the instruction manuals and tutorials I need.

Once I've illuminated a few more key blind spots (Django and databases come to mind), it will be time to move back into Customer Development.

When I think about it... there really are only a couple more "Technologies" I need to understand to build a complete SaaS.
No doubt, I will learn the most important Coding lessons "on the job."
But, I don't want to be hammering a nail with a screwdriver, just because I never learned what my tool kit does.

Because of my inexperience, building the SaaS will be slow going, filled with many mistakes and trial-and-error.
But, I only have to get it right once.
The software only has to be written one time (yes - I know about maintenance, upgrades, etc... but humor me, you get the idea).

So, that's how I know today brought me closer.
Django is clearer.
One more fundamental tool being added to my builder's toolkit.

There aren't that many more things to learn.
The pieces are coming together.
I hardly wasted a moment today - from making my bed to making dinner, nearly everything was efficient and focused.
Feels good. More updates tommorrow!

Edit: Stayed up later studying, and something really cool...
The video tutorial series I'm on ...
Just started tying together Python, Django, Bootstrap, HTML, and CSS.
All the exact things (languages and frameworks) I've been studying.
My exact tech stack.

Even better... it mostly made sense to me.
I could almost "predict" a lot of the things he was going to say.

The details... not so clear.
But the big picture... the puzzle and the pieces... the WHOLE... is starting to get clearer each and every day. I love that feeling.

88_Domino_Super_03.jpg

Riva Domino 88 Super (again). This boat is actually just too damn beautiful, isn't it?
 
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Hey i've been reading your stuff and I am trying to see if the SaaS I want to create is a need. I have a bunch of phone-numbers and links to websites (all apartment complexes) but I don't have emails to correct people of the apartments I want to contact. I was thinking of using linkedin and I need premium for doing inMail messages. My question is...

How do you go about contacting the right people? I was going to just cold call all the complexes and ask if what I have to offer is something they may be interested in or hopefully, something they really want and have been looking for. What is your process for finding the right people?
 

Young-Gun

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If you're making physical flashcards, maybe check out an SRS (spaced repetition system) like Anki, it'll make your study a lot more efficient.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ai2K3qHpC7c


Atlassian also has really good write-ups on git and git workflows

Setting up a repository | Atlassian Git Tutorial

and check out

Git Tutorial - Try Git

Learn Git

Hey man, sorry to be slow responding! Just wanted to make sure I thanked you for this, and the SRS has gotten me thinking a lot about how I can learn most efficiently!

Still gotta "git around" to GitHub. I'm less scared now, but it's just not very pressing at the moment (although it will become crucial soon enough).
So, for folks wondering why I've avoiding GitHub, it's not that I'm traumatized - just that it's not very relevant *this week*.
And thanks again for all the help ya'll have provided me in understanding the value and use of GitHub :)
 
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Young-Gun

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New here and just read over your whole thread. Great to see how much progress you are making and it really inspires me. I am trying to build a SaaS product as well and have been coding for about 2 years with a 7 month coding bootcamp under my belt. My problem is, I know I can solve most problems and the technical 'product' won't be hard, its how to find a need and the marketing/copywriting etc.

I have some advice for you about coding:

-Udemy - this has great courses and much better resources than Learn Python the Hard Way. That book is a joke compared to what you will need to learn; however, it will provide fundamental concepts.

- BUILD apps instead of LEARNING. The beauty about coding is, if you set out to build something, you can always look everything up on the internet when you get blocked. This in turn complements your learning. By building you learn and you move forward and build and learn etc. for every block you will hit. **Also it is easiest to build something, like your product, when you KNOW exactly what you are building. Problem is, people try to make something and don't know where to start. If you are crystal clear, all the answers and path when building a product come to you. (This is based off of freelance experience of building exactly what my clients on Upwork wanted).

- Learn about APIs and building web apps. Not sure if your product will incorporate this, but if it will... I believe Django and Flask are frameworks for Python. I don't want to get too technical you can PM me for any questions you might have.

Good luck and god speed!!! Will be looking at this thread to see progress
Hey man, thanks reading and the great advice! It's so fun to make progress, even if sometimes there's a lot of pre-learning required to build something cool.

Udemy is a great idea - gotta wait for the sales on the courses, heh.
Want a dose of comedy/irony? I actually have 3 of my own courses on Udemy (they're related to my tutoring company).
The Discipline of Making those courses was part of what trained me to be ready for for Learning to Code, and the Failure of those Udemy courses to change my life with massive income (predictable, looking back on all the mistakes I was making) is what *finally* trained me to do Customer Development and start a Software Company.

Definitely want to build as soon as possible, but there's such a depth/breadth of complexity that I need a week or two more to "digest" and comprehend exactly what tools I'm working with, but I'm getting close. I feel more and more confident every day.
That said, I should probably mix more hands-on exercises back into my Coding studies, as soon as possible.
The past few days have been heavily focused on terms, definitions, keywords, flashcards, etc - all extremely important, but very abstract until you put into daily practice (like any language, really!)

APIs are very interesting to me; still pretty confusing but I sort of get the idea.
I'll be keeping an eye on what I could do with them to provide VALUE that SOLVES NEEDS for REAL PEOPLE!

Thanks for all the advice, please return for more! :)
 
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Young-Gun

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This is an awesome post! Wow so much you have done in so little time.

Not trying to derail you on another idea, have you considered a tutoring on demand model? Think AirBnB of tutoring. Where people can go to your site and search by rating and area for tutors? The tutors would sign up and create an account for free. You would provide the marketing, scheduling and handling of transaction for a fee on every transaction. Since you have an extensive knowledge and network of tutors I thought I would throw that out there. See Find a ride to rent | Spinlister for an example. They have marketplace website builders that are simple and do not cost al ot of money. DM me for more details if interested.

Best to you
Thanks for reading man and I'm so glad you've dropped a line in the thread!

I've considered a few Tutoring-Software ideas, but honestly, I cannot f*cking wait to get out of this industry.
The past 6 weeks have made that abundantly clear to me.
Honestly, I've been screaming to get out into something BIGGER, more exciting, more cutting-edge, more scalable (not just a scalable business model like software, but a HUGE market with deep pockets to SCALE into!).

Sticking in Tutoring is great advice (logically, it's something I know a lot about), but emotionally, there's just no way I can spend another minute doing anything with tutoring.
Don't get me wrong, I love my business, I love to teach - but it's complicated. I'm just so sick of the Education industry.

Parents, students, the desire NOT to pay much, yet hold teachers to an insanely high standard...
Over-worked teachers, underappreciated administrators..
It's hard to explain, but Education is NOT a fun or easy industry (probably few industries really are, but hey... maybe sky-diving industry?)

Anyway, there's NOT a ton of money in it.
It's NOT a cutting-edge or fast-growing, fast-changing industry (trust me, it's really not - despite what the press says sometimes)

It's VERY fragmented, hard to reach... and Education industry is NOT very willing to part with money (mostly because they usually don't HAVE much money, for the reasons mentioned above....)

Education Business can be profitable, big, and cool.. but good luck. Not what I want to do with my life any more. Can't WAIT to get away from it!!!

Also, (if the thread doesn't make clear), I'm extremely confident in my ability to learn and "infiltrate" brand-new industries. My enthusiasm and experience in business is deep enough that I can get people to talk to me pretty easily... so, when you put everything together, there's really no benefit to staying in the Tutoring space, and I'm confident there is MUCH more $$$$ (and easier $$$$) to find in virtually any other industry other than Tutoring.

Hope this makes sense - and thanks for letting me vent (my rant probably sounds pretty incoherent, but I don't even feel like organizing my thoughts about why I'm so sick of the Tutoring industry, lol)
 
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Young-Gun

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Flask is great for REST APIs by the way. ;)

Hah, the fact that I barely have any idea what this means, is the proof that I have more studying to do tonight before I fall asleep :)

I love hearing the terms, though. Learning more every day :) :)
 
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Young-Gun

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Hey i've been reading your stuff and I am trying to see if the SaaS I want to create is a need. I have a bunch of phone-numbers and links to websites (all apartment complexes) but I don't have emails to correct people of the apartments I want to contact. I was thinking of using linkedin and I need premium for doing inMail messages. My question is...

How do you go about contacting the right people? I was going to just cold call all the complexes and ask if what I have to offer is something they may be interested in or hopefully, something they really want and have been looking for. What is your process for finding the right people?

Hey man, props on the progress you've made so far.
You're absolutely right to STOP before you go further.
Make SURE it's a real need, with real people, who WANT to give you $$$ to solve the problem.

As for "secret sauce" to find contacts?
Honestly there isn't any.
Just a willingness to spend long hours doing whatever it takes to find the contact info for specific people.
The internet knows everything, if you just keep at it.

I did spend some time earlier in the thread explaining almost *exactly* the steps I was taking and the time I was putting in - I'd go back and check that stuff out. Things like Yelp, Google, LinkedIn, Facebook, company websites, etc. I would spend a max of 5-15 minutes finding a single contact info.. beyond that, you're taking too long. Once you find a good system that works for you and your target industry, you can probably knock that down to 3-5 minutes per contact (until you use up that source of leads and have to find a new discovery system).

Also, you might want to read 4 Steps to the Epiphany by Steve Blank, I think that would answer all your questions (and more) about validating your Product Idea - and it was written by a self-made billionaire entrepreneur, so probably worth the time.

Don't skip past Validation / Customer Development, no matter how tempting. It's probably the single most important factor between a huge product success and a huge waste of your time.

Here's something deep - and this goes for everyone reading, myself most definitely included:

In business, most of us try to have "Good Ideas." But Ideas with no supporting EVIDENCE are just Opinions. And Opinions are Unproven Assumptions. And the correct word for an Unproven Assumption is "A Guess."

How many weeks, months, or years do you want to spend pursuing "A Guess?"
That's what we do, when we try to build a business around our "IDEA."

I say, DEATH to "business ideas." God, I hate them so much.

My "Ideas" have stolen years of my life. Tens of thousands of dollars straight from my bank account.
These days, every time my non-entrepreneur friend runs his next unproven "business idea" past me I want to punch him in the mouth and knock some sense into him because I love him and can't bear the thought of him wasting his precious life chasing Guesses that he thinks might be Good Ideas.

Let's make 2017 the year of BUSINESS RESEARCH.
I challenge you to prove that there is a *need* before you waste your vital life energy building something no one wants.
In the end, you're either RIGHT about your idea (great! Now go forth with huge confidence and early customers!)
Or you're DEAD WRONG about your idea (great! We can immediately try again and test a new idea!)
Just my .02, hope it helps :)
 
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Young-Gun

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Progress Update for Late Friday Night:
Yo what's up everyone!

Today has been a day focused on HTML. It's one of the simplest languages I'll be using to build my SaaS, but there's still a lot to memorize.

Don't worry, I'm not trying to perfectly memorize every single HTML <tag> and <attribute = "blah blah">.

But, I am learning the complete scope of what HTML5 can do for me.
Maybe I won't remember every single trick and keyword.
But, I will know it all exists for the times I need it - then I can go look it up.

So, today from 11 AM - 10 PM, all my free time went to making HTML flashcards.
Today's stack totals 112 new cards, the most I've made in a single day.

I'll be drilling these as much as possible tomorrow (Saturday), then I will probably move on.
When I'm done drilling these cards, I think I'll have reached my "80% Confidence" level in HTML.

Flashcards don't just help with quick memorization.
They also force the breakdown of concepts into their simplest key terms.
And, it helps me put all the little pieces together.
Common threads start to emerge by hand-making and then drilling the flashcards.

At certain times I've felt like I'm learning almost supernaturally fast.
Not because I'm smart, but because I'm working hard - every day - with a great system - and the whole internet at my fingers.

After the HTML cards, I want to repeat the same process to break down CSS, and then break down Bootstrap in the same way.
That will cover the toughest 90% of my "Front End" technologies - (for my SaaS, this is stuff like visual layout, menus, home pages, colors, fonts, images).
More than enough toolkit to build the "Customer-Facing" side of my SaaS app.

It should only take 5-7 more days to finish running through HTML / CSS / Bootstrap.

Again, I think it's really funny that 6 weeks ago I couldn't write a line of code, and now I could probably get a job as a Front-End developer.
Or rather, in just a few more weeks of study, I'm sure I could.

Anyway, this is all gonna save me a F*CKton of money when I don't need to pay another developer to build my SaaS...
And, I can do maintenance and upgrades myself...
And, when my company grows I can make smarter Hiring and Technology decisions...
And, I'm "future-proofing" myself by learning a whole bunch of new current skills...
And, I'm having fun and expanding my mind...

Feeling good, feeling great. Probably stay up another hour or two - unwind, run through the HTML flashcards once or twice now that I've finished making them.
Been a good day with lots of learning. More updates tomorrow!

riva-76.jpg

riva-76-perseo-main-saloon-02.jpg

9594.jpg

9605.jpg

riva-76-perseo-aft-deck.jpg

ds_45135.jpg

Riva Perseo 76. 'Little sister' of the Domino 88 Super


Side Note:

Just wanted to give myself props for one small other thing today.
When I literally could not go any further on HTML cards and needed a break... instead of video games etc, here are the two things I did:
  • Took a nice walk to Subway for some healthy lunch.
  • Watched SaaS business videos on YouTube (business-focused rather than coding-focused).
Anyway, it was another good day, since I wasted almost no time at all, it was packed with forward progress from wall to wall.

Slow and steady wins the race, but with days like these, it feels like I'm leaping ahead.

I will say - it's great to already OWN the business I earn my living from. The "alternative schedule" and the freedom to "check out" from work without attracting an angry boss... these have been KEY for me to study so much every day.

But, it's always tempting to slack off with no BOSS-figure. So, hopefully you (wonderful readers of my thread) will keep me honest if I start slacking.

Arrivederci!!!
 
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