via From idea to AppStore in 2 weeks | Alasdair Monk.

The amazing story of how an app developed in 2 weeks got onto a #2 spot in the travel category and not sinking into Objective C. He used Ruby Motion.

Unlocking the power of new technologies for self-guided education is one of the 21st century superhighways that need to be paved. Profound changes to how children access vast information is yielding new forms of peer-to-peer and individual-guided learning.

via Sugata Mitra: We Need Schools… Not Factories.

Self-Organized Learning Environment aka ”SOLE” – SOLE is a term coined by Sugata Mitra. SOLEs are created when educators and/or parents encourage kids to work as a community to answer their own vibrant questions by using the internet. In other words, children no longer needs to attend schools. “SOLE” is slightly different from the things that  education startups are doing, where most of the learning takes place online. But as the two ideas starts to converge, I sure we are not too far way from Sugata’s dream.

primarily problem: the lack of motivation

The problem with online learning is retaining motivation. CodeAcademy tries to solve it with gamification, same for CodeSchool. I too lack motivation when I tried online learning. I gave up on many courses after I lack behind several lessons. (i’m sure many of you do experience this, because of your busy schedule) Out of the four courses in took in Coursera (yes, you can say I was greedy) that I chose to enroll in, I only completed “Gamification” and that was because I have friends taking it with me. Taking the lessons with friends in my opinion makes the lessons much more interesting and I can even have physical discussions / meetups which in turn sorts of triggers my motivation when I see and learn how others are doing. As for CodeAcademy, I only managed to finished their HTML and CSS class. (maybe no friends were doing it with me)

a little interaction comes a long way

I think that maybe having a little interaction – like having meetups would be great to solve the problem of online learning. Just last month, Kong started a 30 Days iOS Challenge, 20 students were selected and each of them paid S$50.00. The S$50 are returned when the students completed the course. Although it is a 30 Days Challenge, but there are only 6 offline lessons, the rest are either doing tutorials that are assigned or self-guided learning.

The 6 offline lessons are kind of like “SOLE” where all of use gather to ask questions and learn from one and other. But most importantly, as I watch others progress, it also indirectly motivates me because I would not want to be lagging behind and having friends around learning together was so much fun. Plus I made new friends too. Just this wednesday, 30 Days iOS Challenge had it’s demo day (you can watch the videos here) And Kong had turn 20 students with non-programming background in amateur iOS developers.  So maybe those who are looking to learn coding on your own and are have problems completing CodeAcademy, maybe finding a group of friends to do it together and setting a date for demo day would help propel your motivation.

finally, my pomchek go where?

Today is my 160 days since I started my 30 Days Challenge of learning iOS and I am very happy to share with you that I just submitted my app to app store. The name is PomChek Go Where? It is a location based app that helps you find the nearest bike shops in Singapore when you are faced with flat tire. The app is still under review and I listed the launch date to be on 20 May 2013 so I’m really looking forward. And I really thank everyone in the iOS Challenge and especially to @athanhcong, @anttyc and @yctay

Related articles

• Can Schools Exist In The Cloud? (npr.org)
• How Much Can Children Teach Themselves? (wnyc.org)

Businesses are able to enjoy 400% tax breaks or 60% cash payout for investments in innovation and productivity improvements under the PIC scheme.

Productivity and Innovation Credit Workshop | Plug-In@Blk71.

Startups are all about the Execution, but I also strongly believe in managing a good cashflow so I’m very careful with Intraix spending, always keeping burn rate in check and when there is a scheme to save money, I will always jump on it.

PIC is a scheme announced to help SME (including startups) to get back 60% of their spending. In other words, if you buy a MacBook Air for your employee, you will pay the full sum but you can submit a claim through PIC and you will get back 60% of the spending. “How awesome is that!“(certainly helps in my cashflow) but the application process is somewhat confusing and when I ask my some of fellow startup friends, they do not even know of these initiatives.

This Friday, Plug-In@Blk71 is holding a PIC workshop. This is an awesome opportunity for me to whack them with questions. For those who are frustrated in the application process like me, this is the time to get back your 60% cash spending.

p/s yes, MacBook is consider as a productivity tool

I love doing side project. It is fun, it gives me time off to pick up a new skill and something I called my own. Of course, the best would be that the side project takes off and you become special.

Do you use the mobile application SG NextBus? – It estimates the arrival times of all SBS and SMRT buses. The creator of the app is Hon Cheng, he created the app during his free time just like what many of us use for our side projects. The project took off and the app now is well received by many commuters (including me). Now he has become “special”, because he is no longer known as average developer but known as the guy who created SG NextBus. And indeed it is very impressive to own an application that benefit so many people.

plus I personally think “side projects are important for independent developers” 

What about the side projects that are not successful?

For the many side projects that got successful, there are a ton that just went dead. And I like to share my learnings with you today. The side project is “Startups In Singapore” – It is a project that finds a startup entrepreneur each week for 52 weeks to tweet for a common twitter account, this idea is “stolen” from the “Rotation Curation Movement” which started in Sweden.

Humans are greedy creature

When I first read about the “Rotation Curation Movement” and how successful it was for Sweden, I was inspired. I thought I could do the same for the Startup community in Singapore, I even dreamt that it would become a movement in the Asia startup scene.
But I was too greedy, I wanted to do many things at the same time. Chris ask me if I wanted to be part of his co-host for launchbyte, I agreed. Because I thought I would be able to managed but I am wrong. I could not manage. I neglected the project and started to lose motivation on it. I feel real bad about it.

Learning: I only have 24 hours in a day, I should be focus in what I do.

It is easy to start but difficult to maintain

It is easy to start a project, something like “Startups In Singapore” involves the setting up of a wordpress blog and a twitter account and that can be done within a few hours. The true labour and challenge comes in finding entrepreneurs who are will to be part of the project, especially taking their precious time off to tweet for an account that does not even have 500 followers.

I remembered I spoke to an entrepreneur asking if he would be interested to help me tweet for a week. He responded, “Sure, but is their media coverage or big publicity for this? otherwise it would be a waste of time. I started thinking “WTF”, this is helping the local startup scene, why are you asking for publicity. Looking back, I understand now. I have nothing to offer for the entrepreneurs to help. The selling point of “helping the local startup scene” is just not enough to ask for.

**To fellow entrepreneurs and friends who contributed “Thank you so much for your time, you are amazing”

I find it hard to quit

Initially, I find it hard to write this post especially about me killing a project I started. The feeling is pretty similar to quitting. And the word “Quit” is something I hardly hear people say in the startup scene. I think this is because entrepreneurs are expected to be strong, we are supposed to go against all odds and make the win.

a winner never quits, and a quitter never wins.

really?

To which Freakonomics Radio says … Are you sure? Sometimes quitting is strategic, and sometimes it can be your best possible plan.

This project has been there doing nothing for weeks and it is affecting me, there is a dissatisfaction feeling that keeps loitering around. So I decided to write out this post to call it quit.

I’m feeling so much better after I write it out because I do not have to worry about it anymore. And of course now to focus on my other side project. and oh Github – my favorite startup company also started off as an side project

Image credit – [austinkleon.com]

When you have a long stretch when you arent bothered, you can get in the zone. The zone is when you are most productive. Its when you dont have to mindshift between various tasks. Its when you arent interrupted to answer a question or look up something or send an email or answer an im. The alone zone is where real progress is made.

via Getting Real: Alone Time by 37signals.

I feel that I get more things done when I’m alone too.

When we first started Intraix, I keep thinking that as founders we have many things to do. Things like pitching, developing products..etc etc. But looking back, I realized I am wrong. In fact, I feel that I have more free time or rather ‘alone’ time where I could sit and down and Think.

The true ‘busyness” comes when you get your First customer, because we have to devote our 101% of our commitment to them. Now that our customer base have grown, it is ever harder to find that alone time. Heading to the office is just to reply emails, phone calls and addressing our customers issues.

I’m sure many founders find it hard to have time just to do their stuff. When I have a bit of time to sit down and start jotting down my notes, the email notification appears or the phone call rings. Sure, I can turn off notification, I tried it before but the reaction from my customer will be: “hey I called/emailed you a few times, where were you?…You know the…” And this broke my chain of thoughts. Plus I do not want to do this often because this would affect (IMHO) customer satisfaction.

What I’m doing now is to wake up early at 5:30am to start my alone time and I find it the most productive time spent for it. Product roadmap, cashflow management and milestones planning are done within this period of time. I still leave emails and phone calls to the “normal working hours”. I would love to stretch this alone time longer but getting up at 4:30 is really tough. So friends and founders, please share with me if you have altnatives or better ways of getting the productivity time.

Related articles

• Why More Is Not Always Better (Jason Friend in Inc.)
• How do you communicate within your startup?
• How You and Your Team Can Escape the Multitasking Trap

tl:dr hate to read long? go straight learn how you can use Evenote and Drafts App for your training log

my first 100km

In fact, my friends have been such an inspiration that I have decided to sign up for the ColourCoil TMBT Ultra Marathon in Sabah this coming September. It is a 100KM trail race and if I can complete this race, I would be able to have the prerequisite to sign up for the UTMF2014.

UTMF (ULTRA-TRAIL Mt.FUJI) – Prerequisite: The successful completion of at least one trail running race that is 100km or longer OR two trail running races that are 70 km or longer. These races must have been completed after Jan. 1, 2010.

my 100km DIY training program

My 100Km race is about 5 months away and I have started my training. Here is a sample of my training week

• Monday – run to work (tempo run house)
• Tuesday – hill repeats (either fort canning or hill behind Macpherson)
• Wednesday – track work
• Thursday – morning 10km run (or run to office)
• Friday – Rest day
• Saturday – 21km or (10km MR)
• Sunday – Long Slow Distance (10~15km) (to ECP and Back)

and I would be adding slightly a little bit more milage each week till I reach a maximum single day run of 60km.

Using Evernote for training log

With the training schedule out, I need a tool to keep rack. I used Evenote for my training log and typically what I do is to create a notebook and saved each day of training as a note under the created notebook.

I used some shorthands and tags to classify my workouts. For example, CR means Circuit Run and Tags is to indicate the training phase. And I would use the search filter within the notebook to find out how have I done for the month. The problem with this is that, it is a little tedious because each of the training is a separate note. I could do an alternative of saving my training log into one single note but I would need to list down the dates by the side.

introducing Drafts

I got to know about Drafts from Back2Work – a podcast that I listens to regularly. It talks about productivity and tech. Drafts (as you can guess from the name) is a writing app. It’s available on both iPhone and iPad. I got the iPhone app and it has since become the de facto note taking app for me. But Drafts have something more interesting, it is also an app launcher. Drafts supports 35 different actions that trigger different apps. For example, you can use Drafts as a means to quickly write a tweet or status update without actually opening either app. It also gives you the ability to link up with commonly use apps such and Dropbox and Evernote. Linking to Evernote links Drafts to your default notebook in Evernote. If it concerns writing, Drafts have something for you.

In short, you can use Drafts to control every single text based action you do on your iOS device. – lifehacker

Using Evernote with Drafts

Once you link up with Evernote, you can create custom action for it. I created a custom action that allows me to prepend to an Evernote note. Once enabled, Drafts creates a note titled: training dated with “year” and “month”. When I type in my workout for the day and I select the “Append to Dropbox ”Training Update” action, it will prepend the log to the same note I created. And if the month changes, a new note will automatically be created. Thus all training log that are achieved in April will be saved in an Evernote note titled Training–2013–04, while those in May will be Training–2013–05. This way Drafts solves my problem of having too much notes and I can easily do my workout analysis in a single note.

For those who are looking to start their training log, you should give Evernote a try and If you are looking for accelerate your productivity with Evenote, do give Drafts a try too

p/s Drafts is a paid app and if you are markdown fan like me, you can even do markdown to Evernote.

Related articles

• Confessions of an Evernote Junkie (donnaharris.wordpress.com)
• I’ve Been Using Evernote All Wrong. Here’s Why It’s Actually Amazing (lifehacker.com)
• Why You Should Be Using Evernote As Your Go-To Place For Remembering Everything (TimeManagementMagazine.com)

I’ve found that when faced with a set of seemingly insurmountable challenges, the first step towards making it easier is to break things down into as large a set of small individual tasks as possible.

via Justin Kan.

Indeed small wins are important.

Especially right now when I learning to code. At the initial stage, it seems almost impossible for me to understand the codes / methods taught in the appcoda. But as I break down the codes into smaller parts, the learning process is so much better and I feel much better too, because I’m able to proceed ahead instead of being stuck behind.

Taking this trick, most of what I do now are broken down into smaller parts, even my daily todo list.

Last Wednesday, I woke up to a surprise email from Medium; this Medium I’m now writing on. It was an invitation to join the platform, to be part of the community. Trepidation soon filled the shoes of my initial excitement. Was I good enough to write on Medium?

Am I Good Enough For Medium? — This Happened to Me — Medium.

My first writing on @Medium, why I was worried that I may not be good enough to write on Medium.

I caught this post off my twitter feed, and I took down a quote on it.

Don’t glorify the terrorists and their actions by calling this part of a “war on terror.” Wars involve two legitimate sides. There’s only one legitimate side here; those on the other are criminals. They should be found, arrested, and punished. But we need to be vigilant not to weaken the very freedoms and liberties that make this country great, meanwhile, just because we’re scared.

via The Boston Marathon Bombing: Keep Calm and Carry On – Bruce Schneier – The Atlantic.

There is no doubt. We should not be scared but this also triggers the thought that I or rather us (my friends) should be more aware of our surrounding and take notice of national security. Because IMHO, most singaporeans take our national security for granted. #runstrong

tl:dr I just completed my first 1000m trail run. In case you wonder what is 1000m to an Ironman finisher. This 1000m *is not the distance but the altitude, together with strong wind and the fluctuating cold weather, this is also the toughest trail run that I did after The North Face 50KMin 2010. This run certainly opens up my knowledge about trail running and further propels my love for running. Furthermore, I really learn a lot on this run both in terms of life and running and I have to share it with you.

450m above sea-level

This week I’m on a work trip to Tokyo to pilot test our HEMS software with our Japanese partners. Since I’m there for a week, I decided to bring my shoes along, just to keep my weight in check because I know the food over in Japan are awesome. Running in Tokyo is amazing, especially during this period of time as the weather hovers around 10~20 degree celsius. I spent most of my time in the test lab with YC and Chris, but I managed to catch a few morning run around Yoyogi park. I got a free day on Saturday, so I ask my friend Kumi to make an intro to her friend Colin – a 63 years old gentlemen that has been the age-group winner for several trail running races in Japan. We got connected and he suggested we meet up on Saturday for run, it would be a light run because he is running the UTMF2013 in another 2 weeks time. So I think why not?

This is the real shit

Trail running to me was MR, Bukit Timah Hill or sometimes Mandai because these are the common places where people do trail running in Singapore. This is also part of the route that North Face Singapore uses. I did overseas races before like Ironman Triathlon, Marathon kinds but never did trail running overseas. So I was really excited, but I had a few problems, I was not properly equipped, I did not have a long sleeve nor did I have any water bag with me and I was using road running shoes. I did not want to spend much so I got a long sleeve from Uniqlo for only 1000Yen (S$13.00) and off I went. We went at Shibuya and took a train down to the sub-urban area (Agano), the journey took us about 2 hours. Colin also invited another two of his friends (I’ve forgotten the names, I’m sorry cause I’m bad with Japanese names). One of the ladies have her time in the top 10 placing for local trail races and she just started trail a year ago. (her age 48, makes me think that nothing is impossible)

The Uphill

Starting from the station, we ran about a km on the road before cutting 3km across the forest. It was warmer in the forest as compared to the road but the cold still kicks into your bones. As I run across the forest, and the cold win stings my face, my mind keep boggling that this is the real shit. This is not MR or Bukit Timah Hill. The trees are huge, there are no man-made path ways, if you miss a turn you will get lost. slopes that are so steep that they are almost vertical (I climb when I reach this slopes but Colin shared that pro-trail runners run up the slope for training), there are even signs that warns about bears appearing. I mean this is for real man, the true trail, the nature. It is just beautiful No wonder, some of my friends are so addicted to overseas trail running.

Bukit Timah Hill is only 163.63m in elevation, that is the highest you can train in Singapore.

Heading up towards 700m, I started to feel sleepy. I think I was going through slight altitude sickness. I keep yawning and my brain keeps wanting to shutdown, seems like a lack of oxygen. The feeling was terrible and I started to slow down. Thanks to Colin-San and his friends, they waited for me and keep me company. They also shared their nutrition with me which makes me feel better. I believe my body was running out of food too. In fact, at this point of time I wanted to give up, but the support from Colin and his friends was definitely motivating and inspiring.

I ran up here

Enjoy the run and think less of your gears

And another big thank you to Colin who was very kind to lend his spare gloves and wind jacket otherwise, I would not be able to last 5km into the run. I was under-dress, I came in an attire similar to what I would wear when I’m going for a run in MR expect that I was in long sleeves. Colin and his friends might be thinking, boy, this guy is crazy I also did not have a water bag, I only have a day pack, a small bag that came along with my backpack and I threw my handy tupperware water bottle in. Usually, when I’m going for a run or a race and I do not have the proper gears, I would feel uncomfortable. I would usually try to get best gears (according to my budget) so that it “kinda” gives me confident. It is also sort of like a form of fetish, always wanting to buy the latest gears, the lightest gears, hopping that I could get better performance out of it. Do not get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with being properly equipped and buying good gears. I know the difference between a budget water-bag vs a soloman. but sometimes I get carried away, so do my group of friends.

On this run, I learn an important lesson. I can still do it with the basic gears. Better quality gears does help but it’s the passion that keeps you going. It kept mine.

There are so much to learn about running and about life. This run also leads me to think about my startup journey. Enjoy the process of building a company and a great product be less concern with nosies.