Small Efforts - with Sean Sun and Andrew Askins

Sean Sun and Andrew Askins
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Small Efforts - with Sean Sun and Andrew Askins Podcast

Two agency owners and friends talk about cybersecurity, design, and the continuous small efforts it takes to build a business.

  1. 16 SEPT

    Getting called out, finding new data sources, and how to interpret user research

    In this episode, Andrew and Sean got hit up by someone clearly using Podscan... again! They talk about it, then Andrew shares details about his recent trip to Mexico City, including highlights like a hot air balloon ride over the pyramids and an exciting Lucha Libre wrestling match. Sean provides an update on Stackwise, discussing the data sources they've uncovered and the challenges of building a comprehensive database. Meanwhile, Andrew delves into the validation process for his latest SEO-focused startup idea, weighing the pros and cons of targeting different user segments. Links: Andrew’s Twitter: @AndrewAskinsAndrew's website: https://www.andrewaskins.com/ChartJuice: https://www.chartjuice.com/Sean’s Twitter: @seanqsunMiscreants: http://miscreants.com/StackWise: Coming soon...FigTree: Coming soon...Podscan.fm: https://podscan.fm/For more information about the podcast, check out https://www.smalleffortspod.com/. Transcript:00:01.71 Sean You know what we should rename our podcast tagline to? 00:05.21 Andrew sandwich free. 00:06.47 Sean No, not same. 00:09.97 Andrew What is that? 00:10.48 Sean No, the best case study that Podscan works. 00:15.95 Sean We should be front page on Podscan FM. 00:18.73 Andrew Genuinely, we should we should reach out to it's not Arjun. What's his name, Arran? 00:24.60 Sean I have no idea. I don't know who makes Podscan. I just know about it. 00:27.08 Andrew Oh, he's he's the dude who's the. ah ah Oh, fuck, I signed out of Twitter everywhere. so that I wouldn't get distracted. 00:36.50 Sean Nice. I'll look it up. 00:37.86 Andrew Arlen, something like that, he built he built like class dojo or he he built some like teaching software with his wife, sold it. 00:48.13 Sean Arvid. Arvid. 00:48.97 Andrew Arvid, Arvid call, that's his name. 00:49.57 Sean Arvid. 00:51.16 Andrew Yeah, yeah, yeah. Also, if avid has a and Arvid hot scan trigger, we'll find out. 00:56.81 Sean Yeah, we'll find out. Arvid. 00:59.14 Andrew So, hey Arvid. 00:59.99 Sean Arvid call. Arvid call. Arvid call. Feedback panda. Arvid call. 01:03.88 Andrew feed neck to end there, that's what it was. 01:06.67 Sean Zero to sold, or we'd call. Alright, maybe we'll summon him for the next one. 01:12.62 Andrew Yeah, that was wild. So, I get... 01:18.40 Andrew I forget which podcast episodes we've published because I'm behind. So I like didn't even realize I'd published that episode. 01:24.75 Sean Yeah. 01:24.82 Andrew But we published a podcast episode where we were kind of like, I was hating on intro. You're pro intro. I was hating on intro. 01:32.17 Sean Uh-huh. 01:33.57 Andrew And then the CEO of intro tweeted at us this week and was like, here's why you're wrong and why intro is great. 01:39.63 Sean not Really, it's not really a tweet. It was kind of an essay, actually. It was kind of like, yeah, yeah. 01:42.93 Andrew Yeah. 01:44.32 Sean But that's the second time someone famous on the internet has hit us up on Twitter because of that. 01:49.41 Andrew I wish they would fucking promote our podcast when they treat at us. 01:56.45 Sean I don't know. 01:56.90 Andrew Instead of doing it so subtly. 01:57.13 Sean I feel like this is a secret and feel like there's a little secret growth hack in there, you know? 02:01.18 Andrew Yeah, but the girth hack only works if they like tell people about you. 02:06.72 Sean No, no, no, no, no. I think that you can leverage it for, for more reach. 02:08.29 Andrew To become biffles. 02:12.19 Sean Cause if I, cause if I reply to his thing, I'm, you know, I feel like there's enough Twitter engagement there in in the, you know, get the algo going and, and, and you know, what is beef marketing? 02:22.26 Andrew Is this like even grosser beef marketing? 02:27.16 Andrew Beef marketing is when you start beef with somebody just for like the views and the clicks. 02:30.09 Sean Oh, I see. 02:35.19 Andrew So obnoxious. 02:36.88 Sean I say yeah. 02:37.09 Andrew yeah who's You k

    52 min

  2. 12 SEPT

    Freemium and new goals

    Note: This episode was supposed to come out a couple of weeks ago. But Andrew forgot to attach the audio file when he went to publish, so it's just been sitting in our podcast hosting software. Sorry about that.  In this episode, Andrew and Sean dig into Paul Graham's founder mode essay that has gone viral in the past couple of weeks. Spoiler alert: Andrew is not a fan. Sean talks about the challenges of evolving client demands with Miscreants, while Andrew recounts his experiences in Mexico City and his decision to pivot ChartJuice towards a freemium model. Then they talk through some of Andrew's new AI-related business ideas, including automating marketing graphics and financial modeling for agencies, and his new co-founder and year-end goals. Links: Andrew’s Twitter: @AndrewAskinsAndrew's website: https://www.andrewaskins.com/ChartJuice: https://www.chartjuice.com/Sean’s Twitter: @seanqsunMiscreants: http://miscreants.com/StackWise: Coming soon...FigTree: Coming soon...For more information about the podcast, check out https://www.smalleffortspod.com/. Transcript:00:00.63 Sean Can I start this podcast off by reading you a quote? 00:06.34 Andrew Sure, I'm so curious. 00:10.28 Sean um Have you seen the Ted Chiang essay about Gen AI? 00:15.59 Andrew No. 00:16.55 Sean okay um It was on The New Yorker. he okay so 00:20.85 Andrew For a second, when you said JIN AI, I thought J-E-N, and I thought this was like some new AI company I hadn't heard of that named their AI JIN, as in short for Jennifer, and then I realized I'm an idiot, and you're talking about generative AI. 00:34.68 Andrew so 00:35.09 Sean Well, there's there's a startup called, I think, Jim, it's like a 25 year old like Korean person who Korean guy um and he like did like the rounds on YouTube for a little bit about how he like went from like broke to 100 million in net worth overnight because. 00:35.41 Andrew ah 00:41.20 Andrew Oh, that's cool. 00:51.05 Andrew Jesus Christ. What? 00:52.11 Sean um I mean, it was like the dawn of like LLM stuff and jennna I had just started so. 00:57.32 Andrew Yeah. 00:57.44 Sean adam 00:57.71 Andrew Okay. All right. Hit me with the quote. 00:59.67 Sean Okay, so let me just preface this. Ted Chiang, excellent sci-fi writer, um um ah wrote a really great book called Exhalation, one of my favorites. 01:10.54 Sean um 01:10.83 Andrew Oh, I've been wanting to read that. 01:12.94 Sean Yeah, excellent, excellent book. 01:15.57 Andrew Cool. 01:16.59 Sean Would recommend, there's like a two page story in there that I really, really like. But, um You know, this this would have been great if i if I had it pull up, and I didn't. 01:28.60 Andrew Had it pulled up if you were prepared. 01:31.18 Sean Yeah, yeah, yeah. But that's not how we do things. we you You know what? I can't find in this article. So I'm going to pull it up on a Slack thing. 01:42.69 Sean OK. um It's just the task that generative a generative AI has been most successful at is lowering our expectations. um And I was like, damn. 01:54.53 Andrew Oh, interesting. 01:55.78 Sean hot take yeah uh 01:57.03 Andrew How do, okay. So how do you interpret that? 02:00.61 Sean well um i sent it as like a kind of honestly like uh 02:05.49 Andrew Do you agree? 02:10.72 Sean Yeah, yeah, I do. um I don't agree with his essay. I think his essay about how his essay is about how Gen AI won't ever make art, and I think that's arguably true, um but I think that he misses the fact that Gen AI would be an art form, and people will use it the way that they make art with Photoshop and then collage things together. 02:25.42 Andrew Sure, but at that point, it's not Gen AI making the art, I don't think. I think it's human artists making art using Gen AI as a medium or a tool. 02:29.77 Sean you 02:35.06 Sean Agreed, agreed. 02:35.66 Andrew ah like I think what he's saying is like the thing that Gen AI, at least in its current form, can't think. 02:36.21 Sean hence in

    54 min

  3. 22 AUG

    How do you know when to quit?

    In this episode, Andrew talks about his upcoming trip to Mexico City, which started as a potential plan to live there but has evolved into a working vacation. Sean talks about recent challenges in his agency, including team members getting sick after conferences and some project misfires with smaller clients. Andrew then gives an update on the lukewarm progress he's seeing with ChartJuice (complete with raw metrics) and again ponders a freemium pivot. He's grappling with the question - how do you know when to give up on a SaaS product? They wrap up by debating whether shelling out big bucks for 15 minutes with a big shot is worth it or just a fancy way to burn cash. Links: Andrew’s Twitter: @AndrewAskinsAndrew's website: https://www.andrewaskins.com/ChartJuice: https://www.chartjuice.com/Sean’s Twitter: @seanqsunMiscreants: http://miscreants.com/StackWise: Coming soon...FigTree: Coming soon...For more information about the podcast, check out https://www.smalleffortspod.com/. Transcript:00:00:01.34 Sean but what up what up 00:00:02.64 Andrew Not much, just ah trying to get a full week of work done for the first time in what feels like weeks um in part because I am headed to Mexico City next week. 00:00:09.84 Sean yeah well 00:00:14.45 Andrew um And I'll be working from there, but the first week I'm only going to have like two days because um Maddie gets in like midday Thursday. 00:00:14.79 Sean yeah 00:00:24.72 Andrew I'm traveling Monday. um We've got plans Friday um and Thursday afternoon. So it's like, yeah, I'm i'm not getting shit done. 00:00:35.69 Sean are you Are you going, like, is there a reason you're going or are you just going to hang out because you like. 00:00:35.75 Andrew So. 00:00:41.99 Andrew um It started with like Maddie and I had kind of talked about like this pipe dream of maybe living in Mexico City one day. 00:00:49.90 Sean Oh. 00:00:50.25 Andrew um Part of me really wants to live in a Spanish speaking country at some point um so that I can become properly fluent because I've been taking Spanish lessons um almost every week for the last like year and some change. 00:01:04.58 Sean OK. 00:01:05.07 Andrew um and so And I've just always wanted to be fluent in Spanish. So this was kind of supposed to be a test run. It was a goal I set for myself this year. I was like, all right, I'm taking this year off. I'm focusing on startup shit. But I also want to make sure I still get in at least one long backpacking trip, which I did with my dad. And then I want to go to Mexico City for a couple weeks. 00:01:25.52 Sean Oh yeah. 00:01:25.58 Andrew um So, um yeah, the plan is to kind of work from there and try to like, try to spend some time. 00:01:37.70 Andrew We're going to, again, take some days, have some fun, explore, but then also have some days where it's like go to a working space ah and just like live a normal life. 00:01:41.52 Sean Yeah. Yeah. 00:01:48.19 Andrew um I think that like the odds of moving to Mexico City are not very high anymore, like it just doesn't feel like it's probably going to fit into like our life plan. 00:02:00.44 Sean Mm 00:02:00.83 Andrew um But I think that I um would still strongly consider going for a longer stint at some point. 00:02:03.94 Sean -hmm. 00:02:10.30 Andrew So like the school I take lessons from is based in Puebla, which is, like I think, like two hours from Mexico City. So if I like it a lot and you this continues to be a goal, then I might, at some point, go spend a couple months at the school to try to become fluent. 00:02:30.28 Sean Nice, nice. Have I ever told you that I have a pipe dreamer living in Vegas? 00:02:37.53 Andrew Yeah, yeah, we've talked about it. 00:02:38.27 Sean good Okay, okay, cool, cool, cool, cool. Because I want to be fluid in losing all my money at the casino. 00:02:42.93 Andrew yeah 00:02:45.71 Sean That's cool. 00:02:45.76 Andrew You just want DEFCON year round, huh? 00:02:48.13 Sean Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly

    1h 7m

  4. 14 AUG

    Defcon, apparel sales, and Google ads

    In this episode, Sean gives a recap on shirt sales, his annual Korean BBQ dinner, and more from DEF CON. Andrew shares some feedback he got from the client project he's been working on, and dives into the early results he's seeing from running Google Ads for ChartJuice. Andrew reveals his latest mile times from his half marathon training, and the guys talk about how much impact you could make in congressional elections with some basic digital marketing chops. Links: Andrew’s Twitter: @AndrewAskinsAndrew's website: https://www.andrewaskins.com/ChartJuice: https://www.chartjuice.com/Sean’s Twitter: @seanqsunMiscreants: http://miscreants.com/StackWise: Coming soon...FigTree: Coming soon...For more information about the podcast, check out https://www.smalleffortspod.com/. Transcript:00:00:00.75 Sean What up, what up? Long time no see. 00:00:02.71 Andrew Yeah, how's it going? Can't wait to hear all about Defcon. 00:00:07.02 Sean Good. I can't wait to tell you all about DEFCON. A little sniffly. Definitely have conflu. 00:00:14.04 Andrew Concrud. 00:00:14.49 Sean Yeah, a couple friends. A couple friends I've also got in COVID. There's, I think, all that stuff. 00:00:19.25 Andrew Ouch. 00:00:20.33 Sean um I'll test again later. So far, so good. But ah yeah, we'll see. um Yeah, yeah, it's been, it's been hectic. 00:00:31.74 Sean Got back yesterday at 5am because my plane got delayed, and that was brutal. But it's the first time I've ever used my priority pass for a lounge. So that was kind of cool. um But before we get into Defcon, what have you been up to? 00:00:43.45 Andrew pun What? 00:00:45.64 Sean What's been, what's been going on? 00:00:47.21 Andrew what No, no, no, no, no. We got to start with Defcon. 00:00:48.83 Sean Okay. 00:00:49.58 Andrew and Defcon is is the big news here. 00:00:50.65 Sean All right, fine. 00:00:51.69 Andrew I've got i've got some some little tattoo stuff to talk about, but ah yeah no you I want to start with Defcon. 00:00:54.82 Sean Okay. 00:00:58.31 Andrew and 00:00:58.87 Sean All right, okay, fine, fine, fine, fine. Defend was good, Black Hat was good, Black, I'll start with the Black Hat. I went to the, shout out to Lucas Nelson, and he handed me to the Investors and Innovators Summit. um So first I'm going to like a summit at Black Hat. 00:01:14.64 Sean um 00:01:14.94 Andrew Huh. 00:01:15.56 Sean ah ah like I got to go that to that basically like for free which is cool and so I just decided not to pay for an expo pass this year terrible idea by the way like I really want to pay for an expo pass it's 800 bucks and like I don't really like it's not like I go for sales so I kind of just go to meet our clients but probably should have paid a hundred bucks to just go like like go to a booth 00:01:25.56 Andrew Oh no. 00:01:37.19 Andrew Why? Why do you say that? 00:01:39.28 Sean Um, I think I felt, okay, one, I think I felt a little bit of FOMO not seeing stuff at Black Hat and the expo floor. Um, I mean, in part didn't have like that much time to walk the floor. 00:01:53.41 Sean Definitely met people outside of the expo floor. So it was fine overall. I think it was just felt very weird not to like go do the whole expo thing that I always done every year. Um, 00:02:05.12 Andrew You all have never set up like a booth at Black Hat, have you? 00:02:08.15 Sean No, not for us, only for our clients. 00:02:08.79 Andrew Yeah. 00:02:10.64 Sean um But I think it's just like, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, we would never we would never like be black hat booth wise, that would be, actually, that would be very, very interesting. 00:02:10.67 Andrew Yeah. That shit is expensive, right? 00:02:18.97 Andrew Yeah. 00:02:21.00 Sean I don't think black hat would ever let us do that, now that I think of that. 00:02:22.17 Andrew Oh really? 00:02:24.51 Sean I mean, we're not a security vendor, so it'd be very weird to do it. 00:02:26.65 Andrew Hmm. 00:02:29.87 Sean I don't know, it'd be weird. i

    1h 9m

  5. 31 JUL

    How much inbound is TOO much inbound?

    Sean is exhausted because he has so many inbound emails from prospective clients he doesn't have time to answer them all. Meanwhile, Andrew is trying to buckle down and get Stripe built into ChartJuice so he can start advertising and collecting payments. Sean and Andrew talk about how the consulting project is going, and Sean has to rain Andrew in as he contemplates repositioning ChartJuice again. As a bonus, find out how fast Andrew can run a mile and why he needs to run faster. Links: Andrew’s Twitter: @AndrewAskinsAndrew's website: https://www.andrewaskins.com/ChartJuice: https://www.chartjuice.com/Sean’s Twitter: @seanqsunMiscreants: http://miscreants.com/StackWise: Coming soon...FigTree: Coming soon...For more information about the podcast, check out https://www.smalleffortspod.com/. Transcript:00:00.90 Andrew What's up, friend? 00:00.81 Sean Not so much. How are you? 00:04.17 Andrew Good, we haven't talked other than Slack in like two weeks. 00:07.87 Sean Yeah. You've been traveling. 00:11.38 Andrew Yeah. 00:11.84 Sean How have your trips been multiple? 00:14.99 Andrew um Montana is fucking beautiful. Oh my god. um Glacier in particular is stunning. Was there for a friend's wedding. um And then I think right before that, my sister was in town visiting. Have we talked since then? I can't remember. 00:34.15 Sean we talked i think i think the last time we talked was the day you i think you went to pick up your sister from the airport or yeah something like that yeah yes 00:42.08 Andrew Okay. Cool. Cool. Yeah. So, okay. Great. Time makes no sense, but that was the week before. And then there was a week. I think. I don't know. Anyway, my sister came to visit. That was a blast. It was great to see her. Got to meet her new boyfriend. So that was fun. And then went to Glacier for one of my best friend's weddings. His name is Alex. His now wife's name is also Alex. So that was very entertaining. 01:15.17 Andrew um We love her. We've known her for a long time. It's kind of the novelty is kind of worn off, to be honest, but but she is taking his name. 01:21.51 Sean Got it. 01:24.95 Andrew So they are going to be Alex Drake and Alex Drake, which is like absurd. Um, but we did a lot of hiking, did some white water rafting. Um, I saw, uh, mountain goats and big horn sheep. Um, and yeah, Glacier is just absolutely stunning. I, it reminded me that like, there's so much of this country that I have not seen that I want to see. Um, so I think next year I might. Maddie and I might make it a point to do like some sort of national park road trip or something, but we'll see. 02:04.04 Sean nice um i've always dreamed of just going and like driving to go cross-country trip in either like an rv or just with multiple motels and just driving around and staying like a like 52 weeks in 50 52 weeks in 52 states something like that and then you're right sorry it's been a long it's been a long since you've been gone it's been a war zone here 02:18.26 Andrew There are 50 states, but 02:31.01 Andrew Oh no, what's happening? Why are you so tired? 02:36.01 Sean um i count california as two states just for the record and porta rico just just before but i'm not yeah i am not smarter than a fifth grader for what it's worth so um anyway uh i don't know just like you 02:43.80 Andrew Puerto Rico should be a state, but yeah. 02:55.44 Sean and You know that thing where they're like, you'll know when you have product market fixed or bang on your door. It's like, have feeling like you have service market fit and people are banging on my door and we say yes to things. and We say no to some things, but like whenever, you know, just, we have a lot of clients and I don't have, we have. 03:12.22 Andrew I understand. 03:17.00 Sean Barely amount the amount of people to get all of it done with all the things that are going on. 03:20.77 Andrew Yeah. 03:23.63 Sean um um 03:26.14 Andrew So you're in, you're fully in one of the agency peaks where th

    48 min

  6. 10 JUL

    It's so tempting to become a content goblin

    Season 2: Episode 5In this episode Sean talks about being buried in client work at Miscreants and how to design trendy clothing that gets people hyped. Meanwhile, Andrew talks about making slow progress on ChartJuice and trying to fight the temptation to become an SEO content goblin. Links: Andrew’s Twitter: @AndrewAskinsAndrew's website: https://www.andrewaskins.com/ChartJuice: https://www.chartjuice.com/Sean’s Twitter: @seanqsunMiscreants: http://miscreants.com/StackWise: Coming soon...Cider: Coming soon...For more information about the podcast, check out https://www.smalleffortspod.com/. Transcript:00:02.21 Sean So where are you up to? You're late. 00:04.34 Andrew Uh, I was, I'm so behind on writing my newsletter for this month. Um, 00:11.16 Sean Because you're not using AI to help you anymore. 00:14.65 Andrew Dick. 00:15.61 Sean Sorry, sorry. 00:16.52 Andrew Um, yeah, I just like, honestly I've been busy with, uh, with consulting work for somebody. I think that's, that's what I'm going to blame it on. 00:26.47 Sean i it is his fault i would blame it on him as well he's made a lot of poor decisions recently we player 00:34.31 Andrew Yeah, I've been busy with consulting work and then we were like, um we were up north for ah the fourth for a week. um And so there was like a day where I thought about trying to write it there. We had kind of a rainy day and I was like, I'm just going to fuck around on my phone and read a book instead. 00:49.38 Sean I, it is his fault. 00:53.84 Andrew um Which was a choice I don't really regret, but now I'm like, 00:55.16 Sean I would blame it on him as well. He's made a lot of poor decisions recently. 00:59.72 Andrew uh like two weeks behind getting a newsletter out so trying to trying to get a piece written about how I validated church use and like just how I got to the point where I was willing to make the investment in the initial MVP because when I say validated I don't know if the product is going to work yet we're a ways off from that but 01:07.48 Sean Cool. 01:24.03 Andrew validated it enough to have confidence building an MVP. 01:27.50 Sean Cool. 01:27.60 Andrew So writing an essay about that and then ah need to put together like the newsletter portion with some links and stuff. But yeah, completely lost track of time. I did the thing I do where I like procrastinated for 30 minutes and then started writing again 30 minutes before our podcast and then looked up and it was like four twelve and we were supposed to start at four o'clock. So 01:50.67 Sean I do find that like that level of like crunch time is what really snaps me into flow real quick. 01:55.08 Andrew Oh, absolutely. 01:56.39 Sean Yeah. Yeah. I'm glad. I'm glad we could do that for you. 02:01.80 Andrew Honestly, like, that's part of why we wanted to start the podcast again, right? 02:05.41 Sean For sure. 02:05.71 Andrew Or at least for me, I i needed, like, I need some social forcing functions to make me do shit. 02:07.01 Sean Yeah. 02:13.01 Sean Yeah. Yeah. 02:14.19 Andrew If I have to give you an update every week, then I have to have an update every week. 02:14.27 Sean hundred 02:20.36 Sean Yeah. I mean, like you tweeted out something about us writing and I was like, fuck. And I started writing. I haven't done it last week, but ah since like, since you tweeted about it, but it at least like made me attempt to put words to the paper for a couple of days. So that was pretty cool. 02:38.93 Andrew Nice. Yeah, we got to actually we got to decide on an actual an actual bet or something. But I don't want to do that right the second because I have too many other things I'm trying to do right this second. 02:46.30 Sean Yeah. 02:52.07 Sean For sure. 02:52.29 Andrew I'm like, I don't want to take on a writing bet. 02:54.63 Sean ah sure 02:55.72 Andrew Maybe maybe in a ah month or two. 02:59.59 Sean um How's your trip by the way, you went through a cabin. 03:03.82 Andrew Yeah, Trip was great. u

    56 min

  7. 21 JUN

    Sean's new mobile app, marketing ChartJuice, and working together on a client project

    Season 2: Episode 4 Did you know AI really loves the word delve? Sean and Andrew can't help starting the pod off with a little more AI talk. Then they get into Sean's new product he's working on. Meanwhile Andrew is putting aside his IDE and starting to shift his focus to marketing and selling ChartJuice. He talks about using Flow.club to focus and setting a goal of doing two hours of deep work every day. Sean asks Andrew if he would sell ChartJuice if someone made him an offer tomorrow. And Sean and Andrew talk about working together on a new client project! Links: Andrew’s Twitter: @AndrewAskinsAndrew's website: https://www.andrewaskins.com/ChartJuice: https://www.chartjuice.com/Sean’s Twitter: @seanqsunMiscreants: http://miscreants.com/StackWise: Coming soon...Cider: Coming soon...For more information about the podcast, check out https://www.smalleffortspod.com/. Transcript:00:00.77 Sean What's up? What's up? How you doing? 00:03.03 Andrew Not bad. What happened to our theme music? I thought you were supposed to be coming in every week with a new theme song. 00:09.35 Sean So, you know, it's actually a little bit harder to use. than i Yeah. 00:14.64 Andrew Isn't this the classic story of all of these AI tools is it's like, it seems great at first glance. And then you start trying to really use it for something and you start going, oh, this is so much work to get out of this, what I want to get out of it. 00:28.82 Sean Yeah, 100%. I think like it doesn't have it doesn't have the levers I would want. you know I can't like dial a voice. I can't like switch. I have to use a prompt to change. like Do I want a male singer or a female singer? Do I want it to be you know louder here? I can't i can't say like I want to be louder here or different here. I feel like that. 00:49.46 Andrew You need a cringe dial. Let me crank the cringe all the way down to zero. 00:51.24 Sean Yeah. Yeah, i don't think i don't the thing is AI doesn't know what that is, which is crazy. 00:55.60 Andrew AI doesn't understand cringe. AI is by default cringe. That's that's why we still have jobs. 00:58.85 Sean You know? 01:01.89 Sean um I've been looking at some other AI things and God. 01:07.62 Sean which AI really likes the word Delve. Did you know that? 01:10.59 Andrew Oh, interesting. I have not noticed that. 01:11.63 Sean Yeah. I think Paul Graham had a tweet or something to say like that's like the one of the biggest indicators that someone's seeing AI and they never saw it and then until I finally like um I was pulling a transcription out and then trying to get a summary just to see how any of that works and the amount of times it uses Delve is astounding and 01:31.86 Andrew That's fascinating. 01:32.63 Sean There's nothing I can't, i you know, once it's like a wrapper around whatever sort of AI tool, I can't tell it to, you know, at that point, I can't even change the prompt. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Um. 01:42.85 Andrew By the way, I really want to try out a couple of different transcription tools to see if any any of them can do a better job with our voices because Zincaster is not terrible, but it's a little bit of a mess. 01:45.78 Sean Hmm. 01:57.05 Sean Hmm. 01:57.49 Andrew I do think the, Post edit transcription is usually better. 02:03.85 Sean Mm-hmm. 02:04.19 Andrew like I see a pretty noticeable improvement from pre-edit and post-edit, so that's kind of interesting. 02:06.81 Sean Mm-hmm. 02:09.69 Andrew But I'm really curious, like what if Podscan actually has the best the best transcriptions? 02:10.71 Sean Maybe. 02:14.46 Sean maybe 02:15.85 Andrew Or yeah know maybe Transistor's new transcription tool will be better because that's all they're doing? 02:16.09 Sean Maybe. 02:21.50 Sean Yeah. 02:25.24 Andrew I don't know. 02:25.29 Sean Is there a job to be good at that? 02:27.00 Andrew Yeah, I guess it's Zincaster's job to get that right as much as Transistor's job. but um It might even be the same person powering b

    45 min

  8. 13 JUN

    Andrew's dealing with bugs, and Sean is slammed with job applications

    Season 2: Episode 3 It's a Small Efforts Double Header! We were late getting this episode out, so we decided to go ahead and publish two weeks of episodes at once. In this episode Andrew is coming straight from a tattoo session, and talks about fighting bugs with ChartJuice. Meanwhile, Sean has gotten over 300 APPLICATIONS to his open job post, almost all from Dribbble. And he previews the consumer SaaS/community he's building on the side. Andrew and Sean discuss the strategy behind the new ConvertKit rebrand, and finally debate whether AI-generated book notes can be a good growth strategy for Andrew's personal blog. Differences between serverless functions and edge functions according to Claude: Execution Location: Serverless functions run on the cloud provider's servers centralized in large data centers, while edge functions run on edge servers distributed across multiple locations closer to the user.Latency: Edge functions have lower latency compared to serverless functions due to their proximity to the user.Scalability and resource constraints: Serverless functions scale automatically based on demand, while edge functions have a more limited scalability. Edge servers generally have less compute power and storage compared to cloud servers.Use Cases: Serverless functions are better suited for compute-intensive tasks, while edge functions are more efficient for data processing and content delivery near the user.Links: Andrew’s Twitter: @AndrewAskinsAndrew's website: https://www.andrewaskins.com/ChartJuice: https://www.chartjuice.com/Sean’s Twitter: @seanqsunMiscreants: http://miscreants.com/StackWise: Coming soon...For more information about the podcast, check out https://www.smalleffortspod.com/. Transcript:00:00:00.69 Sean What's up? 00:00:02.02 Andrew Not much, just got back from a little tattoo session, got some fresh ink. 00:00:06.48 Sean Very cool. What did what you get? 00:00:08.97 Andrew Uh, got a piece of flash. So I was at a fundraiser for, um, a friend's, a friend was organizing the fundraiser. He's part of this group called prism, um, that raises money to support, uh, GSAs in schools, which used to stand for gay straight alliances. 00:00:19.32 Sean Cool. 00:00:27.96 Andrew Now I think stand for gender sexuality alliances. 00:00:31.21 Sean Okay. 00:00:31.48 Andrew Um, so he's part of this group prism. They were doing a fundraiser and they had a raffle as part of the fundraiser. 00:00:38.18 Sean Hmm. 00:00:38.43 Andrew And they were raffling off three flash tattoos. Um, so it was like a design and you could put. ticket in, and if you won, you would get that tattoo. And um I like two of them. And so I put a ticket in each one and was like, well, let fate decide. And I got picked. And so I went and got this cool vase with, it's like kind of an abstract vase with monstera leaves sticking out. 00:01:04.13 Sean Yeah. 00:01:06.90 Andrew And it's my first leg tattoo, got it on my thigh. um it will be very visible when I wear shorts. 00:01:14.20 Sean Hell yeah. 00:01:14.51 Andrew um So, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. 00:01:15.18 Sean Five inch the blue velvet shorts. 00:01:18.18 Andrew When I wear my short shorts, which is all I wear. 00:01:19.60 Sean Nice. 00:01:20.58 Andrew So, um yeah, I'm pretty into it. 00:01:20.75 Sean Nice. 00:01:23.87 Andrew It was cool. This was my first, I guess it was my second flash tattoo. um But the artist, she was great. Her name was Ali Gostella, I think. Super chill, super welcoming, had a great time, made the experience fantastic. 00:01:40.32 Sean Hmm. 00:01:41.67 Andrew And one of the cool parts was she really was stoked about this design, which was so much fun because she was having fun tattooing it and was really hyped and excited about it. And that made it more fun and made me more excited about getting it. And so it was just like just good energy. 00:01:55.53 Sean Nice. 00:01:58.07 Sean I like it. Congrats. 00:01:59.08 Andrew Yeah. 00:01:59.96 Sean Yeah, congr

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About

Two agency owners and friends talk about cybersecurity, design, and the continuous small efforts it takes to build a business.

Information

  • Creator
    Sean Sun and Andrew Askins
  • Years Active
    2021 - 2024
  • Episodes
    35
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2024 Sean Sun and Andrew Askins

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