1. I ❤️HR
The past two weeks Barry and Lettini have been building our next little project, and I tried to deal with the company-side of work: setting up payroll, health insurance, and making sure we’re compliant (hello, bureaucracy!). Back in the day when Danny and I started Iridesco, we had to get on the phone (this was before the iPhone and we had a real telephone) and call people—like a health insurance broker—and fill out a bunch of paperwork.
It’s a different world today and now there are apps for all this HR quagmire. We’re using Justworks, which seems good enough. It’s impressive how they’re able to conceal most of the stink of the rotten business of health insurance (such a shitty, gross, and prohibitively expensive product).
I’m saying all this as if I was doing the work (I mean, I tried). Truth is, our dear friend Patrick Filler, now a father of two, is helping us part time and saving me from all the HR madness. His first order of business: he just terminated my account on Justworks so I have no idea what’s even happening anymore. Thank you, Patrick.
What else? Oh I wrote a blog post about what we’re doing here at Good Enough. Lots of words. My fingers tired. —SL
2. Flat Circle
It has been interesting getting back into the groove of building software with full intention. While Good Enough has officially been in existence since April 1st of 2022, we have been working on things for over a year now. In this first year the stakes have been low in that they were almost non-existent. We’ve been exercising and playing and simply remembering how to use our fingers and brains in this way again.
I’m reminded of the eighteen months before I left my first adult job at an insurance company. I had gotten tired of computers and did not know if I liked programming any longer. I decided to test things out by spending some time tinkering with computers as well as learning something new (Ruby on Rails). Once I got into it I realized that, yeah, I did still enjoy creating things with computers.
This past year has been a series of similar realizations. Prior to this past year my career had grown into one of management and company leadership. I enjoyed most everyone I worked with along the way, and we accomplished some great things, but I had also become well removed from the building-software side of things. After a year of knocking off the rust I am again surprised to learn that I do indeed enjoy programming and building stuff. At least at certain difficulty levels and in the service of certain types of projects.
And so 2023 finds us creating like mad. 2023 finds us searching for a product that might generate revenue. 2023 finds us hoping to build a small company that is self sufficient.
Time is a flat circle. —BH
3. Blue Faces Mostly
If you like this newsletter, you might also enjoy The Art of Cover Art by Rachel Cabitt. She describes her publication like so:
Not your “Best Album Covers of All Time” listicle. We’ll dive into everything from cover art across decades and genres to trendy and niche design elements, specific artists’ discography, and how technology and culture have changed the importance of the album cover.
And guess what? She’s on the hottest website on the whole wide internet: Album Whale. Here’s a beautiful, blue list she made recently, featuring albums from Coltrane to Britney. Oh my. —SL
4. Album of the Week
Lettini, Barry, and Patrick are all into this New Zealand band called The Beths and they’re all into their new album, Expert in a Dying Field. It came out last year.
Lettini thinks the writing is smart for upbeat indie rock and is seeing them in concert this year. Patrick already saw them in a backyard in Austin many years ago. They both love the full band harmonies and recommend this fun, and brave, music video. —SL
5. Lettini Biscotti
I don’t know how it happened, but I got into a Denis Villeneuve kick recently. My wife and I rewatched a few of his films, like Arrival, and caught up with his back catalogue of movies we hadn’t seen before. The one that stood out the most was Prisoners.
It’s a hard movie to watch (trigger warning: kidnapping and torture) and more serious than my usual recommendations, but it’s the Lettini Screeni this month. A gritty, heady thriller and mystery that explores the murky depths of good and evil. It kept us on the edge of our seat the whole time. Can you get to the center of the puzzle before the end-of-movie reveal?
Truth be told, I actually wish the movie ended, like, 30 seconds earlier. Watch the movie to understand what I mean. —ML
(I hated the movie. —SL)
(I have not seen the movie. —BH)