mikehking dot com

I finally found the iOS podcast app I’ve been looking for, for months (certainly not a life-threatening problem to complain about) — thanks to a great recommendation from Tom Cagley.  I figured I should ask him, as he’s an accomplished podcast host (focused on how technology companies can get better at everything important), and I only listen to podcasts.

I’ve used the iPhone’s default Podcast app, I’ve tried Overcast, and I read about a few others; but I wanted an app that would give me better control of my podcast list.  I have enough things to juggle these days — I don’t want to think about podcast prioritization (again, sorry for whining about something to trivial).  need my podcast app to stress me out.  I wanted to be able to manage my podcasts like a backlog of stories in JIRA (where I feel like I can actually be in control) and not like a torrent of “here’s 1,000 podcasts you haven’t listened to yet, in some order that isn’t based on your preferences.”

I have enough things to juggle these days — I don’t want to think about podcast prioritization…

Anyway, Castro 2 is awesome — it does exactly what I want:  It queues up my podcasts, and lets me prioritize whether they should go to the top of my reading queue, the bottom, or nowhere; and then it lets me move things around on the queue; so I always have something good to listen to.

Thanks Supertop for making a great app, and thanks Tom for a great recommendation.

If only I could find an app to manage queuing up all my media, across various apps (e.g. iBooks for iTunes-based audiobooks, Blinkist, Udemy, podcasts, Audible, YouTube).

(Blinkist is a service that summarizes books into short text and audio (15 minute) summaries — they’re great, and I thought I’d offer them some unsolicited product management feedback)

Hey Blinkist,

I’ve been loving my subscription, and I wanted to share some of my ideas/wish list for features for you to add to your iPhone app/service:

1. I can’t find a way to go back to whatever I was listening last, when I open the app — I can go to the home screen and filter based on progress; but that doesn’t necessarily show me what I was listening to — could that be where the app loads initially, when I reopen it?  Or maybe a new icon in the top-right corner of the app’s home page?
   •   
2. I love that you added reading list (Blink Backlog) to the app, but it’s super-hard to find (I can only seem to get to it, while listening to a book, and then right-swiping — the metaphor here doesn’t make much sense to me.  I’d love for you to add a button at the bottom of the home page for “Reading List” (it  looks like there is room at the bottom for a 4th icon)
   •   
3. The “Library” icon (bottom-center) of the home page isn’t a very intuitive icon — maybe that could look more like a row of shelves, and the “Reading List” icon could be more of a todo list
4. When I’m scrolling through my Reading List, I’d love there to be a faster way to move items around — maybe instead of only being able to drag using the hamburger (3 horizontal lines), you could offer an “Up Arrow” icon that would send the book to the top of the reading list; and a “Down Arrow” to send it to the bottom of the list
   • 
5. I can’t find my Reading List on the web app (when I use my laptop to check out my account) — could you add the Reading List functionality to that interface?
6. I never read the non-audio summaries, so in addition to being able to favorite a whole book summary; I’d love to be able to favorite a specific Blink (e.g. Blink 3 of 10 from a specific book) — maybe as a Star instead of  Heart; so I could go back to those
   • 
7. I’d love it if you made it easier to share that I enjoyed a book summary, when I finished it, sharing it to Twitter or Facebook at the end of the summary
8. It’d be great if there a was a convenient place in the app to submit books I’d love to have you summarize

Thanks for all the great summaries Blinkist!

Mike

While it’s a gross oversimplification to say that I draw (I use the term “draw” loosely) on a whiteboard for a living, it’s amazing to reflect on how much of my time is spent using a whiteboard for all kinds of things (most of which are incredibly valuable to the work I’m doing).  I can tell I’m spending a majority of my time on the whiteboard while at work, because my smartphone pictures are about 25% whiteboard pictures and 75% pictures of my adorable son (and beautiful wife).

As a Chief Technology Officer, I end up using the whiteboard for all kinds of things, like:

• Facilitating solution architecture discussions and development with subject matter experts (technical experts) and people who understand the needs of our customers, creating things like Concepts of Operation (ConOps), system architectures, and  unifying proposal roadmap figures
• Outline and storyboarding proposals before we start digging into these (This is key — just like software engineering, you need a plan/architecture before anyone writes any code)
• Creating product backlogs and release plans, where I sometimes throw in some painter’s tape and sticky notes so I don’t have to keep rewriting the user stories when I move them between releases/sprints
• Creating user interface wireframes (whiteboards are great for this, because they force you to focus on the big picture — just like using a Sharpie to sketch these on paper, instead of a pen)
• Creating process map and flowcharts with process owners, trying to define current and to-be business processes (and sometimes trying to map the value of different steps while refining)
• Sketching out tables to validate content structure before going off to create them in a tool like Microsoft Office or Confluence

That said, I want to be clear that the pictures of my wife and son are much cuter than my whiteboard pictures.

I’m excited that, for the first time, the eight Jersey Mike’s Subs shops in Northern Virginia have selected NOVA Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA) to partner with for the month of March, as part of their annual Month of Giving.  Every year, Jersey Mike’s stores pick local charities to partner with for the month.

Every day in March, everyone who buys something from a participating Jersey Mike’s store will have the opportunity to add a dollar or more to their order, to donate to FCA.  While that’s exciting, the big day is Wednesday, March 30 — on that day, 100% of the day’s sales (every single dollar) will be donated to FCA from these 8 stores.  So if you’re a fan of FCA’s mission of ministering to student athletes and coaches, please put in some big catering orders or bring all your friends on Mar 30!

Buy some tasty sandwiches from these Jersey Mike’s stores this month to support FCA’s great mission to invest in student athletes and coaches across the NOVA region:

• Chantilly
• Courthouse Plaza (Fairfax)
• Vienna/Merrifield
• Mt. Vernon/Alexandria
• Reston
• Springfield
• The Shops at Fair Lakes (Fairfax)
• Kamp Washington (Fairfax)

(And if you’re excited to find other ways to support FCA, please ask me about their Fellowship Dinner, coming up on Sunday, April 24 in Falls Church.  It’s a great every year to hear how God has blessed students and coaches connected to FCA.)

You don’t always have to play by the rules

My father often used boldness (be confident), candor (you’ll be surprised what people will agree to when you ask plainly), and creativity to find ways to get some amazing deals and create fun adventures for my sister and me.

He would go into car dealerships who were offering something like a free picnic set if you would test drive a car, and explain “Look, I’m not going to buy this car.  We can go on a test drive if you’d like, but it’s only going to prevent you from selling to someone else who comes here.”

Long before the tragedy of 9/11, when I was probably 8 or 9 years old, my father took me to the small, local airport in Manassas because I was a big fan of airplanes.  Normal fathers would have hung out, watching the planes take off and land with their child, and have a great afternoon.  Not my dad — he walked right up to the air traffic control tower with me, knocked on the door, and asked if we could come up and watch the planes and the controllers while they directed traffic.  The man who answered the door was surprised (I’m guessing normal people didn’t randomly knock on the door and ask), but he welcomed us up — it was an awesome experience as a child.  My father later brought me back to the airport and persuaded a local pilot to let me sit in his plane while he gave me a tour of every control and dial.

These were powerful experiences as a child, realizing that there’s a whole world of adventures that are available to you if you ask.  Adventures that aren’t listed on the official brochure.