1. ‘Tis the Season for Album Lists

As 2023 winds down, we are excited to see folks flocking to Album Whale to compile their “Best of” lists! There really is a lot to discover, and it doesn’t all have to be albums released in 2023. I get to things slowly and I’m all aboard on lists like Best New To Me Of 2023:

And this favorite forty album list by Mark Harrison is 🧑‍🍳💋!

It’s time for you to put up your Best of 2023 list on Album Whale. And if you haven’t signed up yet, well, correct thyself! For inspiration, visit the Discovery section to find your next favorite album.  —Barry

2. The Week That Was

While much of this Maelstrom year has been scattershot, this week we decided to all focus on one product: Letterbird. As we suspected, focusing together as a team felt great! Expect more of that next year. Here’s what we did this week:

• Embedding is now available! Bring your Letterbird contact form to your very own site with a simple copy→paste one line script.

• We made the form a little more resilient, in case someone accidentally closes it mid-message-writing.

• We did some light things to both mitigate spam and give us some insight if spam is occurring.

• We fixed a couple bugs in the matrix, and wrote a good number of tests to avoid breaking things in the future.

• We added a simple translation feature for any user who wants to offer their form in another language.

• And finally, we found a new mascot! Meet Sylvie Skyletter, who is SO happy to be delivering your messages to you via email:

You might be seeing a lot of Sylvie soon. Or maybe not—she’s going to be pretty busy after all!

3. Photo Boards

Last weekend I went to Philly to attend PAX Unplugged, a huge convention for tabletop gaming of all sorts: board games, card games, miniatures, RPGs… a veritable paradise for nerds like myself. There was also awesome cosplay, events, panels, and more. While I enjoy some amount of all these things, the focus for me and my friends this year was board gaming.

Over the 3-day span, we played about a dozen new games, were introduced to a couple dozen more, and saw from a distance even more dozens. It was both very fun and also overwhelming. A few standouts this year were Art Society, Black Mold, Parks!, and Summit, and we learned the basics of Mahjong 🀄️!

For some reason that I didn’t entirely plan, I started live-Instagram-storying my experience of the event. I don’t post on Instagram much, but I do post a lot on vacation. I suppose it’s like a vacation photoblog for me, a catalog of this thing I’m doing that’s outside of my day-to-day. Instagram stories have the benefit of being fast to post to, visual-by-design, and I have an audience there already: my friends and family that might actually be interested in my life. And some of them enjoyed following along! The downside is that it’s all gone now, just a 24 hour fleeting glimpse of a fun weekend I can personally go find in my Photos app, but you cannot. It doesn’t exist anywhere linkable anymore.

Is that a problem? I don’t really know. I guess I can’t share a link to my experience here in this newsletter, so there’s that. After reading the above, do you want to see the pictures? I guess I could blog about it, but I’m lazy. You’ll just have to trust me: it was fun. Play more board games. —Lettini

4. In Conclusion

That does it, and oh what doeses we did. It feels good, folks! A scant two weeks remain in our work-year, and we have more fun things that we’d like to present before the holidays hit. Our (Letter)bird is free and you’ll be hearing more about it in the new year.

Patrick says: Impressive! But there’s a reason it’s played on a guitar. 😆

That’s it. The newsletter is done.

1. A Gift(s) for You

This week the team is in varying states of winding down. We have started to dip into the world of advertising and getting the word out on Letterbird, and we also made some headway into a useful Letterbird integration. In Pika land, Arun has decided that we should get more invested in our editor. To this point we have been making use of several layers of open source projects. These layers have begun getting in our way. The editor is very important to the Pika experience and we decided that we want to be in more control of how that editor functions. No, we’re not building a whole new editor, but we do want to peel back some of those layers. Paring down the editor onion, if you will.

We have also spent a goodly amount of time building some Pika presents for you. Firstly, you can now essentially run an entire personal website on Pika with the unveiling of Pika Pages. (Pages can also have variables so you can inject a post list into them. Read more in our FAQs.) Secondly, we’ve added support for titleless posts, allowing you to get your write on without the hurdle of thinking of a title.

2. 2024, The Year of the Blog?

I want everyone to have a blog. I really do! I love seeing people express themselves, hone their writing skills, and share their perspectives on whatever catches their interest. I enjoy them sharing their weird. I respect what it takes to be vulnerable in doing that publicly.

I realize that we all have the option to post to Facebook, XTwitterX, Instagram, and so on, but I don’t find those places to be nearly as interesting as a blog on your own site. Whether that’s at yourname.pika.page or your own custom domain or a unique URL at some other blog service, I find it just really…nice to see folks having their own internet plot where they can plant their flags and express themselves. Even if they choose garish colors and oddball fonts, it’s all good. (Okay, I have my limits there!)

Around my internet haunts it feels like many engines have been revving up in 2023, but maybe in 2024 we’ll see more people actually moving back the way of the blog. At a certain point the algorithms and ads, the feed and attention grabbing will become too much. Perhaps people will seek to connect on their own terms, in their own place. To reach out for connections outside of their existing geographies and social networks. A blog is a perfect place to do that!

A blog, and a site, can be your place on your terms. Maybe the dream of two cars and a house is a bit of a challenge to achieve these days, but you can have it all on the internet, and for a much lower price. If you’re thinking that it’s time to start building your internet home, perhaps you should sign up for Pika and give it a try. It costs nothing. At least for now*. —Barry

* There will always be a free version of Pika. It probably won’t have features like Pika Pages, though.

3. Happy New Year!

Hmm. It was a very Pika-forward newsletter. That’ll teach people to leave on holiday!

Good Enough is taking a break for the holidays and we’ll be back with more silliness in 2024. It’s been a pretty great first year with our full Good Enough team, but we have lots we want to achieve in 2024. We’re excited, but ready for a break.

So I leave you with this from today’s chat…

Shawn received a text message from DoorDash:

“Wow, check any water in your order. It might be alcoholic,” says Arun.

Shawn suggests, “Will ask him to fix our dining table, too.”

Happy Birthday!

Hello, y’all. We’re trucking away over here in Good Enough land. Yet we deem it important to send over a second newsletter this month. You may consider this bonus content. You may be wishing we kept to our less-chatty word. Maybe just save your regrets and read up?

1. Do You Like Drawings?

Since we first built our Good Enough Guestbook, many have wished for one of their own. Truth be told, when we dream of our best selves at night, our best selves have made an easy-to-use printer hardware that allows you to receive drawings from others all the day long. Dreams are great, but in the meanwhile we decided to build the next best thing. That’s right, we’ve built…

Coming soon to a Pika blog near you: Guestbooks! We’ve recreated the drawing interface from the Good Enough Guestbook in Pika, and now visitors to your blog can draw you a picture. (And if they’d rather just write you a note, they can do that as well.) You can give it a try right on the Pika blog (or Barry’s blog if you prefer).

We’ve been cookin’ on this for a few weeks now and we’re very excited to get it into your hot little hands. See, this newsletter does come with benefits! If you’d like your Pika blog to have early access to this Guestbook beta, just write us a note and we’ll get you access next week.

2. Some People are Good Enough: Michael Margio

Our interview series continues with interview number two. We are interviewing people who have drawn on our Guestbook, started a blog on Pika, or made a list on Album Whale. If you’re one of them and would like to be featured in this newsletter—write us! Now let’s meet Michael Margio!

Who are you?

My name is Michael Margio. I'm a video producer based out of Orlando, FL. I've had the pleasure of working on a variety of video projects from documentaries to TV commercials to corporate testimonials. All kinds of stuff. And in my spare time, my family and I go to Disney World (we're in Orlando--why not?) And I'm a musician at heart.

As a professional video editor & cinematographer, what do you notice when you're watching movies or TV shows that most of us don't see?

The first two things that jump out to me are lighting and emotion. When I see a scene in a film, my eyes are instantly drawn to the lighting. Probably too much. I often wonder, "How did they light that?" or "That doesn't look realistic. why did they do that?" That's the cinematographer mindset at work. As an editor, I see emotion a lot in a scene. Do I really care about the people? Do I believe in them? Does the scene help me feel for this character's predicament?

Who's your favorite cartoon character and why?

Favorite cartoon character. This is a hard one. So many great characters. This is probably an odd choice, but I kind of love Gaston from Beauty and the Beast. The reason is he's a ridiculous character--a caricature of a character, in fact. Every line is over the top. Every one of his characteristics is exaggerated in all the best ways. He's easy to hate.

Thanks, Michael! You can learn more about Michael on his website!

3. Sharing Is Caring

A few links for ya!

• Symbol.wtf. No more googling for symbols.

• Spurious Correlations. Correlation ≠ causation. (symbol.wtf did not have ≠!)

• The tale of Papyrus continues. Not a huge improvement, but…

• Shel Silverstein wrote “A Boy Named Sue”!? Also, Shel Silverstein can’t sing.

Don’t forget Pika!

• Stardew Valley Impression. I’m jealous that Jason is experiencing Stardew for the first time.

• Pink Lines Mean Good Times. A lovely reflection on the little things in life.

• Time is Not Running Out. Cole reminds us that there’s still time.

• Everyday Dad Carry. Phil takes us on a transitional journey from EDC to…EDDC.

4. In Conclusion

We continue to be thankful for all the folks supporting Good Enough and our products. And we’re excited to unleash some big new things on the world soon. While this is all wonderful, we are reminded that in the world of giant companies and giant money, it’s hard for small businesses like ours to gain a foothold. This is why recently Barry wrote about our continued need for fans of our work to talk about what they enjoy. Read more to follow where Barry’s mind can lead.

To all the creators out there, we hope you are finding inspiration and motivation in this lovely spring (or southern hemisphere fall). Share your work. Share the work of others. Let’s be louder than the algorithms!

It’s been a minute, friends. We’re excited to share what we’ve been up to, and I think you’ll see that we have a good excuse to explain our recent quiet. Read on!

1. Studio Update

Firstly, newsletter crew, please let us introduce you to our answer to “why is it so hard for teams to share email?” – Jelly.

You can read more about it on the homepage, or on our blog.

We’ve been building this since January, and using it ourselves for almost as long. For our team, it’s a game-changer for how we interact with our shared email. We use it for customer support but also for all the other conversations Good Enough has with the world.

We’ve also been talking to a lot of teams interested in joining our alpha. It seems like every team has managed to lash together a different set of tools and techniques to manage their shared email, which is both a tribute to their ingenuity, and proof positive that we all deserve something better. 

If you’re looking for a way to collaborate on email, do yourself a favour and sign up for our waitlist. We are improving Jelly every day.

Pika has had some updates as well!

1. Tags!

2. Your browser helping to avoid accidentally losing your writing

3. Letterbird integration improvements and better smart quotes

2. Sharing Is Caring

Steve Albini had a food blog: What I made Heather for dinner.

Fried stuff is great, so long as you get it while it's piping hot. Since our place is small, I can get food from the kitchen to Heather in a heartbeat, so I fry stuff all the time. Usually I make little croquettes or other doughy things and fry them, but I thought they might be getting a little heavy after repetition and have laid off the fried things for a bit.

Indeed!

This day in capybara news…

“Everyone knows that capybaras are pacifists. What’s next? A pika assassin?”

“Pika: chaotic good thief”

“There is an Assassin Rogue subclass, and chaotic good is often the right alignment to play it.”

Look for a D&D cast of Good Enough characters soon. 😂 

Meanwhile, people have been writing on Pika!

• Video game fashion? Phil’s got you with Hot Napoleonic Summer.

• Ever nervous to talk to strangers? Maybe Odin can help.

• How do you bring yourself to your work? Benedict considers this while preparing for a barista competition.

• Wish you traveled more? MacPsych provides some travel inspiration.

One Million Checkboxes. Enjoy!

Also, Math Notes is bananas.

3. In Conclusion

On top of all the good work we’ve been doing this summer, we’ve also taken some much needed vacation. This allowed us time with friends and family. And time to see some beautiful scenery as well.

We hope you’ve been able to take some time this summer to recharge and reconnect. If you took an amazing picture during your time off, feel free to share it with us and maybe we’ll feature it in a future newsletter. (Even better, write a blog post about it and drop us a link.)

So long, until we write again.

Our noses have been to the collective grindstones and we’ve been quiet. It’s time to come up for air and say “Hello.” Hello!

1. Studio Update

The past few weeks of Jelly have been all about responding to feedback from our lovely beta customers. We’ve been rounding over those rough edges and generally preparing for a near-future where teams of the world just mosey on over to the Jelly site and sign up. James has especially been putting in yeoman’s work dotting all of our billing lower-case ‘j’s. (To the software developers out there: billing, amiright?!)

In Pika land there have been some behind-the-scenes improvements as well as one big public feature. You can now update your site navigation to link to any URL anywhere. This moves Pika one step further along the path of being the most drop-dead easy way to quickly get your lovely personal website on the internet. —Barry

2. Some People Are Good Enough: Ben Tsai

Our interview series continues with Ben Tsai graciously answering our questions. We are interviewing people who have drawn on our Guestbook, started a blog on Pika, or made a list on Album Whale. If you’re one of them and would like to be featured in this newsletter–write us! Take it away, Ben!

Who are you?

I'm a software engineer living in Pittsburgh, PA, with my wife and three kids. Professionally, I have a passion for human-centered design and helping organizations better collaborate. I've been on the internet since the late 90s, and trying to establish a blogging habit since the early 00s. I enjoy coffee, classical music, and staying active. 

What’s been your role on the product team?

Currently I work on the firewall product at Cisco. I lead a team of engineers that generally covers the usability issues in the product. Recently, we implemented a new design system shared across our entire security organization. I've been finding that the non-coding parts of my job energize me. Especially at a big company where there are a lot of processes and teams, there tends to be challenges with communication, and I've found a lot of value in tackling those challenges.

What led you to advocate for engineers to be more involved with design?

When I began my career, I worked for a design consultancy that pioneered an interdisciplinary approach to solving problems. That experience planted a seed in me that keeping the human at the center in the midst of technology was critical. Fast forward a few years, and I was working in healthcare IT, and after multiple visits to hospitals, I realized that the software I was designing and building was directly connected to doctors' ability to save lives. I embraced this by taking a UX course and learning what I could from the designers and researchers around me. When I joined Cisco and entered the cybersecurity industry, I continued to advocate for the importance of human-centered design. The work we do has existential consequences for the companies and institutions we help protect. I find the work so rewarding when it is put in the context of humanity rather than focusing solely on the cool things I can build.

What are some simple, everyday things that bring you joy?

I got into coffee about 15 years ago when I read a blog post about the AeroPress and proceeded to purchase it. That coincided with the rise of specialty coffee. My brother-in-law recently gifted me a manual espresso machine. I enjoy the ritual of making coffee for my wife and myself. I appreciate the culture around coffee being an activity around which we socialize and meet others. Whenever we explore a new city, I try to find local coffee shops and speak with the baristas there. It's a great way to get the vibe of the community in general.

Thanks, Ben! You can learn more about Ben on his website!

3. Sharing Is Caring

We come across links. Maybe you want to see these links?

• Call us out when we start working on a Good Enough Cuckoo Clock

• Illustrated bands were on our mind when Lettini reminded us of the intro to the Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film For Theaters

• Barry is not sure what Disney is up to over there, but there’s A Whole New Sound

• Patrick wonders if Our Cow Angus is the weirdest thing MSCHF has done yet?

• Did you forget Good Enough TV? Check out this unexpected 12-string master class by Glen Campbell and the indescribable Tailor Swif

4. In Conclusion

That was a pretty decent newsletter, don’t you think? Product updates, an interview, several lovely links, no outright lies…and it’s Friday! Happy vibes, happy vibes. We don’t think that any recent media event in the U.S. could outpace today’s Good Enough newsletter.

No pets or jelly or pet jelly were consumed, or allegedly consumed, in the making of today’s Good Enough newsletter. After reading A Good Enough Newsletter, wash your hands before returning to work. Share with your friends for more happy vibes.

1. How are you?

Are you staying reasonably happy? Taking care of yourself? If not, I hope you’re able to find a bit of hope and momentum soon.

We’re doing alright over here—grateful, energized, and yes, feeling the weight of the climb. As we continue pushing Good Enough toward Mount Business’s summit of sustainability, the trail is steep and sometimes unclear. We’re learning a lot, stretching ourselves, and staying grounded in the belief that our work matters.

We believe in what we’re building. We believe in each other. And even when the trail gets rocky, we’re still climbing.

As a little experiment, I’ve turned on comments for this issue. If you’ve found any helpful self-care strategies lately, we’d love to hear them. Let’s swap some encouragement. Thank you!

—Barry

2. Studio Update

We’re still on the lookout for the teams and small businesses that Jelly can really serve. Recently, we’ve been sharpening our approach to search ads (with some expert help!) and are exploring the idea of temporary marketing support (the cool kids call them “fractional CMOs”).

Also in startupland: spammers 👿 tried to party crash Jelly. James has been working hard to preserve Jelly’s good name and keep the bad actors at bay. It’s a rite of passage for growing SaaS apps, especially those in the email space. We’re navigating it with vigilance and some good-natured sighing.

Some other bright spots:

• Cade has been talking with everyone about getting the word out on Jelly

• Patrick is polishing the email editor (yes, it’s even smoother now)

• Lettini’s refining our outreach emails–we’re always interested in talking with customers about how Jelly is working for them

• Oh—and Pika now supports 🎵 Apple Music embedding 🎵

One last thing: we’ve resumed our Meet the Team blog series. Meet Barry!

3. Sharing is Caring

You get a link! You get a link!

• It’s fascinating to read about Craig Mod’s launch of the quirky, private social network, The Good Place

• Lettini does not recommend DMV websites, so I guess you don’t get a link to the New York DMV

• Maybe AI-based customer support is going down the wrong path? Who’s to say?!

• Get thee back to a website (try Pika!)

• To wit, Hypertext TV

• To wit, po.ta.to

4. In Conclusion

I hope some of the words or links herein contributed to the needle moving a little more to the positive side of your mood-gauge.

Don’t forget to cheer for the Timberwolves to beat the Lakers in the NBA playoffs. Nobody (except for all of the media companies) really wants the Lakers to win, do they? Timberwolves are seeded lower. Everyone likes an underdog, yes? Do the right thing!

—Barry

1. Reflection

This week I find myself looking back at the road. I have a(nother) child graduating high school in just over a month. The path to here has had many twists, turns, and bumps. Looking closer, though, a lot of the twists were more like lovely twirls where you find that you’re smiling when you stop spinning. A lot of the bumps were the kind that made you feel weightless and gave you a sort of exhilaration. Things are different when looking back.

I’ve also been reflecting on Good Enough’s path. The map we laid out at the beginning of the company was the sort of thing that you might draw in pencil on the back of a napkin. Nothing prescribed and nothing set in stone, but we had ideas, guesses, hopes, and dreams. Since then we have walked down the expected road at times, and we’ve also taken many forks along the way.

I think I’ve sufficiently tortured the metaphor.

As is usually the case, when I sit in a reflective mode I get thankful. Thankful for the opportunity to work the way I’m working. Thankful to have built so many interesting projects with a team of friends. Thankful to have been part of a beautiful human’s journey from childhood to adulthood.

And now I’m excited to see what comes next!

—Barry

2. Studio Update

The past week has been one of a lot of writing, along with a lot of doing of things. Check it:

• Jelly now has quoted replies!

• Guided walkthroughs were added to Jelly to help new users get the hang of things

• You can now sign up for, and log in to, Jelly directly with your Google account

• Pika added a reply by email feature

• Barry threw together a little utility to help make email headers more readable

• James shared how the London Ruby Users Group is using Jelly very effectively

• Barry wrote something that may seem obvious until you realize a lot of small businesses are doing it wrong: You Need Customers to Succeed in Small Business

Oh, yes, and we’ve got another Meet the Team blog post for you. Hello, James!

3. Sharing is Caring

Welcome to linkland, home of the links:

• Two of Lettini’s favorite things have united for one live podcast

• Maybe having stunted man-children at the levers of capitalism/the world isn’t the best idea?

• Piracy knows no bounds

• Barry almost put down a $50, no-strings preorder for the Slate truck, but the second bullet point above made him hesitate

4. In Conclusion

Take a seat right there
Consider not to forget
What you remember

—Barry

1. ‘Tis the season

This time of year graduations are happening all around us. One graduation speech that has never left me after all these years is George Saunders’s convocation speech at Syracuse in 2013.

What I regret most in my life are failures of kindness.

As I mentioned in the prior newsletter, my daughter is graduating from high school. In fact, her graduation ceremony is this evening. It is wonderful to celebrate all that she’s accomplished. It is exciting to contemplate all that she will do in the future. Saunders provides great advice, not about ambition, but about leaning in to the youness of you.

Do those things that incline you toward the big questions, and avoid the things that would reduce you and make you trivial.

And most of all, if we take Saunders’s advice and “err in the direction of kindness,” I think we’ll find that life goes so much better for ourselves and those around us.

—Barry

2. Studio Update

A lot has happened here at Good Enough since our last letter. Particularly, time-sensitively, we are running a coupon promotion for Pika right now to celebrate our launch of background images. If you’ve been holding off on starting a blog, PIKACITIES gives you 15% off your first year of Pika Pro. Or maybe you have a friend who really needs to get blogging? In any case, act now because the coupon expires on June 13th.

Wait, there’s more!

• Jelly has added teammate assignment

• And pre-saved replies to speed up replying to frequently asked questions

• And teammate notifications

• Pika made its headings linkable

• The team also made a bunch of lovely performance improvements to Jelly

Oh, and something else is cooking in Pikaland:

3. Sharing is Caring

You’ve got links, we’ve got links:

• While not a huge fan of either artist, Patrick felt the roof was adequately blown off with this performance

• Another interesting place for us humans to curate the web: url.town

• It appears that none of us actually want to eat this abomination

• Bandcamp added playlists, with the fun wrinkle being that you have to own a track to add it to your playlist

• Cade watched the entire 4th Edition

• Big Gulps, huh?

4. In Conclusion

To all ends and all beginnings. May you find yourself thankful for what’s finishing and excited for what’s starting.

Congratulations to all 2025 graduates!

—Barry