Terrible pun. And the actual aphorism isn’t even that appropriate here. I thought of titling this entry Bad is the enemy of good, but that would be a tad too self-critical.

When I was a week into developing pett.io, I hoped to have a couple of people try it out. I wasn’t looking for testers. I was well aware of what didn’t work, and I knew I’d be working non-stop to try to maximize functionality, usability, and design. I had tackled too large of a solo project for something I was going to need to present to an audience. If I care about what I’m developing, and even when I don’t, every aspect that doesn’t function or look like I ideally want it to is a source of internal strife. So I admit I suffer from Perfect Is the Enemy of Good Syndrome in my work. I deal with it by being blunt about my awareness of the shortcomings of what I’m delivering. I imagine that you would be hard-pressed to find one of the tens of thousands of project-advice-dolers (a new phrase I’ve just coined…PAD’s…Project-Advice-Dolers) who would recommend this strategy. But it’s not a strategy; it’s just my instinctive behavior.

Aside coming…I am certainly walking a tightrope here, blogging about my work process when I’m seeking to present my best self while I go through the process of finding work. Plenty of PAD’s do advise practicing authenticity, but they haven’t necessary met me. (I think I’ve just expanded the definition of PAD to include all advice-dolers. Let’s just call them professional advice dolers.)

So, I’ve got my long preface…I’ve been afraid to tell people, even just close friends, to try out pett.io For weeks, you have been able to create an account, create a pet, upload photos, and link in Flickr photos. And simply having a bunch of real data would have served–and will serve–to motivate me to keep working hard on this project. I get tired of just seeing my pets and my test data.

It’s now ten days post-Demo-Day, and this project serves as my vehicle for continuing learning while I search for paying (and non-paying) work. It would be wonderful if a few people created accounts and added a pet and a photo. I will invite people to do just that.

Speaking of Demo Day, I will toss a link to my presentation here, just for the record. Honestly, I cannot watch or listen to myself, so I offer it with no further comment.

Iron Yard-pett.io from TheIronYard on Vimeo.

Ok, one comment. I’m sufficiently embarrassed just from looking at the Vimeo still, and, yet, I obviously hope someone will see something of value you, or else, I wouldn’t be following through with this whole self-indulgent blogging exercise. Second comment–the app looks and functions a tad better than it did ten days ago, and it should continue to evolve towards the good.