Ideas Are Cheap

It has been hard for me to keep focus and keep developing Reckoner to release it. As I have been working on Reckoner I’ve had ideas for new applications come up as I have been hitting the limitations of other applications I use. I have been very tempted to either build some of these new ideas or start a project on top of the Reckoner work. However, the real differentiator is whether one has the grit to continue to completion.

Should I Stay or Should I Go?

It’s a thin line to have grit to see a project to completion and the sunk-cost fallacy. It helps to have a stop criteria whenever starting a project. Then you can use this criteria to determine if you are hitting the sunk-cost fallacy or if you are quitting too soon. It is also important to make this stopping criteria when not in an emotionally heightened state. I would even advise having this stopping criteria before starting a project.

In my case, the stopping criteria I made for Reckoner was to create a financial tracking application which could replace the one I am currently using Firefly III. It is a well design web application, but I wanted to create an application which doesn’t require me to run a server and which has platform specific applications. The other stopping criteria was if the application started to feel more like my day job and I would have a feeling of dread when working on it.

As of today, I have not hit any point where I had dread working on it. I have very recently hit a slow patch owing to business and some work related burnout. But this is just a pause and not an outright halt. Additionally, I am soo close to completing the synchronization service which is the last piece to complete the MVP for replacing Firefly III.

With all that said, I am staying the course and plan to release Reckoner later this year. After that release, I may take a break from it and work on some of these other app ideas.

💡 Some Ideas (DO NOT STEAL)

It is a common myth that all it takes is a good idea to make a 🦄 decacorn. The reality is that it takes a lot of things to make a successful software application, much less a successful startup. It’s a combination of luck, network, and grit to make something like that a reality. I don’t have any disillusion of turning any of these into a business themselves, but that is not off the table…😉.

🏋️ WOD Workout Tracker

I have used a few other workout tracking applications before. I have continued to use FastNFitness as the primary application to track my weightlifting sets and reps. While it works well for classical weightlifting and for typical cardio, it doesn’t work well to track some of the intricacies of the CrossFit style workouts where there is a cardio timed component as well as a weight tracking component. As an example, consider the CrossFit hero workout DT.

DT: 5 Rounds For Time

You can modify the weight as per your level of fitness. As of today, I’ve only done 135 lb due to my limitations on the hang power clean and to a lesser extent the push jerk. However, there is no FOSS application that I am aware of that enables me to track the workout time and weight simultaneously.

I have used the PushPress application for the gyms which pay for it, but I cannot run this application for myself.

The idea of this tracker is to use the SQLite database I use with Reckoner and add the ability to create these composite WOD (Workout of the Day) entries that include weight tracking per individual movement and time tracking for the whole workout, per round, and per exercise.

✔ Serverless ToDo Application

Each of the FOSS task application I have used either require a CalDav server to synchronize tasks or just don’t support synchronization. Using the PeerJS technology, I would like to create a serverless task synchronization application which enables every device to have the full list of tasks. This, of course, would only work if both devices are on at the same time. In my case, my phone is nearly always on and would serve as the central synchronization device. The other use case is to sync tasks between myself and my wife without needing a server to do so.

🎁 Actually, Go Ahead and Steal

On second thought, someone else can go ahead and steal my ideas! If you’re willing to build it for me that would be awesome! Second best, if you want me to help you or if you want to collaborate with me to build out one of these applications using Flutter, I’m all in! If you’re here reading this, you know how to get a hold of me if you’re interested. Until next time!


← Reckoner Update January 2025