My latest project, dubbed Domain Pigeon, is coming along well. I work on it when I can, getting in a few hours here, a few hours there, probably not totaling more than 15 hours/week. I’m at a point with Ruby and Rails where I am knowledgeable enough to know what to look for when I run into problems (which happens frequently).

With the limited amount of time I have to work on it, I’m trying to allocate my time better than my last project. With ALL IN Expert, I spent wayyyy too much time in the beginning worrying about the design of the website and the software. I literally spent like 10 hours one day experimenting with icons I was creating with Photoshop. This was probably a good sign that it was going to fail. I spent too much time initially deciding on nitpicky design details that really weren’t important.

On the other hand, there is value in spending small amounts of time working on the interface. Ideally, design should be driven by function. However, in my case I’m still working out the details on some of the functionality, so creating a basic site has helped narrow my focus in a lot of areas. Also, by designing the site as Igo, I’m starting to see what the final product is going to look like. It’s a pleasure watching beautiful things grow.

On an unrelated note, I’m removing the “Recommended Books” from the side bar. My original intent was just to share books that I liked, but it now strikes me as arrogant so I’m just going to nix the entire section. Also added Mark Cuban to the blogroll and removed some of the shittier ones.