My new Exploit/Explore schedule

Hey y’all, I hope you've been having a good week! This has been a very productive week at Try Hard Studios. I've recorded probably 30 to 40 videos as we're prepping for the relaunch of [screencasting.com](http://ScreenCasting.com), which is going to include courses on ScreenFlow, Final Cut Pro, Premiere, DaVinci, OBS, and maybe Camtasia. I've been way more productive this week than I have in previous weeks and I think that is in part due to my new schedule… which leads us into my thought this week. --- ### Thoughts from the week On this week's [Mostly Technical](https://mostlytechnical.com/episodes/73-explore-vs-exploit), Ian and I talked about a new workflow I’ve been experimenting with—what I’m calling the Exploit/Explore Schedule. The idea is simple: I spend my mornings working only on things that are guaranteed to move the business forward (exploit), like creating course content, improving distribution, or refining existing projects. Then, in the afternoons, I allow myself to shift into exploration mode—working on new ideas, tinkering with open-source projects, exercising my creativity, or chasing things that may not have immediate financial upside but may pay off in the long run. I realized I was often doing the opposite—starting my day by tinkering because it’s fun, but would then spiral into the entire workday. By flipping the order, I’m making tangible progress early in the day, and if I have momentum, I can keep going. But if I need a creative break, I have space for that in the afternoon. It’s been working surprisingly well. My friend Joe Masilotti [gave it a try this week](https://x.com/joemasilotti/status/1899910869661913090) to what sounded like a success! --- ### Tweets from the week [](https://x.com/jameygannon/status/1897885917580349627) This one just confirms to me that the trend is going more and more towards videos. It's a little bit daunting because with everyone moving towards video, the bar gets higher! But it does feel like Steve and I are swimming in the right direction, being people who focus on, and are known for, high quality video. I think it has always been true that marketing and distribution are the hard parts, but that feels even more true now that anyone can build anything. --- [](https://x.com/fractaledmind/status/1898092185955832257) We launched this newsletter last week, and I really appreciate all the positive feedback—thank you! Friend of the Studio, [Steven Margheim](https://x.com/fractaledmind), (who has a [good course](https://highleveragerails.com), which you should definitely go buy), pointed out that the world is crying out for excellent curation, and I certainly feel that. I feel like I'm being overrun by information that I don't care about. I want to consume more things that feel good to consume, not just more noise. Hopefully, this newsletter is one of those things for you! --- [](https://x.com/adamlogic/status/1899478933659336942) My friend [Adam McCrea](https://x.com/adamlogic) put out this tweet earlier in the week and it is a calculator for comparing cloud costs. The tool is incredibly useful and valuable, but what’s even more interesting to me is that good content still gets shared. We hear a lot of complaints about the algorithm—and to be fair, social media algorithms do seem like a mess—but people still want to consume good content. And this tool that Adam built? It’s good content. You have to be more thoughtful with your marketing efforts these days, but tools as marketing and small, useful resources like this—are still a solid strategy. They tend to be more durable and defensible than blog posts, and this one fits perfectly with what Adam does. He runs an [auto-scaling service](https://judoscale.com/), so the people who see, share, and use this calculator are likely potential customers. Steve and I built [a little tool somewhat like this for our Postgres launch](https://masteringpostgres.com/types) and it did pretty well. Maybe not a home run, but it still exists and still gets traffic. So, thinking about what kinds of small tools or "engineering as marketing" assets you can create for your applications is probably a worthwhile exercise. --- []() TLDraw is a great free whiteboarding tool that I use for trying to think of trying to map out database schemas and that sort of thing. I recently checked out their pricing and was absolutely delighted by what I saw. They offer a startup plan for $500 a month and another for $1,000 a month—the only difference? At the $1,000 level, you get to talk to someone. People often complain about the hassle of going through the purchasing process, signing contracts, and all that bureaucracy. The solution, of course… capitalism! Just charge them more money. --- [](https://simonwillison.net/2025/Mar/11/using-llms-for-code/) This one's not a tweet but it is a [blog post](https://simonwillison.net/2025/Mar/11/using-llms-for-code/). Simon Willison is someone I’ve followed online for a long time, and I trust him. I find him to have very reasonable takes and he wrote up a nice long blog post about how he uses LLMs for code. I read it and I think you should too! --- ### This week at Try Hard Studios 🎥 **Screencasting** Getting ready for the relaunch! **💰 Migrating to Stripe** I spent a big part of this week migrating off of Lemon Squeezy and onto Stripe. And let me just tell you it has been a slog. I investigated a bunch of different platforms including Shopify, Samcart, Checkout Page, all kinds of different billing platforms. Frankly, none of them did what we needed to do. Now, I'm building it all out with just raw Stripe. I think it’ll give us a lot more power and control in the long run, but for now… it’s kind of a pain. **🎙️ Podcast Appearances** I joined Josh and Austin on their podcast this week and we covered a ton of ground - my open source projects Fusion and Solo, building courses, navigating the first year of business and more. [Check it out here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2H0mX9uGA4). Justin Jackson and Brian Casel invited me and Marie Poulin onto their new podcast, *The Panel*. We discussed the realities of building creator-driven businesses, with a big focus on YouTube—how we each gained traction and our current video-making processes. [Listen to it here](https://panelpodcast.com/4)! --- That’s it for this week! If you saw something interesting lately, hit reply and share—I’d love to see it. Talk soon, Aaron {{ ENV.unsubscribe\_personal | default: visitor.unsubscribe\_url | hyperlink: "Click here to unsubscribe." }}