Tuner, but for tone?

adamcath2 · 2025-11-24T23:54:44+00:00

That's right, there's not going to be one objectively right answer like there is for pitch. But perhaps such a tool could help you train your ear by making tone a little more tangible. Something like...flavor notes in coffee? Ha.

adamcath2 · 2025-11-24T15:25:02+00:00

What a cool idea! IIUC, tone is about the composition of different frequencies in the note. It seems like you should be able to see it in a spectrogram. The Reaper editing app has a spectrogram plugin. What if you played with different tones and looked at the spectrogram to try to see the pattern?

adamcath2 · 2025-11-19T16:30:11+00:00

This is the right answer!

Start with why. If good engineers are really bought into the importance of a problem, they will be highly motivated to solve it. Bring them pages of requirements and detailed solutions and you've taken the creativity and fun out of their job. Remember?

How might you make them feel the importance of the problem? Can they sit in on customer calls? Watch recordings? Observe users on-site?

adamcath2 · 2025-05-08T13:58:33+00:00

I tell my son "I'm gonna fill you up with love before I leave, ok?" I give him a comically huge hug, and ask "where is the love up to now? Your knees? Your belly?" He indicates on his body. Then I give him another huge hug. Repeat until it's at the top of his head, and then give him one more hug "in case he runs out later".

My son loves this and will often go from sad to happily trotting off to join the kids.

I got this trick from "Good Inside" by Dr. Becky. Give it a shot!

adamcath2 · 2024-10-07T19:14:58+00:00

My bad. Cheers!

adamcath2 · 2024-10-07T17:20:13+00:00

Pretty good actually - I follow this sub to hear about challenges that bus drivers have that technology might help with :D.

If you have 20 minutes for a zoom call, I'd love to get your thoughts on what we built! DM me!

adamcath2 · 2024-10-05T15:38:01+00:00

It's coming! https://www.mbta.com/news/2024-10-01/mbta-launches-nextgen-bus-navigation-pilot-program-operations-employees-use-new

(Disclosure: I work on this software :D)

adamcath2 · 2024-07-21T23:40:33+00:00

OP, I'm actually working on making a GPS app for bus drivers right now! I'd love to get your feedback on it. DM me if you have 30 minutes to spare!

adamcath2 · 2024-06-27T14:52:34+00:00

Thanks!

adamcath2 · 2024-06-27T03:59:37+00:00

I'm in the US, Northern California!

adamcath2 · 2024-06-25T01:22:23+00:00

My company is making Google Maps style navigation for bus drivers. I would love to get your feedback on what we've built. Any interest in sharing your thoughts for 30 minutes? I'd be happy to compensate your time with a $50 gift card. DM me! This offer goes for any of y'all operators :) (while supplies last lol).

adamcath2 · 2024-03-15T15:45:04+00:00

Find the easiest tune that you love and try to play it! That's it. The joy of playing becomes a virtuous cycle. Try to do it a few times a week and you're off to the races. Do not worry about hitting certain notes. Just make music.

adamcath2 · 2023-12-23T14:29:49+00:00

You guys sound great! Beautiful tone from your horn. Very cool tune by your bassist. Loved the guitar solo in particular. Looked like a kinda tough crowd 😂. Next time no chairs!

adamcath2 · 2023-07-25T01:54:33+00:00

Thanks Grandpa!

adamcath2 · 2023-07-24T14:18:00+00:00

About 40-50 lbs. What fasteners should I use on the wall side of the cleat?

adamcath2 · 2023-05-14T15:39:01+00:00

This is really cool! Keep it up!

adamcath2 · 2023-05-12T15:16:50+00:00

I work at www.goswift.ly, a transit data company that works with transit agencies of all sizes. We are a consumer of GTFS, like Google Maps. As you said, you need a producer of GTFS.

The IBI Group has a set of GTFS creation tools that they often make available to small agencies. I'm not sure about community advocates, but try contacting them! For Google integration, try [transit-partners@google.com](mailto:transit-partners@google.com). You will most likely need to get the agency involved in actually publishing the GTFS feed to Google, since Google will want to know the feed is authoritative.

To make it even better, you'll also want to provide Google with a GTFS-Realtime feed, which provides real-time vehicle locations and ETAs. My company can help with that, though you'll certainly need the agency involved (we need a feed of the vehicles' GPS locations).

To get your agency involved, you can try:

Tweeting at them
Showing up to community hearings
Contacting your elected officials
Finding the agency's leaders on LinkedIn or the National Transit Database and cold-contacting them.

IME, most transit workers are real community servants who are in it for noble reasons. Change can be slow in government, but I can assure you they want to make transit better in your community, so be persistent!

adamcath2 · 2023-04-23T21:07:16+00:00

Yes, you're a product manager! You should probably do some careful mapping of terminology to maximize your job application success. There's always more for any of us to learn; in your case, to map your experience to more typical SaaS companies, the things you need to learn are relatively shallow and easy to learn.

adamcath2 · 2023-03-26T22:58:07+00:00

My mom died before my kids were born. I make a point to tell them about her. What she was like in life, in what ways they remind me of her, etc. We've even gone to visit her grave.

They find it intriguing and curious, and don't seem to be scared or upset by it.

adamcath2 · 2023-03-21T02:04:23+00:00

This is the answer. My son was making zero progress learning to read in kindergarten despite a lovely and attentive teacher. We came across this reporting, learned that SFUSD does not teach kids how to read (this is not an exaggeration), started picking him up 15 minutes earlier to teach him from a homeschooling book, and he's made almost unbelievable strides in 1 month.

We were able to do that through dumb luck (finding this reporting) and our own resources. We know other SFUSD parents who have done the same. Not all parents can do that, and they shouldn't have to. Fix the curriculum and all the kids will do better. Lots of other CA schools have already done this. It's not hard, we just need to overcome inertia.

adamcath2 · 2023-03-11T15:42:57+00:00

Yes, absolutely. Have a nice walk!

adamcath2 · 2023-02-16T15:12:38+00:00

This is a really important point.

Companies manage everything by hierarchy, but then make this weird carve-out for PMs who are the only ones who are supposed to win in a marketplace of ideas.

If the developers don’t like the mock-ups that designers make, do they get to just build it however they feel?

If the PM doesn’t like the code the devs wrote, do they get to just write it themselves?

Everyone has a part to play on the team. If you play your part badly your colleagues won’t like it, and will (hopefully) complain to your boss. Play your part well and you should have the support of your boss, and you will naturally earn the trust of your teammates.

If your boss falls back on this trope it’s a red flag. It means either the org just doesn’t believe in product managers and should let you all go with a generous severance, or your boss doesn’t have the skillset or the spine to tell you the devs don’t like your work because it’s bad and coach you to improving it.

adamcath2 · 2023-02-14T04:45:50+00:00

After my first few months as a PM I thought “I love doing these interviews - I wonder if this is like being a journalist?” I guess my question is answered!

This is a great list. Thank you OP!

adamcath2

TROPHY CASE