Plus: Fake gear levers, confusing AIs with cheese, validating like a venture builder & levelling up your dev’s soft skills.

Newsletter

June 22, 2023

Hi there,

Don’t know what to do with your free hand while driving your electric vehicle? No worries, Toyota is developing fake gear levers to spice up the driving experience of their EVs. Not because the car needs it, but because so many of us do.

In this Open Letter:

The future of interfacing: What Apple’s trying to tell us.
SA’s gas problem, a new app store & confusing AIs with cheese.
Better startups: How to up-level your dev’s soft skills.
Know what’ll stick: A venture builder’s guide to validation.

TRENDING NOW

See What Apple Did There?

Reimagining the human-computer interface

Apple recently launched the Apple Vision Pro, a new Mixed Reality headset they dubbed in pure Apple style “a spatial computing device”. And herein lies the clues of where Apple sees its latest hardware product fit in.

The initial reaction

If you didn’t pay too much attention to Apple’s words and videos at WWDC, you might be forgiven for slapping these new $3500 (R70 000) ski goggles into the traditional VR category (most people did). Which, at that price, is pure insanity.

Consider: Meta Quest 3 is set to launch later this year, expected to cost ±R10 000 – in the range of console machines, which is the category it's competing in.

But is Apple’s Vision Pro really going after the gaming market?

We’re not convinced.

Even Zuckerberg noted a clear difference in philosophy between Apple and Meta after he watched the presentation. He says Meta’s VR play is all about people doing things and being active while the people in Apple’s presentation video were mostly isolated – except for the weird part where a dad kicks a soccer ball while working on his Vision Pro at the kitchen counter.

But once again, that’s a clue that they might have a much bigger picture in mind.

*Tim found that blindfolded football makes football with 9-year-olds more equitable.*

How Apple does things

When it launched, the iPhone was a mobile phone, but it wasn’t like any other. Due to its full touch screen keyboard, one couldn’t really compare it to anything else at the time. They re-imagined what an interface could do for its users. Think video, games and work – and others followed. Now, in the same way, Vision Pro is not competing with any VR kit – it's re-imagining the entire human-computer interface.

Zuckerberg is right, the philosophy is likely a device that engages fully while sitting or standing still. But which other devices are we currently engaging with sitting and standing still? Laptops, phones, TVs, multiple screens when working, etc. Now if the Vision Pro is set to replace that, perhaps the price tag makes sense.

Let’s say you are a software developer, you likely have the following setup at home:

Macbook Pro 15” or similar
2 to 3 Extra monitors for work (and you'd probably get more if it were practical)

Add some of your entertainment devices:

4k TV
Soundbar
Meta Quest console for gaming

Add all of those together and you quickly hit a $3500+ price tag. And that’s the point – the Vision Pro might not be for everyone, but where it finds its place is across different devices we use, it might just be the “spatial computing device” Apple is making it out to be. Work with unlimited screens, watch 4k cinema-sound movies, play VR games and perhaps even, kick a soccer ball while working.

*Make your workspace as untidy as your desk by stacking 50+ screens all over your living room.*

What does this mean for VR?

In the 90s, the desktop computer’s dual purpose of both being useful for parents to work on and allowing kids to play games made it a perfect companion for the family. Perhaps that was the trick missed by VR companies up until now. The multipurpose appeal.

VR hardware we have seen up until now has not been able to be useful across different use cases. And this limitation at even a $500 price point just doesn’t appeal to many people.

If, however, the utility increases, so will the adoption and with more adoption, we are likely to see an increase in use cases — the perfect tech flywheel. Worked for the desktop, worked for the iPhone and now it might just work for the Vision Pro. Especially when the adoption happens at a higher income, executive level.

Back home VR and XR haven’t really taken off

Now apart from a few pilot projects in mixed reality at schools and training programs announced by foreign VR training players, we are yet to find a significant number of case studies of VR or XR having a meaningful impact locally – should VR and XR take off, though, there might be some who are positioned well.

Stellenbosch-based Sozo labs have been in the VR space since the Oculus came out and have done some projects for corporates such as Jeep and GSK as well as various training initiatives and games. Part of the Alphawave group, Sozo Labs is one to keep an eye on as the space evolves and we see more adoption.

Eden is a South African VR company that developed proprietary VR hardware and software. And their first software experience is called Kids Health – a VR experience focusing on entertaining and educating kids that spend a lot of time in hospitals.

*Bringing a dull hospital room to life with Virtual Reality.*

Studies have found that play during recovery increases the emotional and physical health of children, speeding up their recovery. Kids Health takes them on an immersive journey to learn more about medical procedures and have some fun along the way.

Perhaps the Vision Pro could end up in a niche space like the iPad or Apple Watch, time will tell. But maybe, just maybe, this is the start of a new era of human-computer interfaces. What we know for sure is that either way, it's going to be good for the development of VR and XR.

Know anyone doing cool stuff in the VR/AR/XR space? Hit reply and share so we can make them famous…

IN SHORT

💨 Gassing. An LPG gas shortage is expected due to internal industry tussle between major suppliers, vessels getting affected by stormy weather, not enough trucks, and because one of y’all broke a mirror last week (maybe). It’s also set to rise between R4 and R4.50 per kg.

🏪 Apping. OpenAI, the folks behind ChatGPT, is set to build an app store for AI software. With tons of AI projects being built on their AI tech, they’re planning to launch a marketplace for developers to sell their wares.

🛵 Subbing. Local innovation company Checkers Sixty60 is trialling a subscription service for a select group of beta testers offering unlimited deliveries, double the personalised offers, and discounts on purchases – all for between R99 & R149 per month.

🧀 Cheesing. This video game will save humanity from the impending AI-pocalypse by letting users verify images (the ol’ how many things do you see to prove you’re not a bot) with incorrect data – specifically cheese. “Confuse a Bot” pulls images from the web, users tell it the images it’s looking at are of cheese, the game re-releases incorrectly verified image, AI takes the bait – bing-bang-boom, humanity saved.

🚛 Moving. High-Net-Worth-Individuals (HNWI) - peeps with a net worth of $1 million+ – are leaving SA shores. And it’s official. Last year SA lost 400 of these HNWIs, with another 500 forecast to leave in 2023. Concerning for an already unsustainable tax base.

🍾 Winning. South Africa-made Pongrácz Brut 1 of only 11 sparkling wines awarded a Grand Gold at the recent Concours Mondial de Bruxelles, while the vintage Desiderius Pongrácz 2015 was awarded Gold.

BUILDER’S CORNER

How to Level Up Your Dev’s Soft Skills

Because better developers = better startups

Devs are known for a lot of things, but soft skills aren’t one of them (don’t @ us, this is public sentiment, not ours).

But in today's world, it’s almost impossible to build a business and not have software involved in one way or another. And when the devs are shining, it makes a lot of other things easier.

It requires more than technical skills

And that’s where South African software developer and entrepreneur Harley Ferguson comes in. Harley’s on a mission to help software developers be better by focusing on softer skills. He’s got a free ebook and weekly newsletter full of great content to become a better developer that you might wanna check out.

And, as we dove into his content, we found it useful for both developers and anyone that is working close to developers (i.e. most of you) and we thought, maybe we can all help each other get a bit better at this stuff. So here are some top learnings to help you or your developers 10x.

10 Practical soft-skill ways to help them be a better dev

Go deeper and understand the problem – As developers, it's crucial to fully comprehend the problem before diving into coding to create effective and accurate solutions. Devs need time to think through and plan how to approach the problem – give them this.
There are multiple ways to solve the same problem – Realize there are always multiple approaches to a coding problem and your job is to find the most suitable, necessitating flexibility and adaptation if the initial method proves inadequate. For every piece of functionality ask yourself, what is the problem here and what would mean success in the most practical way?
Asking for help is a sign of strength not weakness – Seeking assistance when faced with challenges isn't indicative of weakness; rather, it promotes effective problem-solving and facilitates continuous learning – 2 heads are better than one.
Your code need not be perfect – Aim for functional progress over idealised perfection in your coding process, fine-tuning as and when time allows. If your software is not in the market its use is zero – ask, “What is good enough right now?”
Don’t measure yourself on lines of code written – One can often feel like making progress when you typed all day. But don’t measure yourself that way. The length of the code doesn't equate to productivity or efficiency. Concise, readable, and maintainable code is often the most effective.
Take your code seriously, but not yourself too seriously – Laugh at your mistakes, meme it if you have to. This will make learning so much easier and work more enjoyable.
Never stop learning and always stay up to date – Pursue continual self-improvement and stay current with the latest advancements and trends in your field. Sign up for newsletters, follow experienced devs and founders on Twitter, etc.
Find a mentor to learn from and a mentee to coach – Foster growth by seeking guidance from mentors and imparting knowledge to mentees. Let them read your code and read theirs and chat about the soft skills needed to succeed.
Use AI but don’t use it blindly – AI is great to help you get work done faster, but make sure you understand the code well, going through it line by line in order to keep growing and getting better while using it.
Write tests, people. It's not that hard and everyone will thank you – Emphasize the importance of writing tests to ensure code functionality and improve overall team efficiency.

Want to go deeper? Sign up for Harley’s newsletter here.

Got a dev soft skill story to share, or maybe even a tip to add? Hit reply and let us know so we can share…

THE THREAD

Getting so many great business ideas from The Open Letter and Podcast you don’t know where to start? Well, this week’s episode of How Would You Built It comes to the rescue.

We invited Matt Quatra, a seasoned Venture Builder, to share insights into some of the frameworks he uses to validate business opportunities. Enjoy!