On Building

The new AG App and where we're going.

Ever since I was young I enjoyed making things. Whether it was building legos, furniture, or access control hardware and antennas, it’s extremely fun to build. The pandemic brought me the opportunity to start Acid Gambit with significantly more time on my hands, and now I’m launching a new effort (although with significantly less time on my hands). As AG grew I became unable to work with more than a handful of people at one time. I find it extremely rewarding to see the results from working one-on-one with you. However this limits my ability to provide a positive impact through training to more than a small number. This is what drives the webapp.

It’s incredibly fun to work with such an interesting group of people who all seem to have a common goal that have joined the AG gang. Over time, this group of people have grown on instagram and have seen different variations of things I have tried that resulted in relative success or extreme failure. But that is what makes building fun. I’m incredibly proud to have all of you here and look forward to what comes.

What it is and Why it matters

The AG app is a browser webapp focused on bringing all your training, health tracking, and learning into one central hub. Whether it is your first time working out or are an incredibly experienced athlete (many of you!) I aim to provide an accessible tool and resource that can span the range of this community.

Over time if the interest exists I will expand to the IOS app store and google play store, however the fastest way to test the concept and deliver value is via the web-app. I’m doing this through the private beta release that over 200 of you signed up for.

Why does it matter? It is the most efficient way to spread the collective training knowledge of the community, AG programming, and improve our health collectively to the largest number of people.

But why would I even try when there’s so much competition? I actually don’t view the current digital fitness industry as competition. Based on your incredible feedback and my own experience, a large amount of the most popular apps and programming are lacking. Many of you mentioned that many just train to the lowest common denominator. Others pointed out issues with a lack of focus in the app, poor programming, annoying user interfaces, and other issues. All of this leads to one conclusion: build something myself. I have always wanted a singular resource to look to for high quality training at the level at which we workout. For some, a simple PDF or spreadsheet suffices to make incredible progress on your performance and/or physique, and many of the biggest names on IG continue to sell static training programs (myself included). I think it’s an excellent resource to immediately dive into training.

However, there is always an end to the PDF/excel programs (8/12/16+ weeks). Many static programs lack periodization (which is a major focus for the app), as well as interactivity with others running the same program, immediate updates, tracking, etc. But the biggest reason for building is not the lack of completeness in other apps/resources - some actually do a reasonable job. The primary reason for building is purely because it’s an opportunity to build the resource I have always wanted. It could also result in an outstanding failure, which you’ll get to watch! I am also constantly reminded of “why” from a passage from a favorite book of mine:

“With apparently only one life to live on this earth, you ought to try to make significant contributions to humanity rather than just get along through life comfortably - that the life of trying to achieve excellence in some area is in itself a worthy goal for your life. It has often been observed the true gain is in the struggle and not in the achievement - a life without struggle on your part to make yourself excellent is hardly a life worth living.” - Richard W. Hamming, The Art of Doing Science and Engineering.

I don’t consider it a massive achievement that I have built something small and a number of you are able to test out. You’ve given me excellent feedback, a ton of feature requests, and a list of types of programming you’re looking for. This all allows me to build the best possible tool that hopefully we will all find useful and a value-add to our lives. At the end of the day, it doesn’t really matter what happens with the app. What I care about most is being able to provide even a sliver of value to help you improve in any aspect, whether it be getting ready for a marathon, going to Ranger school, and working to be a freaking animal.

If any of this resonates you, I highly encourage you to fill out the early access form to test the initial product as I build it out.

Anyway. Happy (belated) New Year. I wish you all outstanding gainzzz in 2023.