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Benoit Dervieux

About Benoit Dervieux

https://www.benoitdervieux.com

Posts by Benoit Dervieux:

Saving Memory on ESP32 using PlatformIO

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How to save memory on ESP32, some tips

Started the 27th of October

In this article I will write the effective techniques I am using to save memory on ESP32. I will enumerate them when I am facing the problems.

1 – Modifying the partition table

So the memory of the ESP32 is by default divide like this : 20kb of nvs storage, 8kb of ota (over the air) configuration, 1280kb of app0, 1280kb of app1, 1408kb of SPIFFS and 64kb of coredump. (source) 

I haven’t read about all the sections here but OTA is basically the capacity to update “Over the air” and SPIFFS is the file system that will store the web app. From this, I can make the statement that I won’t need OTA for Lesk. We can imagine that the user would need to dowload the last version of the system when needed and flash it directly.

Then, we can imagine that having 2 partition for the OTA is a bit useless. In that sense, what I did (after some research and help of chat GPT) was to modify the partition table by allocating different values to the portions previously described. That way, we can have both app0 and app1 storages rather than dividing it.

To do so, we need to have a .csv file in the same folder than the platfomio.ini file and we need to redefine the partition. Here is the new partition:


Also, we need to modify a build flag to take into account this partition :

I was at 97% of flash storage and I am now at less than 50%. This is a great improvement even if I haven’t had the opportunity to really optimize the code (I know I should do that but I am scared to break everything, so maybe later). This is for a next tip.

2 – Redefining the structures

(28th of October) I went upon a problem stating that I overflowed by 1000+ bytes of the dram0_0_seg which would mean that I have used too many static variables in the program. This is true, I know I have used way too many static statements in the program: For the effects, and for the variables. At one point this would need to be fixed by the help of more theory but for now, let’s do what we can. One step at the time.

The problem I am tackling now is the structure memory, beauty and curse of C or C++. 

My first structure of effect was like this : 

Meaning it would allocate memory for 11 settings, 11 settings Names, 11 minValues, 11 maxValues and 11 realNames. It’s easy to understand that this was too many empty spot when functions have in average 4/5 settings. Hence, I needed to find a way to tackle that using… pointers. 

Here is the new structure that would point to the necessary number of effects/settings etc…

From the first trials, this worked as well, now the challenge is to adapt it to all the previous effect and see if we have the same error than before. I know that I will have to shorten the number of static variables but for now, let’s try this out… and it worked ! I managed to enter all the effects and I will push up until I get a new bug. 

I know I will have to reduce the number of static variables I am using but for now, let’s stay here.

3 – Redefining the number of static variables

So, spoiler: this one doesn’t work. But here is some explanations.

I had around 70 static variables and a problem of dram0_0_seg overflowed by 500+ bytes. So what I did was to check the values that each variable was taking. I made some classes of variables (0-5, 0-10, 0-128, 0-255, 0-500, 0-1000, 0-3000) and I tried to simplified everything and…. This didn’t work. It has saved maybe 200 bytes. I have spent easily 2 hours on that but at least I know. Ok let’s move on.

4- Creating a class ColorObject

Creating a class ColorObject will help to do several things. First, it will store all the colors I potentially need for fast access in an object rather than in 3 different variables (which goes up to 9 variables for 3 colors). So 3 colors and eventually 3 palettes just to simplify things. 

The goal of this color class is to refer to a single color object for every effect rather than defining a special one with variables. 

It will as well allows to save some function as we can have repetitive effects where we use either the rainbow, either colors either palettes which made sense for the exploration when crafting the effect but not anymore when searching for saving power. Will it help saving memory? I think so, but let’s see…

Debugging a Guru Meditation Error – Esp32 & FastLED

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Ok, so I am going to use this “article” page to debugg an error that I have while developing Lesk

I went already pretty far into conceiving Lesk. To be short, I have a static class with around 60 effects for FastLED, all taken from Youtube Videos of course, I have implemented an AsyncWebServer, a Controller Class for all the stripes I have, a static Effect class that control each and every effect (such as Red value, Blue value, time value etc.).

However, I get, when activating the serial the infamous GURU MEDITATION ERROR : Core 1 panic’ed (Interrupt wdt timeout on CPU1). 

From my first observations, this problem arises in 2 occasions:

  • When I update the webpage that displays the effects 
  • When I change the settings/effects too fast

Here is the message: 

Guru Meditation Error: Core 1 panic'ed (Interrupt wdt timeout on CPU1).

Core 1 register dump:
PC : 0x4008507a PS : 0x00050035 A0 : 0x400814e7 A1 : 0x3ffc4f7c
A2 : 0x00800000 A3 : 0x00818044 A4 : 0x28c08800 A5 : 0x3ffc4f5c
A6 : 0x00000008 A7 : 0x00000008 A8 : 0x00000001 A9 : 0x4008dc8a
A10 : 0x3ffcf408 A11 : 0x00000000 A12 : 0x3ffc9b40 A13 : 0x3ffc9b24
A14 : 0x00000000 A15 : 0x00000015 SAR : 0x00000020 EXCCAUSE: 0x00000006
EXCVADDR: 0x00000000 LBEG : 0x40084a5d LEND : 0x40084a65 LCOUNT : 0x00000027
Core 1 was running in ISR context:
EPC1 : 0x400f7aaf EPC2 : 0x00000000 EPC3 : 0x400814e7 EPC4 : 0x00000000

Backtrace: 0x40085077:0x3ffc4f7c |<-CORRUPTED

Core 0 register dump:
PC : 0x40193a6a PS : 0x00060535 A0 : 0x800f6a04 A1 : 0x3ffbcab0
A2 : 0x00000000 A3 �

Let’s investigate what is a Guru Meditation error using this link: https://docs.espressif.com/projects/esp-idf/en/latest/esp32/api-guides/fatal-errors.html

Definition I found: It is a fatal error that doesn’t allow to continue the right execution of the program. Should be handled. In our case, as we have a Watchdog timeout, we can check the PC(program counter) and the SP(Stack pointer) to locate where the problem has happened. Here, we should have a RTC Watchdog Timeout problem. 

This led us to another link: https://docs.espressif.com/projects/esp-idf/en/latest/esp32/api-reference/system/wdts.html

Before reading the article, I can infer that the problem comes from the fact that the interrupt that sends data to  the LEDs take too much time (I read another article already), but let’s see if this hypothesis is right. “When the IWDT times out, the default action is to invoke the panic handler and display the panic reason  as Interrupt wdt timeout on CPU0 or Interrupt wdt timeout on CPU1 (as applicable)” 

Then we learn that it is possible to config it :  CONFIG_ESP_INT_WDT or CONFIG_ESP_INT_WDT_TIMEOUT_MS (Need to check where to try that). But it is advised to change the code. Hence, it should be better to either have segment of 4 leds OR increase the time. I will try with a segment of 4 LEDs now. –> So I did the test and… It fails from having only 4 leds. To be clear, the problem that arises is that, under 6 leds, there is another way to manage the leds. More than 6 LEDs and it’s ok. I don’t know what to do for now on this. But I have decided to not look more as I would need to investigate both FastLed and Wifi libraries. Let’s move on.

By using Chat GPT, I have been advised to use the “xtensa-esp32-elf-addr2line” which is a tool that converts memory addresses into file name and line numbers. This can help me understand where does the error is. However, I have had several situations where I couldn’t remember how to use it, so here is a quick guide right now for myself: 

  1. Check that it’s installed by going to  [Your file structure]\.platformio\packages\toolchain-xtensa-esp32\bin and see if you can find the xtensa-esp32-elf-addr2line.exe
  2. Then, run the command [your file structure]\.platformio\packages\toolchain-xtensa32\bin\xtensa-esp32-elf-addr2line -pfiaC -e [your file structure]\.pio\build\lolin32_lite\firmware.elf [Addresses here]

From there, I can see where are located the problem in the program. 

For instance, xtensia redirected me to the file clackless_rmt_esp32.cpp from the FastLED library for something that is a problem of interrupt. This is where my research have stopped.

I have found this interesting link that I need to investigate more: https://github.com/FastLED/FastLED/wiki/Interrupt-problems

From what I understood, depending on the type of stripe I’m using, here ws2812, then it takes some time to write out the information/data to the led. 30 micros seconds per pixel. So 300 micro second as I have 10 leds now (should be adaptable). However, I have decided to change the Task Watchdog timeout period in the platformi.ini and I still have the same problem…

Another problem is that, I don’t really understand the behavior of the error so it’s as well quite complex.

17/10 : So one thing that I tried to do is to deactivate the watchdog on core 1 when the interrupt is triggered. To structure my thought, I tried to use disableCore1DWT() line 426 and enableCore1WDT line 460 in the method ESP32RMTController::interruptHandler from this file : .pio\libdeps\lolin32_lite\FastLED\src\platforms\esp\clockless_rmt_esp32.cpp .  Let’s try it… and nope ! 

Even if the behavior that I am simulating would barely be the one of a real user (which feels that less possibilities of bug could occur), I still need to be sure of the bug. Right now, I will move the disableCore1WDT() in the loop and check the new behavior… and Nope ! Even worse, when I placed back the enable/disable of the watchdog, I got more problems… This is driving me crazy to be completely honest. It feels as if there is no logical reason for the error to appear. Sure, it is supposed to be a question of interrupt taking too much time, but here it is, sometimes it triggers when I change a setting too fast –> Makes sense, sometimes it happen even if I don’t change a setting rapidly –> Doesn’t make much sense, sometimes it happens when I reload a web page  –> doesn’t make much sense either. 

Chat GPT suggest: Setting max refresh rate to 60 (tried, difficult to see real improvement tbh), use core pinning (not tried), increase the watchdog timeout (tried, not satisfied, need to retry –> Gave some good results but not 100% sure), use an async web server (already here), check memory allocation (not tired), debugging with watchdog info. To be continued…

21st of October

Another thing that Chat GPT advised to do was to 1) #include “esp_task_wdt.h” 2) use esp_tasj_wdt_delete(NULL) at the beginning of the section where the problem could arise and 3) use esp_task_wdt_add(NULL) at the end of the problem. So far, this seems to bug more but as well recover from mistakes. I am for keeping this configuration right now and see what we can work on. !!! It appeared this configuration didn’t work and led to a lot of problem but…

So I disabled the disableCore1WDT() and enableCore1WDT() function int the clockless_rmt_esp32.cpp and right now I got really good results. I will post the problem on Reddit to check if this could have another origin but I think that increasing the WDT timeout was indeed the best choice. Let’s post on Reddit.

So far, the Chat GPT suggestions have been:

Debouncing or Throttling : Good resource – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjIswDCKgu0 – But this should come after understanding the whole problem.

Check LED Update Frequency

Async Handling of Web Requests

Guard Against Multiple Requests

Optimize ISR Workload

Other behavior to fix

The system needs to reboot when an error executes

Notes on the book “Sell like crazy” by Sabri Suby

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You can find the book here

The main knowledge I take from this book is, if you want to sell something, do not just make an ad that says “Look I am selling”, instead, make a whole system. The system can be like this:

An ad target 3% of people that could buy from you, this 3% are the ones being ready to buy and looking for something. What about the 97% others? To them, you’ll have to educate them. How do you do that? By putting in place a system.

The first step of the system is to awaken their curiosity by citing your product/service in an article that revolutionize something. For Lesk, this can be “The new way gen z makes party” or “The new trendy equipment to organize parties at home”. More people can be interested just by being curious than the 3% ready to buy.

Thereafter, you need to have a system in place to be able to exchange an email against some free stuff. This can be ebooks, videos, training or so on. By providing something of value for free, you’re making your potential customer less and less sceptical to buy rom you and you educate her/him. Once you have the email, you can send him/her message to remind what you have to sell until this customer decides to buy from you.

Now, let’s see what I underlined:

– Marketing is the skill of putting a system in place to sell something.

– Invest in things that give you positive return, time wise or system-wise.

– The goal is not to have the best product, it is to have the best selling-system and the best ability to market your product.

– The market pays you for solving a problem, the bigger problem you solve the more you’ll be rewarded

– There is a Pareto law for what you’re doing and how productive you are

– The number one responsibility of an owner is to sell – A baker think he bakes but no, he must sell

– As a founder you need to develop your selling skills

– You can only control your work ethic so try to improve it

– All depends on how hard you work

– Even with the most advanced sales technique/funnel you can be ignored

– People don’t care about you or your product, they care about themselves

– The ability to write messages that sell is the most money making skill you can have

– Every thing is about the ability to craft killer selling pitches

– Good advertising is a salesman multiplied

– Giving information to people is the best way to make them buy from you (to take out the skepticism)

– You need a lead generator and a client conversion system

– If you can’t pay to acquire a customer you don’t have a business

– Advertising is an investment that makes more money than anything else

– Get inspiration from tabloïd titles

– You need to move the people not being problem aware to being full aware of their problem. Your prospects then need to become knowledgeable on a subject, the more they know, the more likely they are to buy. If you educate them they are more likely to buy from you.

– You should educate them, take a sales pitch, position yourself as the obvious choice and make them an irresistible offer

– To know more your customers, you should go on social media and investigate what they like, what they do etc. You can also use answerthepublic. Go to Facebook groups and pages, on Reddit and look what they write about.

– You should know where your dream customer hangs out, where they get information, what are their frustrations and challenges, what are their hopes, dreams and desires, what are their fears, what are their preffered form of communication

– People are looking for brands that make them feel good about themselves

– You need to identify the 20% of customers who can constitute for 80% of your sales volume

– Generate some High-Value content Offer like reports, ebooks, videos, cheat sheet etc. You must do that before even creating a landing page or a website. The goal is to generate value without asking anythign in return to gain trust and give knowledge. It shows that you can help your prospects.

– It is ok to educate your prospects in your ad.

– Long form copies are good as long at it is entertaining and engaging. People who will read it are the ones who will most probably buy from it.

– The job is not to sell but to create intrigue, this is why high value content is great as everyone else want to show how good they are and brag about themselves.

– People prefer to come to you to learn something than to be sold

– Your headline (of anything) should grab attention, touch their issues and be simple.

– The title of your HVCO should grab attention

– Headlines of gossip magazines/tabloïd are good examples of effective titles as they easily grab attention

– Put numbers into your headlines

– You’re fighting against porn and cute cat, you need to be special

– You can use shocking terms such as “Must”, “Alarming”, “Shocking” etc.

– Example of headling : x ways to …. without ….

– Type of HVCO: free consultation, coupons, checklist, cheat sheet, quizzes, videos, video course, toolkit, calendar, podcast, interview, live demo, tickets, email course, physical product, swipe file, inforgraphic, phone call, assessment, custom pricing, white paper, ebook, t-shirt, industry statistics, case study, “how-to” guide, pdf download, webinar, e course

– Don’t sell at the first time you meet your client, instead show him that you can provide value for free

– Grab their email against their HVCO

– You should play with your prospect curiosity using some headline with “how to” or “x ways to”

– Write a sale’s message before even selling your product or service

– To make the best sales’ pitch, make a spreadsheet with two columns: one for the feature, one for the benefits. Go over everything and spend some time on it as it will be very useful later on

– Your offer should be the tip of your sale message, it should be irresistible

– The better the offer the higher you can charge

– Your offer should keep the buyer awake at night

– Seven parts of a compelling offer : 1) explanation on why you’re making the offer, 2) establish a regular price and make it sound like a good value, quantify the monetary gains 3) put 3 different prices for having the decoy(?) effect 4) display the price and try to make them pay now 5) make premiums (aka free gifts) along with what they’re purchasing. Example of premiums = voucher 6) provide guarantees so that you minimize the risks taken 7) put some scarcity

– Anticipate and overcome objections before they happen (and then gather them when doing your research)

– You need to have guarantee. The client should not feel he is the only one taking a risk, you should let him feel also that you’re ready to take the risk to do the salesman

– A powerful guarantee can triple your sale

– Think of your guarantee as a proof that your offer is solid

– Study what the competition offers as a guarantee, check your strengths and play with them, be specific, choose a payback, put it in front and give it a name

– A landing page should have those 17 steps: call your audience, ask for their attention,back up your big promise, create irresistible intrigue, shine on the problem, provide a solution, show your credentials, detail the benefits, social proof, make your godfather offer, add bonuses, stack the value, reveal your price, inject scarcity, give a powerful guarantee, call to action, close with a P.S.

– People do not have a traffic problem, they have an offer problem

– When advertising on Google, you’re selling the click, nothing else, so try to catch your reader more than anything else, you need to be unique, you need to shock the viewer

– You need to differentiate between cold and warm prospects, cold prospects will need to understand they need this, through documents, experiences or so on, warm prospect have more incentive to buy

– Asking someone to buy directly is like asking someone to marry them at the first date, no one does that

– Thinking you can sell on google is ridiculous because you can’t sell something out of a simple ad like that. So your Google ad should provoke: Curiosity & Intrigue, shock, direct benefit, implied benefit, fear, vanity, self-interest

– It takes around 20 attempts to write the perfect headlines

– You can look at the type of content that performs well and copy it to be sure to produce good content

– The goal of people who write headlines for magazine, their only goal is you to pick up the magazine, they don’t care about the content inside, they want you to choose them among all the available magazines.

– You need to wonder what is going to grasp a busy person scrolling on Facebook to stop what he/she is doing. In that exercise, shocking/intriguing articles are really effective

– The article should be followed by an intro text, an ad image(without text) and a headline of around 15 words

– Once they came to your website, if you have done a good job with your landing page and grabbed their email, you can send a series of emails and videos where great value is provided.

– The magic lantern technique consists in provided enough value to your customer so that he trusts you. Example: 1) Create a 12-step checklist or a video 2) Make a new video on what we should do 3) Give an example of something, an action to take. By this technique, you will have them have you in mind if they need anything.

– Marketing is always an entonoir, you target a large part and get only a small percentage

– Sell like a doctor: Try to understand the pain and explain why your solution is the best fit for themselves. First doctors do a diagnosis and then they order a prescription

– Don’t sell to someone who’s not a great fit

– It’s like making a short survey before selling them something to see if they score enough to be a fit.

– You need to understand their problem, you need to ask them where they want to go (like where do you see yourself in 12 months if we use this), what are your motivation to achieve this, what difference will it make on your spouse.

– Your prospect needs to admit that he/she has tried to do it herself and couldn’t and that she is tired of it.

– Once you gathered all their feedback according to their pinpoint, formulate a plan to explain them your solution and how you’re going to help them go where they want to go. You need to prove your prospect you can actually help him/her. People are sceptical this is why you need to wait a bit and not tell them you can help them directly. It needs to be personnalized.

– The prescription should be told perfectly to sell them what you can offer them. You need to be confident. Explain how it can be transformed into benefits for them, focus on the en result.

– Close: Once you know your prospect is hot enough, ask them why they feel they would be good for your program so that the client will sell himself. Then say your price without hesitating. Have a set-up fee and a fast-action bonus (if they react fast you can make a reduction). Then shut up.

– A business should create an email list from day 1

– 1$ invested is 40$ in return for an email list

– one of the top digital channel

– Give you independence (Compared to facebook that owns your data)

– The same email can sell to 10 people as well as to 100 000

– Hard to get opened in the mail box as there is a battle for the attention. You need to have a good reputation, not a lot of bouncing.

– You need a good sender score

– When sending your email, make a simple headline as if it was a simple email, not something too complicated

– Test when it is easier to send email but my favorite is at 2pm

– Emails should be entertaining, every paragraph should push the reader to read the other paragraph. You can as well put personal information

– The design does not need to get over complivated with a lot of HTML, it shouldn’t look too commercial

– Talk to your prospect as if you would talk to a friend, don’t try to sell them

– Use short sentences

– Readers care about what you can do for them, focus on their needs and what they want

– Don’t ask to click or buy, tell them

Learnings from the book “Never split the difference” from Chris Voss

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Buy the book here

– A deadline push people to make things. While it is useful in Marketing because people might think “I’ll buy later then”, in negotiation, a deadline will push you to take steps that you necessarily do not want. Be careful to not be under the influence of someone putting a fake deadline. A real estate agent once told me that his offer “Couldn’t last long” so that I would decide fast. Problem was that he was supposed to serve me, not the other way around.

– Mirroring: Mirroring is the technique of repeating what someone is saying to let the person say more. In negotiation, is it important to have the more information possible. By pushing people to say more, you understand the situation better and can come up with a better answer.

– Give the no to your counterpart: No means having the power. Haven’t you ever asked a friend “Let’s do this cool stuff” and he answered “no” with no reason? In reality, this “no” would mean that he does not have the control and he wanted it. By pushing people to say “no”, you make them gain the control back. I experienced it by asking my prospect “Do you think what I said was bad/dumb?” and then they would generally answer “No sorry I just didn’t not take the time to answer”.

For instance, while negotiating an increase of salary with your boss, you could definitely start with “You do not want me to leave the company?”, if the person doesn’t want to fire you, then they would answer “no directly”, then it’s a ground for your negotiation as they want to keep you.

– Always listen actively what other people say.

-Slow down the pace of speaking. Otherwise you will not be able to understand what is said.

– Get your answer by asking the counterpart how to do. If the counterpart wants you do something that seems impossible, the best way to do it is to ask him or her how to do so that he can either understand the complexity of the situation or provide you the answer.

I am really interested by your service but I only have 500, can you do it for this price? And how am I supposed to do that?

– Label people’s emotion by saying “it seems, it sounds like, it looks like”. By putting words on what they feel, you will be able to obtain a lot of information. A little bit like a therapist couch. It helps also to understand a situation from someone else’s perspective. It also helps to understand the obstacles a person can face. Labelling is an invitation for the person to reveal himself. It helps deescalating bad situations. The goal is to, in case of negativity, recognize it and assess it without judging it.

– Accept negative statements. For instance “I don’t want to sound harsh” is worse than “I will be harsh now but” because it’s kind of hypocritical if people figure out that you will be harsh.

– People think a yes is the best way to get answer but sometimes others are forced to say yes to not chock the other person.

– When doing a calculation in a negotiation, provide so-called complicated and even numbers. They appear like you made a savant calculation to come up with such a number and hence, you would be taken more seriously. An example with a real estate agent, he provided me with the number 169 753 instead of 170 000. This made the effect that he knew his price and that he had a way to calculate in a smart way.

– Provide boundaries. Again, a real estate agent once told me that the price could be between x and y. What it did is that, I was focusing on y, the higher, while he was assuring his ass with x. Which means that he could only provide x and he would be right, while I was whishing for y.

The same thing with delivery, if you say that you will deliver in 2 weeks, customer expects 2 weeks or less. Deliver later and they will be sad. If you say you deliver between 2 weeks to one month, deliver in two weeks or a little after and they will be ok. They expected 2 weeks but got a little bit later as you already said.

– Get the “that’s right”. That’s right means that the person you’re negotiating with acknowledge the way you analyzed the situation. He/she agrees on your view. It’s not “You’re right”, it’s “that’s right”, it’s objective, it’s not about your judgment, it’s about the situation. Hence, if you have a that’s right with you, it means that the conversation has advanced into the way you interpreted it and the person with whom you talked will have no choice than to agree.

Example : A friend of mine is well paid but making a lot of hours, in his negotiation, he could think of a way to tell his boss that maybe he’s well paid but at the end, with all the hour he puts, his ratio is not that high. His boss could then either say “That’s right” and he could validate this position as a “You agreed that I was doing a lot of hours compared to my pay, wouldn’t it be fair to increase it if I provide a good work?”

– Make pauses : Sometimes it’s also good to pause during your conversation. Some cultures do not like when people pause as they feel uncomfortable, but showing that you are not uncomfortable during your pauses also shows that you have control as other people might rush to kill this pause.

– Paraphrasing what other people say. To be sure that you have the full understanding of what others say, you should paraphrase what they are saying and ask if you understand them fully.

– Do not compromise. I don’t really like this one but let’s go. Sometimes, being hard and holding what you want is the best way to get what you want. Compromising leads to weird situations while being hard makes it either or. It’s easy to compromise and to avoid conflict, it’s hard to hold your position.

– Make something fair for both parties. Deal get destroyed because of a lack of fairness. One part feels as if they are being robbed and then the relationship explode. Find this fairness between you and your counterpart. Ask also your counterpart what do they feel about it and if they feel it’s fair.

– We think we use logic to take decision while we just use emotions.

– Tell them that you’re doing that so that we can both win, don’t think it’s a boxing game, it’s a game where we just can both win.

– The loss aversion makes that people prefer not to loose rather than win. Someone would not sell rather than selling at lost. An example, you would rather throw and object rather than selling it for a tiny small price to someone that can benefit it.

– Don’t let them say prices first, let them tell you what they think the price could be. That’s called anchoring. When someone provide a frame of reference, it is possible to know what are their expectations. Let’s say you sell your service 10x, but someone has a budget of 20x, if do not anchor what they have in mind, you cannot guess what is their reality/expectations.

– Give them the illusion of control. By giving the control to the other counterpart, you can get the outcomes they want. For a salary negotiation, something like “How am I supposed to stay motivated at work, and be productive?” would be a kind of good base to get an answer from your boss. Use questions with those words : what and how.

– Rule of three : Getting the other person to agree three times.

– When refusing an offer (to not compromise), say that you can’t do something and hold your position, even if you would like to. Then, the other person will, if really wants, try to find solution to go to you.

– There are three types of negotiators (haven’t ben deep into this subjects) : Analyst, accomodator and assertive.

– We all have a Black Swan and that’s what we need to find I negotiation. Black Swan are deep desire, something that let us do what we do. Something that make us wake up in the morning or make the choice we make. You need to find them to understand your counterpart point of view.

For example, I was dealing with a real estate agent and the deal included my older brother. Despite being younger, I like to be considered as equal as my brother. When real estate agents think they need to give him more attention due to his stronger temper, mine awakes and they can be sure that they are on the verge to lose due to the fact that my Black Swan awakes. I am not saying that I am destroying all the deals I have because of jealousy, I am saying that there is something inside of me that can make me behave one way or another depending on how you treat me. A good real estate agent would either behave normally, either try to understand our relationship to run good negotiations.

By finding the Black Swan, you could get leverage. Hence, a client that would like a video because he loves cinema and want to kind of make a movie out of his life is a pure example on how to negotiate a video-editing service for instance.

Steve Jobs Iphone and Ipad were black Swans.

The leverage that you can gather with a Black Swan should be positive, meaning make the other counterpart feel well, not worse.

Find the hopes and dream of the person to find the black Swan

Business of egoism

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While scrolling Twitter recently, I saw an indie hacker showing that he made more than 100 000 $ in one week selling avatars. The concept: Provide different images of yourself and get back 100 AI-generated pictures of you in different situations. As a troll, as a knight, as a Taxi driver. The importance was that as it was about YOU.


Later on, I was surprised that everyone was sharing their Spotify Wrapped on their Instagram stories or Twitter. The focus again in those Spotify Wrapped was YOU. What you like, what you did, and what you listened to.


I am not naïve. I know that people are interested in themselves first. What makes me think is how.


At what point do we like ourselves so much that we loose it when something place us in the center of attention? What do people ready to give to learn about themselves or see themselves in a certain situations? And how much can a business take advantage of that?
For Spotify, it’s free marketing. For the indie hacker, it was a whole business around it. What are the other examples?


I recently heard the sentence “Narcistic failures”, and it feels that businesses know how to take advantage of it.


While waiting to investigate the subject deeply, I can already say that they are powerful.

The principles used by Steve Jobs to make good products

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I finished the biography of Steve Jobs and I wanted to make a point on what made him such great entrepreneur.
 
Rather than explaining his life, I would like to remind you his accomplishments.
 
Steve Jobs was part of the creation of :
– The Apple 2
– The Macintosh
– The movie
– Toy Story
– The Apple Stores
– The Itunes Store
– The iPhone
– The App Store
– The iPad
– iCloud
– and the company Apple
 
Most of those achievements changed the way we live for ever.
 
What I am most interested in is: How did he do that?
 
What trait of his temper helped him to manage this?
 
In this article I will pinpoint some of the reason that made him a successful entrepreneur.

1 – If it’s not perfect, it’s shit

2- Go deeply into details, until the last detail

3- Mix technology and art

4- Work using your feelings

5- Be minimalistic

6- Don’t be scared being hated

7- Always think about selling anything you do

8- Anticipate customer’s desire

9- Create a company that will exist on the long run

10- Keep up with your vision

11- Don’t hesitate to say what you think, even if it’s brutal

12- Persuade yourself that you can make it

 
 

The importance of changing perspective on what you are selling

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In this article I will explain why it is truly important to change your perspective on what you are selling.

1 – We all have natural references

I remember a friend letting me know that he was a painter and that he would like to sell his arts. Problem was, his reference was to produce enough paintings to find a gallery and sell there. 

Without knowing anything about the market of art in general, one could already notice that it wouldn’t be the easiest. Producing painting that people would like is something. Getting famous enough to be represented somewhere and then hope to sell is something else.

In entrepreneurial theory, the most important is to sell first and see if the activity is worth being pursued. Here, we can definitely that his perspective would make his entrepreneurial journey more complicated. All of that due to his reference.

2 – We need to analyze what problem we have

In the example I just explained previously, one can see that my friend needs to become famous in order to hope to sell. In other words, his reference tells him to be so.

However, by becoming famous, he will have a long period where he won’t be able to practice his art the way he wants as he will need to find resources elsewhere.

He then found himself in a tricky situation.

3 – What the lean method taught me

Right now, I am in the middle of a book called The Lean Startup. The main theory of this book is to push user feedbacks as the main source of orientation. In other words: Ask your potential clients what they would like to have and stick to it.
 
This is important because it pushes us to not make assumptions. To not put our ego to the service of ourselves. Instead, customers’ wishes is what should motivate us to produce interesting outcomes.
 
Instead, customers’ feedback is what could help us getting more sales’ volume.
 
While most of the time we aim to stick with our vision, changing it is what can actually lead us to doing great. To do so, we need to explore, reflect and engage with people.
 
You are an artist? Ask people how come they would by art. What would be their trigger? How do they see themselves buying from you and at what price?
 
One might get the answer one doesn’t want, but it better than digging deeper into a subject that leads to nowhere.

The paradox of early stage businesses (and how I am trying to solve it for Lesk)

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In this article I will enumerate the problems I am encountering to grow Lesk.

So Lesk is a product which is not really finished but that I can produce. What I mean by that is: We can make some early versions and sell them, already.

Will they be as finished as the phone you have next to you? no.

Will they resolve someone’s problem (a.k.a. make their party better and give them the feeling that they’re cool)? Definitely.

So here is my problems here, I have a product that can still resolve someone’s problem, but few possibilities to produce it. We’ll see which ones.

1 – People expect proofs

Whenever I talk with a friend, in case he would invest, his answer is “what is your business plan”. As if the business plan was the only key to help in the production of a product.

People are expecting unrealistic plans to show that we have planned everything.

But planning is unnecessary if you can’t produce, if you can’t move on. I can insert millions of lies in a business plan. I can’t lie on the quality of my product or the feeling it produces. 

Producing is what will make people make the difference between “that’s something I want” vs “that’s a nice product”.

Producing is the non-red flag that people under appreciate.

2 – It needs to be cheap before it can be produced

The second paradox is the cheap/affordable paradox. 

To be bought, it needs to be cheap for the user, hence cheap to produce, but no scale economy can be made here.

The logic is that: you need to internally reach a minimum size to start making profit but without profit, you can’t grow and invest.

That is the second paradox I am facing.

3 – It needs to be secure

Complying to a minimum of security is obviously something needed when selling  a product. Mostly when it deals with electronics and fire security.

The paradox here is to try to make a product secure while it should be safe to be sold. Let me explain. Reaching the ultimate security means producing it in accordance to all the existing laws. I do not have law expertise nor I have producing skills. Where are we going then?

If thinking that way, the answer is nowhere. 

The goal hence is not to make a product that is 100% secure but rather make a product that avoid to get hot and provoke fire or death. 

That is crucial because here the goal is to be able to sell no mather what. Instead, people think that you shouldn’t sell as you haven’t complied to all the laws. That is another big paradox.

Changing a mistake into an advantage

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While I was reading the biography of Steve Jobs, I came across the fact that for one of the first iMac, Apple purposively omit to include a CD burner to comply with the design they wanted.

Some years later, Jobs understood how mistaken he was and how big was his mistake by forgetting to include a CD burner. 

This further led to compensate his mistake by being early into the market of MP3 and coming up with the famous iPod that transformed Apple into the giant we now know.

What interests me here was the capacity to transform a weakness into being early into a market. 

While most of the entrepreneur would have added a CD burner, Apple stayed on its position and look for other, more innovative ideas. 

This could constitute a lesson for everyone here trying to do something they’re failing or are not good at.

Instead of doing what everyone does, copying and trying to have the same results, maybe the solutions are sleeping somewhere else. Somewhere where innovation and pleasure are. 

This taught me than when one is failing, maybe looking at your own self is better than trying to copy and comply with others.

Why is Reddit a mine for entrepreneurs and marketers?

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In this article, I will explain briefly what is Reddit and why it is a mine for finding new business ideas or using it as a marketing tool.


To understand this, first, we need to look at what is Reddit:


Reddit is a giant forum. You can find any subject you want there. From professional interests to hobby interests. For example, I am following 3D printing, DJ, and entrepreneurship forums/channels to name just a few. Some are for my professional knowledge and others to match my interests.


On Reddit, one can ask and answer questions directly. Most of the time, people from the community are glad to chat with others to give advice and have discussions.


Now, how do we connect that to entrepreneurship and marketing? Easy in two points:

Entrepreneurship

One of the definitions for a company is as such: “A company offers solutions that resolve customer’s problems against a sum of money to make a profit”


Hence, by deduction, you can admit that finding people’s problems will help you to decide whether or not you can (try to) start a company.


A good thing about Reddit is that it’s a great place for finding people’s problems. Why? Because it’s a good place to talk about YOUR problems and aspirations.


“Riches are in the niches” and on Reddit, there is a niche for any subject filled with tons of problems.


By scrolling to Reddit, one could easily find problems that people face and get ideas on how to resolve them.


This is why Reddit is such a great place to find entrepreneurial ideas.

Marketing

Marketing-wise, Reddit is great to start finding your first users/customers.


Do you already have a solution ready to use? Now it’s time to find people with the problem you can resolve and tell them that your solution can be the solution to their problem.


And this is why it’s so great. You don’t need to beg anyone to use what you have found, no. You don’t need expensive and insecure advertisements. You just need to inform people that you have made something for the problem they encounter.


A small message advising that you have a solution to your problem can make it work.


Disclaimer, however. People don’t go to a forum to be sold. So you shouldn’t sell but rather advise. Being to pushy reject people. But as Reddit is also a great place to find your voice, I am confident you’ll craft a message that will be adopted.

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