John Rudolph Drexler

it’s called building suspense.

This isn’t the marketing blitz chris!!

Talking Businessly | 87: tidyup.agency We have quietly launched our client management app. It has invoices, agreements, schedules, time sheets, reports, and more. We'll be doing a full marketing blitz soon. Daniel has been cooking up an...

🤫 we quietly launched our client management app. Invoices, agreements, scheduling, time sheets, and a whole lot more. More features and a full marketing blitz coming soon. But here’s the skinny: podcast.thunk.dev/episodes/87-...

I'm making a game that takes place in the past and the present. I'm giddy. notesonplay.transistor.fm/episodes/19-...

Thank you!

thanks you 🥲

New brand, new site. You should hire us. But don't take our word for it: the new site is chock full of testimonials from our amazing clients. thunk.dev

Thanks for sharing. Super interesting.

Talking Businessly | 85: Our billion dollar theory of the future It feels like there's a dark cloud over web development right now. So where does Thunk fit into the future, and how do we win? We lay it all out here.

There's a big vibe shift happening in the agency world. Here's our hypothesis of where we fit into the future. podcast.thunk.dev/episodes/85-...

longer than we care to admit

The cool thing about being at 80% is that you only have 80% to go.

The cool thing about being at 90% is knowing you only have 80% to go.

The cool thing about being at 99% is that you only have 80% to go.

18: Every prototype I made in 2025 YouTube video by Catacombian Games

I prototyped a LOT of new games last year, and haven't talked about most of them. Now it's time to pick one to finish. www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRGR...

Aaron Swartz downloads academic articles from JSTOR. Arguably, he broke no laws. He faces 35 years in prison.

Nvidia uses a pirated database of books to train LLMs. They spawn a new generation of billion dollar companies built on plagiarism. They're hit with a meager civil suit.

Wonderful essay. "The important details you haven’t noticed are invisible to you, and the details you have noticed seem completely obvious and you see right through them... If you wish to not get stuck, seek to perceive what you have not yet perceived." johnsalvatier.org/blog/2017/re...

Writing code is so easy, even Claude can do it. But an extremely low percentage of products actually find market fit. People who are good at executing, and reaching / understanding / listening to humans still have an unfair advantage.

Fascism indicator. At a game convention in suburban Pennsylvania. Lots of Star Wars cosplay. But literally all of them are cosplaying as the Empire. Zero Resistance cosplayers.

Prague's Kafka International Named Most Alienating Airport YouTube video by The Onion

I always thought this was funny.

So many great details.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=gEyF...

Producing code is easier than ever. But being responsible for a real software product is still very hard.

Why my basketball board game didn't work. Full episode here: notesonplay.transistor.fm/episodes/17-...

Talking Businessly | 83: Do a good job ™ Our goal for 2026 is to do a good job. John wants to start doing some serious, long term business development.

My theme for 2026 is "do a good job." podcast.thunk.dev/episodes/83-...

recession indicator: all the spam I receive is for fake job postings

15: Paying attention to "desire paths" YouTube video by Catacombian Games

Desire paths are fascinating. When players try to play my game over and over in a way I didn't intend, I can either fight them, or accommodate them. I recently pivoted to the latter and the results were awesome. www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxvB...

Talking Businessly | 81: We set up pay bands We hired someone. We set up standardized pay bands. We discuss how we use AI, and what makes a bad AI-driven pull request. We like Three Body Problem. John sang in choir.

We established pay bands at Thunk. Also, we discuss what makes a for a terrible AI-driven pull request. podcast.thunk.dev/episodes/81-...

honored!!

My card game Colossi is also on sale! catacombian.com/colossi

The Social Game Play The Social Game.

Our new social game Hot Takes has you create tier lists, and asks your friends to guess how you rated things. It is fast, funny, and guaranteed to start fights. Use the offer code BLACKFRIDAY2025 for half off. thesocialgame.gg/marketing-page

All my games are 50% off until Dec 1! Argue about something fun over Thanksgiving with our new social game Hot Takes, or play card game Colossi. Links below

Notes on Play | 13: Less is more in simulation games Most games simulate some real world scenario. So how do you decide which parts of the real world to represent in game mechanisms? This is where the real artistry of game design comes to light.

Most games simulate some real life scenario. So how do you decide which parts of the real world to represent in game mechanisms? This is where the real artistry of game design comes into play. notesonplay.transistor.fm/episodes/13-...

Talking Businessly | 79: The wire:live retro (empaneling Caleb Porzio) Our dear friend Caleb Porzio drops by for some laughs, and a retrospective on Wire:live. We discuss what went well, what could improve, and what we'll do differently next time.

Our pal @calebporzio.bsky.social stopped by to do a retrospective on what went well, and what we'll do differently next time at Wire:live. Lots of lulz podcast.thunk.dev/episodes/79-...

Notes on Play | 12: Problem-centered design Between each iteration of my game, I'll have dozens of ideas. But which do I actually implement? I find it extremely helpful to break my ideas down into problem statements, and then focus on just s...

After each play test of my games, I have dozens of half baked notes on what to fix next. But which changes do I actually make before the next test? As always, the answer is to break it down into problem statements. notesonplay.transistor.fm/episodes/12-...