Let's be Fwends #154:

The More Things Change ...

("Hubert Opperman on Motor Pace Bicycle")

"The paradigm of larger-than-life. The last to justify cycling as a way to be different."

~ William Fotheringham on Bernard Hinault

... the more they stay the same. I recently had the great pleasure to be reminded of some work I did eight years back, and had the opportunity to reflect a bit on the insights that we generated back then. The topic was user experience of cycling training software, and I was wondering: How much has changed in the software ecosystem during the last eight years?

The Cycling Industry and its Software Products

2017, I did some research on the state of software products in the cycling training landscape. You can find the report and an accompanying article here. It was very interesting to read those pieces again and consider how much has changed. While many things did change (as expected), a lot also stayed the same. And I'd argue, the things that stayed the same are the ones where we would need the most innovation. Namely, how to make sense of all the data we are constantly generating.

What's in This Picture?

Can you see what's in this picture?

I couldn't. To me, that was just a bunch of jumbled lines. Until I looked at the solution, and now I see it every time. Great optical trick.

Let's Be Fwends from the Past

Here's a nugget from a year ago:

"The researchers (...) found that people are perceived as less powerful and less suited for powerful roles when they fail to meet ambitious goals, even if their performance is the same as their peers."

Kurz gesagt: Always sandbag.

That's it from this edition of Let's be Fwends, short but sweet. Take care, and don't take your bike riding too seriously. 🚴‍♀️🤖💻🚀