Five Hundred Bugs

What happens when you stop typing and start talking

Five Hundred Bugs

What happens when you stop typing and start talking

I checked the stats this morning. I’ve logged five hundred bugs for our apps by talking.

I didn’t plan that. I didn’t set a goal. I just kept opening Transcribe every day and it added up. And when I saw that number I kind of sat there for a second because that’s a lot of bugs. That’s a lot of problems I found and documented and got into our tracker without ever stopping to type out a report.

I’ll get to how that works. But first, it’s Friday. March 28th. We’re gearing up for launch weekend. If everything lines up, Perspective Transcribe goes live in the next couple of days. Michael is putting together the final pieces right now. I’m over here promoting and planning some other app ideas for later.

No hints. You’re not getting a new app idea out of me today. Nice try though.

Every weekday is different for me. That’s just how it works at Techopolis. But the one constant is Transcribe. I use it every single day. I wrote about why we built it on Wednesday. This time I figured I’d just show you what a real week actually looks like.

How I Logged Five Hundred Bugs by Talking

So here’s how the five hundred happened.

We test our apps. We call these testing sessions. That’s where you find the bugs. I used to try to type out every issue I found while I was testing. Which is awful. You’re trying to stay focused on actually using the app and at the same time you’re stopping every thirty seconds to write up what just went wrong.

Now I just open Transcribe. I start recording. And I talk through everything as I go. This button doesn’t work. This screen is doing something weird. This label is wrong. I don’t stop. I don’t switch apps. I just keep talking and keep testing.

Then I take the transcript, put it in AI, and it pulls the individual bugs out of my rambling and submits them straight to our bug tracker as proper reports.

Five hundred bugs. I wouldn’t have done that typing it all out by hand. Not a chance.

The Stuff Nobody Sees

Here’s the part that surprised me. The testing stuff is cool. But most of what I use Transcribe for is just the boring everyday work that nobody thinks about.

In an hour or so I’ll open Transcribe and start planning another super secret app idea. No hints, y’all. Earlier this morning I did the same thing. Just talked out loud for ten minutes. No outline. No structure. Just me rambling until the shape of something started to form. Then I had a transcript. I copied it to my Mac because the Apple ecosystem is amazing like that. Dropped it into AI. And now I’ve got something I can actually work with.

That happens almost every day. Some idea or thought that needs to get out of my head and into text. And the whole thing from recording to usable transcript takes minutes.

When Michael and I are collaborating on our apps, and we live together so this is in person, I use Transcribe to record the feedback he gives me. Then I put the transcript in AI and it understands the issue based on what Michael actually said. I don’t have to go back later and try to remember. I don’t have to ask him to repeat himself. The transcript has it.

We have business meetings multiple times a week. Product direction, strategy, what’s next. I use Transcribe for all of them. We get summaries. No manual notetaking. Nobody trying to write everything down while also trying to participate.

And when I’m walking one of our other team members through something, I transcribe the call. So we’ve got a recorded summary and we can actually remember what we talked about three days from now. Because I can’t. I just can’t remember what I said in a call on Tuesday by the time it’s Friday.

All of this is just work that has to get done. None of it is flashy. But it used to take way more effort than it does now.

What Did I Do This Week

Every week I go to the chat feature and ask one question. What did I work on this week?

And it tells me. From my transcripts. Everything I recorded, all the meetings and testing sessions and brainstorms and feedback calls, it pulls from all of it and gives me a summary of my week.

I don’t have to do work reports at Techopolis. But if you do, that’s it. That’s your whole week right there. No scrambling on Friday afternoon trying to piece together what Monday looked like.

That is the thing that made me realize how much this app actually knows about my work. I didn’t set out to build a personal work diary. But when you record everything, that’s kind of what you end up with.

About the Recorder Thing

Some people asked after the last post why I don’t just use a regular voice recorder. Or a cassette player. Or some analog setup.

And my answer is more manual effort. You record on the device. Then you copy the recording to your computer. Then you transcribe it. That’s three steps before you even have text.

I just want to hit record, talk, and have a transcript when I’m done. That’s it.

And look, if you already record on something else, you can import those files into Transcribe and it’ll transcribe them. You’ll need All Access for importing. But you can absolutely do that. Some people will want to and that’s fine.

I just don’t want to. I want fast. Recording to transcript to wherever it needs to go next.

I’m Not in School

But if you are, think about what this could do for you. Lectures. Study sessions. Anything where you need to capture what someone is saying and actually use it later.

You don’t have to use it the way I do. That’s the whole point.

Almost There

It’s Friday. I’ve already used Transcribe five or six times today and it’s not even the afternoon. I’ll probably use it many more times before the day is over. Michael is finishing the last pieces. We’re almost there.

This weekend, if everything lines up. I’ll keep you posted.

If you spend more time writing about your work than actually doing it, this might be for you.

What would you use it for? I’d love to hear.

Thank you for reading.