Welcome to the Friday Wrap-Up for June 26, 2026. This is a short newsletter where I talk about 3 things: What’s on my mind this week, Recommended Reading, and Recommended Media. Here's what's on my mind...

STREAMLINED SOLOPRENEUR: HELPING SOLOPRENEURS AUTOMATE TO TAKE TIME OFF WORRY-FREE • S2:E I bought a tiny game controller for automation [Friday Wrap-Up] 12:44 MORE INFO

On My Mind

Hardware Automation Tools: This week I have a 4 hour workshop (2 days, 2 hours each) with Ecamm and it was a blast! Something I covered a bunch was my Stream Decks and how crucial they are to my work day — not just using Ecamm, but every day use.

I have a ton of keyboard shortcuts; too many to keep track of, so the Stream Deck is fantastic for this. And now that it has Raycast integration, it's even more powerful for me. In-fact, Raycast has eliminated my need for lots of other tools, including Karabiner and Keyboard Maestro. But that's a topic for another day (or maybe something I'll cover in a future Automation of the Week for newsletter subscribers). Today I actually want to talk about the hardware.

Prime Week (I refuse to call it Prime Day when it's the better part of a week) is wrapping up as I write this, and I finally gave in on Thursday. One of my purchases was the 8BitDo Micro, a tiny game controller designed for the Nintendo Switch and Android. But it can also work as a tiny keyboard, with software to map keys or key combos to (see recommended reading for the MacStories write-up).

I decided at $15 for Prime Week, it was worth trying. Worst-case, I have a 3rd controller for our seldom-used Nintendo Switch for when my kids are old enough to play Mario Kart. The software is clunky, but I was able to map complicated key combos (though sadly, not the Hyper Key) to buttons. I also remapped the D-pad since I'm going to hold it vertically in my left hand most of the time.

I like the idea of experimenting with little hardware automations like this. It's more tactile than key combos, and doesn't require as much mental energy to remember. It's not quite as good as the Stream Deck with its visual cues in the form of icons, but if you have a set use case or two (for me it's Raycast Notes, Clipboard, and Screenshots), it can be an easy way to use your computer faster.

Recommended Reading

​My Latest Mac Automation Tool is a Tiny Game Controller: Related, today's recommended reading is what inspired me to buy the 8BitDo Micro. John Voorhees' write-up was fantastic and covered several interesting use cases, and ultimately convinced me to at least try it.

Right now I'm working with "first idea, best idea" for the button mappings, but as John points out in his piece, there are profiles, and the micro is small enough to use invisibly while on camera. Perhaps some ecamm scene mapping is in my future as well.

Recommended Media

​House of the Dragon Season 3 Premiere Breakdown by New Rockstars!: I promise I won't make House of the Dragon the focus of Recommended Media for the next two months, but after the season premiere, there are two channels I go to for more context, analysis, and clarifications. One is Alt Shift X, which is an incredible resource for all things Game of Thrones related. And while he's doing near-3 hour live streams after each episode, he's not doing his normal explainers this season (a bummer, but I understand).

The other channel I go to is New Rockstars, which does a reaction and then less than 24 hours later, publishes their breakdown. Erik Voss (and his team, presumably) does an excellent job of pointing out very missable details. I especially like when he points out changes or Easter Eggs in the music.

Automation of the Week

Quick Input Apple Shortcut: During my Ecamm workshop, I shared one of my favorite shortcuts, which I call "Quick Input"

I added it to my iPhone home screen and when I press it, a menu pops up with several options. When I select one of them, a text box pops up for me to add what I'm thinking, which will then get sent someplace based on the selection:

• Idea is for general ideas and goes to my Obsidian Inbox
• Article is article/newsletter ideas, and goes to my Drafts folder in Obsidian
• Automation goes into my Automations folder in Obsidian
• Episode Idea goes to Notion, in the Streamlined Solopreneur base.
• YouTube is video ideas, and goes to Notion, in the YouTube base.
• Family Craft is stuff to keep the kids occupied, and goes into a shared note with my wife in Apple Notes.

It took some work to set up, but it's a simple implementation that does some front-end sorting for me. That way I don't have to worry about it later...especially if it can fit in several areas, and I have to remember what I was thinking.

PS: This week I finally released my Systems Starter Kit. Since you're already on the list, you can access it directly here:

​Download the Systems Starter Kit​