I bought a tiny game controller for automation [Friday Wrap-Up]

Hey everybody, and welcome to the Friday wrap on the Streamline Solopreneur, a short

episode where I talk about three things, what's on my mind this week, recommended

reading and recommended Media. This is the show that helps you automate your business

so you can take time off, worry a free, and hopefully this curation will help you

think more about your systems. I'm your host, Joe Casabona, and here's what's on

my mind. For June 26th, 2026,

this week I had a four hour workshop. It was two hours over two days each or two

hours each, over two days with Ecamm, and it was a blast. Something I covered a bunch

was my stream decks, and I actually do a case study of this very show, the Friday

wrap up, and how crucial EEC a m and the stream decks are to my workday. And with

the stream decks,

it's not just about Ecamm, it's everyday use. I have a ton of keyboard shortcuts.

There are too many to keep track of. So the stream decks that I have, I've got two

are fantastic for this, and now they have Raycast integration. So it's even more

powerful for me. In fact, the Raycast integration specifically is so crucial because

Raycast has really eliminated a lot of other tools I use like Carabiner Elements

and Keyboard Maestro and Text Expander. And so the fact that I can

integrate Raycast with the Stream deck means I can actually integrate a lot of productivity

tools and shortcuts into the stream deck. But that's really a topic for another day,

right? Maybe it's something I will cover in a future Automation of the week, which

is an exclusive for newsletter subscribers. You can get that over at streamlined

fm slash wrap,

but today I actually want to talk about the hardware side of it, not the software

prime week. I refuse to call it Prime Day when it's the better part of a week is

wrapping up as I record this and I finally gave in on Thursday, there were a bunch

of deals including noise canceling headphones and these new like Holly

lapel mics that I've been interested in. But

one of the purchases I made was the eight bit Do Micro. It is a tiny game controller

designed for the Nintendo Switch and Android, but it can also work as a tiny keyboard

with software that maps keys, key combinations to the device.

And, uh, in recommended reading, I will talk more about that exact thing,

but for Prime Week it was $15 and so I thought it was worth trying. Worst case scenario,

I have a third controller for our seldom used Nintendo Switch. So I have something

for when my kids are old enough to play Mario Kart.

The software is clunky, but I was able to map complicated keyboard shortcuts. Sadly

not the hyper key, which for me is, uh, command option control shift. And that's

mapped to my caps lock key thanks to Raycast,

but

good combinations of keys nonetheless. And I can map those keyboard combinations

or key combinations to the buttons on the little controller. The eight bit do micro.

I also remapped the dpad. Uh, so if you are

listening,

uh, it is a, it's so small.

it fits fully in the palm of my hand and, uh, it's got a directional pad and then

the XABY keys on it as well as the, uh, top corner keys like the l and r and

RL two and R two buttons. So there's like 16 Mapable keys on this.

Um,

and I remapped the dpad because I'm actually going to hold it vertically most of

the time. Like it's a, like, it's a clicker for speaking or something like that,

or, or a TV remote.

Um, it is, by the way, it is smaller than the Apple TV remote.

the reason I'm talking about this today is I like the idea of experimenting with

a little hardware automations like this, it's more tactile than key combinations,

uh, or keyboard shortcuts. It doesn't require as much mental energy to remember what

was that combination, especially

when they get complicated like mind do. And the hyper key helps with that. The stream

deck is especially good for this

because it has visual cues, right? It has icons. And so I can look at the stream

deck

and know the automation I am going to run or the shortcut I'm going to run. Uh, so

it's not quite as good as the stream deck, but it is about a third of the cost, uh,

of the smallest stream deck, which is the stream deck Neo, and it, uh, has lots of,

uh, programmable buttons on it.

And so with this, I've, I have a couple of use cases for it, you know, I'll use it

for raycast notes, uh, and doing stuff in obsidian. So, you know,

bopping around apps I use really regularly.

Um, I, I also have a little while I get used to this, I have a little card, uh, that

I've written the, the mappings to. I don't know how long this is going to last, but,

uh, I have it there just as I get used to it. 'cause this is, this is like day one.

So,

uh, the eight bit do micro, I will have a link in the description. I'm pretty excited

for this. It's, it's really small, super portable, and it, it's also something that

I can bring with me when I travel. Uh, I like to travel light

and so I'm not bringing a stream deck with me. And, uh, this thing is, is wireless

and I can

probably do some different mappings on my laptop.

Uh, it also, you can map it to the iPhone and the iPad as well. So

really excited for this.

Uh, now recommended reading is related to this. Uh, it is from Mac Stories. It's

called my latest Mac automation tool as a tiny game controller. Uh, it,

this is the article that inspired me to buy the eight bit do Micro John Voorhees

has a writeup. It's fantastic and it covers

several interesting use cases and that's what ultimately convinced me to at least

try it again, like for 15 bucks. It was definitely worth trying it. Uh, so right

now I am working with a first idea, best idea, the things that I wanted to map to

it. Uh, but as John points out in his piece, there are profiles

and the micro is also small enough to use invisibly on camera. So maybe I can map

the directional pads

to

the, the stream deck or E cam and I can move through these scenes that if you're

watching the YouTube video, you see the text changing on screen, maybe I can move

through those with the micro instead of having to reach slightly or make sure that

my stream deck is very close so that I can turn the knob without having to move off

frame or making it obvious. So,

uh,

that article just gave me a lot more idea. So if this is something you're interested

in, uh, I think Prime Day is happening for at least Prime Week is happening for at

least a few more hours, um, as this episode comes out. And so might be worth checking

out even off deal. I think it's less than 25 bucks, so totally worth it.

Alright, and the last thing, recommended Media

House of the Dragon. Season three, premier breakdown by New Rock stars.

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

and really after every episode, there are two YouTube channels I go to for more context

analysis and clarification.

One is Alt Shift X, which is an incredible resource for all things Game of Thrones.

Uh, it's so good. He did a breakdown, I think of every Game of Thrones episode, uh,

as well as books and lore and, uh, a Night of the Seven Kingdoms. He also covered

really, really good stuff. The guy

deeply understands the world of Game of Thrones,

and while he does near three hour long live streams after each episode, I think he's

located in Australia. Uh, and so

it is morning for him, uh, when the episode is is finished.

Um,

he's not doing his normal explainer videos this season, which is a bummer, but he

has some other things he's working on. I totally understand. I can tell how much

effort goes into those videos

and when he is doing the three hour live stream and has other stuff, like I, I totally

get it super good, which is why I want to recommend

this other channel today.

Uh, it's new rock stars if you are into Marvel or Star Wars or any of those extended

like, um,

universes of fiction and movies. Uh, they do a really good job of these sort of breakdowns.

And while I think, you know, their headlines or or their titles are clickbaity, they

kind of have to be, that's how the YouTube algorithm works. Uh, and so a new rock

stars, they do a reaction video the night of,

but then less than 24 hours later, they published their breakdown, which is super

impressive.

Eric Voss and presumably his team, uh, does an amazing job at pointing out very missable

details. And so this is Eric Al. Eric Voss also knows The Game of Thrones universe.

I think that's how he launched the show, was talking about game of, or the, the,

the channel,

uh, was talking about Game of Thrones.

And so, uh, I really like his breakdowns. I especially like when he points out, um,

changes in the music or Easter eggs in the music. Uh, he has an ear for music, I

think he studied it. And so it's always cool getting that perspective. That's not

something, you know, you get like deep lore with alt shift X, um, and then you get

some of the more cinematography and music and, and score stuff, as well as the lore

with new rock stars. So I, I really like that. I recommend it if you are watching

House of the Dragon or Game of Thrones. Both of those channels are, are really good.

Okay, so wrapping up, uh, I did want to tell you that something I've been working

on for like a month

is, uh, the solopreneur system starter kit.

It's a lead magnet that I thought would be super cheap or super short, super easy

to make, and it ended up being over 9,000 words. And it goes really deep. I cover

four systems. Every solopreneur or small business owner should have admin work, CRM,

and client onboarding, content creation and ideas, uh, like idea capture,

uh, and, and, and verification. So that is completely free. It also has all of the

tools I use as well as an AI and automation swipe file. It is

easily my most valuable, uh, lead magnet to date,

uh, or resource, I guess, uh, my most valuable resource to date. You can get it completely

for free at streamlined fm slash kit.

That's streamlined fm slash kit.

Uh, so if you did enjoy this episode, you can join the newsletter. Uh, going to streamlined

fm slash kit will also get you on the newsletter, so you'll get the additional automation

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as well as regular emails on how to approach building systems to help you take time

off, worry free.

Thanks so much for listening, and until next time, I hope you find some space in

your weekend.