Serge Neskoromny

What should an experienced software engineer do after failing a LeetCode job interview for a large company where he could have worked on an audiobook app if accepted?
Well, should probably go "back to school , and, re-learn Depth First Search, revisit tree traversal algorithms, and solve every problem on LeetCode and HackerRank - so that next time, you can recognize the pattern and solve a similar problem in 20 minutes!
Or you could build and publish your own audiobook app!
Meet Run & Read your ultimate text-to-speech player that transforms EPUB, PDF books, or any plain text into an audiobook using built-in Apple and Google TTS engines, as well as high-quality open-source TTS models from Hugging Face or online services like Deepgram.

It s free to download and use - give it a try!
For a long time, I had the idea of a simple reading app - basically, a useful interface for the built-in Android and iOS TTS engines, that would give users full and easy control over their listening experience. I knew there were plenty of similar apps, but most were either too complex or too expensive. The sheer amount of competition held me back for a long time. But, ironically, failing a job interview gave me the push I needed. Now, Run & Read is available to users, and it works exactly as I imagined - except it could benefit from better voices.

It began as a pure text-to-speech on-device player, but I have also been working on adding more natural open-source voices and integrating a tool that converts text into audio (MP3) using online TTS SDKs like Zyphra, Deepgram, and ElevenLabs. Additionally, I am incorporating local open-source tools running on a personal computer or in the cloud, such as Zonos and Kokoro-TTS with Audio-MLX. The audio is played in the app just like text-to-speech, with the same playback controls, bookmarking, and other features.
I personally use it every time I run on a treadmill or a trail, and even when I cook or drive. I ve bought too many paper and electronic books that I wanted to read but never had time to sit down with - now, finally, I can read while literally running or running chores!
Download, try it out, and let me know your thoughts!
App Store
Google Play

The standard we've known since Henry Ford's time is 40 hours a week.

However, today I came across this article:

Google 60 hours a week is what it demands from its engineers.