Continuing from my previous posts, in this post, I will talk about, the last step for now, Mobile App released. To start with part 3, I think it’s best we have a recap of all the events leading up to this. So here we go,
Contents
Previously in parts 1 and 2…Hmm, where do we begin?The badThe speechThat associate or that business venture…How do I see my associate and I splitting?The GoodThe runningThat one great colleagueMobile App releasedSo what slowed me down? (besides working a day job)How did I overcome my problems?I like helping others…(knowledge contributions)What happens now?
Previously in parts 1 and 2…
I had a great life, a loving girlfriend, a job I liked etc etc and little did I know that it was the calm before the storm. One evening I had a really bad accident while I was out on my usual run, what happened was while crossing the road, I was hit by a car and left for dead on the street. I suffered a few injuries as a result of the accident, one of which was a Traumatic Brain injury and I lost a lot of what was very dear to me. I lost my girlfriend(breakup), my ability to walk(at the time), my memory wasn’t as good anymore and a number of other things. A few months after my accident, I started building my first mobile(iOS) app which would serve as a tool to help me in my daily life. That was a quick recap of the events, if you want to know more, you can have a read of part 1 and part 2.Hmm, where do we begin?
The app that I mentioned earlier is called My Day Todos and I released it in Sept 2015. This felt like quite an achievement as it was my first app and I had built it while working a day job. I will talk more about the process of getting closer to releasing the app a bit later, but for now, keeping in line with the part 1 and part 2, let’s take a look at the good and the bad. Starting with the bad,The bad
Once again, in order to not make this post too depressing, I will try to keep the bad to a minimum. So where do we begin?The speech
I did mention that the accident had an impact on my speech and my current work involves very little interaction with people, so the loneliness does get to me so talking to strangers is still part of the routine. This can be small talk with either someone at the gym or someone random sitting next to me in the bus or whatever else. If the other person wants to talk, then that’s great! If not, fair enough, I will find someone else to talk to. My end-goal here is simply to talk to someone and practice my speech which is really important to me post-accident.
That associate or that business venture…
In part 1, I had mentioned that I met someone working in a different industry, we decided to work on a project together and I was looking forward to working on a project with her. Ok so that project came to a very abrupt end! Apparently there were problems from the very beginning and she was too polite to talk about them and one Saturday she decided to call it quits! She didn’t mention it even once that there was something she was unhappy about, it was just “I quit” over an email with some rather harsh sentences….and all this after I had spent a year working on the project. I think the main problem was we both saw the project differently. I thought we were working together as a team but to her it was really me doing the work for free and if any money was made, I would get paid. The way she saw it, it should be that she gives me the requirements and I build the system, that’s all. I don’t think it was anything that we couldn’t resolve, assuming we ha actually “talked about it”.How do I see my associate and I splitting?
Regarding the project with my former associate coming to an abrupt end, I have put a very funny take on that happened when I compare it to a comically bad breakup, in the very last paragraph of this post. Now why funny take? I have to, I mean there are a lot people who have caused me grief or tried to keep me down and if I focus on all of that, I will be full of hatred and anger and it will be impossible for me to go on. Seriously, in the last few months, there are those who have tried to beat me to the ground and keep me down while they kick the confidence out of me. Ok, enough about that, let’s talk about what’s good.The Good
Ok, now let’s look at some of the good things aspects of it.The running
Well, my running has improved or more like I can run a lot better now then I did before. I am still nowhere near as fast as I was prior to the accident but the again I used to be very fast prior to the accident. So one of the things that I try to work on is not focusing on how things were? For me to be able to move on, I must accept what has already happened and move on from there. I rather run at a slower speed than not run at all. Like I said before about my running, it really was a question of patience and fortunately it was one of the things impacted after my accident that I could improve upon.
That one great colleague
All the good after the accident cannot be complete if I do not mention one of the most awesome people I have worked alongside. English is not his first language, yet he manages to communicate quite well. When we talk its almost 65-35, where he does 65% of the talking. The stuff he talks about covers pretty much all aspects of life and he somehow manages to share every story in a genuinely funny way. He can be best described as, Red to my Andy!
Mobile App released
I released the APP, YAY!!! This was a great feeling. Especially given how long it took me to get to the first release(a little more than a year). Like I mentioned in my presentation at the Ionic meetup, when you work on an project for too long without seeing any tangible outcome, you stand the risk of loosing interest. This was true for me as I was loosing interest especially since I knew that this wasn’t the hardest project of them all and yet, I had taken quite some time to release anything.So what slowed me down? (besides working a day job)
- Knowledge gains: when I started working on the app, I didn’t know AngularJS that well nor did I know iOS or Swift. I got to know them better as I kept working on the app, so naturally I wanted to change and make certain things(code wise) better.
- New Ideas: as I kept working on the app, I was getting quite creative and I had a number of different ideas of what I could add to the app and the process of adding something new was time consuming as well.
- Redesign: I was unhappy with the way the app looked initially.
How did I overcome my problems?
- I decided that I will only improve something which was obviously wrong and ignore the rest. Example, I know directives a lot better now then I did when I started working on the app and there are areas in the app that could use a directive but I decided to only improve those areas later.
- I made a plan and I decided what will be part of the first release and what will go in as updates for the app. What that means is, I limited the scope and decided to get something out first and then add the rest as app updates.
- In terms of how the app looked, the 4th re-design was the charm. Look at the evolution of what the app looked like over here, it also has the reason behind each re-design.
I like helping others…(knowledge contributions)
I like helping others…I really do. This was my first iOS app and I faced a lot really simple problems that I found difficult to solve simply because I did know iOS well enough. So I decided to blog about what problems I encountered and what I learned from it, hoping to make it easier for the next person learning about all this. My Open-source repository Html5StarterAppWithSwift has over 17 stars and 10 forks on Github, which is something that I am happy about. For those who do not know about Github? it is a social coding site where programmers share their code i.e. solutions to a problem, hoping to help others struggling with the same problem. I have listed all my knowledge contributions as a result of working on my app here.
What happens now?
Where do I go from here? I honestly do not know, up to this point, life has been somewhat non-linear for me and I simply do not know what lies ahead. While I keep updating My Day Todos, I have also started working on a new app from which I am hoping to build a few new skills. The great speech by Rocky Balboa, is still ringing in my ears! For all those reading these, I wish you well and “Live long and prosper”.
As usual, if you find any of my posts useful support me by buying or even trying one of my apps on the App Store.
https://mydaytodo.com/apps/
Also, if you can leave a review on the App Store or Google Play Store, that would help too.
2 Comments
Dr Thakur · September 17, 2018 at 4:18 am
Waiting for Part 4!
Bhuman Soni · January 18, 2019 at 11:45 pm
This will take a little more time given my busy schedule but I assure you, it will be there.