How Plans Change

So it’s been a weird kind of fortnight throughout, personally as well as professionally. In my last post I had identified a tentative plan for how I see things panning out in the near and middle future. But roughly two weeks later and the ‘plan’ seems to have gotten mangled by ‘life’ 😛

Happens. Deep breath. Things changed. Maybe there was a bit of overestimation of my willpower/abilities involved. Certainly there was an underestimation of the negative effects of stress.

To recap, the job search quest is chugging along, in fits and starts. I’ve managed to get calls from a few places for the initial telephonic interview/online test. Some have gone well, a few have been clear disasters. And I still don’t have a clue as to where I am likely to end up. Still following leads and trying to remain positive and patient. But it’s hard and it’s overall been a period of low level stress and worry everyday. A looooooong silence after an interview you thought had gone well is the worst I think. Every day there is a mental pressure that I should be revising another topic, practising coding, looking up puzzles… And there’s still the office work to be done, Minion to entertain and the household stuff that at a minimum needs to be managed.

No wonder I fell sick. Cough, cold and viral. I feel a bit better today though I’m still on medications. Taekwondo has fallen to the wayside during this time. I just do not seem to have the mental energy to spare towards ensuring I wake up on time and attend the class. Or maybe it’s just an excuse…

Secretaire is still alive, but I suspect that’s largely because I had put an upper cap on it rather than a minimum-amount-of-work limit. Anyway, had a discussion regarding that with a few other people, and the consensus seems to be that

The idea has merit (if you can pull it off)
Focus on the algorithms and the db first, presentation second.
When it comes to presentation, focus on Mobile first, web second.

So that results in a near 180 degree shift from my earlier approach of concentrating on presentation first, logic second. I wasn’t very happy with the earlier approach anyway since my current experience has been mostly on backend. Incorporating the inputs I’ve received would mean my high level priorities for secretaire should be.

DB, Logic and algorithms first. I’m also ditching Ruby for now. I’ve worked with python and Django enough that I could start working on secretaire’s backend right away. I just don’t have time right now to devote to Ruby for the next few months.
Develop the backend with a web services perspective. The presentation will be highly decoupled from the logic. This is important since we want our future mobile app as well as web app to be able to utilise the same backend.
Once the minimal backend work is in place, develop user facing app for Android.

The reason for picking Android is relatively simple, there are no huge development costs associated. iOS development would mean getting a Mac for development and an iPhone for testing etc. I already have an Android smartphone. So initial costs with Android are way lower.

As far as learning goes, my aim was to pick up one or more of Ruby, Javascript, Node.js, Android App development or iOS App development. So let me make things a bit easier for myself. I’ll make it easy to start off by utilising skills I already have. By the time I need to start on Android App, I should have enough momentum to not get intimidated by the newness. Also by that time I should have a much better idea of how that theoretical app should behave.

Let’s see how long this version of the ‘plan’ lasts 🙂

Cya