Everyone Can Develop. But can they do this?

tl dr; Hello world kickstarters are easy, and they're shit. Everyone can do HTML. But can they really?

Everyone can develop. Take any tool, any technology and the simplicity of the hello world program will have you thinking you're a champ developer off to make the next Whatsapp/(fine, Allo if you think it's that good).

It's then a major leap to going from the hello world program to developing something truly on your own. Give yourself a pat on the back for publishing a website, or releasing an app on the AppStore/Playstore - you've done what most hello-worlders couldn't. But you're still a long way away to mastering the tool. Here's what truly makes you a good developer.

  • Initiate a project on their own, taking an idea, and ponder over its necessity/usability/awesomeness.
  • Then design the concept on paper, thinking through the interface and experience. Remember, paper is important. Translating what's on your mind to paper is extremely challenging. Think ten steps in the future, of the possibilities of where your product can be a year down the line, if it takes off.
  • Write scalable code that is highly modular and follows the current guidelines of the technology being used. Remember, if you're copying code from one class to another, you're defeating the purpose. Modular code is as less redundant as possible. I'm not getting into the nitty gritty of database and API design, but they're the base and you simply have to be able to design them considering expansion for the future.
  • Write code that can later be translated to any spoken language, and interface can be adapted for different screen sizes and screen interfaces.
  • Design an interface that's both minimalistic and keeps the average human (usually the non-technically skilled user, the majority user base) in mind. 
  • Maintain a roadmap and a to-do. Keep improving on what they've developed, responding to user reviews, replying to them with meaningful inputs on their suggestions. 

The reason I'm writing this blog is because of the number of people I've interacted with, especially students who live under the impression that they've learnt a technology (specifically Android) just by setting up the tool environment and making a simple tic-tac-toe board game, or a Keep like to-do app. Taking your code from debugging to finished product state and having it out on the Internet is tough; maintaining it there after and having success on the playstore/Internet is a different story altogether. It takes months, if not years.

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