Dev90X: Zero to App in 90 Days

The 90 days has finally come to an end. In the beginning it felt like an endless amount of time but the end has really snuck up on me quickly. I want this final episode to be the one episode everyone listens to. This is where I summarise and illustrate the most important lessons I’ve learned over the past 90 days. 90 Days: This is just the tip of the ice-berg. Success and failure is not binary. Yes, my Handstand App was ambitious for a beginner. Partnering on projects with other people multiplies the complexity of getting things done. Coding work requires longer periods of un-distracted focus. Certain genres of music help immensely in getting into a good flow state. Shiny object syndrome for learning resources is totally normal, and happens to almost everyone. The best learning resources are structured resources that you can complete from start to finish. iOS development is hard. Both for beginners and experienced developers alike. Keeping a simple approach to learning is better. Allow for rest when needed. Life does, and certainly WILL get in the way. Expect that. Don’t hold your personal project too close to your heart. DO show the world what you’re working on. I spent over 100 hours just getting my audio online for this podcast. Bali is a tough place to find focus. I probably averaged just 4 hours of actual productivity per day. 7 days per week. I probably left about 50% of my potential on the table Pacing is important when it comes to learning iOS development (and software engineering in general). Learning ABOUT iOS development is almost just as important as LEARNING iOS development. Yes, being a purely native iOS developer is still a very much viable option. Building apps is NOT just about code. Developer machines do well to have a larger SSD. At least 512GB. How long does it take to learn this? It took me around 20 days to find my feet in iOS development. Learn from BOTH easy resources, AND hard resources. Progressively overload yourself. A podcast is a POWERFUL form of public accountability. Set goals and deadlines to stay on track. Jack’s final hack: Keep it fun! It’s a marathon so you should enjoy the journey! Checking out... I will do more updates in the future, but it’s time for me to take a break from podcasting. Thanks for listening everyone, I hope you learned something new!

Discussion: Youtube is dangerous. If you can avoid touching it for learning, it’s better. Progress Update: Did my breathwork practice. Inspiration and realisations ensued. Lecture 12 Stanford iOS (This one is a long one!) Working through the final lectures of Stanford iOS now, and will continue on with Hacking with Swift after this. I find myself procrastinating the Stanford lectures a bit because it’s hard for me right now. Final life update: Rainy season has arrived in Bali. Working with Dylan on the breathwork app. Feeling about 80% burnt out. My next challenge is to recover my energy and vitality. dev90x.com

Discussion: Unwrap is finished, now it’s time to finish off Stanford. Stanford is much harder, and still above my ability level. I learned a lot from Unwrap, and I feel like it was the perfect glossary of the language fundamentals. Setting my sights on 100 Days of SwiftUI Progress Update: Finished Optionals on Unwrap, and finished Unwrap! Finished Lecture 11 of Stanford iOS. Running at probably 80% burnt-out. Excited to take some real down-time. Learning how important a larger SSD is for development. Turns out that having tough workouts every morning is eating away at my energy during the day a little. I feel like I just need to come home and powernap during the middle of the day. dev90x.com

Discussion: A bundle size oriented approach to a content based app. Progress Update: Finished Protocols in Unwrap - up to the last section on Optionals. Mapped out a data budget for the app binary - targeting a binary that is under 200mb with video and audio content. 200mb is a download threshold for allowing downloads over cellular It’s also a good idea to ship smaller apps for download UX Figured out that we can get 100 minutes of mp4 content to fit in around 50mb - which should take care of the “60 second explanations” within budget. Learned how Duolingo does their animations Checked out a bunch of the most popular cocopods packages Watching benchmark tests for the new M1 Pros and Max’s Checking out the open source Unwrap app source files to learn from the architecture. Protocol oriented programming. Checked out Dylan’s new villa - which will be the new office/work space. Chilled out and relaxed a bit with Dylan. dev90x.com

Discussion: Going from easy materials to hard materials. Keeping things fun. In order to grow, you need to move out of your comfort zone. The way you do one thing, is the way you do many things. Realising it’s ok to need someone to push you a little. Progress Update: Finished Classes in Unwrap. Onto Protocols. Adjusting to hard morning workouts. dev90x.com

Discussion: Halloween was fun. Got stuck in a traffic jam for 40 minutes at 4am on my way home. You don’t need alcohol to party. Final week of the podcast. Progress Update: Wrote a simple coding question to the Hacking with swift community, and after writing it out, immediately realised the answer. Lesson learned - ask dumb questions and you might just answer the question yourself. More lessons from Unwrap - it turns out that classes do in fact always need initialisers and memberwise initialisers are only available for structs. Still curious as to how this compares with Protocols. dev90x.com

Discussion: Trying to organise fun weekend plans with groups of people, while simultaneously deep focusing on work, is almost impossible. I understand why entrepreneurs, executives, and engineers use nootropics to gain focus. I understand why people have to have huge noise cancelling headphones on. I understand why engineers hate meetings I understand why managers and engineers don’t get along Lesson? Don’t swim against the current. Progress Update: Unwrap lessons - Structs - complete. 3 more sections to go. To do: finish reading Dylans breathwork book. Market research - new breathwork books, new science, new apps. Morning workout #6 - missing my morning routine again. Ecstatic dance was just what I needed last night. Did an evening  relaxing breathwork sequence last night it was good. I fell asleep instantly after that. dev90x.com

Discussion: Estimating the value of an idea. Progress Update: Unwrap app lessons - Structs Planning out the project timeline Planning out team members Mapping burn rate Breathwork practice using different music Morning workout Market Research Sizing Conversion Rates User acquisition costs Initial user projections Company valuation Pre-market value Market size estimations dev90x.com

Discussion: It’s essential to practice the things that you build an app for. It’s essential to be a user of your own app. Progress Update: Fulfilled a promise to help a friend. Met up and spoke to Dylan Researched app name ideas Talking about audio recording setups Researching the most popular breathwork series from Alo moves Morning start is the most popular Did the morning start video on Alo and took away a few key lessons. dev90x.com

Discussion: Becoming a morning workout person is a huge change for me. Get an early start on the day Actually have a good use for the coffee I am drinking. Boost my emotions and brain function. Maintain a more consistent training program. Progress Update: Started reading my first programming book: Mastering Swift 5.3 - not the most current but it’s what I have for now. Finished section 6 in Unwrap: closures. I still don’t fully get why closures are such a big thing. I’m sure once I start using them in practice I will understand better. A bit of jamming in a swift playground. Started section 7 for structs. Still learning a little piece of the language with each lesson - this is paced really nicely and the perfect difficulty level for me, even though I thought it was beginner-ish. Started lecture 11 Stanford. Keen to get going on 100 days of SwiftUI but I want to focus and finish one thing at a time. Design Session with Dylan Pricing model - annual vs monthly Content duration. In app currency for unlocking pro content concept. Agreed on using data to make design decisions rather than opinion. Not aiming to be the best app - aiming to be the number 1 app. Working against perfectionism. Obviously we also want to be the best app. Designing a sense of progression through skill level. Designing programs. dev90x.com

Discussion: This 90 days has been a bit of a rollercoaster ride. Pushing my own limits to stay consistent on something big. One month of strict keto - transformed my health. Getting sick. Getting burnt out after getting sick and not taking proper rest. Developing an intense crush on my friend and then being rejected (twice). Asking for help on the handstander project. Working with Harry. Pivoting the app project to a new app, and new partner. Working with Dylan. Buying an iPhone and switching over from Android. Learning Xcode. Learning Swift. Learning about iOS development in general. Building a demo app for handstander. Training an action detection model. Learning a lot about A.I and machine learning. Choosing between UIKit and SwiftUI. Beginning the journey of learning SwiftUI. On track to launch something big. Progress Update: 7 Lessons from Unwrap Finished lecture 10 of Stanford Missed out of video 3/3 of the ios architect crash course because it was on a timer. Carved out some down time in the middle of the day for a nap to catch up on sleep. Did my breathwork. Did my morning workout (transitioning to morning workouts rather than afternoon). Did my 100 handstands. dev90x.com

Discussion: In case you’re wondering, nope, I’m still not good again yet. A little better though. Progress Update: Loader screen into Homing in on some good name ideas. Getting clearer on the core design and UX. Finished lecture 2 of iOS architect crash course. dev90x.com

Discussion: I wanted this podcast to be an honest overview of my life. Suppressing my feelings for someone close to me as slowly eaten away at my energy, vitality, and ability to focus and be productive. Other important aspects of my life were sacrificed in order to maintain a disciplined approach to this new endeavour. Certain things can only be ignored for so long until you burst at the seams. Creating space for intimacy in my life. It seems like everyone I know is going through relationship turmoil right now, so it’s not just me. I’m going to refocus my life to address these neglected areas. I wonder if I’m doing this the hard way. I think of the scene from Castaway where Tom Hanks is trying to light a fire rubbing sticks together, and he just hurts himself because he’s trying too hard using the wrong technique. Progress update: Decided on a high level direction for the app name - shying away from yogic traditions. Learned that the volume dimming of music is not a good user experience. Explaining breathwork concepts to people is a challenging endeavour. The design of this app is very important - so I’ve been thinking less about code and more about design. dev90x.com

Discussion: Finding the perfect app that we are not competing with. Reading reviews Progress Update: More lessons from Unwrap Practicing breathwork with different music Scanning the Google Play Store for breathwork apps dev90x.com

Discussion: As it turns out, Dylan has a really good contact in Silicon Valley. Progress Update: Doing my breathwork practice with a different playlist Testing the Wim Hof Method app More lessons from Unwrap 20 minutes code Jam in a playground Building some SwiftUI views Meeting with Dylan - talking about Design and a phone call to a girl in Silicon Valley, talking about building apps. dev90x.com

Discussion: Realising that most new project concepts start on paper, and not in Xcode. The more you ideate, the less you code. Deciding on which project to pour my life-blood into. Strategising on a way to navigate the equity conversation now that a new opportunity is on my doorstep. Progress Update: 4 more lessons from Unwrap. Back into the design phase. Initial design work on the Breathwork app. Lot’s of research into equity splitting, vesting schedules etc. Listening to really old podcast episodes from 2015 dev90x.com

Discussion New Macbook pros - I am unsure about the upgrade. New business opportunity - an app with Dylan Werner. Progress Update: Watched lecture 1/3 of iOS architect crash course - pretty salesy 2 Lessons from Unwrap app 20 minutes code jam in a Playground Watched the Apple presentation. Started a new project in Coda for the breathwork app.

Life Update: Feeling under the weather again Fasting went well Breathwork was challenging again Discussion: I anticipated this would happen... many hours being spent on things other than development. Harry has begun working on the screen designs. Progress Update: 3 hour session with Harry Equity agreement Roles and responsibilities Marketing strategy Funding Strategies Screen designs Read a very comprehensive new article from Paul Hudson Decided to narrow my focus in the materials I am consuming to plow through things faster and get less distracted. dev90x.com

Discussion: Drank alcohol and slept poorly Lacking motivation to really get things moving today Feeling a bit unfocused. Crushed my breathwork practice (again). Learned that it feels a lot better to get big things done rather than lots of little things. Progress Update: A lot of random things. One Full module from the unwrap app New resources roundup Apple developer news website let’s build that app! blog has some really great explanation articles. Not tutorials per-se... more so explanations. Scanned the app store for developer news apps - found iDev but it is subscription only, no free version. One line of code in a playground Engaged in the Hacking with Swift Slack Planned my week ahead in detail Added Bucket list, and Ideal Habits, into my life planner document. dev90x.com

Discussion: Morning routine: Wake up average around 6am, sometimes later, sometimes earlier. Make a warm beverage. Sip beverage while doing Indonesian study on Duolingo Bathroom Breathwork practice Second warm beverage iOS study time commences. Stanford iOS course lectures on YouTube Unwrap app mini lessons. Note taking Googling random questions that come to mind YouTubing random questions that come to mind Often getting sidetracked by the youtube algorithm, or a question chain that goes deeper. Around town - podcasts Under the radar is number 1 - listened to around 43 episodes - goal is to listen to all 200 or so. I like the 30 minute time cap format - the information is more condensed and succinct. Swift by Sundell or Stacktrace is number 2 - if I ever ran out of pre-downloaded episodes. (for some reason I cannot stream podcast episodes from my LTE connection here in Bali) My one line of code: Swift Playgrounds - testing language concepts, mostly concepts that come up from doing the unwrap lessons. So many little language quirks to test and understand. Work from home. Sessions with Harry Focus on design aspects and community engagement. I’ve got a book lined up on my phone for when I finish the Unwrap course My plan is to move into the 100 Days of Hacking with Swift course as a daily do-er. Progress Update: Another 3 lessons in Unwrap. dev90x.com