The rule “What can I do for this today?” And smart watches

It seems to me that many developers, in their thoughts, sooner or later come to the conclusion that it’s enough to work already “for an uncle”, it’s time to start something different. And surely each of them has ideas of their own service, mobile application or game. Time goes on, “uncle” throws up new projects, sometimes they are interesting, sometimes not so much, but their own ideas remain ideas.

The same situation happens with me. It is “happening” and not “happening” or “was” because my project did not work out, but I still gained useful experience (mostly in terms of understanding laziness and daily processes, rather than in terms of development) and would like to tell me how the well-known anti-procrastination rule and the Sony SmartWatch 2 watches helped me in this.

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There were a lot of moments when work projects got tired and I wanted something of my own, and most often they occur in some special episodes of life. For example, the next birthday - on this day you draw some conclusions, summarizing the results of the past year. And when you remember that the ideas recorded in Google Docs didn’t even open during all this time, you know, this will happen next year if nothing is changed.



And on one of the Birthdays, friends gave me a box with a beautiful inscription Samsung Galaxy Gear. But I did not find the smart watch in it: there was only a paper version of the gadget and paper notes. Honestly, I was not interested in such gadgets until that moment, but then everything coincided: the desire for something of my own, the necessary impetus to the newly emerging and developing direction, in which, on the one hand, is not yet being cooked in a cauldron of fantastic competition and, on the other hand, the efforts of one developer should suffice.

In my life there was already a similar time: the rapid development of iOS and Android, but then I really didn’t develop anything, but played online games. The population of my city did not exceed 350 thousand people, so all the new items came to us with a delay, but more and more touchscreen smartphones began to appear in my circle of contacts instead of the old, tested push-buttons. A little later, I decided to upgrade by ordering a Samsung Galaxy Nexus from a relative who had planned a trip to Germany.

Then I thought: here comes my first Android, open Eclipse (already used to complete the bachelor’s thesis), and how I’ll start developing! The phone came, of course, almost immediately “Hello World” was written, but the students, the first job (not connected with the mobile sphere) and other delights of life supplanted that impulse, and since then Eclipse has never been opened.

I think it is easy to assume what I was thinking at the time of the acquisition of smart watches (by the way, the choice fell on Sony SmartWatch 2, I was guided by price and design): “Now I’ll open Eclipse and start developing. But not like with Android, because now is a new and developing direction, it is important not to miss the moment! ” And then it was time to look for a rented apartment and move out from their parents.

And so it would have continued all the time: marriage, buying an apartment and a car, the appearance of children, kindergarten, school, birthdays and New Years, until I came across the motivating rule “What can I do for this today or tomorrow?”.

I think many people know the technique described in all the books on psychology and self-development. You need to introduce yourself after 5-6-8-10 years and answer similar questions:

• How do I see myself?
• What skills do I want to possess?
• What is my job and how much do I earn?

But now the time has come for the most important question, without which all the previous ones will not have any meaning. And this:

What can I do for this today or tomorrow?

Suppose I want to keep myself in shape, drive an Audi, travel a lot and watch movies in English. If you only WANT to keep yourself in shape, in a couple of years only the beer belly will appear. What can be done for this purpose today or tomorrow? For example, go to the gym (do not sign up for it, but go). The next day after the first workout, you need to ask the same question again and answer: “Nothing, I was in the gym yesterday!”, But approximately like this: “Hmm, now it hurts me. What can I do today? Oh, I can drink kefir for the night, and not eat a chocolate bar ”(and you don’t have to give up sweets forever, you just have to do something approximating the final goal every day, even if it’s something small).

Similarly with other points. "Movies in English? Maybe then you should enroll in English courses? Oh, it will need to walk 2-3 times a week for an hour and a half, and I don’t have that much time. ” In this way, false targets are eliminated, which are actually not so important, but are added to the list to a heap for various reasons (this is fashionable / cool; the neighbor is learning the language). For example, I want to play the piano, but I understand that, perhaps, it will not work out in the near future: there are a few other priorities. English itself is important and even mandatory in the IT industry, but to study it you need a more weighty reason than films in English. For example, try to look for small projects on freelance exchanges for a small part-time job, where the language is needed for direct communication with customers without an “uncle”. This is already weightier, especially since the cash costs of training will be covered by the first project.

Asking such a question to myself, I got to the item “Finally release my application for smart watches.” In general, after using this gadget, I formed the following opinion about it and about this market as a whole. At this stage of development, this is not the right thing for people. I do not know how to use smart watches except for actually viewing the time and for displaying notifications. From the point of view of this functionality, the device copes with this task 100%: behind the wheel, I can appreciate the importance of the call without interrupting the driving process; at a meeting, I can drop an unexpected call or read important information without getting the phone out of my pocket; It is also convenient to send a standard SMS from the clock about being late for any meeting.

But the manufacturers of these gadgets have invested much greater potential in them, including the possibility of developing their own applications (of which there are already thousands on Google Play). But I do not know how to use them. I installed notes that can be written on the phone, and viewed on the clock (can be used when shopping in the store; on the exam for students). Or "Commander", which allows you to turn on / off the sound, air mode, Wi-Fi, 3G. But if at some point there is an opportunity to get a smartphone, then it will happen every time: it is more convenient, more familiar, plus you can immediately check your email or scroll through some tape. So if you are not driving, not at a meeting or do not play sports (this is another big area of ​​use), and you can get your smartphone, the device for $ 200- $ 500 will be just a clock with a display. I do not take into account various applications-jokes, in the style of giving someone your smartphone in your hands, and then using your watch to open a sudden picture or simulator of an incoming call on it, or even play indecent sound. The situation is similar with games: it is more interesting to play on the big screen. You can say: "And if the smartphone is dead, you can also play on the clock." Yes, this is true, but for example, Sony SmartWatch 2 to launch third-party applications requires a permanent connection to the smartphone via Bluetooth, which makes it impossible to play when the main device is discharged or undesirable when the battery is low. The truth with the latest gadgets such a problem should no longer be.

In general, when thinking about the idea of ​​my application, I came to the conclusion: let it be an arcade mini-game with a session of 20-30 seconds to pass half a minute in the queue or some short delay time. The screen 220x176 does not allow you to turn around in thinking through the gameplay, so the look rushed in the direction of time-tested games on platforms with a minimum number of buttons. The basis was taken good old electronics and the wolf from "Well, wait a minute!", Catching eggs in the basket. The screen was divided into 4 zones, when clicked, the basket was substituted for the corresponding chicken. The working prototype was slowly developed 2-3 days before I started applying the rule “What can I do today or tomorrow?”. The most exciting thing in the development process was done: the wolf collected the eggs, the points were considered, the game stopped after three broken eggs. It remained to fasten the graphics, make menus, write the rules of the game, save the best result - not very interesting things. And the prototype was abandoned for a year.



Since then, SmartWatch 3 has been released on Android Wear (a new niche for developers to some extent). One of the conclusions that I made for myself is almost all important to do in due time. Of course, I painted the graphics right now, the menus and rules were made, the result is saved. It is interesting to play the most (the more so because of your own kind), the game was even laid out, but the time was gone.

From all this, I took out for myself some important things, and one main question - a really working question “What can I do for this today or tomorrow?”. And in terms of development, and in terms of life in general. For those who also carry ideas of their projects in their heads, but, working “for uncle”, does not bring them to life, I want to recommend asking such a question to yourself. In my case, the development of the prototype and its bringing to mind took a week, another couple of weeks various improvements, the interface and whistles, but I didn’t do anything for this for a year. But this one issue was missing, after which the project was completed within a month.

Now I have an idea of ​​an interesting entertainment service in my head. What can I do for this today? Perhaps after lunch for an hour I will try to implement a module for displaying a user-created object.