How To Combine Learning And Developing part 1

I think there are two ways of combining these two things, today I will tell you about one of them Learning While Developing.

The Example of Learning While Developing

Consider you have the idea you passionate about, like a web or mobile app that solves all peoples problems at once. So you want to implement it as fast as possible, but you don't have much knowledge about the app development. So you decide to start developing and just learn new things while doing your app.

So basically, it's about this approach, you have something you really serious about and you
don't have much knowledge about how to do it.

Is it a good approach?

First of all, let's find out the reasons to do things that way

1. You're really passionate about your idea.
2. You are afraid that somebody can "steal" your idea and implement it while you still learning.
3. You want to do it as fast as possible. 
4. You think it'll be a great success.

And now let's find out is it a good approach.

I'm absolutely sure that it's not. I had an experience of doing things that way and I didn't finish any of projects that started with this in mind. The reason, I think, that a big idea requires big efforts to develop. And when you know nothing about how to develop your idea into a product it requires even more efforts. 

Don't be delusional

Last 2 reasons to do thigs that way are delusions because of the first reason. When you're passionate you can't be pragmatic and evaluate your possibilities.

You'll can't develop your idea fast if you don't even know how. You'll spend most time Googling things and always reworking your old code because you learned how to make it more effective. You'll end up transferring your project from one framework to another because you "need" that "cool feature". And then your passion will end and you just move to another great idea. But when you already have some experience in the field you can decide what tools you should use to meet your goal.

But why great success is a delusion if there's such a great idea? Because for users, quality is more important than an idea. Don't forget they don't know that your app can solve their problems until they actually use it on a regular basis so the only way to estimate your app is quality but you can't provide it yet.

What if somebody will develop a similar app? Actually, I think it's not a bad thing. I even think when you're starting out it's a good thing. Because you have an example of how your app should work and you can focus on how to implement it and improve it instead of thinking about every small detail in your own app. Also, someone who has the same idea and has skills to implement it will do it faster and better than you anyway. Picasso had a saying he said "Good artist copy, great artist steal". (by the way, I stole this phrase from Steve Jobs)

I will tell more about similar apps in one of my future posts.

The right way to combine learning and developing

So there is the other way to do that, and I will tell you about next week in the second part of this post so stay tuned.

See you in the next one, peace!