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This is a test to see how this works
I often find myself debugging great-looking code that makes up methods or functions.
This especially true when instructed to use somewhat niche libraries.
Is there a specific prompt technique you use to avoid hallucinations when writing code?
How did I become optimistic? The short answer is money. The longer answer is indifference.
The Journey.
Since 2017 I've been working on a side project which I always intended to launch as a paid SaaS product. I matched every cliche about people bootstrapping their SaaS:
- The code isn't clean enough - The UI isn't pixel perfect - The export feature doesn't work correctly - I need to completely refactor the entire app because I learned a new way to write a for loop...
On at least two occasions I became so stressed out I had to take a break from working on it.
On a side project!
Here's how I finally got some momentum.
Step 1: Hire a freelance developer
You need help. You need a new perspective. Most importantly, you need indifference.
Freelancers are hired to achieve a specific outcome. After achieving that outcome, they move on to the next project. They don't have time to refactor that same library three times. They force you to prioritize what's important to ship.
Step 2: Hire a UI/UX designer
Having a rough outline of what the app should look like gives you a target to work toward. Instead of becoming an expert with Figma, hire someone that can do it for you. You'll be shocked what value two weeks of a designer's time can bring.
Step 3: Hire a marketing agency
Digital marketing is a highly complex endeavor. If you think spending money on Google Ads or posting on Twitter is sufficient to bring your product to life, you'll be disappointed.
Yes this all costs money.
Yes you have to give up some control.
Yes you might miss some learning opportunities.
But if there's one lesson I learned after five years, it's all about shipping!
Like many people working on side projects I’ve worked on it in fits and starts. I really want to launch it and could use some help finishing the backend, some front end and UX work and deploying. It has a Flask backend with a no-framework Bootstrap-based front end. There are some complexities with data acquisition and integrations.
How and where have people asked and received help for their side projects?
The app is backed by a Postgres database with about 10 tables constrained by foreign keys. I am using Celery as a task queue backed by Redis.
I'm still developing the app locally using Docker Compose - separate containers for the app, Celery, Postgres and Redis.
It's time to finally move this app to a production cloud environment and I need advice on target architecture. I'm comfortable with Terraform and CloudFormation and automated testing/deployment with CircleCI.
AWS ECS? EC2? Heroku? Digital Ocean? What is your experience?
We've met in a formal setting and I think I made a good impression on him. We've both been with the firm a short time. I sent him an email after we met saying I was happy to meet him, he responded with the same and told me to stop by whenever.
I've never had a mentor before and think he would be a terrific mentor for me, and I a terrific mentee for him.
What steps should I take that will give me the best chance of forming this formal mentor/mentee relationship?
I set out to build a reverse address book. Instead of updating your address book with changes from everyone else, you update your own details and it pushes to everyone else. Turns out someone beat me to it and my inspiration evaporated.
Zoom is a recent and great example of competing in a crowded market and winning. For you builders/founders out there, are you on a never ending quest to find something new/unique or do you prefer another quality in your idea to start a project?