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Elaborate MJ's just-in-time learning applied to coding android app from scratch

Uday Saroj

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Hi everyone, I've had this question on my mind for quite some time now. Basically, I'm looking to build an android app (complexity level that of Bumble), with some elementary knowledge of coding. Assuming outsourcing is not an option for me, how do I go about executing things the way MJ did for his website - not reading 20 books on programming but googling the code on a problem by problem basis ?

But the problem is that it's impossibly elegant to do it this way- I mean I'm getting stuck in the initial stages of building the app, like the first few lines and files. If it were simply hard, I could write it off as the entry commandment. So I want to know what exactly I'm doing wrong with that approach. It would be perfect if MJ himself answers this. But I'm firstly posting it here to cast a wider net for inputs. Please try to answer it from his perspective on how he would approach this in my situation.

P. S. The default for me seems to be Udacity's programs they've created in partnership with Google. But that doesn't match the speed and real-time relevance of the trial by fire method. I'm sure a middle path exists between drag and drop app builders and Udacity. As reasonable, my prime concern is the first and quickest MVP prototype which I also intend as the proof of concept (and hence further need for an expedited path to market to avoid building what no one wants).
 
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MJ DeMarco

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So basically you want your first code experience to be a reinvention of Facebook.

That's not going to work.

So I want to know what exactly I'm doing wrong

You're expecting to learn years of skills in one week?
 

babyballer

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Hi everyone, I've had this question on my mind for quite some time now. Basically, I'm looking to build an android app (complexity level that of Bumble), with some elementary knowledge of coding. Assuming outsourcing is not an option for me, how do I go about executing things the way MJ did for his website - not reading 20 books on programming but googling the code on a problem by problem basis ?

But the problem is that it's impossibly elegant to do it this way- I mean I'm getting stuck in the initial stages of building the app, like the first few lines and files. If it were simply hard, I could write it off as the entry commandment. So I want to know what exactly I'm doing wrong with that approach. It would be perfect if MJ himself answers this. But I'm firstly posting it here to cast a wider net for inputs. Please try to answer it from his perspective on how he would approach this in my situation.

P. S. The default for me seems to be Udacity's programs they've created in partnership with Google. But that doesn't match the speed and real-time relevance of the trial by fire method. I'm sure a middle path exists between drag and drop app builders and Udacity. As reasonable, my prime concern is the first and quickest MVP prototype which I also intend as the proof of concept (and hence further need for an expedited path to market to avoid building what no one wants).

First of all, your Bumble idea is two-sided market. That means you will need much more than just an app assuming you can get resources to get it done. A massive financial funding is required to market the dating app. It is not just you create and app and people will come. You will need to bring both male and female assuming this is heterosexual dating app. but even for gay dating app there will be two sides anyway lol. So not only you need to spend money on app development and infrastructure but also the marketing effort to bring in your customers. You also need to think about churn rate. Approx members of paid dating apps will cancel after 3 months. So there's not much of recurring income after all. Hence, you need to spend a lot on marketing to acquire new customers. Unless you can spread virally like Tinder, there's a huge chance that you will need to pay the price on the customer acquisition.

Now since you want to build the mobile app on Android, then you have two choices now for the front end. It is either you build it on native Android language which is Java OR you build it using "native hybrid" languages like ReactNative, Flutter, NativeScript where you can deploy in both iOS and Android. After you decide on the front end technology, then you will have to decide on the backend technology. As you are developing an app that can scale, you would like to leverage on mobile backend as a service technology on cloud such as Azure and AWS. They don't come cheap and you still need to write some code on these platforms. Since you have no one else to help you build the app, I estimate it will take you AT MINIMUM a good year to have a decent prototype provided it is true that you do have elementary knowledge of coding. By elementary I mean you have a number of years on full-stack web development experience from scratch on enterprise level.
 

srodrigo

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Basically, what other's have said already. Too big and complex for your current skillset.

Also, I don't understand this:

But I'm firstly posting it here to cast a wider net for inputs. Please try to answer it from his perspective on how he would approach this in my situation.

If you ask for feedback of more people apart from MJ, why do you want people to answer from MJ's perspective?
 
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hydemx

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Yep, there's no way you can build such an app with copied and pasted code from all over the internet. You need a minimum level of knowledge to make this work.
 

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