How is the working day of members of the PC AppsConf
This year, the AppsConf Program Committee has super cool mobile developers. Everyone has a lot of experience, work in leading companies and start-ups, corporate solutions and their products - they know that they are in trend, and they can share many tricks themselves.
We will talk about specific cases of working problems at the conference, but for now we will discuss: working tools, time management, motivation for product development, the role of education in the programmer's work, and other interesting things.
In the third release of the Run Loop - a podcast about those who make products with their own hands - the hosts decided not to call anyone. And tell about yourself, because they also do useful and cool things.
Experience. Public activities
Roman : The first thing you want to tell is about the experience: where we lit up and what we do, and not just those lines of the current position.
I am in iOS development from the very beginning. I remember when the platform was still called the iPhone SDK, it was the second Beta iOS 2.0. I was attracted to the platform by the fact that I used the first iPhone for almost a year, I liked to photograph various interesting things from my life on it, but the photos remained on the device, and I wanted to share them with someone. My first project was a client who could download these pictures from my iPhone to the Internet. Then it spun, spun. Then I worked at Yandex and there they accepted this project with great interest. In my track record, Yandex.Maps, Search, Browser, KinoPoisk, smartpass is an iPad application that lets you into cinemas, Yandex.Fish.
At the dawn of the development of iOS, there was very little development of information, and I really wanted to tell something about myself and find those pioneers who also dug in their corner, because then it was not yet fashionable. Little by little, I began to organize Yandex subbotniki on mobile development, which gradually grew into a separate format of the Yandex Mobile Camp event, which had grown to a separate mobile section at Yandex’s large conference Yes another conference. The list of public activities can be supplemented with podcasts. The first time I became a guest in the Sub . I liked this experience so much that I decided to continue, and now I'm with you in the release of the podcast Run Loop. Here is my short story.
Ilya: I have experience, of course, not as impressive as that of Roman. In iOS, I am developing relatively recently - only 5 years. I started with iOS 6. All my acquaintance with iOS development went from the institute. In the third year we started the project with the guys. I liked it and I thought programming could be interesting: It's not just there to write some nonsense, but you can make applications and touch them with your hands, it's cool. So I started doing iOS development. After that I managed to work in several startups. Some were closed for a couple of months, while others lived for several years. Everything was more or less good. Then I got into a big company. It was Alfa Bank, in which I have been working for three years. During this time, I managed to be at Alfa-Bank as an ordinary product developer, then as a lead, at the moment I am leading all of iOS development.
From the public I was always interested in speaking at the meetings - I was always afraid of that. Therefore, we decided to make our meetings, which were supposed to be more intimate with fewer people (not so scary), and talk about how it happens in Alpha Bank. We wanted to talk about our experience and show everyone that banks can be not only scary, huge, bureaucratic organizations, but also cool in terms of innovation and technology. This is how iOS metap Mobile Talks appeared. In the podcasts, I am the first time, and for this it is worth saying thanks AppsConf .
Experience. Road to programming
Alexey : I've been doing Android for about 5 years. Of these, three years and one month working in the App in the Air. It all started in school. I have already begun to understand that programming is something interesting. When you just had a computer, there seemed to be nothing, then you wrote something like that and something new appeared. This kind of programming magic lured. But I began to enter this business, to put it mildly, from the side. I don't know why it happened, but the first thing I came across is a Perl tutorial.. It was pretty scary. It is not a secret for anyone that a decent part of Russian general and higher education is cribs, without them nowhere. After my friends and I passed all the exams at the Physics and Mathematics High School, we decided that it would be nice to drive everything that we had in physics and all branches of mathematics into some kind of electronic cheat sheet. This is how our first Android app appeared. Then my friend adapted it for iOS. The Formula application is a formula reference that still lives in both the Store: Google Play and the AppStore. There was a somewhat dark period, when we were involved in a startup with the same friend, and I will not talk about it in detail. The only thing to say about him is that he was hosted on the late Parse, if you remember, Facebook had such Parse.com. It was a social network, which gave a lot of different interesting experience, because I had to work on so many aspects. She bent successfully when I was a second year student. Need money. I understood thatProgramming is a topic , it is interesting for everyone. I thought that parents were interested in teaching children programming, and offered tutoring: “I will teach you how to make Android apps.” I was counting on a younger children's audience, but in the end it somehow happened that I taught 30-40 year old uncles. It was rather strange, but interesting. By the way, several of them for our courses, for the time that we did, almost from nothing, we successfully reached the offer and went to work somewhere with the junes. In the third year I was thinking about where to go to summer practice. At first I thought that you just need to take a list of top mobile development studios that exist in Moscow, write to them who I am and what I can do to be taken as an intern. But while I was telling this thing to a good friend, I went through it to App in the Air. I came to them, I did a test task, I had practice and internship, and since then I have been there.
Novel: Alexey raised an interesting topic about the way to programming. My experience is also indirect, since I did not study in a purely programmer department. I almost always solve some applied tasks with the help of a computer. My first computer was a game station, where I learned to rearrange windows. I still probably remember how this is done, even with my eyes closed I can do. It was in programming that I came, thanks to the courses at school. I saw what beautiful pictures, graphics can be programmed. They lured me so much that I decided to enroll in courses. It was Pascal, and it was very exciting. Ilya, did you study to be a programmer or was it also on the side?
Ilya: I understood from school that it seems I like computer science and mathematics, and it would be interesting to try it all out. Accordingly, I went to study at the MAI at the Faculty of Applied Mathematics and Programming. The first two courses I was very sorry about my choice, because there was some kind of tin: a lot of mathematical analysis, a lot of development in C, where we wrote some strange things like suffix trees, all sorts of creepy algorithms. I did not like it, I did not understand why it was necessary. Then I tried iOS development and here I realized that I really like programming. Now I, of course, understand why all these algorithms were needed . This is a very cool base that helps me now. But then I thought that it was absolutely useless.
Alexey: About terrible math. In the end, I also completed applied mathematics at HSE. Impressions are exactly the same: terrible math 4 years. The only difference is that for the last two years it was not so terrible, because I didn’t often appear at the university. It really helps. Such advice how to deal with math.
Roman : Life hacking is wonderful. Please do not listen to him, dear students, this is bad advice.
Programming Education
Ilya : Do you have guys without a diploma? I have a person without a diploma right in the team, and we have several Android developers who haven’t finished anything yet and at the same time they are very cool.
Alexey : We have quite a lot of people who are still students. In App in the Air, this is the recruitment policy. We always invite a lot of students to summer practice. They do some tasks. Those who have done the best, receive gifts and offers to come for an internship. Most of those who are now recruited from such practices and internships. Until recently, most were from the Higher School of Economics, but not from applied mathematics, but from software engineering.
Novel: I never paid attention to it. The question put me in a dead end. But if my memory serves me, there are a lot of guys with diplomas. We always look at the result. Most likely, all with higher education.
About product development
Ilya : Let's talk about something close to what we do - about product development. Lesha, what do you think is important in product development?
Aleksey : Quite an interesting question, I would even say difficult. The most important thing is to just not forget that in the end you are doing a piece (I’m specifically talking about mobile development) that will be drawn on a small screen and a live person will interact with it. This is all what you do. In pursuit of fashionable technical solutions, flexible architectures must be remembered that in reality the user doesn’t care what's inside you - the main thing is that it works , preferably quickly and without bugs. Often pay attention to feedbacks that give you how the user feels.
Ilya: Yes, here I agree with you. This is primarily a client application. But you say that you can hear it like this: “Hammer on the architecture, it doesn’t matter what the difference is”. In fact, this is not quite the case. If we do not do something at the initial stage, it will backfire on us. Anyway, you need to think about it.
Roman : I would add here. The architecture becomes important in those moments when you have a large team, and the product is constantly evolving. When the project is not very large, in my opinion, it interferes, because you have an overhead in terms of a large number of files. In a small well-established team, the architecture is more likely to interfere. By a small team, I mean three people, maximum four. If it is more, and if it is also different cities, then there are already needed processes and rules, which you not only agreed on, but which are formally written on paper. If you go back to product development, I have always been interested in those products and applications that I myself use with pleasure.
Ilya : Yes, this is the coolest thing that can be when you use and really enjoy what you do at work. I believe that the most useful applications are those that allow us to save our time.
This was one of the reasons why I went to work in the bank. Money takes up a huge part of our lives. We get them at work, we spend them everywhere, and if we can save those minutes, hours that we spend on working with them, I think that's cool.
Roman : Interesting. I just want to step aside and ask a question to Lesha. For some reason I thought that App in the Air is one application. Do you have several?
App in the Air
Alexey : In fact, this is one application on Android and on iOS. If it is very simple, then App in the Air is a flight tracker - an assistant to travelers. Our target audience is people who fly very often. We are trying to do everything in order to make their lives easier by what Illya said - to save them time. There is also a by-product, which is a small copy of the App in the Air for greeters. That is, if you meet a relative from an airplane, then you can use the application with reduced functionality. But this is not the main branch, and was rather an experiment.
Novel: What surprised me, you said that you constantly invite people for internships. I got the feeling that you have a large team and you are doing something, but App in the Air is one small application. Is that so or not?
Alexey : Yes, it is. Until recently, even less than a year ago, we had a total of 10 people: both platforms, back-end, analytics, support. At the moment we have 25 people in the main chatika. This is due to the fact that, firstly, some places, like support, are expanding, and some additional areas have emerged that also need people.
Roman : All of these interns, which you invite, in the development go or evenly distributed in all directions in the company?
Alexey:Approximately evenly. How does this happen? Students come who need practice. We tell them: “See, you can do this, this and that.” There is a whole bunch of very different real-world tasks. Not fictional, but what we can, if done well, take inline and use. They choose what they like best: someone Android, someone iOS, someone backend, someone Web. Many tasks in Data Science and machine learning. Even if a lot of students have come, not all remain in the end, but some of them still settle in our company and become our employees.
Working day
Roman : It is interesting to listen to how someone builds a typical working day. Ilya, how is everything going with you?
Ilya : My story is not quite typical, because now I’m more a manager than a developer. Therefore, a typical working day consists of several meetings, several parallel meetings, several urgent meetings, and a number of other matters that need to be urgently resolved. There is a problem that you need to do everything, but something is not needed. Need to prioritize . This is probably the most difficult thing in my work, because you need to understand what you have to do after 5 minutes, and it is advisable to understand this in advance.
Roman : When I was in charge of the Yandex. Browser development group, it was very difficult to have several meetings on the same day.Even after two one-hour meetings a day, I felt squeezed like a lemon. How do you cope with such a flow?
Ilya : I guess I got used to it. My usual day is four meetings at least . Some time I book myself in the calendar when I know that I need to do some technical task or something on the project. Sometimes I still try to contribute somewhere. Therefore, I plan things in the calendar. I always have a plan for the week, which I have to do.
For example, all my work and non-business matters, I’m still working on repairing the house in parallel, are in one Task Tracker. This is all one list, in which I throw myself on the day of the case and do it. It helps to solve problems. For example, there is half an hour between meetings, and it seems that you do not have time to code anything and solve anything important, but you can do some task that you will not need to perform in the evening on your way home.
Roman : It turns out that you and work tasks, and your personal somewhere are hosted in one place.
Ilya : Yes. I use Wunderlist for this. If we talk about work tasks, then there is still a calendar and a little bit of Jira. For example, for AppsConf we use Trello. But for me personally, Trello doesn't go very well. For my stuff, I use Wunderlist.
Alexey : Ilya, you say that you have your own Wunderlist, in which you have all the tasks. How do you synchronize it with what is used in the work? Is there a synchronization manually or is something set up for this?
Ilya : Yes, manually. I usually start a task both there and there. It does not take me much time. Therefore, while I am satisfied with this option. But it seems there are some ready-made things that you can fasten and do everything. But as long as it does not hurt, I do not decide.
Roman : In addition to working in your work day, something else fits? For example, a hobby. What do you do in the morning, in the evening?
Ilya: Of course, the main hobby is repair, as without it. There are a lot of things associated with some additional activities: either recording a podcast, what we are doing now, or preparing AppsConf. There is still enough time for anything else. Sometimes I have time to take a walk in the evening, but this is the maximum.
Alexey : Roma, you have been around for years in iOS development. Surely you have developed some iron, time-tested approaches that you use for yourself. How do you build your work day?
Novel: My working day is relatively calm in terms of meetings. Every day there is a stand-up, we are synchronized by our distributed team. A few people are sitting in Moscow, most of them in Novosibirsk. As usual, all stand-up, and we stand-up. For all the time that I develop, I have two modes of operation.
It helps me a lot. Further super useful is to turn off all instant messengers and set up auto-update of mail at once per hour, or even better just to start the mail client with your hands and check what has been attacked during this time.
Ilya : I completely agree with you here. I decided to conduct an experiment and turned on the “do not disturb” mode in my phone. The only thing I left is all incoming calls. In this mode, I live for the third week. Damn, how calm it became. I don’t twitch at all now because of any vibration, because they simply don’t.
Roman : I lived for a long time with the iPhone and Apple Watch. What annoyed me in Telegram is that by default all notifications arrive at the clock and vibrate terribly. Now I decided to set up an experiment: I completely moved to Android.I did not put there Twitter or Instagram, Telegram by default in silent mode. It helps too. I feel much calmer.
Alexey : I am very positive for turning off everything. I live so not the first year. I completely have no sounds, notifications. When I sit down to work, I just turn the phone over. Some models blink as an indicator when something has arrived, and all this takes attention.
Ilya : Lesha, please tell me how your working day goes.
Alexey: I have everything intersect with you except for some nuances. You usually wake up, have breakfast, do some things and sit down to work, no matter at home or in the office, depending on which day. I completely turn off everything: no chats, mail, notifications do not come to me. I also tried the Pomodoro technique, but it didn't work out: it was more disturbing than helping. I scored on this thing. Some time passed, and I tried it again, but just in a different incarnation. I started with the fact that you work an hour without being distracted, then you take a break of 10-15 minutes. You work with such hourly intervals. An interesting thing that I noticed that over time this time interval begins to be missed. You get used to focus, and over time, this interval increases to one and a half to two hours. Everyone has everything personally, to each his own, but such a thing works for me.
Now I usually work at two-hour intervals . I sit down for two hours without any distraction writing the code, or I decide some code things around. It takes two hours, I open the messenger and I can answer something. We should probably warn you that there may be certain difficulties with the fact that someone is writing to you, and you are silent for two hours. Especially to colleagues, this may not be very pleasant, because they want to learn something from you. When a novice developer asks you, do not answer him an hour, he will find the answers for this hour and write to you: “Oh, I decided everything”. The level of the developer is irrelevant, many people calmly find solutions themselves. For other things, we even had such a micro-conflict at one time on this basis. We simply agreed that I would periodically check and answer if something appeared there.
Another thing I use is not an application, but a tablet in Excel, into which I put everything that has been done in these two hours: I am writing a date, a time interval, what exactly was done and some explanations for this task. If you saw a task, say, a week, then usually you specify part 1, part 2, part 3. You have 30-40 of such, and so on. There is a column for explanation. This thing helps, first, to immediately assess how well you have worked today. You see how many hours you really worked. In my case, this is pure work with the code: either I wrote it, or I read it, or I debugged it. This is not reading articles, not paging Facebook. Plus, it helps to assess some kind of dynamics: how much more you have become in time, allows you to find tasks that are similar to what you have to and, accordingly, give a more accurate assessment. Looking at such a list, you see: “Yeah, about the same task I took four hours last time, before last time - five hours. Consequently, in 3-4 hours I will do it this time. ” If you are required to give some assessment, it also helps. It is clear that this tablet is so completely private, no one has access to it. Such per-minute tracking can turn into a not very pleasant thing, if you start at work to track every minute.
Roman : I wonder what you mentioned about it, because I also keep track of what I plan and did for each pomodoro. It really allows you to evaluate what takes time and understand its effectiveness. Do you work with what you fixed? For example, you see that it takes a lot of time for you to systematically solve some problems.
Alexey: To be honest, I would like to say that I wrote some script that runs around the table, builds a nice graph for me, but no, because it takes time. Someday I will find him, but not today. I would even like to say that I systematically sit and look at it, remember the old tasks, but also not. I don’t know if this is connected with this tablet or not, where you fixed it, wrote it all down, but you just estimate something and break the task in your head. You don't even have to go somewhere and look. You just know these things already.
Roman : A couple more points that I consider important.
I believe that if this head day doesn’t work at all, then it’s better to stand up honestly and go for a walk than to sit and try to force yourself to work for two hours in a row without a particular result.
So you will spend half an hour-hour of your time, but you will spend it with pleasure and benefit for yourself. Then you, most likely, will continue to work. It is checked on itself. Another point is that it is better to have some non-technical hobbies that allow the brain to switch and rest from the main activity.
Alexey : Podcast is a great hobby, right? I would like to add your comment. Suppose I have a certain number of X hours per day, which I normally write code. This number is X not your full maximum. You can do two more or four on top. But I noticed for myself such a thing, that if there are such, let's call them conditionally processing (although nobody here doesn’t follow anyone, that's why everything is fair), they accumulate for 2-3 days, then for a much longer period you have, as you said "head does not work". It really is. You just have basic things going slower. Those tasks that solved in half an hour, you begin to solve by the hour and it is not clear why, because you are sitting the same. But this effect has the property to be. Therefore, it is better to know its some number X. Better you will work every day X hours effectively, than you once do a lot and then you will be stupid. But we must remember about deadlines.
Tools for work
Ilya : Let's talk about what you use for work? Maybe this is some kind of IDE, if it does not suddenly Xcode. Alexey probably does not use Xcode, but what?
Alexey : It would be strange to write an Android application in Xcode. I think it would even be very interesting to try.
For Android development, there are now two standards: Android Studio, or IntelliJ IDEA. I use Android Studio, and MacOS.
Ilya : And what is a Git client?
Aleksey : For a long time I was very perplexed when I saw people who use Git clients with UI. I had a perfectly refined terminal version, added alias. He drew me colored graphs with all the branches there - you sit, you will not rejoice. It was all beautiful until I discoveredGitUp . There is such a free application for Mac. Its worth trying because it gets faster. Yes, you can do the same there. There you can’t do some things with hotkeys or it’s long and difficult to learn, but in the end it simplifies and speeds up many things. Especially those that are related to diffs, when you need to understand what exactly you are committing now and what has changed. These things are super accelerated.
Roman : I have a similar approach, but I still use the terminal in order to spit change, make a rebase and that's it. I have a UI, rather, for a subcommit or for some sorting and editing existing commit messages. I use GitUp too - great stuff .
Ilya: I, on the contrary, never used the terminal for this. I can, but I never liked it. I used Xcode for a long time, then I was taught to use SourceTree . They said: "Look, this is a cool combine, he knows everything." I used it, and now I switched to Fork . This is a very cool thing. It is still free, but they say it will soon be paid. He is beautiful, there is a black theme, and solves all my problems.
Alexey : I want one more thing to definitely mention. I recently wasn’t stingy and went broke on a licensed version of the Mac Dash application . There are its analogues for both Windows and Linux, and free ones. But for Mac it is paid. This is a thing where you can download documentation from a heap of different places offline. Dash gives:
Ilya : Yes, Dash is a cool thing. I use it too, and I like it. Roman, tell me what are you using?
Roman : I started with Xcode. Until he turned into such a clumsy elephant, I was very pleased with it. Then I saw what cool things you can do in IntelliJ IDEA. In those days, Swift was not, but was Objective-C. I overcame myself and sat down at the AppCode and got just a lot of fun. You can do so much with the code: fast refactorings, renames. In this, JetBrains products show their power. Now, unfortunately, I had to go back to Xcode, because for some time AppXode did not feel very well with Swift, and all the buns that he gave me in Objective-C simply did not exist. Now I use Xcode, because without it nowhere.
Alexey: Such a question: Vim or Emacs?
Roman : Vim.
Ilya : Emacs. I can't get out of Vim, so I have Emacs.
Roman : I was taught at the university, so everything is fine.
Alexey : Roma, do you use Vim over Xcode in your daily work?
Roman : No, I share personal and work.
Alexey : Probably, two years ago I somehow overpowered myself, spent time and first learned how to use Vim on the Pet Project in the console in projects in Python. Since there are plugins for Vim for both the IntelliJ platform and Xcode, moved them there. This is, of course, a super thing. After them, I don’t know how to edit the code in a different way - it all seems very slow, inconvenient, and so on.
Novel: I came to the shortcut topic a little bit from the other side. I watched people play Starcraft. I started with a mouse, but then I saw how you can do on the keyboard.
If I go back to what tools I use, in general, I have a reasonable minimalism approach . That is, I would rather choose some simple small tool, or I will use what comes with the operating system. Fortunately, MacOS is full of high-quality embedded software, which I am very pleased with. Ilya, I suggest to go to you. You already told about SourceTree, about Fork. What are you still using? Mail client? You are the manager.
Ilya: Yes, with the post here is interesting. We have a corporate standard, so this is such an excellent client as Lotus Notes. I do not want to talk about him, to be honest. Well, if you do not know what it is.
Of the interesting things, I actively use Mind Map, in particular, I use MindNode for this . It allows you to cool structure information. I often write down some information in it after the meetings, to prepare for the reports and similar things.
For development: Xcode and Fork now. Still, of course, I use Keynote, it's pretty annoying, but without it. I can do animations of any complexity in Keynote and can teach everyone who is interested.
Tool recommendations
Roman : What can you recommend to our readers? What comes first to mind?
Ilya : For me, this is MindNode . When I discovered this whole story with mind map constructions and structuring information, I realized how comfortable this could be. Instead of writing down your thoughts or some meeting in notes, and then figuring out what to do about it: it can be an analysis of any task, a study of a new concept, some feature, and so on. When I write it in the mind map, I can immediately decompose into layers, and then it is much easier to use in work. I advise everyone.
Aleksey : I have already recommended Dash, so I will offer a little bit paranoid Snitch software.. True, it is only for MacOS. This, in fact, such a rollicking Firewall, which for every request that comes in or out of your machine, will show what kind of request it is, what application has let it go, where it went, and ask you to allow or deny it. It is clear that you can always ban, allow everything. The first days after its installation, you will be surprised how much weird information about you is sent unclear where. In addition to some kind of verification of updates, there are a lot of any analytics, and from those from whom you do not expect it. Most of all, this is what Adobe has released; they send just huge bursts of requests.
Plus microsnitch- this is the same thing. She, however, monitors the camera and microphone. She does not know who started the process, but she can show you that your camera is working now, a microphone, or both. In particular, I was surprised that the Android Emulator is blatantly listening. Most likely, this is the thing that listens to OK Google, expects Google OK, even though it is turned off. And when you have a desktop open, it actively listens to the microphone of your host, your working machine, where the sound goes.
Best of all, my thought process goes through when I write or draw what is in my head now.
Alexey : Listen, but you didn’t see such an effect on the scale in this thing, if you move from a notebook or just A4 sheets to a white board or a flipchart, then it goes even better, seeks to draw such a thrill with all this ?
Roman : There is, yes. I even think of making a huge board in the wall at home, as they do in offices. Yes, there really is such an effect and it is even pleasant to think straight.
Alexey : I heard that you can cover the walls with some kind of special paint that turns the wall into a board, that is, you can write and erase it on the wall. Ilya is engaged in repair, tell me where to get this paint?
IlyaA: Yes, we have this in our office - it is easy to do.
Roman : Time flew by, I propose to summarize and I want to thank my interlocutors and you for listening or reading.
As a conclusion, see Alexey Mileev ’s invitation to AppsConf . We are still working on the full version of the program, but the reports have already been adopted:
We will talk about specific cases of working problems at the conference, but for now we will discuss: working tools, time management, motivation for product development, the role of education in the programmer's work, and other interesting things.
In the third release of the Run Loop - a podcast about those who make products with their own hands - the hosts decided not to call anyone. And tell about yourself, because they also do useful and cool things.
 Roman Busygin is a leading developer of Yandex music for iOS. |  Ilya Tsarev Head of iOS in Alpha Bank. |  Alexey Mileev Android developer App in the Air. |
Experience. Public activities
Roman : The first thing you want to tell is about the experience: where we lit up and what we do, and not just those lines of the current position.
I am in iOS development from the very beginning. I remember when the platform was still called the iPhone SDK, it was the second Beta iOS 2.0. I was attracted to the platform by the fact that I used the first iPhone for almost a year, I liked to photograph various interesting things from my life on it, but the photos remained on the device, and I wanted to share them with someone. My first project was a client who could download these pictures from my iPhone to the Internet. Then it spun, spun. Then I worked at Yandex and there they accepted this project with great interest. In my track record, Yandex.Maps, Search, Browser, KinoPoisk, smartpass is an iPad application that lets you into cinemas, Yandex.Fish.
At the dawn of the development of iOS, there was very little development of information, and I really wanted to tell something about myself and find those pioneers who also dug in their corner, because then it was not yet fashionable. Little by little, I began to organize Yandex subbotniki on mobile development, which gradually grew into a separate format of the Yandex Mobile Camp event, which had grown to a separate mobile section at Yandex’s large conference Yes another conference. The list of public activities can be supplemented with podcasts. The first time I became a guest in the Sub . I liked this experience so much that I decided to continue, and now I'm with you in the release of the podcast Run Loop. Here is my short story.
Ilya: I have experience, of course, not as impressive as that of Roman. In iOS, I am developing relatively recently - only 5 years. I started with iOS 6. All my acquaintance with iOS development went from the institute. In the third year we started the project with the guys. I liked it and I thought programming could be interesting: It's not just there to write some nonsense, but you can make applications and touch them with your hands, it's cool. So I started doing iOS development. After that I managed to work in several startups. Some were closed for a couple of months, while others lived for several years. Everything was more or less good. Then I got into a big company. It was Alfa Bank, in which I have been working for three years. During this time, I managed to be at Alfa-Bank as an ordinary product developer, then as a lead, at the moment I am leading all of iOS development.
From the public I was always interested in speaking at the meetings - I was always afraid of that. Therefore, we decided to make our meetings, which were supposed to be more intimate with fewer people (not so scary), and talk about how it happens in Alpha Bank. We wanted to talk about our experience and show everyone that banks can be not only scary, huge, bureaucratic organizations, but also cool in terms of innovation and technology. This is how iOS metap Mobile Talks appeared. In the podcasts, I am the first time, and for this it is worth saying thanks AppsConf .
Experience. Road to programming
Alexey : I've been doing Android for about 5 years. Of these, three years and one month working in the App in the Air. It all started in school. I have already begun to understand that programming is something interesting. When you just had a computer, there seemed to be nothing, then you wrote something like that and something new appeared. This kind of programming magic lured. But I began to enter this business, to put it mildly, from the side. I don't know why it happened, but the first thing I came across is a Perl tutorial.. It was pretty scary. It is not a secret for anyone that a decent part of Russian general and higher education is cribs, without them nowhere. After my friends and I passed all the exams at the Physics and Mathematics High School, we decided that it would be nice to drive everything that we had in physics and all branches of mathematics into some kind of electronic cheat sheet. This is how our first Android app appeared. Then my friend adapted it for iOS. The Formula application is a formula reference that still lives in both the Store: Google Play and the AppStore. There was a somewhat dark period, when we were involved in a startup with the same friend, and I will not talk about it in detail. The only thing to say about him is that he was hosted on the late Parse, if you remember, Facebook had such Parse.com. It was a social network, which gave a lot of different interesting experience, because I had to work on so many aspects. She bent successfully when I was a second year student. Need money. I understood thatProgramming is a topic , it is interesting for everyone. I thought that parents were interested in teaching children programming, and offered tutoring: “I will teach you how to make Android apps.” I was counting on a younger children's audience, but in the end it somehow happened that I taught 30-40 year old uncles. It was rather strange, but interesting. By the way, several of them for our courses, for the time that we did, almost from nothing, we successfully reached the offer and went to work somewhere with the junes. In the third year I was thinking about where to go to summer practice. At first I thought that you just need to take a list of top mobile development studios that exist in Moscow, write to them who I am and what I can do to be taken as an intern. But while I was telling this thing to a good friend, I went through it to App in the Air. I came to them, I did a test task, I had practice and internship, and since then I have been there.
Novel: Alexey raised an interesting topic about the way to programming. My experience is also indirect, since I did not study in a purely programmer department. I almost always solve some applied tasks with the help of a computer. My first computer was a game station, where I learned to rearrange windows. I still probably remember how this is done, even with my eyes closed I can do. It was in programming that I came, thanks to the courses at school. I saw what beautiful pictures, graphics can be programmed. They lured me so much that I decided to enroll in courses. It was Pascal, and it was very exciting. Ilya, did you study to be a programmer or was it also on the side?
Ilya: I understood from school that it seems I like computer science and mathematics, and it would be interesting to try it all out. Accordingly, I went to study at the MAI at the Faculty of Applied Mathematics and Programming. The first two courses I was very sorry about my choice, because there was some kind of tin: a lot of mathematical analysis, a lot of development in C, where we wrote some strange things like suffix trees, all sorts of creepy algorithms. I did not like it, I did not understand why it was necessary. Then I tried iOS development and here I realized that I really like programming. Now I, of course, understand why all these algorithms were needed . This is a very cool base that helps me now. But then I thought that it was absolutely useless.
Alexey: About terrible math. In the end, I also completed applied mathematics at HSE. Impressions are exactly the same: terrible math 4 years. The only difference is that for the last two years it was not so terrible, because I didn’t often appear at the university. It really helps. Such advice how to deal with math.
Roman : Life hacking is wonderful. Please do not listen to him, dear students, this is bad advice.
Programming Education
Ilya : Do you have guys without a diploma? I have a person without a diploma right in the team, and we have several Android developers who haven’t finished anything yet and at the same time they are very cool.
Alexey : We have quite a lot of people who are still students. In App in the Air, this is the recruitment policy. We always invite a lot of students to summer practice. They do some tasks. Those who have done the best, receive gifts and offers to come for an internship. Most of those who are now recruited from such practices and internships. Until recently, most were from the Higher School of Economics, but not from applied mathematics, but from software engineering.
Novel: I never paid attention to it. The question put me in a dead end. But if my memory serves me, there are a lot of guys with diplomas. We always look at the result. Most likely, all with higher education.
About product development
Ilya : Let's talk about something close to what we do - about product development. Lesha, what do you think is important in product development?
Aleksey : Quite an interesting question, I would even say difficult. The most important thing is to just not forget that in the end you are doing a piece (I’m specifically talking about mobile development) that will be drawn on a small screen and a live person will interact with it. This is all what you do. In pursuit of fashionable technical solutions, flexible architectures must be remembered that in reality the user doesn’t care what's inside you - the main thing is that it works , preferably quickly and without bugs. Often pay attention to feedbacks that give you how the user feels.
Ilya: Yes, here I agree with you. This is primarily a client application. But you say that you can hear it like this: “Hammer on the architecture, it doesn’t matter what the difference is”. In fact, this is not quite the case. If we do not do something at the initial stage, it will backfire on us. Anyway, you need to think about it.
Roman : I would add here. The architecture becomes important in those moments when you have a large team, and the product is constantly evolving. When the project is not very large, in my opinion, it interferes, because you have an overhead in terms of a large number of files. In a small well-established team, the architecture is more likely to interfere. By a small team, I mean three people, maximum four. If it is more, and if it is also different cities, then there are already needed processes and rules, which you not only agreed on, but which are formally written on paper. If you go back to product development, I have always been interested in those products and applications that I myself use with pleasure.
The main criterion is the pleasure of using what you do every day. You do not just close the task, but you are also an active user of your own application.
Ilya : Yes, this is the coolest thing that can be when you use and really enjoy what you do at work. I believe that the most useful applications are those that allow us to save our time.
This was one of the reasons why I went to work in the bank. Money takes up a huge part of our lives. We get them at work, we spend them everywhere, and if we can save those minutes, hours that we spend on working with them, I think that's cool.
Roman : Interesting. I just want to step aside and ask a question to Lesha. For some reason I thought that App in the Air is one application. Do you have several?
App in the Air
Alexey : In fact, this is one application on Android and on iOS. If it is very simple, then App in the Air is a flight tracker - an assistant to travelers. Our target audience is people who fly very often. We are trying to do everything in order to make their lives easier by what Illya said - to save them time. There is also a by-product, which is a small copy of the App in the Air for greeters. That is, if you meet a relative from an airplane, then you can use the application with reduced functionality. But this is not the main branch, and was rather an experiment.
Novel: What surprised me, you said that you constantly invite people for internships. I got the feeling that you have a large team and you are doing something, but App in the Air is one small application. Is that so or not?
Alexey : Yes, it is. Until recently, even less than a year ago, we had a total of 10 people: both platforms, back-end, analytics, support. At the moment we have 25 people in the main chatika. This is due to the fact that, firstly, some places, like support, are expanding, and some additional areas have emerged that also need people.
Roman : All of these interns, which you invite, in the development go or evenly distributed in all directions in the company?
Alexey:Approximately evenly. How does this happen? Students come who need practice. We tell them: “See, you can do this, this and that.” There is a whole bunch of very different real-world tasks. Not fictional, but what we can, if done well, take inline and use. They choose what they like best: someone Android, someone iOS, someone backend, someone Web. Many tasks in Data Science and machine learning. Even if a lot of students have come, not all remain in the end, but some of them still settle in our company and become our employees.
Working day
Roman : It is interesting to listen to how someone builds a typical working day. Ilya, how is everything going with you?
Ilya : My story is not quite typical, because now I’m more a manager than a developer. Therefore, a typical working day consists of several meetings, several parallel meetings, several urgent meetings, and a number of other matters that need to be urgently resolved. There is a problem that you need to do everything, but something is not needed. Need to prioritize . This is probably the most difficult thing in my work, because you need to understand what you have to do after 5 minutes, and it is advisable to understand this in advance.
Roman : When I was in charge of the Yandex. Browser development group, it was very difficult to have several meetings on the same day.Even after two one-hour meetings a day, I felt squeezed like a lemon. How do you cope with such a flow?
Ilya : I guess I got used to it. My usual day is four meetings at least . Some time I book myself in the calendar when I know that I need to do some technical task or something on the project. Sometimes I still try to contribute somewhere. Therefore, I plan things in the calendar. I always have a plan for the week, which I have to do.
By the way, cool advice: write down all your affairs in one task tracker.
For example, all my work and non-business matters, I’m still working on repairing the house in parallel, are in one Task Tracker. This is all one list, in which I throw myself on the day of the case and do it. It helps to solve problems. For example, there is half an hour between meetings, and it seems that you do not have time to code anything and solve anything important, but you can do some task that you will not need to perform in the evening on your way home.
Roman : It turns out that you and work tasks, and your personal somewhere are hosted in one place.
Ilya : Yes. I use Wunderlist for this. If we talk about work tasks, then there is still a calendar and a little bit of Jira. For example, for AppsConf we use Trello. But for me personally, Trello doesn't go very well. For my stuff, I use Wunderlist.
Alexey : Ilya, you say that you have your own Wunderlist, in which you have all the tasks. How do you synchronize it with what is used in the work? Is there a synchronization manually or is something set up for this?
Ilya : Yes, manually. I usually start a task both there and there. It does not take me much time. Therefore, while I am satisfied with this option. But it seems there are some ready-made things that you can fasten and do everything. But as long as it does not hurt, I do not decide.
Roman : In addition to working in your work day, something else fits? For example, a hobby. What do you do in the morning, in the evening?
Ilya: Of course, the main hobby is repair, as without it. There are a lot of things associated with some additional activities: either recording a podcast, what we are doing now, or preparing AppsConf. There is still enough time for anything else. Sometimes I have time to take a walk in the evening, but this is the maximum.
Alexey : Roma, you have been around for years in iOS development. Surely you have developed some iron, time-tested approaches that you use for yourself. How do you build your work day?
Novel: My working day is relatively calm in terms of meetings. Every day there is a stand-up, we are synchronized by our distributed team. A few people are sitting in Moscow, most of them in Novosibirsk. As usual, all stand-up, and we stand-up. For all the time that I develop, I have two modes of operation.
- Flow mode , when I understand what needs to be done, and the thought flows like a river. I can not restrain myself and do not stop. This thread I can sit up to two hours and write code.
- The mode that is used for tasks with a lot of uncertainty, so that I clearly understand whether I have progress in this uncertain task. This is a Pomodoro technique , a timer for 25 minutes. Before the start of the next 25 minutes, I set a micro-goal - at the end I see if I have achieved the goal. If I do not achieve the goal of three tomatoes in a row - this is an occasion to think: either go to rest, or overestimate and approach the decision from the other side.
It helps me a lot. Further super useful is to turn off all instant messengers and set up auto-update of mail at once per hour, or even better just to start the mail client with your hands and check what has been attacked during this time.
Ilya : I completely agree with you here. I decided to conduct an experiment and turned on the “do not disturb” mode in my phone. The only thing I left is all incoming calls. In this mode, I live for the third week. Damn, how calm it became. I don’t twitch at all now because of any vibration, because they simply don’t.
Roman : I lived for a long time with the iPhone and Apple Watch. What annoyed me in Telegram is that by default all notifications arrive at the clock and vibrate terribly. Now I decided to set up an experiment: I completely moved to Android.I did not put there Twitter or Instagram, Telegram by default in silent mode. It helps too. I feel much calmer.
Alexey : I am very positive for turning off everything. I live so not the first year. I completely have no sounds, notifications. When I sit down to work, I just turn the phone over. Some models blink as an indicator when something has arrived, and all this takes attention.
Ilya : Lesha, please tell me how your working day goes.
Alexey: I have everything intersect with you except for some nuances. You usually wake up, have breakfast, do some things and sit down to work, no matter at home or in the office, depending on which day. I completely turn off everything: no chats, mail, notifications do not come to me. I also tried the Pomodoro technique, but it didn't work out: it was more disturbing than helping. I scored on this thing. Some time passed, and I tried it again, but just in a different incarnation. I started with the fact that you work an hour without being distracted, then you take a break of 10-15 minutes. You work with such hourly intervals. An interesting thing that I noticed that over time this time interval begins to be missed. You get used to focus, and over time, this interval increases to one and a half to two hours. Everyone has everything personally, to each his own, but such a thing works for me.
Now I usually work at two-hour intervals . I sit down for two hours without any distraction writing the code, or I decide some code things around. It takes two hours, I open the messenger and I can answer something. We should probably warn you that there may be certain difficulties with the fact that someone is writing to you, and you are silent for two hours. Especially to colleagues, this may not be very pleasant, because they want to learn something from you. When a novice developer asks you, do not answer him an hour, he will find the answers for this hour and write to you: “Oh, I decided everything”. The level of the developer is irrelevant, many people calmly find solutions themselves. For other things, we even had such a micro-conflict at one time on this basis. We simply agreed that I would periodically check and answer if something appeared there.
Another thing I use is not an application, but a tablet in Excel, into which I put everything that has been done in these two hours: I am writing a date, a time interval, what exactly was done and some explanations for this task. If you saw a task, say, a week, then usually you specify part 1, part 2, part 3. You have 30-40 of such, and so on. There is a column for explanation. This thing helps, first, to immediately assess how well you have worked today. You see how many hours you really worked. In my case, this is pure work with the code: either I wrote it, or I read it, or I debugged it. This is not reading articles, not paging Facebook. Plus, it helps to assess some kind of dynamics: how much more you have become in time, allows you to find tasks that are similar to what you have to and, accordingly, give a more accurate assessment. Looking at such a list, you see: “Yeah, about the same task I took four hours last time, before last time - five hours. Consequently, in 3-4 hours I will do it this time. ” If you are required to give some assessment, it also helps. It is clear that this tablet is so completely private, no one has access to it. Such per-minute tracking can turn into a not very pleasant thing, if you start at work to track every minute.
Roman : I wonder what you mentioned about it, because I also keep track of what I plan and did for each pomodoro. It really allows you to evaluate what takes time and understand its effectiveness. Do you work with what you fixed? For example, you see that it takes a lot of time for you to systematically solve some problems.
Alexey: To be honest, I would like to say that I wrote some script that runs around the table, builds a nice graph for me, but no, because it takes time. Someday I will find him, but not today. I would even like to say that I systematically sit and look at it, remember the old tasks, but also not. I don’t know if this is connected with this tablet or not, where you fixed it, wrote it all down, but you just estimate something and break the task in your head. You don't even have to go somewhere and look. You just know these things already.
Roman : A couple more points that I consider important.
I believe that if this head day doesn’t work at all, then it’s better to stand up honestly and go for a walk than to sit and try to force yourself to work for two hours in a row without a particular result.
So you will spend half an hour-hour of your time, but you will spend it with pleasure and benefit for yourself. Then you, most likely, will continue to work. It is checked on itself. Another point is that it is better to have some non-technical hobbies that allow the brain to switch and rest from the main activity.
Alexey : Podcast is a great hobby, right? I would like to add your comment. Suppose I have a certain number of X hours per day, which I normally write code. This number is X not your full maximum. You can do two more or four on top. But I noticed for myself such a thing, that if there are such, let's call them conditionally processing (although nobody here doesn’t follow anyone, that's why everything is fair), they accumulate for 2-3 days, then for a much longer period you have, as you said "head does not work". It really is. You just have basic things going slower. Those tasks that solved in half an hour, you begin to solve by the hour and it is not clear why, because you are sitting the same. But this effect has the property to be. Therefore, it is better to know its some number X. Better you will work every day X hours effectively, than you once do a lot and then you will be stupid. But we must remember about deadlines.
Tools for work
Ilya : Let's talk about what you use for work? Maybe this is some kind of IDE, if it does not suddenly Xcode. Alexey probably does not use Xcode, but what?
Alexey : It would be strange to write an Android application in Xcode. I think it would even be very interesting to try.
For Android development, there are now two standards: Android Studio, or IntelliJ IDEA. I use Android Studio, and MacOS.
Ilya : And what is a Git client?
Aleksey : For a long time I was very perplexed when I saw people who use Git clients with UI. I had a perfectly refined terminal version, added alias. He drew me colored graphs with all the branches there - you sit, you will not rejoice. It was all beautiful until I discoveredGitUp . There is such a free application for Mac. Its worth trying because it gets faster. Yes, you can do the same there. There you can’t do some things with hotkeys or it’s long and difficult to learn, but in the end it simplifies and speeds up many things. Especially those that are related to diffs, when you need to understand what exactly you are committing now and what has changed. These things are super accelerated.
Roman : I have a similar approach, but I still use the terminal in order to spit change, make a rebase and that's it. I have a UI, rather, for a subcommit or for some sorting and editing existing commit messages. I use GitUp too - great stuff .
Ilya: I, on the contrary, never used the terminal for this. I can, but I never liked it. I used Xcode for a long time, then I was taught to use SourceTree . They said: "Look, this is a cool combine, he knows everything." I used it, and now I switched to Fork . This is a very cool thing. It is still free, but they say it will soon be paid. He is beautiful, there is a black theme, and solves all my problems.
Alexey : I want one more thing to definitely mention. I recently wasn’t stingy and went broke on a licensed version of the Mac Dash application . There are its analogues for both Windows and Linux, and free ones. But for Mac it is paid. This is a thing where you can download documentation from a heap of different places offline. Dash gives:
- Documentation is offline, which can always be viewed. In the case of, for example, with Android documentation, this is much faster than opening a site, because their site is slow.
- She also gives snippets. You write a piece of code, assign it alias. While you are running Dash, you write this alias, press Tab and it directly makes a “paste” of your code. You can roll a very large pieces of code, and this will speed up the work. It does not depend on the IDE, because it can copy at least in a notebook, at least in Xcode, at least in Android Studio.
Ilya : Yes, Dash is a cool thing. I use it too, and I like it. Roman, tell me what are you using?
Roman : I started with Xcode. Until he turned into such a clumsy elephant, I was very pleased with it. Then I saw what cool things you can do in IntelliJ IDEA. In those days, Swift was not, but was Objective-C. I overcame myself and sat down at the AppCode and got just a lot of fun. You can do so much with the code: fast refactorings, renames. In this, JetBrains products show their power. Now, unfortunately, I had to go back to Xcode, because for some time AppXode did not feel very well with Swift, and all the buns that he gave me in Objective-C simply did not exist. Now I use Xcode, because without it nowhere.
Alexey: Such a question: Vim or Emacs?
Roman : Vim.
Ilya : Emacs. I can't get out of Vim, so I have Emacs.
Roman : I was taught at the university, so everything is fine.
Alexey : Roma, do you use Vim over Xcode in your daily work?
Roman : No, I share personal and work.
Alexey : Probably, two years ago I somehow overpowered myself, spent time and first learned how to use Vim on the Pet Project in the console in projects in Python. Since there are plugins for Vim for both the IntelliJ platform and Xcode, moved them there. This is, of course, a super thing. After them, I don’t know how to edit the code in a different way - it all seems very slow, inconvenient, and so on.
Novel: I came to the shortcut topic a little bit from the other side. I watched people play Starcraft. I started with a mouse, but then I saw how you can do on the keyboard.
If I go back to what tools I use, in general, I have a reasonable minimalism approach . That is, I would rather choose some simple small tool, or I will use what comes with the operating system. Fortunately, MacOS is full of high-quality embedded software, which I am very pleased with. Ilya, I suggest to go to you. You already told about SourceTree, about Fork. What are you still using? Mail client? You are the manager.
Ilya: Yes, with the post here is interesting. We have a corporate standard, so this is such an excellent client as Lotus Notes. I do not want to talk about him, to be honest. Well, if you do not know what it is.
Of the interesting things, I actively use Mind Map, in particular, I use MindNode for this . It allows you to cool structure information. I often write down some information in it after the meetings, to prepare for the reports and similar things.
For development: Xcode and Fork now. Still, of course, I use Keynote, it's pretty annoying, but without it. I can do animations of any complexity in Keynote and can teach everyone who is interested.
Tool recommendations
Roman : What can you recommend to our readers? What comes first to mind?
Ilya : For me, this is MindNode . When I discovered this whole story with mind map constructions and structuring information, I realized how comfortable this could be. Instead of writing down your thoughts or some meeting in notes, and then figuring out what to do about it: it can be an analysis of any task, a study of a new concept, some feature, and so on. When I write it in the mind map, I can immediately decompose into layers, and then it is much easier to use in work. I advise everyone.
Aleksey : I have already recommended Dash, so I will offer a little bit paranoid Snitch software.. True, it is only for MacOS. This, in fact, such a rollicking Firewall, which for every request that comes in or out of your machine, will show what kind of request it is, what application has let it go, where it went, and ask you to allow or deny it. It is clear that you can always ban, allow everything. The first days after its installation, you will be surprised how much weird information about you is sent unclear where. In addition to some kind of verification of updates, there are a lot of any analytics, and from those from whom you do not expect it. Most of all, this is what Adobe has released; they send just huge bursts of requests.
Plus microsnitch- this is the same thing. She, however, monitors the camera and microphone. She does not know who started the process, but she can show you that your camera is working now, a microphone, or both. In particular, I was surprised that the Android Emulator is blatantly listening. Most likely, this is the thing that listens to OK Google, expects Google OK, even though it is turned off. And when you have a desktop open, it actively listens to the microphone of your host, your working machine, where the sound goes.
Roman : If we talk about my tools, I will now show you a dinosaur. My A4 notebook and pen are very efficient.
Best of all, my thought process goes through when I write or draw what is in my head now.
Alexey : Listen, but you didn’t see such an effect on the scale in this thing, if you move from a notebook or just A4 sheets to a white board or a flipchart, then it goes even better, seeks to draw such a thrill with all this ?
Roman : There is, yes. I even think of making a huge board in the wall at home, as they do in offices. Yes, there really is such an effect and it is even pleasant to think straight.
Alexey : I heard that you can cover the walls with some kind of special paint that turns the wall into a board, that is, you can write and erase it on the wall. Ilya is engaged in repair, tell me where to get this paint?
IlyaA: Yes, we have this in our office - it is easy to do.
Roman : Time flew by, I propose to summarize and I want to thank my interlocutors and you for listening or reading.
As a conclusion, see Alexey Mileev ’s invitation to AppsConf . We are still working on the full version of the program, but the reports have already been adopted:
- Dmitry Gryazin about his extensive experience with Unit and UI tests in the development for Android.
- Philip Uvarov on the development of Gradle plugins.
- Ilya Tsarev about fears, expectations and harsh reality in the transition to a managerial position.