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 already work "for uncle", it's time to start something your own. And surely each of them has ideas of their own service, mobile application or game. Time passes, the “uncle” throws up new projects, sometimes they are interesting, sometimes not very, but their own ideas remain ideas.

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


There were many moments when tired of working projects and wanted something of their own, and most often they happen in some special episodes of life. For example, another birthday - on this day you make some conclusions, summarize the results of the past year. And when you remember that the ideas recorded in Google Docs during all this time did not even open, you understand - this will happen the next year, if nothing is changed.



And on one of the birthdays, my friends gave me a box with a beautiful inscription Samsung Galaxy Gear. But I did not find a smart watch in it: there was only a version of the gadget drawn on paper and paper banknotes. 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 recently appeared and developing direction, in which, on the one hand, there are still a lot of applications in the cauldron of fantastic competition , and on the other hand, the efforts of one developer should be enough for implementation.

My life already had a similar time: the rapid development of iOS and Android, but then I really didn’t develop anything yet, but played online games. The population of my city did not exceed 350 thousand people, so all the new products came to us belatedly, but in my circle of friends more and more smartphones with touch screens began to appear instead of the old tested button ones. A little later, I decided to upgrade, ordering 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 my bachelor's thesis), and how I’ll start developing! The phone came, of course, “Hello World” was written almost immediately, but the students, their first work (not related to the mobile sphere) and other amenities of life supplanted that impulse, and since then Eclipse has never been opened.

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

And this would go on all the time: marriage, the purchase of an apartment and a car, the appearance of children, a 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 books on psychology and self-development. You need to introduce yourself after 5-6-8-10 years and answer these questions:

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

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

What can I do for this today or tomorrow?

Suppose I want to keep fit, 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 the shape will appear only in the beer belly. What can be done today or tomorrow for this purpose? For example, go to the gym (do not sign up for it, but go). The day after the first training session, you need to ask the same question again and answer not “Nothing, I was at the gym yesterday!”, But something like this: “Hm, now everything hurts. What can I do today? Oh, I can drink kefir at night, and not eat chocolate ”(and it’s not necessary to forever give up sweets, you just need to do something closer to the final goal every day, even if it's something small).

Similarly with other items. "Movies in English? Maybe then you should sign up for English courses? “Oh, it’s necessary to walk 2-3 times a week for an hour and a half, but I don’t have that much time.” Thus, false goals are eliminated, which are actually not so important, but are added to the heap for various reasons (this is fashionable / fun; a neighbor learns the language). For example, I want to play the piano, but I understand that, perhaps, it will not work out soon: slightly different priorities. English in itself is important and even required in the IT industry, but learning it requires a more significant reason than films in English. For example, try to search for small projects on freelance exchanges for a little extra time in your free time, where the language is needed for direct communication with customers without an “uncle”. This is more significant

Asking myself such a question, I got to the item “Finally release my application for smart watches”. In general, after using this gadget, I have formed the following opinion both about him and about this market as a whole. At this stage of development, this is not a thing people really need. I don’t know how to use a smart watch except to actually view the time and to display notifications. From the point of view of this functionality, the device copes with this task 100%: while driving, I can appreciate the importance of the call without looking up from the driving process; at a meeting I can drop an unexpected call or read important information without taking my phone out of my pocket; It’s also convenient to send from the watch a template SMS about being late for any meeting.

But manufacturers of these gadgets have invested much greater potential in them, including the ability to develop their applications (there are already thousands of them on Google Play). But I do not know how to use them. I set notes that can be written on the phone, and viewed on the watch (can be used when shopping at the store; in the exam for students). Or "Commander", which allows you to turn on / off the sound, air mode, Wi-Fi, 3G. But if at some moment there is an opportunity to get a smartphone, then this will happen every time: it’s more convenient, more familiar, plus you can immediately check your mail or scroll through some tape. So if you are not driving, at a meeting, or are not involved in 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 don’t take into account various fun applications, in the style of giving someone a smartphone in my hands, and then using the clock, open on it a sudden picture or an simulator of an incoming call, or even play indecent sound. A similar situation with games: playing on the big screen is more interesting. You can say: "And if the smartphone is exhausted, you can play on the clock." Yes, it is, but for example, Sony SmartWatch 2 requires a constant connection to a smartphone via Bluetooth to launch third-party applications, which makes it impossible to play with a discharged main device or undesirable with a low battery. True, with the latest gadgets such a problem should no longer be. or even play indecent sound. A similar situation with games: playing on the big screen is more interesting. You can say: "And if the smartphone is exhausted, you can play on the clock." Yes, it is, but for example, Sony SmartWatch 2 requires a constant connection to a smartphone via Bluetooth to launch third-party applications, which makes it impossible to play with a discharged main device or undesirable with a low battery. True, with the latest gadgets such a problem should no longer be. or even play indecent sound. A similar situation with games: playing on the big screen is more interesting. You can say: "And if the smartphone is exhausted, you can play on the clock." Yes, it is, but for example, Sony SmartWatch 2 requires a constant connection to a smartphone via Bluetooth to launch third-party applications, which makes it impossible to play with a discharged main device or undesirable with a low battery. True, with the latest gadgets such a problem should no longer be. which makes it impossible to play with a discharged main device or undesirable with a low battery. True, with the latest gadgets such a problem should no longer be. which makes it impossible to play with a discharged main device or undesirable with a low battery. True, with the latest gadgets such a problem should no longer be.

In general, when I thought 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, in order to pass half a minute in the queue or some short delay. The 220x176 screen does not provide an opportunity to turn around in thinking through the gameplay, so the eyes turned to the side of time-tested games on platforms with a minimum number of buttons. It was based on the good old Electronics and the wolf from “Well, wait a minute!”, Catching eggs in a basket. The screen was divided into 4 zones, when pressed, the basket was substituted for the corresponding chicken. A working prototype was slowly developed 2-3 days before I started applying the rule “What can I do today or tomorrow?”. The most exciting part of the development process was completed: the wolf collected eggs, points were counted, the game stopped after three broken eggs. It remained to fasten the graphics, make menus, write the rules of the game, maintain 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 somewhat new niche for developers). One of the conclusions that I made for myself is that almost everything is important to do in due time. Of course, I have already painted on the graphics, made the menus and rules, the result is saved. It’s interesting to play it yourself (especially since it’s your own), I even laid out the game, but time passed.

Some important things came out of all this for me, and the main one was the 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 bear in mind the ideas of their projects, but, working “for uncle”, do not bring them to life, I want to recommend asking yourself such a question. In my case, the development of the prototype and bringing it to mind took a week, a couple of weeks various improvements, interface and whistles, but I did not do anything for this for a year. All that was missing was just this issue, after which the project was completed within a month.

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