Freelancing to App Development

I don’t quite remember what my last update was, but I’m realizing that I’m not a huge fan of freelancing.

I enjoy making my own things. I enjoy making the decisions involved. I enjoy problem-solving. I enjoy being intellectually stimulated. I also enjoy the pride that come from full ownership and recognition for a product.

So I am going to rollback the freelance work and focus more on creating my own products again, but I do have to bring in money, so I’m going to finish my existing tasks and try to find work that can help educate me.

I’m currently working on bringing some app ideas to life finally. I’ve had app development on my bucket list for a long time and I always come back to it. I also really enjoy programming and I enjoy UI design.

I took some time to reflect on what steps I need to take and what language I am going to choose. I’d like to be able to program for tvOS, WatchOS, and CarPlay. Plus, I’d like to be able to implement the newest OS features released, so I will need to know the native Java/Kotlin, Swift/SwiftUI, and some C/C++/C#, either way. I am going to use a cross-platform language to do 90–95% of the work. (#dontrepeatyourself)

In trying to decide between React Native and Flutter, I am choosing Flutter. I did go back and forth a bit, but ultimately I found the answer by reflecting on my goals to determine which was more aligned. React is more popular and has been around longer, so, if I was trying to become a developer for a company, especially a big one, that’s what I’d use. BUT, that’s not the case. My long-term goal is to make my own apps with as little help as possible (for the foreseeable future) or to work with some startups a bit, so Flutter is better for me and here’s why:

• Flutter development requires you to know fewer languages. You really just learn Dart and maybe a back-end language depending on your needs.
• Flutter has better performance. The project will be larger and take up more storage space, but it will run faster.
• Flutter has better documentation. It’s easy to read and thorough and has tutorials to help you make some intro apps.

So tonight I’m using a Udemy trial to start learning Flutter. I personally prefer to start with video since it’s more passive, then learn with trial and error, using documentation to fill in the gaps.

I’ll let you know when I’ve made my first app. I’m hoping that it will be done in 1 week. I don’t expect this first idea I have to take very long.

Keep it sunny!

Kass