[Note To Self]

So my latest personal project, is a web application that I call Icebreaker.  You know what an icebreaker is, right?  It’s a way to start up a conversation and/or a way to get to know someone better.  Since I’ve been going around to a bunch of MeetUps, I’ve been trying to find a way to put a variation on the way that I introduce myself.

My go-to introduction starts with my name, where I learned to code, and my stack.

But I’m more than my stack and so are you.

A big part of the inspiration for Icebreaker came from when I participated in last year’s Startup Weekend.  Did I ever blog about that?  I know I meant to…  Anyway, before the team started working, we got to know each other.  We used a variety of icebreakers from short answers to longer, thoughtful ones.  I liked that I got to know my teammates and that I can describe them as something other than, “All those dudes.”

So I started off Icebreaker the way I started another personal project: scope creep.  It’s okay if you don’t know what to do, but it’s hard to talk about chaos.  I’m trying to get better at public speaking, so I’ve made it a goal to have a project to show off/talk about at the MeetUps that I attend.

Once I got the basic functions working, I had to sit down and think about my next steps.  Did I want to add more features?  Could I confidently talk about the technology that I used in Icebreaker?  Would people even like this idea?  Would they think that I’m a dumbass?  Would they think that this was a simple…

Is it Impostor Syndrome?  Or is it a confidence issue?  For me, I feel like it’s more confidence issue than Impostor Syndrome.  Like, I can do things… I’ve got actual, deployed projects out there.  I’m also of the mindset that if I don’t know how to do something, there’s no reason why I can’t learn it.  I’ve also figured out that some of my public speaking issues tie into the confidence thing.  I told myself… I know my project, it solves my problem, I know about the tech that I used…

While presenting Icebreaker wasn’t easy sailing (I still rambled…) it was pretty well-received and I answered the tech stuff competently!  For example… I’m using Firebase Realtime Database to handle the data.  I used it because it’s quick and I wanted to get more practice with it.  Someone asked if I had thought about scalability and yes, I have.  Firebase works for now, but a future feature goes beyond Firebase’s capabilities and I would probably need to switch to something like MongoDB or MySQL.

The great thing about going to show-and-tell MeetUps is finding help in the community.  Someone came up to me afterwards and mentioned that Cloud Firestore is currently in beta, and maybe I should take a look at it.  Another person came up and told me that I’d gotten a little better at presenting since my first try at it.  I’m definitely going to take that W.

So what’s the next step?  Well, I’m still working on Icebreaker (While still trying to find a job… but we’ll talk about that another day).  Because you can’t talk chaos, I decided to finally flesh out the details of the project.  GitHub has a really great feature for project planning.  I have columns of things to do, things in progress, and future features.  Some of them, I turned into actual issues.  Things that need to be planned out more have been left as notes.

Planning has helped me see Icebreaker more clearly.  Right now, I’m trying to break up the Home component into smaller components.  I have a future feature that I know could use those components.  They might maybe tie into other future features?  That means rewriting things so that they can be used again.  The idea tickled something in the back of my mind… reusable components.  I think I understand the concept, but the execution isn’t going so well.  But like I said, if I don’t know something, I can learn it!