Hi, this is the daily overpass, my name is Eric and I make apps!
Now today I wanna answer the question - will native apps be around in 5 years time?
Alright, so last week I was asked a question by 100 core dream, and I know I've answered
questions by him before - "Hi Eric, it's me again.
I wanna ask something which is killing me inside which is - are progressive web apps
and android instant apps gonna take over and is this gonna kill developers futures?"
And I gave I guess a very short answer which was not very satisfying, maybe I said the
wrong thing, but I said "I don't know, I can't tell the future, I can't say one way or the
other", and he said "are you trying to say that I should just focus on being agile" - what
I said was be flexible - and he said "should I be agile?"
Shivam, Jesse, Dominic, you guys gave very good answers too saying don't stop learning
Android just because of that because those skills go, you can use them for other places
too and once you've learned one language it's easier to learn another.
And I wanted to kind of address this again because I felt bad about it all week because
I thought, I don't wanna crush anybody's dreams, but the fact of the matter is, in my opinion,
well I think it's more than my opinion, none of us have any control over the market!
The market can change instantly!
The best thing that we can do is to be skilled and be flexible and agile.
So one of the things that I found when I'm getting into app development as a developer
was, I just kinda thought, well I could code, I could develop, I could draw specifications,
project management, all that kind of stuff, that's enough!
And then once I get into it I realise there's all these other skills I need to learn, like
the marketing side of things, being able to communicate properly, being able to do all
kinds of things which I never even...you know, design, making sure the design is good.
Start looking at way design affects things, and that's the kind of stuff I didn't even
consider to begin with.
But these are skills that, should the app market end tomorrow for whatever reason, those
skills are transferable.
I am not working for a company that's giving me skills and then saying "Eric, just tick
in these boxes or do this or move this from here to there".
No, there's a lot more, and this is one of the great things about being an app developer
and this is why it's such a huge opportunity for us.
Now because you have to look at all sides of it, especially if you're an indie developer
you can't just consider yourself to be a developer anymore, you have to look at all sides of
it.
You have to think "what am I lacking here?
Am I lacking marketing?
Am I lacking better code?
Am I using the wrong language?
Am I coding in the wrong human language for the wrong market?"
There's so many things you have to look at, you're constantly second guessing yourself,
but these are really good skills to have!
Now, one of the things that I found - going from an employee to self-employed was pretty
difficult, but one of the things I found after that was that when I was an employee, they
kinda said what I should learn, what I should do and the whole promise there was "we'll
take care of the market and you don't have to worry about that, you're just gonna have
a job".
And since then, since I've gone self-employed, I've worked for many places where you see
these massive lay-offs or they close down, or they let people go and it always takes
everybody as a shock as an employee.
The fact of the matter is that the employers have no more control over the market than
you do!
The market - in the last few weeks, what have we seen?
We've seen the markets can change on a tweet, on an executive order, on a new bit of software,
if Tower Records could not control the market, then how could you?!
If blockbuster could not control the market, how can we expect to control the market?!
And the fact of the matter is we can't!
But what we can do is be flexible and agile and watch for changes and then be able to
make those changes and when we pick up new skills, realise that those skills are gonna
be useful into whatever else we go into.
Now the truth of the matter is that I think that apps will be here in 2020 / 2025, obviously
I'm putting a lot of time and energy into it, but I am not gonna be that person who
says "this is unfair, I had all this stuff going and now it's gone", right?
My whole view on life is if things start to change, I'm gonna change.
The skills I pick up I'm gonna try to bring them with me, if I need new ones I'm gonna
pick those up along the way.
We are constantly always learning!
This is not the world that our parents grew up in where they get a job and they have it
for the rest of their lives.
And I think one of the best things, if you're an employee some place and you're doing app
development on the side, I think that's really good to get that experience.
I think you should start thinking about getting out of the employment personally, but just
because when you're an employee you think you're safe, and really you're not.
You're on a bus with a crazy bus driver, or with a bus driver who has about as much control
as you have, would have if you were driving the bus.
And every year we see the new story, I guess around June, where all these college grads
come out and say "you know, I went into college and it's been four year, went heavily into
debt and tried to learn html or web development or programming and now there's no jobs out
there and it's just not fair!"
And the fact of the matter is, it's not fair! the market, none of us control the market,
and I think the sooner that we can accept that, the more flexible we are.
We were riding high one day, we might be crashed the next day.
But every time you can improve yourself and improve your skills and learn something new,
even if it gives you insight or it gives you actual skills where you can actually do something,
then that's always beneficial in the long term and whatever you do, don't be that guy
or that guy or lady, that person who says "this is not fair, everything's changed and
it was supposed to be this way" because you know what, none of us have any control over
the future.
I hope that's not too depressing today, but I think the future is bright! i think things
look great and I think if you adopt the right mindset, if you're ready to take those risks,
and everything is a risk, taking a job with an employer is a risk believe it or not!
If you're willing to take those risks then everything's gonna work out great for you
in the future.
that's it for today, I'll talk to you guys tomorrow!