Hey, this is the Daily Overpass! My name is Eric and I make apps!
Today, let's ask the question, is your developer the meal or an ingredient?
Okay, so I hope yo, guys, had a great weekend. Yesterday was Sunday and it was
beautiful here in England. The weather was - I mean, it was hot and sunny and I
didn't have any errands to run yesterday, so usually I was in the office all day
Saturday usually I'm in the office for a little bit on Sunday this is not
something I'm proud of. I probably work a bit more than I should and I need to
take more time off. And when I'm not working there's all
kinds of family errands and things to run. There's always things to do. So, I'm
always running around it seems like. But yesterday was perfect because I had
nothing to do. I was able to just have a lazy Sunday afternoon for the first time
in quite a while. So, I'm sitting around the house and it's lunchtime so I
think I'll make myself something to eat. So you go to check to see if there's
bread. Yes! There's bread and I'll make myself a sandwich. Checked the fridge and I
found bacon. I know some of you, guys, probably don't eat bacon but
I do. And to find a package of bacon in the fridge was just, like I
couldn't believe my luck! It was like, "Yes, there's bacon of the fridge!I thought
I'm gonna make myself a sandwich and I don't even have to leave the house is
fantastic!" So, I go, I take the bacon out and I'm about ready to get ready. I'm
checking to say, "is it - are we saving this for anything, whatever?" "No, no, we're not."
And then I checked the date on it, it's like a month out of date! That
thing it's like July 3rd, was they used by date on it. Alright, so I'm like,
"Okay..." and then I was thinking about saying, "Why is this been in the fridge
for so long? Why isn't anybody used it?" Then I got a little bit angry so I
went into the front room where my kids were diligently doing chores and
homework... (playing games?) So, I asked them "Hey, why didn't anybody eat this
bacon when it was - when it was good?" And one of my kids said, "because it's not
food! It's an ingredient!" And which was funny! I'm like, "What do you
meant was it's not a meal, it's an ingredient? So, you know, they did they
couldn't be bothered to cook it and put it in bread and everything like that. It
so easy! Anyway, I made myself - I saw something else. Anyway, but
it really struck me because what he said was it's not food - it's not food, it's an
ingredient. It's not a meal, it's an ingredient. This is what we do a lot
of times. When we hire developers, every so often, you'll hire a developer and you
think that they could do everything for you. You think that
they're the meal, but really they're just an ingredient. Like maybe, they've worked
in a team before and they've only done one part of something and they can't do
everything. I see this all the time with clients who come to us and I've been -
I've done this in the past too. You go on Upwork and you just do a search, you
say I need somebody to build this Android app or something, and then you
get like a bunch of people come in and then you think, "Well, I'll just I don't
know that." You know, when you don't know the difference, you just say, "Well, I'll go
for the cheapest one. Why not?" And then usually, somebody who can't do
everything maybe you know they might say they can, but they can't. And when I say
everything, I mean, the development. Most of the time when
you hire a developer, they're thinking the development, but also can they do the
design? Can they do the deployment? Can they - can they test it properly?
Everything like that. If they've been in a team environment their entire lives,
they're not the full package. I'm - that not a bad thing. They might be
specialized in something else, but sometimes you think you need somebody
else. It's like if you were gonna build a house you wouldn't just go out and hire
a builder. Or like in the movies where they pull up in front of a Taco
stand with a pickup truck and everybody, a bunch of it illegal aliens
jump in the back or you just going for the lowest? No, you need like an architect,
you need somebody who knows what they're doing.
And if you're a software developer you have to think about how could I be the
architect, who could pull everything together. Sometimes that means you
need to partner with somebody else. Like for me, I can't do the design work and
I've met so many developers in the past who have never - who have never
deployed an app. Maybe they've done a lot of the development. And if you read a lot
of the books on Android or iOS or whatever, a lot of the times, they don't
go through the how to use Google Play Console, how to use the App Store Connect
because that stuff changes all the time. If you have a developer hasn't released
anything at six months, things may have changed a little bit and they just need
to get their bearings, but if they have done in the past, it's usually pretty
much okay. I mean, there's nothing wrong with hiring somebody who doesn't have
all the skills, but a lot of times also you need to give them
time to learn that and it's a kind of a thing. So, you know, there's certain
things that I do where I'm, well, I think I'm the full package. I could do, you
know, from beginning to end. And there's other things where I'm just an
ingredient like I'm just I'm part of this, but I know
that I have to bring people in. And if you're hiring somebody, it's something to
think of all the time. Can this person despite the fact what they say they can
do, can they do everything together? So, when I'm hiring somebody, I want to
like - if I'm hiring somebody for part of the team, I'm looking for have they
worked on their own on a project and have they work in a team? Because if
somebody's only worked on their own, they might be undisciplined. Their code might
be all over the place because they know that's all that really matters
to them. If they've never worked on the team, they don't have to structure it
properly so it's readable to others and all that kind of stuff. But if they've
only worked on a team, they might not be able to do the full package from
the beginning to the end. So anyway, those are just my thoughts for today. Let me know
what yo, guys, think. You know, when somebody hires me, I have to make sure
that we could do everything when I hire Overpass, to let them know that
look, "I'm not the solution to all of this. I cannot do this from beginning to end.
We're gonna need to bring on a designer. We're gonna need - ideally we're gonna
need a QA person." I mean, we can do the testing ourselves, but a QA person would
make sure the quality is much higher. We need to bring in a somebody to architect
it if we can't do that and all that kind of stuff. Anyway, just my thoughts for
the day. I hope you, guys, have a fantastic week ahead. I hope you had a great
weekend and I will talk to you, guys, again tomorrow!