Building an App in 30 Days ... Is Stupid [2008] | Hacker News Reader

Building an App in 30 Days ... Is Stupid [2008]

ianlandsman.com

24 pointsjoedev22 comments

You may have needed 30-60 days to build an App in the past because development eats up so much of that time.

You should still start with a real problem, do good planning and market research, as well as validation of your solution, and that can take time, but no longer will you need weeks and weeks to implement the App. The company I run, Blueprint (https://blueprint.io), is basically a tool like Illustrator for people who want to build iPhone apps. Best of all, unlike a bespoke App which has to have its code opened up and then be republished each time a change is necessary, Apps you build with Blueprint can be updated with almost any kind of change while they are still in the wild.

Now, 30 days doesn't consist of 1 - 2 weeks for planning and design and 2-3 weeks of fast coding and testing - it can consist of 3 weeks of design and a few days of building your App for free. You can even use Blueprint to preview your App live in your browser and gather feedback from your target audience before you commit to paying the one-time fee for sharing releases. It's a new way to approach the process of creating mobile Apps.

The way I see it though, you may develop and launch an app in 30 days, but just because you release the app doesn't mean you're done.

Sure you can build an app in 30 days, but if you walk away from it after 30 days hoping it will put money into your bank account, that's just... stupid.

But releasing an app in 30 days is likely smarter in most cases.

I disagree that building an app in 30 days is "stupid." For some applications, a v1 in 30 days is entirely possible/reasonable. You have to consider the app you want to build and who you're selling it to. Some people are content with an MVP backed by a solid vision, others need something more substantial. Nobody's wrong here, it's totally based on the needs of your customers. The important part is that you understand this and approach it appropriately.

This might be true for building businesses, but I've started out trying to build a fun app in a day because I wasn't happy with anything on the App Store and it worked out quite well. It took more than a day, but it was a fun experiment and I got familiar with a few new libraries. I'm going to open source this and if people find it useful, then awesome!

Here's a post I did on it if anyone cares -

http://www.tejaswi-yerukalapudi.com/post/12487091818/one-day...

Nice counterpoint and nice looking app there, tejaswly.

I'd be interested in the source, but can't find it?

"I'm going to ..." = hasn't been done yet

Looks like a great project. Just curious: How did it resonate so far in regards of downloads?

Honestly, I just published it to the App Store yesterday after procrastinating for a while. So lets see :)

Out of curiosity, did you ever check out DiveBoard? (http://www.diveboard.com/)

I haven't used it that much (2011 was a busy year for me), so I don't have much experience with it, but it looks nice.

Question is completely unrelated. Blue Grotto in your mock up. it is in malta right?

When was the last time someone's software project failed because they created a usable version too quickly?

Thinking that you can spend 30 days and then never touch your code again is stupid. However, setting a time constraint that forces you to make decisions about what to leave out in order to get your code to a stable usable state isn't such a bad thing.

it can actually be good to put a deadline on the development. But as this article wisely points out, you should not expect for your work to be done once your have a released or release-able product. In many ways, you're just getting started.

As an aside, I think it's best to not be intimidated by what other people say they can do in a certain period of time. Different people take different amounts of time to get things done, based on what tools and techniques they have in their bag of tricks, and how long they've been working on a given problem domain. If someone brags that they did some awesome app in 7 days, but it would take you 20 or 40, just don't worry about it. It's not relevant for most discussions, and it's easy to get distracted by such things when evaluating ideas or products.

I build 2 apps, both in less than 5 hours. Brings me about 50$ per month. Its barely worth the 10 hours buts it was fun.

What are those apps ?

Finally, somebody said it! A 30 day app is a hobby. The chances of success are like winning the lottery. It is ideas like this that give people very unrealistic expectations. In my experience there are 2 main types of people who are hurt by the "30 day app" idea and others like it.

The first is the Instant Millionaire type. They think they just thought of the next Facebook now all they need is someone who knows how to use a text editor to build it! So they get it done by an outsourced company in India or they hire their nephew who "is good at computers" or they hire the local "web developer" in town that just finished reading "HTML for Dummies" and charges $100 for a website that looks like it was converted to HTML from a Word document. Inevitably the idea turns out to be crap, it fails, and it ends up being someone else's fault somehow.

Then there are the legit hackers who are super passionate, have a great idea, and have the skills to execute. They see all the stories of the quick hack app that seems to be blowing up online and they feel like the only way to compete is to keep up with the guys who are doing this stuff. But the reality is that if you really want to make a business out of your idea there's a lot more to it than just building version 1 and sending the link to your friends. It's sad because these people fail and get down on themselves never realizing that they had unrealistic expectations to begin with.

These stories of the 30 day app and others like it are the exception. They're so rare that when they do happen it gets massive amounts of attention. But those stories are the exceptions with the rule being that even well planned businesses default to failure. I site around HN and read stories of all these incredibly talented people doing stuff that's incredible and it makes me feel like I suck unless I keep up. It promotes the idea that success is quick and dirty. I hope everyone remembers that all the trends and fads in business are either bullshit or you really need to adapt them to fit your situation and have realistic expectations from the beginning.

Good points but it all depends on the definition of success. A 30 day app can very well make someone a small living and be successful in that sense.

Just because it doesn't make you a millionaire doesn't mean it's a failure.

Well put and I agree. What I'm referring to are the people who want to get covered in TechCrunch and have valuations in the millions. I very much respect the people who do something they love and make a comfortable living from. I very much feel sorry for the ones who are looking to have a movie made about them a la The Social Network.

Is it better for your "Instant Millionaire" to spend

a. 30 days or

b. 2+ months

...learning that his idea "turns out to be crap?"

It is better for the "legit hacker" to spend

a. 30 days or

b. 2+ months

...to learn that "there's a lot more to it than just building version 1?"

You seem to think that failure is an unexpected outcome of rapid development. In fact it is a key GOAL of rapid development.

I think failure as a goal is total nonsense and another one of those ideas that's become popular but is just bad advice. Failing teaches you what not to do. Instead people should be learning from success. Do your homework, put out something based on educated research and focus on what is working and repeat it. Learning from successes gives you something you can use again and again. Learning from failure gives you a one time lesson in what not to do which is far less valuable. There's more than enough information floating about on what works that people can easily access and fit to their needs. Even people with completely revolutionary ideas that have never been done before can benefit as lessons in marketing, design, and coding techniques apply to everyone.

If you've ever met an Imstant Millionaire you'll notice they don't learn from their mistakes. There's always some excuse and enough blame to put on everyone but themselves. In the end they always end up pursuing another bad idea in the same way somehow convincing themselves that this time it'll be different. I've come across a bunch of these people and often they're working on several doomed ideas at once, going about each the same way.

As for the legit hacker I really wonder what they really learn. You may be perfectly right but if I put myself in those shoes my mind works in a way that if my 30 day app failed I'd blame it on bad design, not enough buzz, or somehow blame my code for not being objected oriented or functional or maybe I just didn't use the right framework.

Now, despite my disagreement with failure as a goal I think people with that mindset are much better off than others. The problem is the people I'm talking about don't have this mindset. They simply read about how someone else did it ans think "me too! I'll do it too!" with no understanding that what they're reading about is either a stroke of luck or was built by someone whos had the right plan and mindset.

    [Failure] is a key GOAL of rapid development.

In that case you are doing it wrong.

The goal is to quickly test what works and what doesn't. Not to fail. And actually, it is to test the assumptions you have about your potential customers.

Sadly, you can't scale something you wrote in a couple of days. And the feature set will be just the basics, if that.

For creating a product where you can actually start making a living you need to invest a little more time. But it's nice to know ahead that you are actually running with an idea that works.

I also think the fad of "look what I wrote this morning!!" is absolutely ridiculous. But it is a good way to get some quick visitors to verify your new idea.

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