I really can’t believe it. I finally have a website. Several years of just okay coding in high school and college, and five years in the industry, and I finally have a bona fide website.

Once live (I’m writing this pre-launch), this will be my first project I’ve actually finished and launched. Life keeps me busy enough that I don’t often have the time for side projects. This one is important to me, though, and I feel the need to get something out there. That’s why I’m forcing myself to write this (as my wife and baby sleep soundly in the other room). I feel the push towards perfectionism and over-engineering too often, and I think that if a project I am creating can’t go #1 on Product Hunt, then what’s the point?

The question is, though, what’s the point of over-engineering and getting things so pixel-perfect? There can never be perfection in software. If so, wouldn’t systems that have been in place for years have no need for bug fixes? Wouldn’t an app require not new features, or not need a design refresh every so often? Humans, at their core, have flaws, and no one is perfect.

So why should I expect perfection from myself? Why fill an Android app with so many abstractions, tests, architecture enforcements, and docs when I have no idea if it is going to even be accepted to the Play Store (I am primarily an Android software engineer, so get used to a lot of that popping up in these blogs)?

I recently watched a YouTube video from Traversy Media about the issues that developers have with side projects. He gave several reasons for why many projects are never completed and never see the light of day. I definitely feel the tension of most, if not all, of the reasons listed, especially the fear of imperfection. It’s why now, as I write this post (this first ever public post aside from social media blurbs), I feel anxious about sharing my thoughts to the world. I don’t necessarily see myself as a good writer, or feel like I have anything to say that is of consequence.

Anyways, I don’t think I have any answers or neat bow to tie on this. I didn’t really think I’d get philosophical with this post. This was mostly my way of saying “Hello world, I have a website!”. I plan to use this space as a place to air my thoughts on a lot of things. I’ll implement tags or something of the sort in the future to split it into different categories. But, for now, thank you for reading!

– Bryce