Have you started yet, Bobby?!

This blog has been a long time coming. I know the irony in that phrasing, but it's true. For those of you who don't know me, I'm Bobby Rivera. I've been a web developer since 2018, and, like other devs, I have a long list of side projects I've been wanting to work on for a while. I've even gotten a virtual graveyard of domain names that I've been paying for in anticipation of this. Let me slow down, though, and explain.

"Are You Done Yet, Bobby?!" is intended to be a dev blog that chronicles my journey of finally getting my long list of side projects done. Along the way, I'll talk about my thought process and the pitfalls I may hit. I know there are a lot of questions. Such as, "Why should I care?" and "What are you working on first?"

Why should I care?

Honestly, I hope that reading my blog posts will inspire others to take the time to work on their own side-projects. Web developers are always stuck in this cycle of having to work on projects with an NDA and then not having time to work on anything else. Eventually, that leads to scrambling to have portfolio items. At least that's the cycle that I've found myself in. Hopefully, if you follow me through my journey, you get to see some cool projects, and if you're working the challenge alongside me, I'll even see yours.

What are you working on first?

The first project is technically this blog. I wanted to learn a new CMS that wasn't WordPress, and Statamic really intrigued me. I decided to take the leap and start by building this blog. The structure was really easy to learn, and their documentation was nearly as great as Laravel's. I'll be using it for my future clients, depending on the project. But since this blog has already been created, I decided to work on something that's been brewing for a long time. "What to Gift Me?" is a universal wishlist. I have a separate post all about the project thus far.

The Challenge

There aren't many rules to this challenge. And I wouldn't necessarily want to create a super rigid structure until I can get consistency. The primary goal is to create the minimum viable product as quickly as possible. I want to get done and get the projects in front of actual users.

1. Post in public, as often as possible - While I would also work in public, like on Twitch, I would most likely get the time to work on these projects at night, which isn't the best time to stream coding.
2. MVP - The major part of this challenge isn't just getting things done. It's also getting the core of the project in front of real people.
3. The majority of the code must be written by you - Let me be clear, I'm not 100% against AI. I do think that the genie is out of the bottle, and it's going to be around in one form or another for a long time. As I mentioned before, this challenge isn't just about getting things done. I could, of course, get things done with AI fairly quickly. But I'm looking to expand on my knowledge and push the boundaries of my experience. I can't do that if AI is writing most of my code. I will often use AI to "scaffold" routine code, such as the layout of an HTML file. I'm going to try to write it mostly myself and use my AI as an enhanced intellisense/auto-completion tool.

While new rules might be added to this list, I'm looking to keep this as the core of the challenge. If any of you have suggestions, hit me up on my socials. Keep in mind, I'm not going to police you if you don't follow rule number 3. This is more of an honor system, and I don't have the time or energy to come down on others. Just know you're only robbing yourself.

Into The Unknown

I don't know if this will 100% work out the way I want to, and while I'm nervous about failure, I'm more excited about the prospect of what may come. I hope that you'll follow along here or on social media, or if you want a quick TL;DR, you can always check out the "Are You?" section in the navigation. If you join in the challenge, let me know! If anything, I hope I can help people get those pesky side-projects done and improve the way they code.