Building a Chat App: From Monolith Mindset to Microservices & Consistency

#webdev #programming #beginners #productivity

Hey everyone! 👋

I wanted to share an update on my journey building a real-time chat application from scratch. It's a 15-week personal project, and I'm currently about a third of the way through, just wrapping up Week 4.

Weeks 1-3 Recap: Building the Foundation

The first phase was all about the backend basics. I built the initial Authentication and User services using FastAPI and connected them to a PostgreSQL database via SQLModel. A big step was getting comfortable dockerizing these services and using Docker Compose to manage them (along with the database) locally. I also implemented JWT for authentication.

Week 4 & Beyond: Entering Kubernetes & Core Chat

This past week, I've started diving into Kubernetes – learning about Pods, Deployments, and Services with the goal of deploying these initial services to a local cluster. It's definitely a step up in complexity!

Next up: building the core real-time chat backend, likely involving WebSockets and maybe a message queue.

The Struggle for Consistency (and a Tip from Atomic Habits)

Let's be real – staying motivated and consistent on a long solo project is tough. Procrastination definitely creeps in, and sticking perfectly to the plan doesn't always happen.

One thing that's helped is remembering a key idea from James Clear's Atomic Habits: showing up, even in a small way, is infinitely better than doing nothing. Getting just 0.1% done is better than 0%. So even on days when I lack motivation, I try to do something – read a bit of documentation, refactor one small function, write down notes. It keeps the ball rolling, prevents inertia, and reminds me that every little bit compounds.

Anyone Interested in Pair Programming?

Coding alone can sometimes feel like shouting into the void! I've been thinking that having an accountability partner or doing some pair programming sessions could be really beneficial. It's a great way to learn faster, bounce ideas off someone, stay motivated, and just make the process more fun.

Is anyone else working on similar tech (FastAPI, React, Docker, maybe diving into K8s soon) or just looking for someone to code with occasionally? Drop a comment or message me – let's connect!

Excited to keep building and learning. Onwards! 💪