It happens all the time. People have some giant idea for an app, or game. Their app is going to change everything! It’s going to be so awesome…

But everyone tells them to start small. Get experience first.

But who wants to do that?

The Problem

You have some idea for making an app which tracks calories and nutrition of every food imaginable. You want to have as many grocery stores as possible integrate with this app. You want to save the world.

But someone tells you to learn Python. To make small apps that do 2 + 2.

Boringggggg….

Mis-alignment

There’s actually another problem going on here…

Does learning 2 + 2 in Python teach you how to make your dream app?

In some respects, yes. And in some respects, not at all..

People say “Start small”, but then give no direction. In some respects, it can actually de-motivate someone. And it can similarly distract someone. When the subject is told to “Start small”, it may even invoke a reverse response.

Perhaps we should itemize what needs to be done.

Your dream app probably requires the following:

1. Knowledge of nutrition, or hiring someone who has such.
2. Learning to partner with businesses, and negotiate deals.
3. Building mobile apps.
4. Knowledge of business, or hiring someone who has such.

It’s quite a bit more than just learning Python.

When itemized, the task might seem extremely daunting. But let’s discuss a better approach to tackle this.

The Project Garden

Every project you complete brings forth new projects. One single plant could bring forth dozens, hundreds, fill an entire field, or island or continent.

Big projects are built upon smaller projects. They act as rungs in a ladder.

Suppose instead that you create an online wiki for nutrition. This could be accomplished by any number of wiki builders online, without even learning programming. This project could be up and running in less than a day.

Sure it wouldn’t have many posts. But as it grows, it gains more and more facts on different foods. It finds more and more users overtime. Now you’re making progress. Sure, your website got one or two visitors in a day. That’s more than if this secret app was being developed for years.

Suppose this wiki becomes quite large. Suppose your website becomes a staple name. You are now in a better position to partner with others, who may even reach out to you.

Suppose you wish to create an app. You now have a working “prototype”. In fact, its more than a prototype. It’s a solution people actually use, and which has feedback.

The Power of Pivoting

I believe the human imagination is extremely limiting.

The original large idea was actually somewhat limiting. Imagine if you could take pictures of ingredients and it could tell you the nutrition facts. Or receipts. Imagine if it intelligently suggested things and built a diet.

I’m willing to bet your original grandiose idea is only part of the glorious outcome it could have.

The tutoring service I ran for a couple years started as private lessons in Python and JavaScript. But then I realized I could introduce 15+ more languages. Then I was contacted by students in university. And later, I started helping individuals with projects. And then later, helping a handful of small businesses with custom software solutions.

I’ve since closed this service due to an opportunity. But it was certainly not the same idea or service it began as.

The human imagination is limited, and you can accomplish things better than you ever imagined.

The Power of a Varied Garden

What other things could help your wiki you launched in a day?

What if you started a blog, or YouTube channel, discussing nutrition? This could attract people to your wiki, where they could find information quickly.

What if you built a tiny app which helps people plan their diet? Maybe it could integrate with your wiki?

What if your wiki listed information about diets? Or even branched out into exercise?

Grow a garden full of all sorts of different flowers, herbs, trees, vegetables. All of these plants coming together into a cohesive whole. The sum of the parts is sometimes much larger than the parts themselves separated.

You need to think outside the box. Have objectives, and then make efforts to accomplish them. Traveling from one place to another may require multiple methods, such as hiking, boating, climbing, etc. It is too with many endeavors, especially large ones.

The Reward Ladder

Every project brings rewards.

The problem with a grandiose large project is the rewards are experienced later. They may be grand, but this is at the expense of rewards sooner.

It doesn’t always have to be this way.

Beginning by publishing a wiki, for example, will help by getting feedback right away. You will be rewarded with a prototype you can use to better conceptualize your idea.

Beginning a YouTube channel can help you learn what others think. It can reward you with better presentation and speaking skills. Why wait years for some big app to be completed to learn how to present? And not just with hyping up your product, but by delivering things today.

You may be able to reap some of the rewards of your large project today, and continue to do so overtime.

And maybe you begin by selling some small thing. Maybe removing ads on your wiki. Well now you may begin to have a small income being generated.

Rewards are not Easy to Identify

YouTube taught me to clean up and simplify my code more. Putting my code in front of people really taught me that I need to make it simpler.

I would argue that it is nearly impossible to discover all the rewards of any project. For the human imagination is limited.

No Project Truly Fails

Even if your wiki doesn’t succeed in getting people to it, you gained a great deal of knowledge. You may still be able to make a wiki of some sort, or app, but you need to change it up.

When I first started advertising the tutoring service I spoke about earlier, I didn’t have any responses. Did this mean that it was a flop? No. I changed around the advertisements, improved the website, posted ads in different ways, and then began finding students.

It’s actually a shame that so many products have a “launch date”. I do believe they should deliver on time, but the problem is after. If they do not have immediate results once its launched, they believe its a failure.

But in actuality, some products just need different advertising. Or they need to be updated a bit. Or they need to do what the initial feedback tells them. Or they just need some love.

You should do a post-mortem on previous projects you do. I did one on this little game which was more like a simulation. It never launched, but I documented the things I learned from this project, and how it helped me move forward.

Post-Mortems can help one identify what rewards they have gained. You might be surprised that your previous efforts were not entirely in vain, and can even be recycled, refurbished, or even sometimes resurrected.

You Should be Doing

Children consistently out-perform adults at building the tallest marshmallow towers. In my humble opinion, it’s because adults over-analyze and fail to work productively in a team.

Children in this study consistently just begin building the tower. They gain experience, make mistakes, and keep going. Whereas MBAs given this same challenge sit around and talk about building a tower.

Some of the reason why great projects don’t get completed is simple: no ones actually doing any work towards them.

The marshmallow tower isn’t built because no one actually started.

Things will happen along the way which adjust requirements and design. One needs to adapt. One needs to readjust. One needs to just keep trying.

Building an app is one thing. Building a nutrition app is another. Apps are not cookie cutter projects. They often have quite differing requirements depending on what features they wish to deliver.

Mastery

A final thought.

Sometimes you need more practice or experience. A smaller, temporary project can help you practice, and become more familiar with certain skills.

When you start a skill, it is at first unfamiliar. I wrote that sometimes things can be uncomfortable at first, but you get better and better.

I believe that you can become 10x or 100x more productive once you have the hang of something. Especially in programming. Instead of having to look everything up, or fighting with AI, the code can flow from your mind clearly, and with minimal error.

Projects can give you milestones of accomplishment. Including small ones. Including ones which take one day to complete. Including ones which take 10 minutes to complete. They can help you move forward with mastery, capable and empowered to accomplish larger projects.