You're not a good judge of your work
You'd think that after publishing my first app, I'd be proud, happy or <linkedin voice> humbled. But mostly, I feel…meh.
Like, yeah it's great that anyone with an iPhone and Apple Watch can use Gogomi but…there's so much to do. The backlog keeps growing and there are many things I think could be better: sync systems could be more reliable, UI components beyond the map-based views aren't consistent, and I'm surprised that 20 more people have downloaded it despite basically no onboarding!
I was feeling bad about all this until I remembered one of my sacred texts, a twitter thread by GMTK years ago. I re-read it and realised how odd I was being.
Sometimes it can feel like the thing you're working on is complete and utter crap. These are four things you should remember, to remind you why you're not a good judge of the character of your own work […read rest of thread here]
— Game Maker's Toolkit
The thread makes the point that creators have a bias where you're never that impressed by the things you make. You spend so much time in the weeds that it's easy to see your project as a Jenga tower of mistakes and mishaps: every error, every hacky solution, every bit you rushed when tired.
But others who haven't gone through that whole journey with you can find your work impressive. They see it with fresh eyes, as is.
I got a reality check on this yesterday.
I was at a friend's place for an Easter Monday lunch hangout, and just as I was about to leave, one of them called out for me to wait. She showed me that she'd downloaded that gogo-app I made, and had been having fun with it.
Her map had a lot of coverage around the UBC area—she'd been actively exploring, not just trying it once.
You don't see how the sync lags? The UI inconsistencies?
I kept those thoughts to myself while she spoke about how cool it was.
Then it hit me: this is someone I didn't even introduce to the app or convince to try. She found it on her own, used it, and says it gives her walks some extra oomph, she's been walking more now!
I thanked her quietly, probably not conveying how much that meant to me.
I'd spent so long cataloguing flaws that I'd stopped seeing what was working. This 'clunky' prototype was helping someone just fine. Someone who found it on her own and genuinely enjoyed it.
Sure, there's much I could improve. But what matters is that people are using it and finding it helpful. Time to get over myself (…and maybe get to fixing that sync lag 😬)
