How sharing a blog post about my side project got me IRL friends in a new city

Introduction

Like many other graduates in 2020, I completed university in an anticlimactic way: remotely and via a PowerPoint slide on Zoom. With the global phenomenon happening, most countries had locked things down, including mine.

I spent my post-graduation months babysitting my siblings, worrying about my Microsoft job offer amidst what many other companies were doing, and tinkering at a side project I dubbed "GhanaPostClone".

Years before, the Ghana Government, in its digitalisation efforts, had released a National Digital Address System, which generated unique addresses for each unit area in the country.

As one with keen interest in civic tech and maps, I had opinions—and was itching to take a stab at it. But talk is cheap, they say. I sought to recreate the end-to-end address system for two reasons:

First, to better understand my concerns about the project's budget and effectiveness. Its top-down approach for dividing the country's landmass disregarded and excluded the existing vernacular addressing systems. Considering existing methods, however tedious, would've been a more effective approach, I thought.

And secondly—I'll admit this was the most motivating—to see if I could do it. What can I say, I just liked building cool stuff!

The Build

The implementation wasn't straightforward. With very little geospatial background, I found myself stumbling upon—and eventually working around—many industry gotchas and hiccups. Who knew map projections (‼️) and lat-lon combinations could be such fun puzzles?

It took about two weeks of headbanging, head bopping, and tapping away to get a working prototype. Then two more weeks to draft what is still my most favourite writeup: Recreating Ghana's Digital Address System(give it a read when you have the time, you can feel my excitement in the post).

After cathartically closing the Google Docs comments my friends had left on the draft, I published it online. Oh, was I unprepared for what came next!

The Reception

I was a bright-eyed CS-graduate who wanted to build cool stuff and show the world, "Heyy, look what I made!". I hadn't considered the statement I was implicitly making. The original tweet blew up, and my phone buzzed for three days nonstop.

The reception was overwhelming, and ran the gamut: from starry-eyed fan mail and hype, to party-loyalists using it for their agenda, from fellow African tech folk sharing kudos and improvement suggestions to bitter criticism (looking at you, Koo Nimo!).

I turned my notifications off amid the deluge, and once the comment storm had passed and slowed, I returned to find a few lingering drizzles. Among them was a random DM from Godfrain, a new LinkedIn connection, commenting on my post.

I noticed an interesting location on his profile."Vancouver, BC? Where's that?", I wondered, panning over Google Maps. "Ooooh" I found it all the way in the northwest corner of Canada, no wonder I had no idea! I appreciated the DM, but since I wasn't into competitive programming, the convo fizzled out quickly, leaving only the warmth of a new connection.

The Unexpected Turn

Now, almost a year later, the Microsoft offer I worried about did come through (yay!), and guess what? It was going to be in Vancouver! "Wait, isn't that where Godfrain is based? Wooah!"

Moving across the Atlantic ocean to a whole new city, tens of thousands of kilometres away was no small change. I remember soon after my landing in Vancouver, meeting snow for the first time, amidst the mostly-empty Downtown Vancouver streets with everyone in masks and socially distanced, asking where had I brought myself.

It was a blessing to have already made a friend before moving to Vancouver. After settling in, we met up for some Malaysian food—good stuff!—at Banana Leaf on Davie St. Godfrain helped warm up my settling-in period, and through him, I met other friends who I still hang out with to this day.

In Reflection

This year, I came across writing that described the internet as a 'serendipity machine', and it struck a chord. Sharing online can lead us to the people we find interesting—and help them find us in return. I wouldn't have connected with this wonderful community here in Vancouver if Godfrain hadn't reached out or if I hadn't shared my side project blog post with the world.

Reflecting on this, I'm reminded that the internet rewards those who are wiling to share their unique stories. In a world of increasingly commodified content, the chance for genuine connection comes not from polished perfection but from authenticity. So here's to sharing more of ourselves—you never know what connection might be waiting! :)