Everytime I have an epiphany about drastically changing my life, be it a world-changing , industry-disrupting idea for a Startup or losing 15kgs. in 2 months or learning Node.js for the heck of it, there is always a “ritual” I go through. I finally have a name for it now. I like to call it …. (Drum Roll) … The Lifecycle of a ToDo List.
I’m going to walk you through the different stages of this lifecycle. It would be interesting to know how it goes for all you non-developer folks out there, but for all you Developers, I’m pretty sure it’s one or other distorted version of the same experience.
The Birth
The first few seconds of the aforementioned “epiphany” are very crucial. They are spent in hectic deliberations of the unnecessary kind. As soon as the determined Mind decides to take the infamous Plunge into Unchartered Waters and all that, an idle piece of paper, a long unused secret Notebook … hell, sometimes, even the proverbial tissue paper is sought after.
Some varieties of Developers found deep in the Silicon valleys of the world are known to even immediately check-in a README.md file on Github.
And thus is born the first version of a ToDo List. To my newly discovered maternal instincts, my new-born baby looks like a resplendent blueprint for … “World Domination !!! ” and nothing less.
The Teenage Years
Soon I see my baby growing up and growing up fast. The 5 bullet-point list, soon starts needing sub-points and even comments. A mere sheet of paper cannot uphold the responsibility of bearing the details of a complex, determined, focused mind. Spreadsheets !! If anything, Spreadsheets may stand up to the task.
Within the first week itself, I find myself finding out secrets of the Spreadsheets underworld unknown to the common Project Manager. I have frozen headings and cell linkages. I have colour combinations and comments on cells. It’s going great … until … !! Until I realise that ONE feature none of the Spreadsheets natively have …. A reminder . Alas, Woe is Me !! My baby needs to grow up !!
The Adult Life
As I tick of the first two items from the list ( and you thought I wasn’t serious about this ), I soon realise that my ToDo list needs to grow out of the comforts of my laptop and go see what’s out there in the world. It needs to be with others it’s own age … in the Cloud. So I start searching for a good SaaS home for it.
After a couple of weeks and tens of new Sign-ups, I decide to finalise on an platform independent Cloud service. What ? Of course it needs to be supported on Android and iOS !! What is this 1990’s ? What do you mean ? It absolutely needs to have Material design UI. And the of course the scheduler is integrated with Twilio and Slack, what are we … Neanderthals ?
There’s just one problem. Do I REALLY trust this new Cloud service ? I mean, who’s to say that there won’t be a DDoS attack or security breach from the friendly folks at Anonymous ? Or what if the CEO of the company just can’t keep his hands to himself causing an Internet-wide ban of the product and the company folding itself. All my super-detailed plans and ideas ( complete with a timeline, mind you) would be out there for any T-D-H to consume.
Old Age
I’ve never been able to shake of paranoia, I’ll be the first to admit, but neither am I in a hurry to do so either. So I decide to do what every self-respecting software developer worth his salt does.
I decide to write my own ToDo List.
Not only will I be able to control all the features I want in it, but I may even do it in a new programming language I’ve been meaning to learn since a long time ( FYI, Point 4 on my ToDo List ). Not to mention the fact that if I do it right and I can load it up on AWS, I just might be able to start making money out of it as thousands upon thousands of ToDo-List-starved mere mortals discover my new super-awesome service.
This is the End ….
Did you just see what just happened here ? Another Epiphany : A ToDo List with some amazing never-before-seen features. A Github project with unprecedented followers. An accidental new product the world has been waiting for. Possible the real reason I was sent to Earth …. My True calling!!
I need to write this down and start coding immediately. Let me just mention that list of features in the README.md file to start with, I can make a detailed list of requirements later.
Disclaimer : I’m not some crazed maniac who likes writing ToDo Lists in different programming languages. Also, no Cloud-based ToDo Lists were signed-up for during the writing of this article
I have ChatBots for them now :-)