So I released my first app on Google Play the other week. Don’t bother trying to download it yet though: it doesn’t work.

Inspired by the increase in free time the coronavirus has given all of us in exchange for our social lives, I decided a few months back to knuckle down and work on something I could release. I’ve used React Native’s Web-inclusive cousin React Native for Web on an internal project at my day job, and since said day job is currently committed to React Native for building our mobile apps, I thought I would stretch my wings a bit, move away from my more Rails-centric programming knowledge, and increase my familiarity with one aspect of the JavaScript ecosystem.

One of the difficulties of working on your own projects is coming up with something you actually want to devote time to. The idea for this one—a simple app for randomizing coffee recipes—came to me immediately, however, when I saw James Hoffman’s video for his AeroPress Dice. And while I plan to do a longer writeup about the app itself, what I want to get to this time is my reason for holding off from doing that: The app doesn’t work.

Oh sure, it tests fine in the Android emulator and iPhone simulator. And Google Play reviewed it and declared it met whatever (possibly very low) bar for acceptability they have. But of the four or five friends kind enough to humor me by downloading it, not a one of them has been able to get past the splash screen.

Obviously this isn’t ideal. And I suppose the usual reaction would be something akin to frustration. But honestly, I can’t say I’m particularly bothered. Sure, I’m not thrilled there’s something out there now with my name attached to it that doesn’t do what it’s supposed to do, doesn’t in fact even get past the loading screen. And this would be an entirely different matter if it was a project for a paying client. But it’s not. It’s a hobby project. I built it to learn. I built it to be beholden to no one but myself. I built it because making things is fun. And if takes me a bit longer to get it fixed, to get a working version out, well, that doesn’t take away from the joy I had in making it. It just means that it isn’t finished. Yet.