Expo Bootstrap
Whole categories of "I'd never build that, too much setup" just stopped being true.
Honestly, it blows my mind that I can build a mobile app. One codebase running on both iOS and Android, side by side. With basically no prior Expo/React Native experience.
I'm a seasoned software engineer. But hands-on, bootstrapping a mobile app from zero? Never had the chance.
How could you, realistically, hold down a full-time job, have a family, and build something on the side? The documentation overhead alone would have stopped me before I started. I think it would've stopped most people.
The fact that I can just... get it running, side by side on both platforms, and use an LLM to troubleshoot along the way (gradle memory errors, deprecated APIs, whatever comes up) is mind-boggling.
Whole categories of "I'd never build that, too much setup" just stopped being true.
This is the exact reason I could leave my job. I'd been working on the side for months, because this was possible. That's what made resigning to solo build a real option, not a fantasy.
Exciting times ahead. Follow along. I'll be posting every day of the journey.