How a 46 year old dad of three switched careers and taught himself to code.
by Bryan Hunsberger
After 15 years as a flooring executive, I reached my mid-life crisis. Compensation was fine, my bosses and co-workers were great. My work schedule was extremely flexible, and I had a great balance of travel and variety in what I did.
I should have been happy…yet I was miserable.
Ideas percolate out of my mind like a Starbucks on a Monday. Yet as an employee of a stable, profitable company, I couldn’t pursue them.
In addition, I knew that my role as a hired hand in someone else’s business made me nothing more than a renter of my income. At any point my income could end, and I would beholding nothing in equity.
I wanted to build something of my own. I needed to act on some of my ideas. And I wasn’t getting any younger.
“So with three kids, a mortgage, and an incredibly courageous and strong wife, I quit my job…and I wasn’t sure what I was really going to do.”
-Bryan
As a GenX, I was the first generation to really grow up with computers. And I had a computer in my home from some of my earliest memories. They just didn’t do very much. That absence of distraction forced me to engage with computers on their fundamental level, and I taught myself Basic programming and enough DOS to function in my early teen years.
Unfortunately, my high school’s most advanced computer course was word processing, so my propensity for programming and computer science floundered. I reignited my interest in college with a Pascal course but my Business degree wasn’t compatible with very many CompSci classes, so once again, my programming interest was derailed.
However, my senior year, I taught myself HTML, and developed some web pages. I completed a feasibility study on a web site design firm for an entrepreneurship project (giving you an idea of the time period…you couldn’t buy a plane ticket online yet). Yet again, my career plans out of college took me away from that interest.
Over twenty years later, I started to envision my life without doing anything in App or computer programming, and I realized it might be a mistake. I was naturally oriented to this kind of work. Sometimes it’s important to visualize the end of our lives to look back on the decisions we can make to get us there.
So with three kids, a mortgage, and an incredibly courageous and strong wife, I quit my job…and I wasn’t sure what I was really going to do.
When learning a computer language, Tic Tac Toe is the obvious first project to conquer isn’t it? This simplest of games captures many of the first computer design principles. Board rendering, logic, lists, plenty of if-then statements.
This dovetailed nicely into an idea I had many years prior. What father hasn’t searched for an app on their phone to help occupy a toddler at a restaurant? How many of those fathers searched first for Tic Tac Toe? And of those fathers, how many were bemused at their child’s total lack of situational awareness dealing with the game board?
From this personal experience, Beat Dad Tic Tac Toe was born. Create the most basic of computer games and help children develop their game chops to beat Dad. Once mastering Tic Tac Toe, both myself and your children could graduate up the scale of game learning.
It seems to be the perfect progression for both myself and my audience to develop progressively greater skills in their game development. Hopefully this works!
I have so much yet to learn as I develop my next apps, but I will do my very best to respond to any comments below. I’d love to help you on your personal journey in whatever interests you have. I’m happy to answer questions and offer advice.
I only ask…if you like the app, don’t cheap out on me. Upgrade to the full version!
