Hey guys, how do I get an expert in Kotlin and android development? I think I know enough to develop...

# android

[Aaron Waller]

Hey guys, how do I get an expert in Kotlin and android development?
I think I know enough to develop basic apps with basic features, now I want to get to the next level and really dive into complex programming.
For example I would like to create my own photo editor app.
I have the feeling that there are no resources to such things online.
Or am I just too bad in Googling?
How would go start this journey? Before I always learned with Blog Posts, YouTube Videos and Raywenderlich or Udemy Courses.
But for such topics there are no resources _/

[f.babic]

My 2c - but generally, becoming an expert in a topic usually means that you're willing to single-handedly dive into areas where there aren't too many resources and you're digging through the small bit you do have to produce a result.

And it's not just enough (IMO) to learn yourself how to do something, a true expert can transfer their knowledge to another person.

So as you're exploring building your own photo editor app, note all the things you'd like to do, how you can do them (if you don't know how, write it down) and then build it one step at a time.

As you're learning things that aren't documented or have few resources available, use your practical knowledge to write tutorials or articles about it, write some guides on GH for your project etc or do talks. Then you'll really be able to understand what you did and transfer it to someone else! :]

Can't say I'm an expert in things, but the things some people consider me to be an expert in all followed those paths - manual digging through a lack of documentation and figuring things out myself or with other people, finally documenting the process and whatever was vague for other people to have an easier time

[Aaron Waller]

That is a really helpful answer, thank you very much!

[Colton Idle]

expert is always a moving target. the best thing you can do is set an actual goal for yourself. Do you want to be known for creating helpful and popular libraries? then start building libraries people want. Do you want to be a Google Developer Expert? Then start writing articles. Do you want to get a promotion? Ask your manager what you have to do.

etc. "Be an expert" just isn't a concrete enough goal IMO.

Good luck! Keep building stuff that you enjoy building and you'll be an expert in some area before you know it!

[Ronald Wolvers]

Expert in my book means that you basically have knowledge that is not easy to acquire, or takes a long time. I don't think that there are courses on such things because it would defeat the definition of being an expert. So if experts either don't exist then or are only defined in the negative if you will, then much more interesting would be to think of what you would more concretely want to do. What kind of photo app would you make and why? What does a photo mean to you and what kind of editing should someone using the app be able to do? Complexity, like expertise, is also defined in the negative only, that is: something seems complex because it's not understood, but the person who made it probably thinks it's not complex and is called an expert. What I'm trying to say in less words is follow your curiosity, ask yourself questions!

[Aaron Waller]

I was wondering how the developers of Photoshop managed to make an mobile application with so many complex features and how did they got all their knowledge? 😄
Where did they learn all that stuff? definitely not with a Udemy course lol.
Maybe they learned stuff like this in university?

[Ronald Wolvers]

I couldn't tell you! But I'm thinking maybe they invented a lot of those features rather than learned them from elsewhere. People at some point also invented photography, and so if Photoshop invented a lot of their features too, then that's one explanation as to why there's no Udemy course on it. Not saying there shouldn't be any, but people have always wanted to protect their inventions, either for a while or indefinitely, hence patents and copyright.

[Ronald Wolvers]

Whether they need protection of course is a different story, because it's impossible to tell generally if the protection even works at all, but that never stopped anyone from trying for sure 😃

[Ronald Wolvers]

I suppose one could even wonder what protecting an invention even means or whether it's worth protecting an invention at all, but that's the world we live in! What I would suggest is to think about a kind of feature you would make and then you can probably learn everything you need along the way 😃

[Colton Idle]

Photoshop is over 30 years old. How they managed to make it is 30+ years of software slowly being built over time, with increasing domain knowledge for every employee there. At that point when you build for a new platform, you bring all of that knowledge (and code) along with you.

[Colton Idle]

someone made a photoshop thing and talked about it on reddit: https://www.photopea.com/
https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/9urjmg/i_made_a_free_alternative_to_photoshop_that_is/

"7 000 hours of work (around 5 hours a day during 3.5 years)"