began my foray into mobile dev using Expo to build out the feature on mobile. i'm glad there are good docs for this. i love the culture of writing and distilling knowledge into words for others. it's an act of care and excellence to spread knowledge. my lifetime goal is to continually improve at turning ideas and knowledge into words, crafting better words for my ideas and thoughts, and being able to voice them out. i'm still improving on the pen of words, and far from okay at voicing out.

i'm also glad to be able to work with designers. my initial version of the app was terrible. i had a hunch it wasn't great, but i didn't know how to fix it. the designer immediately knew how. he had a different way of thinking than me. i initially had everything squeezed into the mobile view, cramming the map into a box. a better design would have been to rethink the form factor—let the map fill the entire screen and have a list of the trails pop up from a bottom drawer. that one shift completely changed how the app feels.

having an actual designer work with me and provide mocks is incredibly high value—it saves time from further iteration. it's like someone who's ascended to a higher level, and you get to skip the time-wasting unnecessary hurdles and be upgraded instantly. a true life hack. working with people from different disciplines expands your mind, it happens whenever you collaborate across fields.