From 2018 to 2026: From Python to 10+ Published Apps

When I wrote my first line of Python in 2018, I had no idea what I was doing. Today I have more than 10 published apps on the App Store and Google Play, I provide web and SEO support to companies, and I work on eight projects at the same time. I wanted to sum up the eight years in between — especially the parts that did not work.

2019: The TÜBİTAK project I abandoned halfway

A year after learning Python, I built an earthquake early warning project running on a Raspberry Pi with sensor circuits and entered it into the TÜBİTAK competition. The idea was good and the first prototype worked. But I could not give the project enough time, and I left it unfinished.

For a long time I saw that as a failure. I do not see it that way anymore — because that project taught me one thing: making an idea actually work takes far longer than coming up with it. Getting hardware and software to talk to each other, power management, sensor noise... That is where I learned that things not covered in any book exist at all.

2020: Moving to mobile — and where the real lesson was

I learned Java, moved to the Android side, and have been writing mobile code without a break ever since. I wrote my first apps in this period; it took until 2022 for them to reach the stores. What I learned when they shipped was not technical: a product's value only shows up once it is being used.

Until then I had been trying to write "good code." After publishing I realized the user never sees my code. What they see is how fast it opens, how clear the icon is, and how many taps a task takes. That changed my priorities for good.

2021: Switching languages was easier than I thought

When I learned Swift and moved to iOS, what scared me most was "starting from scratch." It did not turn out that way. Going from Java to Swift, the thing I had to learn again was the syntax; the way of thinking stayed the same.

I went through the same thing later with Kotlin and Flutter. My advice to anyone today:

• Learn your first language deeply. What matters is not how many languages you know but how well you know the first one. The second comes quickly after that.
• Ship a real product with every new language. Finishing a course is not learning. With every language I learned, I shipped at least one published app.
• Learn the platform's rules separately from the language. Knowing Swift is not knowing the App Store. That is where the real time goes.

2024: Freelancing and the hardest lesson I learned

When I started doing freelance work for companies, writing the code was the easy part. The hard part was this: the client often does not know exactly what they want, and if you just say "sure," two weeks later you have built the wrong thing.

To solve that I picked up a simple habit: before starting the work, I write down my understanding in my own words and send it for confirmation.

"As I understand it: a 5-page corporate site, the contact form goes to email, no blog section for now. Delivery in 3 weeks. Is that right?"

Those three sentences have saved me from countless rebuilds.

2025: Seeing that writing code alone is not enough

My apps were live but nobody was downloading them. I was delivering sites, but the client would say "we do not show up on Google." The problem was not in the code — nobody could find the product.

So I learned SEO, digital marketing, and social media management. At first I thought I was drifting away from my own field; now I think the opposite. A developer knowing how their product gets found also changes what code they end up writing.

Five things I learned in eight years

1. Finished beats perfect. A perfect app that was never published has zero users.
2. Cutting scope is a skill. Big ideas become real when they are split into small, finishable pieces.
3. Process outlives the language. Languages change; the cycle of shipping, collecting feedback, and improving stays the same.
4. Writing clarifies thinking. That is why I keep this blog too.
5. The user does not see your code. Worth remembering at every decision point.

What am I doing now?

I am a Web Design and Coding student at Istanbul University. Right now I am working on six mobile apps, an e-commerce platform, and a desktop game. Vakti Geçmeden, Hadi Yapalım, and Sinepia are in store review. In 2026 I started learning Flutter.

My goal from here on is to learn how to do what I have been doing alone — shipping products — inside a team. For eight years I did everything myself; that taught me to see the whole picture, but past a certain point there is a limit to how far one person can go.

• Career
• Learning
• Python
• Swift
• Freelance
• Product