Side Project Findings

There's been much written on the benefits of a side project but, frankly, it all boils down to your interests and priorities. They aren't for everyone but I've always found them fulfilling. In a rare semi-personal post I wanted to share a dabbling I had lately.

A segment on the Hott Minute show is around listener submitted content. Currently that's all done via a Google Form because of laziness but I kept finding myself wanting to send in ideas without having to fill out a form. So, I dug into Twilio, a service I've always heard lauded for it's ease of API and started learning about setting up an SMS number. To my delight (and their credit), the signup and Getting Started process is extremely easy and insightful.

After just a tiny bit of tinkering I was able to capture an incoming SMS message and respond to it, programmatically. The downside is that it feels like Pandora's Box has been opened because of course now I want to learn more about MMS responses, dynamic voice mails and creating faux "bots" with the interactions. None of that has anything to do with the podcast that it was originally built for but it's a nice rabbit hole of learning.

The one downside is that the Twilio dashboard is not so great. The get you in the door quickly and easily but then it's a bit of a mess. Hopefully you don't have to spend too much time in there.