Disclaimer: this is not a usual flespi blog article telling about new features or technologies. It’s personal speculation about the purpose of one’s work and attitude to work.
What is an idea that makes you wake up in the morning and do what you do? I hope that for most of us it is not about money for survival (it would be sad if so). Some of us are driven by natural interest and curiosity, others find happiness in regular daily routines. There are people that are led by the responsibility for the team, customers, and investors. Certain individuals want to save humanity by creating a backup on another planet (backups are great but I think that we should take care of this planet first).
What about me? Let me tell you what I like about my work at flespi. Well, I think that the very first point is the great team I work with. But there is no need to describe it in the flespi blog :)
Scalability. Shoemaker (which is an absolutely needful profession) can repair one boot at a time. My work is applied to thousands of devices, and each device is connected to some really valuable thing that is the base for huge businesses all over the world. It is a great power with a big responsibility, but it is also powerful motivation. I had a case when one line of code fixed a hardware error for 10K+ devices in just 15 minutes after a customer reported the problem. Once developed, public protocol implementation will serve all our current and future users for many years. That’s why we don’t just develop any protocol on demand — we try to be strategic here and want our efforts to cater to a growing number of customers.
Connection with customers. Our product is complex and may be used in many different scenarios. Each flespi-based project has its own requirements and limitations. Sometimes it is not enough to answer a client’s question to provide the best solution. I have to understand the idea behind the project, realize specific device possibilities and features. Honestly, it is not a rare situation when I find some hidden flespi feature after discussing the project with the customer :) It makes me feel like flespi users are my colleagues and we work together on common tasks. BTW, that's why I don’t like trivial or irrelevant questions in our support chat — I’d better take time to teach you instead of providing you with simple answers as it’ll hurt me in the long run.
Serious projects. I can hardly imagine myself developing an online casino or credit card scamming website — unlike shoemakers, these guys must be shamed for their jobs:). Our users develop all sorts of valuable and impactful solutions addressing the specific needs of businesses or individuals:
Telematics service is about the optimization of everything. Of course, entropy can’t be reversed and the heat death of the universe is inevitable (or not?:)). But still, people can optimize logistics, driver state, equipment usage, and maintenance, which is definitely better be done than not.
Own security. Regrettably, there are many places in our world where your movable property can be moved without your consent. And apps like Ruhavik make this world a bit safer. I know people who use personal trackers with Ruhavik to make sure that their aging relatives are ok.
Anything-sharing makes cities a better place to live. From scooters and bikes to cars and boats, using things without owning them allows us to occupy less public space and use things in a more rational way.
Insurance telematics, asset tracking, agriculture works enhancement, remote equipment automation — all sorts of industrial IoT — is what automates routine manual labor and frees human resources for interesting and creative tasks.
As you might notice, my dear flespi user, each point above (except the flespi team) is related to you. The more devices you connect, the more complex and ambitious projects you have, the more joy I feel performing my everyday tasks. You install GPS trackers, talk to end-users, integrate with third-party platforms, develop the business logic, invent totally new niche solutions. I am proud of being related to so many worthy projects and that is what I want to thank you for.