- Who is Menil Vukovic?
Menil Vukovic is primarily a developer who loves Android but other technologies as well.
- And does Android love Menil?
No, he never loved him, he won't probably ever love him, that love must fall apart.
- Ok, so we're talking about a love/hate relationship?
Hate/ love definitely.
- How interesting is Android development and how did you start?
Software development is generally interesting and Android development is very interesting, in some moments even very strenuous, very difficult, however...I am trying to remember what year it was...2007/2008, I was still in University and Google has around that time launched their mobile operative system and that has automatically caught my eye, I wanted to see what it was. In 2008 the first smartphone was available on our market. I remember taking from my parents a lot of money to buy a new phone, it was a catastrophically bad investment from their side.
However, for me, it was phenomenal since I had a first-hand experience with something that was ultra-new. That's when I started tickling, I can't say develop since I didn't still develop anything at that point, I wasn't back then even a software developer, I didn’t even know how to program anything at all, except how much I had to for University. What I was doing, however, was 'breaking' phones in a software context, I was hacking at that time, as well as routing phones, changing their operating systems, and then I was like 'hey, now I could write something above that, software for that, let's see what else I can do with that." So around 2009/2010, that love was born.
- Are you now working for yourself or a company?
Yes, I am working for myself, i.e. not anymore, now I'm a Pear Shadow since last year, now it'll be a full year. There are two of us officially and we're both focused on Android.
- What are you specifically working on now?
It's covered by an NDA, I can't tell you that. I'm kidding. It's a social network for parents. It's an excerpt from what Facebook is doing very badly, and we started doing it very, very well. The product has already entered a start-up phase, it has been in question for eight or nine years and they started from Australia and are now an American company, officially. The focus is, so to say, on the social part, the granma was the power user, now the mom is the power user and the focus is as well on the child's privacy. The point is that children's photos, the moments they are going through be captured and that the grandma, grandpa, and the rest of the family can attend that moment, at least in a digital format.
What we, the bit older generations, used to have, albums, pictures, VCR tapes now it's just digitized. We follow parents through the social network and try to help them by getting them through those first, initial steps of a child's childhood, from 0 to 3 months, from 3 to 6 months, and so on. We recently did the acquisition of another company that turned out to be complementary, we worked from 0 to 6 years they worked from 6 to 9. Now we are covering the complete childhood of one child and we cover all the parent's needs.
- How does one day in Menil's life look like?
It is never known, it is an absolute mystery. But it starts somehow standard, waking up in the morning, looking at the clock, first to identify if we are late or something. That is the first step. Then the second step is locating, that is, coming to Tershouse, or prior to that a coffee, then coming to Tershouse and then finishing everything according to the calendar, meetings, some group programming, analysis, and things like that. The day starts with work or something related to work. Then somewhere around noon, food and chess start. Chess is now a mandatory part of the day, I believe you have already noticed that. And then depending on how much time chess takes us, the rest of the day we try to do something again, purely to make the most of the day. Since the clients are American, I am often working during the night, there are days when I turn off the lights and lock behind me in Terhouse.
- Oh so you're one of the guys who is switching off the lights in Tershouse, I've been listening about...?
Yes, I am one of those who are switching off the lights, but I am never switching them on, I never arrive early here.
- Why did you choose Tershouse, compared to other options?
Working from home is impossible, at least for those of us who had the opportunity before COVID 19 to do so. Working from home is very nice in a short period, it creates psychological problems in the long run because it gets difficult to separate work and home. There is no longer "house-job, job-house", as we say, but everything is just "job, job, job, job" ... That's one reason, the other reason is the setup, it’s hard to make yourself a comfortable setup at home like it is in Tershouse, for a thousand reasons; the desk, the chair, the phenomenal internet, those reasons are the reasons why I can't work just from home.
Why did I come to Tershouse? I don't know, Nermin gave me 500 BAM to come here for the first time, and then he said if you stay I'll give you 500 more, and then you'll give it all back to me (laughs). Joking. There was no better co-working space, Hub or some other space has some other advantages but what I was looking for, what I needed, Tershouse had a ‘whole package’.
- Last question; what is your life motto, if you have one?
I'll sleep when I die.
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