Frequently Asked Questions

• What's up with Plan 49?
  Plan 49 is a site intended to document my project of creating something new each week, every week.

• But doesn't a year have 52 weeks?
  Technically it's 52.177457 weeks (according to Google) but yeah, it's a few weeks short of a whole year. Originally I wanted the domain project52.com but it was already taken (same with plan52.com) So I copped out and got plan49.com instead :P In the end, I just explain it away that I'm taking a vacation from the project during the weeks of Christmas, New year, and my birthday.

• Most of your projects are buggy/unpolished/unstable
  Yeah, they probably are. However, as one poster in a wall told me, "Done is better than Perfect." My goal isn't to execute the perfect product; it's to create something that's functional. It may be that only 80% of it is working, but it is usable. The other 20% can be polished as soon as I can prove there is traction. In a way, this is also subscribing to the lean startup philosophy of MVP (minimum viable product).

• What kinds of projects will you be working on?
  All sorts of things, including but not limited to:

  • Full-fledged web apps
  • Software as a service
  • Mobile apps (Sndroid, iOS, mobile html5, etc.)
  • Open source stuff (gems, patches, plugins, etc.)
  • Websites (including improvements, redesigns, modules, etc.)
  • Graphic designs
  • Specifications for a game/app/something

  I'm taking suggestions so tell me if you'd like to see something :)

• Are all of your projects Open Source?
  Some of them are, some of them not. Some of them will be AGPL, some GPL, others LGPL, while others I just don't wanna license out at all. No real reason though; sometimes I just feel like contributing back to the community and sometimes I don't.

• What made you do Plan 49?
  I sat in a project management workshop by Khailee in my conpany's meeting area while he talked about the power of now and immediate action. I know I've had quite a number of projects in the backburner, so after the workshop I immediately bought the domain and wrote this FAQ in my ideas notebook. The philosophy really resonated with me: if you're gonna do something important, might as well do it now. My corollary: Do it now, before you get distracted by that vid ... ooh look, a cute squirrel!

• Will you continue after the first 49 weeks?
  Ideally yes, but who knows what will happen. Maybe one of the projects get noticed and suddenly I have to babysit it to maturity.

• Wait a minute ... you mean you're launching 49 different projects in just one year?
  Yep, that's the plan.

• That's impossible.
  That's not a question.
  Oh, and impossible is not an adjective. It's an attitude.

• What are you trying to prove here?
  Most startups don't go all out on their ideas for fear of some bigger business "stealing their ideas." I call that hogwash; as if there's suddenly a shortage of good ideas? I want to prove that it is the execution of ideas that makes or breaks a startup. If I can jumpstart a new business every week for a year, I'm already ahead of most startups out there.
  (That, plus this would look really cool on my resume :P)

• Who are you?
  I'm Tristan V. Gomez from the Philippines, currently working as a programmer in Mindvalley (my official job title is TopCoder)

• Cool idea, wish you all the best. How do I support you?
  Your feedback is greatly appreciated. If you have anything to say, please fill out the comment box. No spam please :)