Solving the Right Problems

👨‍💻 The App I Built for My Dad

Back in 2019, fresh out of college with a bachelor’s degree in computer science, I was just starting my career as a software developer. Around that time, my dad, in what I believe was a gesture to lend me a hand, asked me if I could help him with an issue he was facing at work. For some context, my dad is a traumatologist running a private practice in my hometown, Cochabamba, Bolivia.

He wanted to know if I could help automate and digitize this process to save time, reduce errors, and make his work a little easier. At the time, I was still a beginner in software development and had only really built web apps using Angular 7, Bootstrap 3, and Firebase (back when it's only DB was the RTDB). It was my “golden hammer” stack, the one I used for everything. So, naturally, I turned to it for this project.

Over the course of just a couple of weeks, I built a simple web app tailored to his needs. Its main features included:

• Templates for Common Treatments: Pre-saved treatment plans that he could quickly load and adjust as needed, eliminating repetitive writing.
• Drug Catalog Management: A list of medications he prescribed, including different sizes and dosages, making drug selection easier and more accurate.
• Automated Calculations: Built-in tools for calculating drug measurements based on the patient’s specifics.
• Physical Therapy Module: A dedicated section for prescribing physical therapy treatments, allowing him to easily customize and manage therapy plans for patients.
• X-ray and Exam Options: Predefined choices for body parts and types of X-ray requests, further speeding up the process.
• Printable Digital Prescriptions: The system generated clear, legible prescriptions he could print directly, solving the issue of handwriting.

A screenshot of the app interface.

It was nothing technically fancy, just a good classic web app connected to a database, but it addressed the exact problems he was facing. I set it up on his office computer, and for about a year, I followed up occasionally to check on how it was working. He seemed happy with it, though as my dad, he might have been too kind to say otherwise. After that, I got busy with my career, moving on to projects with more complex architectures, shiny new technologies, fancy APIs, testing frameworks, and deployment pipelines.

☎️ The Unexpected Follow-Up

Fast forward 5 years. Out of the blue, my dad messaged me, asking if I had some time to update the system to include some new medications and treatments. I was stunned, not only had I forgotten about the project, but I’d assumed he would’ve stopped using it long ago. Yet there it was, still part of his daily work, quietly solving the same problems it was designed for. Hearing how much it had helped him, and later knowing he was proud to show it to other colleagues saying that his son had built it, was an indescribable feeling.

Reflecting on this experience, I’m reminded of the essence of software development: solving the right problems. It’s easy to get caught up in the allure of new tools and sophisticated systems, but at the end of the day, simplicity and reliability are what truly matter. That little app, built with the only tech stack I had experience with at the time, in just a couple of weeks, wasn’t about cutting-edge technology, it was about addressing real needs in a practical way.

This project also reminded me of how grateful I am to be able to build things that genuinely provide value to others. It’s a privilege I don’t want to lose sight of, no matter how much my career evolves. Sometimes, the most fulfilling projects aren’t the ones that win awards or boast complex architectures to serve millions of users in miliseconds, but the ones that quietly make life easier for the people who use them.

In the end, solving the right problems isn’t about the tools you use or the scale of the solution, it’s about understanding the needs of the people you’re helping and building something that truly serves them. And that, I believe, is where the real magic of software development lies.