Android Feels New Again

I've been working on the android platform for 8 years now. Every time I leave it for some time I come back feeling like a lost lamb. Mobile moves just as fast if not faster than web. Because there aren't a lot of frameworks, native things can be deprecated or enhanced fairly swift. When I left Seattle I got a job doing application support, but there wasn't really any mobile work to it...there actually wasn't mobile at all (0.5%). This time period seems to have set me back in staying up to date. I was keeping up with things happening on the play store and deprecated packages but I wasn't building (which is what I love).

I can't sit here and blame that job for this regression though. I took the risky position and it's up to me to keep my skills fresh even when I'm not actively using them. Those 6 months I used to do more security things and got my security+ which isn't really a bad trade off, but how do I get back? How do I get back to not feeling like I'm not always googling first and implementing second? I'm not sure anyone has a real answer for this.

What I will try to do is build more outside of work. I recently got a review on the first app I ever made (Filler Counter) and honestly I was never going to update it because I didn't see a point. I think I'm going to update that and all my other apps now. I might not have the code for everything but I can recreate a lot of things from the UI (they are very simple). By the end of summer I should be using Navgraphs, all things androidx, and kotlin without a second thought. I find I learn the best when building things for myself vs solely copying codelabs. So, all that being said wish me luck.

P.S. I really hate that Google didn't even try a virtual Google I/O this year