Reflection on Shutting Down Blocks
April 28, 2022
In junior and senior years of high school, I ran a schedule app that ~2,100 students and teachers used. Itâs a story Iâve written about before.
But in the end, I decided to shut it down instead of passing it down to another student or continuing to run it myself from college. Iâd like to reflect on that decision.
Overall: Iâm very happy with my decision. I think that shutting down Blocks was the right thing to do.
I was concerned that shutting it down would be disappointing people. I had a good amount of people telling me they wanted it to stay alive, and that I should explore other options.
âThe memory of a high school is shortâ
Thatâs the advice that our vice principal told me when I met with him and the principal. They were updating me on the end-of-year return to school, and I mentioned that I was debating what to do with the app.
Thereâs only three more years of people who even remember the app being a thing. The turnover rate in a high school is so quick, and the students get used to the new norms so quickly, that itâs not as big of a change as it feels. People move on. A high schoolâs population is entirely replaced every four years.
Running it remotely
Iâm really glad that I didnât decide to keep running the app remotely from college.
I think that part of what made the app good was that it was in touch with school culture. I didnât do that on purpose, but it ended up not feeling like a sterile platform that the administration was running. I did fun stuff, pushed the boundaries a bit, and I think that people picked up on that vibe.
But if I kept running it from college, I think that it wouldâve lost that. It wouldâve felt like someone was running it who wasnât still embedded in the day-to-day running of the school. It wouldâve gotten sterile.
On top of that, I think that past-me didnât understand how little interest current-me has in running that app for a community that Iâm no longer a part of. Iâm glad that I didnât saddle myself with that commitment.
Handing it off to someone else
So I think that deciding not to hand the app off to anyone else was the right decision. Handing it off wouldâve created more stress for me: making sure they were doing things the way I wanted, and answering any questions they had.
Instead, a couple people built replacement apps for Blocks, and I didnât have to worry that my name was attached to them. I got a clean break, and to end on a high note, without worrying about attachments or commitments.
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