Idea Flow: How I Kept Testing “Impossible” Setup Ideas

It started with a simple question:

Can I build an Android app in Google Colab?

After some experimenting, the answer was yes.

That opened the door to a more interesting thought: can I run a Flutter Android app in Google Colab and connect it to my Android phone?

Again, yes.

At first, I was thinking in a very conventional way. I imagined connecting my phone to my system, then somehow using my system to reach Colab. That approach worked.

But then an AI suggestion gave me a new angle: what if I remove the laptop completely and connect my phone directly to Google Colab?

I had never really considered that. Still, I tried it. And it worked.

The latency was terrible, of course. But that was not the point. The point was that the idea was valid.

That experiment led to another question:

Can I connect my phone to my system wirelessly using only the phone’s hotspot?

Most people assume the phone and system must be on the same Wi-Fi network for debugging. That assumption had annoyed me for a long time. I wanted a setup where the phone itself provides the hotspot, then connects and debugs without needing a shared router.

I tested that too.

And it worked.

What I learned from all of this is simple: idea flow matters.

Once you start testing your assumptions, you realise that many “normal rules” are just defaults, not limits. Some ideas look strange until you try them. Some setups feel unrealistic until they actually work. And even when the result is messy or slow, the experience still counts.

There is no real failure in experimenting. There is only learning, adjustment, and progress.

In the end, your result is the sum of your journey.

Be ready to try the unusual path. That is often where the real discovery happens.