Launching my first iOS app, MovingBox, was a big step in getting over my fear of failure. I wouldn’t call the first 6 months a success, but my goal was to learn as much as possible, and in that I’ve been successful.

Still lots to learn and improve, but >$0 MRR feels like a win.

Hard truths about SwiftData I’m currently facing:

- No shared containers (no collaboration features)
- No easy MVVM (at least not without building your own querying logic)

I knew these going in, but growing pains are hitting sooner than expected. Anyone switch back to CoreData?

While on parental leave, I’m spending a fairly significant amount of time sitting around while baby sleeps on me.

I might as well make myself useful and keep my QA skills sharp: send me your TestFlight link and I’ll put your app through the wringer! #ios #indiedev

Grateful I’m able to take a little time off from the day job to spend some time with baby. She had a solid nap the other day, which gave me a chance to clean up some Liquid Glass bugs I shipped with MovingBox 2.0 last month. A few highlights:

Time to take the “Am I addicted?” test (also known as the “Can I even code anymore?” test in this case). No coding agents for the next 7 days.

Haven’t been too public about my work on MovingBox, but hoping to share a bit more soon on everything that went into the first major update. Submitted over the weekend, not going to get Liquid Glass in on day one but I’m just glad it’s in Apple’s hands now. Before and after:

I’m always amazed at how become a parent has improved my productivity 5-10x. We might not get much sleep, but we make up for it in focus and execution. There’s just too much on the line.

I’m a little biased, but do yourself a favor and hire a parent.

I picked a weird time to go all-in on software development. After years of false starts, at the end of 2022 I finally had the resolve to dive in for real. ChatGPT had just landed but was still mostly useless. Lots of change since then, but one thing’s still true:

Every so often I’ll see a question in iOS indie dev circles about automated testing, and the majority of responses indicate that it’s a pretty rare occurrence.

Not only do client apps deserve the same rigor in testing as web, your time as an indie dev is too valuable. #indiedev

As someone who typically ends up writing more real app code in side projects than at the day job, coding time is limited. Balancing the speed of #AI (when it works) with the fight against skill atrophy is a constant struggle. What’s your approach? #indiedev

Feeling very grateful to *not* have unlimited PTO, such that I’m encouraged to use it up throughout the year and not put the team in a bind come December.

Baby’s still a little young to travel but I’m looking forward to some time off to catch up on the side projects next week.

The summer’s been busy with a newborn, but I finally built my app with Xcode 26 a couple weeks ago and was pleased to see most everything looked fine with Liquid Glass. Really pays to use the standard components where possible. Just need to tweak some ToolbarItem grouping.

I think it’s pretty safe to say that automated testing is still going to be essential in the era of fast fashion SaaS. Spend the few extra tokens to write some tests and keep your customers.

16 year old me wouldn’t have been caught dead playing #guitar in a #coverband (had to be original hardcore or nothing).

But joining a cover band in my 30s after years of not playing was one of the best decisions I’ve made. Can’t go wrong playing music with friends.

One of the strangest sensations of being a parent to young kids is the fog of sleep deprivation set against the clarity of mission (stakes are too high to fuck this up). Thankfully the former is temporary, while the latter will always be there to inspire improvement.

After reading Pragmatic Programmer years ago, today I finally forced myself to keep my hands on the keyboard for an entire coding session in Xcode. I was so slow. But after 30 minutes of fumbling I felt the muscle memory click and I started to fly. Definitely worth a try.

If you’re trying to make sense of what work and #AI looks like in the coming years, the stuff that Dan Koe and @80000hours.bsky.social have been putting out recently has helped me reframe the dread into optimism.
It’s going to get rocky but there will always be problems that need solving.

Just realized I don’t have an intro post, so hi! For those who don’t know me, I’m Camden. Husband and dad of two young girls. SDET on a Mac team at Jamf. Building indie apps on the side. It’s been a fun journey so far. Excited to share and learn from you all!

#BuildInPublic #iOS