What I'm building, what broke, and what I'd do differently. Written when there's something worth saying.
Planning a private messenger brought an old recipe-app idea back out of the notes. Then I had to work out whether adverts belonged anywhere near either of them.
I built a fix for a bug testers found, deployed it, and got a security finding on my own commit. Fixed that too. It had the same shape.
Three unrelated problems stood between me and the App Store button. One was a form. One was a bug. One was Apple arguing with itself.
I typed my password wrong on purpose to check the login limiter worked. It did. Then password reset was already locked, and I hadn't touched it yet.
I was filling in a boring compliance form when I decided to test the report button myself instead of just checking the box. It didn't do what I thought it did.
I picked four easy bugs off the backlog this morning, expecting four small wins by lunch. Two of them didn't exist anymore.
The cards on my board looked flat and wrong. I shipped the fix, then shipped it again, then again, each time sure the server just hadn't caught up. It had.
My crash reporting kept an eye on both phone apps and ignored the server completely. Which was awkward, because the server had just become the part I trusted least.
For months I had a note blaming a bug on the wrong side of the wire. Turns out I was the one who'd gotten it wrong, twice.
The payment went through. Stripe said so. My own database disagreed, and for a while, neither side was technically lying.
Server space isn't free, but neither is making someone feel nickel and dimed for sending a note to a person they love. Here's how I actually landed on a number.
Setting up automated testing felt like a chore I'd been putting off. Then it found a bug that had been quietly living in the app since the day it was renamed.
TenderNest is two separate native apps, not one shared codebase. That was an expensive choice for a team of one. Here's why I made it anyway.
Recording sounded like it wasn't working. It was working fine. It just wasn't loud enough for me to notice, which is a much sillier bug than it sounds.
I'm not a designer. Here's how a lot of trial and error, and one very stubborn maroon, became TenderNest's whole visual identity.
The Android splash screen got 'fixed' three separate times before it actually worked. Each fix was real. None of them were the whole answer.
TenderNest used to be called NoteNest. It took me longer than I'd like to admit to realise why that was the wrong name.
I got tired of building for engagement, so I didn't. Here's why TenderNest doesn't have a feed, a follower count, or anything to scroll.
What do you do when your partner's nest is empty and you want more notes from them? Turning that awkward silence into a small, gentle poke.
