Happy Monday, everyone!

It’s Josh again! And yes… it has somehow been over a year since the last Indie Dev Monday 😅 But the real story is that it’s been closer to three years since I consistently showed up every Monday, with a few comeback attempts sprinkled in between that never quite stuck.

I never actually decided to stop writing it. It just kind of faded away as life got busier and, if I’m being honest, harder. Looking back, I spent a lot of that time just surviving. I wasn’t writing much, I wasn’t building much outside of work, and I wasn’t putting energy into the communities and side projects that have always brought me so much joy. That was a weird thing to notice about myself.

Earlier this year, I was diagnosed with AuDHD. I wrote a much longer post about that called Understanding my newly recognized operating system so I won’t repeat everything here. The short version is that it gave me something I had been missing for a long time: context. I’m not magically “fixed” (that’s not really how this works 🤷‍♂️) but I understand myself better than I ever have. Instead of trying to force myself to live and work like everyone else, I’ve been figuring out what actually works for me. And the biggest thing that’s come out of that has been consistency. Not perfection or unlimited motivation… just consistently showing up.

And honestly? That’s brought back a part of me that I really missed.

I’ve been building again 🥹

A few life updates

🍕 Deep Dish Swift is back

One of the biggest signs that I’m feeling like myself again is that Deep Dish Swift is officially back! We’ll be in Chicago April 4–6, 2027 and planning is already underway 🎉

Every year I leave the conference feeling inspired by the people I meet, the conversations in the hallways, and the excitement everybody brings with them. I can’t wait to do it all over again.

🎟️ Heads up: we have a limited number of early bird tickets and they have historically been gone by summer’s end! Grab yours at deepdishswift.com before they disappear.

📈 Mostly Good Metrics deserves a real shot

Last December I quietly launched Mostly Good Metrics. Getting it out the door felt like a huge accomplishment… but I eventually realized I was treating it like the thing I launched instead of the thing I want to keep building 😬

That’s changing! I want to spend real time making it better: talking with developers, growing the SDKs, and learning from customers. I’m curious what happens when I consistently show up instead of sprinting to a finish line. We’ll see where it goes and I’m excited to find out.

💸 And a little nudge: Mostly Good Metrics has a limited number of beta pricing spots! Lock yours in at mostlygoodmetrics.com while they last.

🚢 Shipaton has me in full indie mode

RevenueCat recently announced Shipaton and apparently my response to that was… “You know what? Let’s build two.” 😅

Both apps are still early but working on them has reminded me how much I love this stage of building. Everything still feels possible, every feature feels exciting, and every little bit of progress makes you want to keep going. My brain is very much in indie mode right now.

And with so many developers building brand new apps over the next couple of months, it felt like the perfect time to bring Indie Dev Monday back too 😊

So… what’s changing?

The original Indie Dev Monday introduced a new indie developer every week. I still love that idea! But looking back, I think I was only ever capturing a snapshot: a single moment in someone’s journey.

Building software isn’t one moment, though. It’s weeks and months (sometimes years 😅) of changing your mind halfway through, taking a month off because life got busy, finally shipping something you thought was dead, or realizing your customers want something completely different than you expected. A lot of it is just quietly plugging away without anyone noticing.

That’s the part I want to tell.

So instead of introducing someone once and moving on, I want to try following developers over time. We’ll check back in every few weeks or months and see where things stand. Some projects will take off, some will quietly disappear, and others will surprise all of us.

At least… I think that’s the plan? 😅 I never fully know the plan. This will probably evolve as we go and I would love for you to help shape it. Hit reply with feedback, ideas, or nominations for developers we should follow along with.

Shipaton feels like the perfect place to start. Over the next couple of months there will be hundreds of developers building something brand new, and I think it’d be really fun to follow a handful of those journeys together.

I’ll also sprinkle in updates on my own projects along the way. Not because I have everything figured out (I very much do not 😅) but because I’m right there in the messy middle with everyone else.

👀 Who should we follow?

Are you building something? Maybe it’s your first app! Maybe it’s your fifth. Maybe it’s a game, an open source project, or something completely different.

I’d love to hear about it ❤️ Hit reply and tell me:

  • What you’re building
  • Where you are in the journey
  • What you’re hoping to do next

I’m not looking for polished success stories. I’m looking for stories that are still being written. And hopefully, a few months from now, we’ll all get to find out how they turned out.

Thank you to everybody who made it to this footer! And thank you for sticking around through some very quiet years of Indie Dev Monday ❤️ I’m really excited to be writing again, to be building again, and to see where this next chapter takes all of us.

See you next Monday 👋