[Iter-X] 62/100days

Day 6️⃣2️⃣

These past two days, I’ve been watching the first developer competition held by Xiaohongshu, and it got me thinking. I feel like indie developers and indie game developers are quite similar groups. The former probably has a larger population right now, but their survival rate is much lower. It’s a harsh reality—indie game devs can at least build interesting games and monetize directly through one-time purchases. For most indie app developers, though, it’s hard to earn more than what you’d get from a regular job. Some great apps can easily get “honored” by big companies, crushed by competition, or simply die in the early stages. The ones that make it out are rare.

It’s kind of surreal. Vibe Coding is becoming more popular now, and you can see a lot of solo devs creating cool apps, but most of them are driven by passion or a desire to create, not profit. B2C is brutally tough; B2B, on the other hand, is very reliant on business skills and connections.

This brings up the question: why do so many people still throw themselves into this path? Where do they end up? Maybe I can glimpse a bit of the answer through my own story, though one person’s experience probably doesn’t speak for the majority.

I think it’s both a process and an experience. I’ve built many products in the past and provided product development services for individuals and businesses. In my case, the most profitable ones have always been B2B. I wonder if others feel the same. I’ve always had this itch to create (a chronic itch that’s long overdue for treatment), and I keep dreaming of building something truly great. If it brings fame or fortune, even better—that’s part of what keeps driving me to throw myself into new projects.

Ironically, I recently stumbled upon an old GitHub and blog intro I wrote:

I’m into the internet, traveling, reading, and listening to music – still figuring out this whole “living life” thing.

I’m on a mission to balance the grind with some good old-fashioned living.

And recently while chatting with a friend, we joked: maybe East Asians just aren’t meant to enjoy life? I genuinely want work-life balance, but my inner workaholic always seems to take over. The most fair thing in life is that everyone gets 24 hours a day. Whenever you invest time and energy in one thing, you’re inevitably sacrificing another. Looking back at the “Life in Weeks” chart I drew in February—from birth to 2077 (my lifespan goal)—maybe now isn’t the time for balance just yet.

Today I worked on integrating the map page. I’m currently tweaking the map’s appearance. The default tile layers are ugly and cluttered with too much irrelevant information. I need to simplify and adjust the color scheme. Once that’s done in the next couple of days, I’ll share an update. The goal is to make it silky smooth and visually clean.

Current Progress Summary:

1. Prototype & UI/UX Design: 33%
2. Backend (Go): 60%
3. Client (Flutter): 53%
4. Data: 12%

If you feel like you match any of the following, feel free to reach out:

1. You can stick with it
2. You have a dream
3. You’re interested