Dev Diary

I've been running a full-time experiment — switching to Android as my daily driver — and honestly? It's been a really positive ride. There's something clarifying about committing to a platform completely rather than straddling two worlds, and it's had a direct knock-on effect on my motivation to build for Android.

The most tangible result: both Up Lifting for Android and Volume have had major updates this week. Up Lifting got significant refinements to workout sharing and a much-improved progress tab that I'm genuinely proud of. Volume meanwhile got a whole wave of new personalisation options and some solid improvements to server connectivity — things I'd been putting off that suddenly felt urgent once I was living in the app every day.

Using Google services full-time has been an interesting contrast too. There are things that feel genuinely better, things that feel worse, and a lot that's just different. I'm keeping notes and planning to do a proper write-up once I've had a bit more time to form solid opinions rather than first-impression reactions.

Short version: being a user of your own platform is the best motivation. Highly recommend the experiment.

Getting back into the swing of things after my holiday in Japan has been surprisingly tough. It’s that post-travel slump where you have a dozen ideas but can’t quite find the friction to start any of them. I’ve found that being "in-between hyperfixations" can be genuinely draining—you're looking for that spark of motivation, but it’s just out of reach.

Interestingly, it was a practical need that finally broke the stalemate. I needed a way to visualize my project timelines more effectively, and building QuickGantt was exactly the low-friction, high-utility project I needed to get back into the flow. There's something about solving a personal pain point that bypasses the executive dysfunction of starting something "big."

On the major project front, Up Lifting for Android is finally live on Google Play! I spent some time today refreshing the store listing with brand-new screenshots. It feels great to have it in a state that I’m genuinely proud to show off. Parity achieved, and the motivation is finally starting to climb again.

Not really a dev thing, but I'm wanting to try and like people's posts less on social media and instead reply to them and engage with people rather than dropping a passing like.

To me it feels like these "Reactions" have tricked us into thinking we're socialising when doing the bare minimum. If I am to stop myself from just clicking a button, I'm hoping I'll find myself actually replying and engaging with people more.

The "Like" feels like junk food socialisation, no actual connection but the illusion that it's happening. Especially on services like Mastodon where it doesn't even serve as an algorithm boost.

I feel like a social media that does away with likes and maybe all follow/follower numbers all together would be beneficial to the user, even if a tough sell.

Do we connect better when there is no "Number go up" gamification of our social lives? I feel like we just might.

All in on Up Lifting Android this week! I've been heads-down bringing it up to feature parity with the iOS version. It's been a refreshing change of pace switching dev tools, and having a physical Google Pixel to test on has been a game-changer. Simulators are great, but they really don't capture the true feel of using the app in your hand.

I promised myself "bug fixes only" for the iOS version while Android is in development, but I may have accidentally implemented a whole new Live Activity feature and pushed it to the App Store... but that's it. Focus is officially back on Android!

Finally decided to add a dedicated spot for my ramblings. Building hyperfixation.dev has been a blast, but I needed a place to document the "why" behind the features.