Member-only story
The Struggles of Learning iOS App Development at 37 (And How I am Overcoming Them)
Reinventing myself as an Indie developer
Non-members can read it here.
In 2021, at 33, I took my first steps into coding. And with every line of code I wrote, I couldn’t shake off the feeling that I had arrived late to the party.
I quit. Then restarted. Then quit again.
Fast forward to 2025. I’m 37 now, and in 2024, at 36, I decided to dive back into iOS app development one last final time. The journey has been anything but smooth.
But last month, something happened.
A friend posted a WhatsApp status about his newly built iOS app. I congratulated him, being happy about his achievement. The next day, curiosity got the best of me. I asked him how he had learned to code. His answer? AI had built the app for him. He told me that learning to code wasn’t his focus — his job was to think of the app functions, not write the lines.
It felt like someone had just told me that writing words isn’t important for a writer — only the ideas matter. Maybe I’m old-school, but I couldn’t wrap my head around it.
But one thing became clear: I had chosen a tough path. And that realization only fueled me more. I remember…
