A fortuitous decade as an indie software developer

Ten years and one day ago, on August 9, 2016, I abruptly quit my job. I mark this occasion as the beginning of my indie software developer career. Happy anniversary to me and to my customers! I didn’t formulate a plan until after I quit. I decided that I could afford to indulge a dream, express myself, design and build my own app from scratch. I could be my own boss for once. My journey as an indie developer mirrored an enduring aphorism: it takes five years to become an overnight success. That night was September 19, 2021. At the time, I was about a month away from going broke, having burned through all of the savings I had accumulated before I quit my job. On the morning of September 20, however, Apple released iOS version 15, which added web browser extensions for mobile Safari. This deus ex machina, a miraculous software update, changed my career, and my life. Suddenly I was running a viable business. Since then I’ve rebuilt my savings to a level higher than before. Don’t worry,…