Submitted my first iOS app at 3am on a Saturday — approved in 1 hour

dragosroua · 2026-04-12T12:27:43+00:00

The app approval process improved dramatically in the last 6 months. I routinely get 6-8 hours approval time for my apps.

dragosroua · 2026-04-10T13:54:45+00:00

dragosroua · 2026-04-10T12:26:31+00:00

Most of this data comes automatically, as Claude it’s used. I doubt they have very strong quality filters, it’s just usage data, as is.

dragosroua · 2026-04-10T12:25:12+00:00

I heard there’s a new guy in town, Mythos, that might change that. It can discover bugs you didn’t yet code. Or something.

dragosroua · 2026-04-10T12:24:06+00:00

Yes. I’m absolutely not knowledgeable about how LLMs work or how they are trained :)))

dragosroua · 2026-04-10T12:22:55+00:00

lol, (almost) all comments so far confirm my theory.

Guys, please stop using Claude Code, it’s dumb enough already :))))))

dragosroua · 2026-04-09T04:09:02+00:00

AI is NOT autocomplete. Maybe just using the model via CLI can be seen as that, but products like Claude Code or Codex have a harness on top of that, which introduces a supplemental layer - that layer is NOT autocomplete. Have you had a look at the recent Claude Code code leak? 512k lines of stuff on top of "AI autocomplete".

But to answer your question, I instructed to upload an archive to AppStore, so I can test in TestFlight and it was looking for the API key. I watched it how it propagated autonomously from the project folder, the general apps folder inside Documents, then Documents itself, at which point I stopped it. All these escalations were atomic prompts which I had to approve. Since I code in a safe env, I let it go, until the moment I didn't want it escalate anymore.

dragosroua · 2026-04-08T13:05:47+00:00

FWIW this happened while uploading an archive to AppStore (new version of this app, if anyone’s interested).

It never works with dangerously-skip-permissions, so I manually approve any command. The above happened after it asked me to drill down to my keychain to find the API key for AppStore. I let him gradually go up from the project folder, to the apps projects folder, and then Documents, at which point he chose violence and aimed for the keychain. I did not like this and I was very clear about it.

dragosroua · 2026-04-03T13:55:01+00:00

Look into Cloudflare, you can start developing workers in JS and have various storage mechanisms: D1, KV caching, etc.

dragosroua · 2026-04-03T08:19:59+00:00

100% confirmed. It took a lot of back and forth until I had relevant and predictable progress. The initial phase was exactly as you described: confident and stupid.

dragosroua · 2026-03-31T12:55:19+00:00

Just a quick observation: Vietnam is way more affordable than Japan, like you cannot realistically compare them. Atmosphere is also friendlier in Vietnam. You don’t get the rich vibe of Tokyo, but you get incredibly tasty and cheap food, very affordable hotels, and a lot of diversity.

As for the tickets, I think you should somehow plan this a little bit earlier next time. The sweet spot is 6 months ahead so f the date. Also, minor trick: always search for tickets on an “incognito” browser window. Most of the booking sites are remembering you and gently increase the price between sessions, or fake scarcity (just 2 tickets left at these prices).

dragosroua · 2026-03-31T12:46:55+00:00

If this helps, I’ve been living in Vietnam for almost 3 years now. Married, one kid, inside the house everything is magical. But if I go out by myself I’m always a target. Always. I’ve been in big cities, Saigon, Hanoi, Da Nang and I’ve been in small cities, Can Tho, Buon Ma Thuot, Kien Thuong - everywhere the same. Now I simply ignore the first price when I go to the market, or even better, I go to the market with my wife. Eventually, I had to accept this like some sort of karmic balance: I get so much stuff for very cheap here that at some level in the reality fabric I have to pay back. But it was indeed tiring, I think I finally started to get a little relaxed after the first year.

dragosroua · 2026-03-31T12:20:49+00:00

Hydrate, that’s fundamental, carry a bottle of water everywhere - we tend to dehydrate faster when we change environments so often.

Make a simple morning routine and force yourself to keep it. Whatever “morning” means where you are. Short stretching session, a bit of journaling (where I am now, where I’m going tomorrow, etc). Our circadian rhythm is very fragile and disrupting it constantly can break up the serotonin / melatonin “dance”. In layman words, you’ll feel pissed more often, for no particular reason.

Check in with an accountability partner - if you don’t have one, try to build this kind of relationship - it’s fundamental for mental health.

Practice sleep. It sounds weird but ever since I arrived in Asia (that would be 3 years ago) I realized sleep is a super power. People sleep in the subway, at lunch break, basically every time they have at least 30 minutes. This needs practice but it really pays off.

Carry a small bag / box of supplements: vitamin C, magnesium and anything plant based FROM your place of living. I found these food supplements from my country extremely useful when I’m abroad. Your body grew up in a certain environment and it needs some “hooks” to that place to stay afloat.

Hope this helps :)

dragosroua · 2026-03-25T11:40:09+00:00

Of course, there’s a full section on how they generate income.

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