Rudrank’s Dispatch: The Score.

Hi everyone! Happy Sunday! I am back with another dispatch and a few more posts! Enjoy! As mentioned before, the post is divided into two parts:

• Curated posts related to Apple Platforms Development, and
• Random ramblings of over the week.

SwiftUI

This one was fun to explore, especially with the double emphasis on wiggle. Wiggle, wiggle all the buttons on your app! I am kidding; I hope you use it wisely!

Exploring SwiftUI: Make SF Symbols Wiggle Wiggle

Core Spotlight

Apple has been pushing app functionality beyond the confines of the app itself over the years and it is a trend I have been watching with interest, especially this WWDC making App Intents one of the most important framework for developers. Recently, I decided to explore a feature I had previously overlooked: Spotlight.

Exploring Core Spotlight: Making Items Searchable

macOS Development

I created my first production macOS app recently, LyricsLink, and it is so much easier to update it via Gumroad, take advantage of private frameworks, and get paid for your efforts much earlier. (Gumroad takes 2 weeks vs Apple taking 2 months)

Why macOS Development is Perfect for Indie Developers

Learn from the experiences of a successful macOS app developer and gain the confidence to dive into creating your own Mac applications.

Some More SwiftUI

While I have not got the chance to write about the new SwiftUI changes, I finally got around playing them! Here are some of my tweets (with code snippets) for fancy new stuff!

• Exploring the new zoom transition in SwiftUI:*

Explored the new zoom transition in SwiftUI pic.twitter.com/kQESOAfGM3

— Rudrank Riyam (@rudrankriyam) July 20, 2024

• Hiding tab bar like Apple Music’s lyrics view using a few SwiftUI modifiers:*

Hiding tab bar like Apple Music’s lyrics view using a few SwiftUI modifiers. 🥰 pic.twitter.com/lQT6l2ZPQJ

— Rudrank Riyam (@rudrankriyam) July 19, 2024

Wishing everyone a productive week ahead!

The Body Keeps the Score

I met a healer last year. She told me that the reason I get sick out of my city is due to unresolved childhood traumas. My body reacts heavily to it outside of my comfort zone in a different environment. There were two flashbacks that crossed my mind instantly, and both were related to fat shaming. (Surprisingly, distinct from the one I mentioned in the previous dispatch)

I had no idea how my body reacting to something that happened a decade ago was related to me trying to enjoy a vacation. I nodded but never took the time to understand what she meant. I tried to act as if nothing happened and move on with life.

One midnight this week, I stumbled upon this book: The Body Keeps The Score by Bessel. The reason I chose to read this book was this quote that was highlighted on Amazon’s page:

For real change to take place, the body needs to learn that the danger has passed and to live in the reality of the present.

Well, I want real change during my transformation journey, and while I can see and feel the physical changes, I prefer some real change for my mental health, too.

I started with this book, and well, it is gruesome. I know there is no competition for comparing people's trauma, but what I read in the first chapter vs what my definition of trauma was...changed.

I could not continue after the first one, but I learned enough that I am in a good position in life and should be extremely grateful for it.

Challenging Everything

This year is getting interesting month by month. I was on X (formerly Twitter) reading this tweet: "Success never feels as good as you had hoped".

I really want an exponential graph of revenue for my apps. Still far from that "success" that I think would feel as good as attaining enlightenment and contentment.

Yesterday, one of my posts was featured in the most famous iOS development newsletter. This is what my views for the past month look like:

It is not even exponential, just shooting for the star! But, it did not feel as exciting as I thought it would. It challenged the foundation of the imaginary happiness that I hoped would come with the numbers. Oh, if you have read my previous newsletters about the numbers on the scale decreasing, you know where I am headed.

I am starting to realize that the high never quite matches up to what we imagine.

Seeing that spike in my views was cool. For a moment, I felt did feel like I was on top of the world. But then... no sudden feeling of completeness. Just me, wondering why I did not feel more.

I am going to keep building my apps, keep writing, keep sharing what I learn. But I am working on shifting my focus, too. I want to pay attention to how the work makes me feel. Does it challenge me? Does it excite me? Does it help someone else? Does it make me happy?

Some questions I am asking myself while on my way to meet a friend. It is nice to ride the Delhi Metro. I missed working on my destination like how I used to back in college five years ago. I feel it is one of the best systems in the world.

Where was I? It is not easy to rewire your brain like this. I still refreshed the analytics pages more often than I would like to admit.

I have been grinding every day and night for a month now, something that nobody sees but me. Maybe that is where the real success is hiding. And maybe, just maybe, it will feel better than I hoped.