A few words first: the developer behind these small apps
Independent developer Weimao shares the origins, design choices, and development stories behind his apps, along with life after a road trip around China.
A few words first
This series is my journal as an independent developer. In my own words, I want to explain why I made each product and the thought behind its design. It is a different kind of writing from promotion. After pushing myself to write marketing articles and video scripts, I found that these chores had taken away some of the simple joy of making things independently.
We live in an age of overproduction and overconsumption, and apps are no exception. That was true long before vibe coding; in the AI era, production capacity is growing exponentially. One of the main barriers keeping more people from becoming developers is the considerable cost of hardware and software.
Today, beyond paid promotion, a product and its users often find each other by chance. I am writing this series in the hope of creating more of those encounters. In this unusual age of exponentially growing information, I hope we can see through what is real and what is not, and find one another.
About the developer
Weimao is an independent developer who spent 15 years as a product manager: several years as an individual contributor at large companies, several as a manager at smaller companies, and several as a partner in startups. A portrait photographer who does not take commercial bookings, a guitarist who gave up almost as soon as he started, the prep cook in his home kitchen, a driver with 300,000 kilometers behind him, and a licensed motorcycle rider who takes an electric scooter out every day. His one remarkable achievement was completing a 39,580-kilometer road trip around China with his girlfriend Yang in 2025–2026. Their travel journal, “Mao & Yang Around China,” runs to 460,000 Chinese characters.