"Everyone thinks they're good at prompting" — @mergesort.me's challenge: it's a learnable skill, not an innate one. The 6 ways AI tools reliably fail, Joe on "work slop," and @donnywals.bsky.social on a year of agents ("almost every time there's a subtle bug"). buttondown.com/brightdigit/...

The Honest AI Conversation

What AI-assisted development actually looks like in 2026

buttondown.com

Good morning and a happy Monday, folks! What are you plans for this week? Building anything cool? Learning about something new? Tell me all about it 😎

With Maxine, it's trivial to keep your workout plans in sync with what you're actually capable of doing in the gym. After a workout, you can easily decide which parts of your workout you want to sync back into your plan and which changes you only made once.

A workout that's not shared is a workout that doesn't count. Show off your progress and your stats now.

I'm pretty excited to be working on his new feature for Maxine! Monthly progress insights and deep stats. See what you've been focussing on, track PRs, compare your workouts. This one's going to be big for all you data nerds out there...

Stop guessing, start checking. Use detailed exercise videos for 350+ exercises in Maxine so you never mess up your form.

I used to not really care much about timers... but now that I've added them to Maxine I really love how they sync between my phone and watch 😎

Good form prevents injury. That's why in Maxine 2.13 you'll be able to easily see how an exercise is meant to be done through a detailed video that clearly shows the correct movements 💪 try maxine for free: https://apps.apple.com/nl/app/maxine-one-rep-max-tracker/id6615073254

Let's be honest, we all love a good gym selfie... Maxine 2.13 comes with some pretty cool ways to share a gym selfie 😁 Check it out for free: https://apps.apple.com/nl/app/maxine-one-rep-max-tracker/id6615073254

Timers should be easy to use, and they should be exactly where you need them when you need them. That's why Maxine 2.13 has timers that sync between your phone and watch with 0 effort.

11 localizations, 7 screenshots each, took me 30 minutes to update the template. 5 minutes to translate with Codex and Sketch MCP

If you want to share fun gym selfies, Maxine now has the ability to create pretty cool images for the social medias!! apps.apple.com/nl/app/maxin...

I recorded my first podcast episode. It’s called “Learning to Work“ I started it for young people and parents navigating careers in age of AI. @donnywals.bsky.social shares his origin story, core skills and his thoughts about AI and coding podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/l...

Interview with Donny Wals: iOS Developer

Podcast Episode · Learning to Work · 02/16/2026 · 38m

podcasts.apple.com

It's all about integrating with the OS these days

Maxine is about to learn a couple new skills!

I've only had this widget for a few hours but I'm in love

AI lets you ship faster than ever. But shipping fast isn't the goal—shipping something good is. The developers who stand out will be the ones who actually use their own apps. https://www.donnywals.com/the-importance-of-human-touch-in-ai-driven-development/

What agentic engineering topic do you wish someone would explain simply, plainly, and with real examples?

Was reminded today that this exists; smart banners to redirect your users to your app from your website. Easy to add, helps with conversion 👍 https://maxine-app.com

Insights are everything. That's why Maxine will allow you to see your average heartrate per tracked exercise in the workout overview page. Train smarter!

I'm experimenting with some calmer UI options for Maxine. Using colors as accents to make the overall UI easier on the eyes while maintaining the visual information you get from the color (muscle group trained). Also made using workout plans a bit more obvious with a big "add to workout" button.

Changing your monetization strategy isn't always. Easy. That's especially the case when you're moving from a paid up front app to one that's free to try. I did exactly this last week and figured I'd share my strategy ... https://www.donnywals.com/migrating-an-ios-app-from-paid-up-front-to-freemium/

Migrating an iOS app from Paid up Front to Freemium – Donny Wals

Paid up front apps can be a tough sell on the App Store. You might be getting plenty of views on your product page, but if those views aren’t converting to downloads, something has to change.

donnywals.com

Maxine now has a new stats overview that shows you the total number of sets you performed as well as the total amount of weight you've moved. It's pretty cool to see that you've moved a couple thousand kgs worth of metal during... https://apps.apple.com/nl/app/maxine-one-rep-max-tracker/id6615073254

What are some must-have widgets that a workout app needs in your opinion?

In case you missed yesterday's post... Migrating an app from paid up front to freemium can be tricky. I wrote down my learnings on my blog right here: https://www.donnywals.com/migrating-an-ios-app-from-paid-up-front-to-freemium/ Key lesson: Handling Sandbox and Review correctly can be tricky!

Migrating an iOS app from Paid up Front to Freemium – Donny Wals

Paid up front apps can be a tough sell on the App Store. You might be getting plenty of views on your product page, but if those views aren’t converting to downloads, something has to change.

donnywals.com

Maxine migrated from being a paid up front app to being free to try. Here's what I did to make sure existing users didn't have to pay again after having already bought the app originally: https://www.donnywals.com/migrating-an-ios-app-from-paid-up-front-to-freemium/

Migrating an iOS app from Paid up Front to Freemium – Donny Wals

Paid up front apps can be a tough sell on the App Store. You might be getting plenty of views on your product page, but if those views aren’t converting to downloads, something has to change.

donnywals.com

We've got about 100 folks trying Maxine right now (since going free to try on Friday night) 🤯 I think it's safe to say that this move is a success already 😁

A good morning and happy Monday folks! What are your plans for this week? Are you working on something cool? Learning something new? Tell me all about it 😎

I'm not quite there yet with my wrist (injured first week of the year) but we're getting there… deadlifts are now only 10kg under my previous max with the help of lifting straps. 120kg next week?

I know a lot of yall are proficient in the world of AI, but for those of you that aren't… what are the things that you're secretly afraid to ask at this point?