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nullderef

190 karma · joined January 21, 2024

Hi! You can learn more about me here: https://nullderef.com/ :)

https://x.com/null_deref

submissionscomments
nullderef··on How to grow a cacao tree at home (2024)
I just loved seeing the guy so happy in the pic. The man is enjoying his cocoa tree.
nullderef··on Isar Aerospace reaches orbit and deploys payloads on second flight
It’s Isar, not ISAR. It’s the name of the river that crosses Munich (which I love) :)
nullderef··on Git worktrees are not an isolation boundary for coding agents
I haven’t hit these issues when using worktrees. But what’s a pain is having to compile from scratch every time, and not carrying over gitignored files.
nullderef··on LinkedIn Introduces a 'Seems Like AI Slop' Button
Even human-written posts in LinkedIn read like AI. No joke, moderating this sounds like a challenge.
nullderef··on Europe's fires are just the start
Our software and AI capabilities have improved astronomically… but nature is still nature. Working with the physical world is still so hard. Humbling, in a way.
nullderef··on The Claude Code Source Leak: fake tools, frustration regexes, undercover mode
They changed it to `attribution`, but yes you can customize this
nullderef··on Ask HN: Who is hiring? (March 2026)
Thank you! It’s a really exciting area to work in
nullderef··on Ask HN: Who is hiring? (March 2026)
Pushscroll | Full-Stack Mobile Engineer (KMP) | REMOTE (GMT-3 to GMT+4)

We make people do push-ups before opening addictive apps - verified through camera pose detection. Our goal is to replace doomscrolling with exercise.

500k+ downloads, bootstrapped and profitable, very quickly growing.

Looking for someone strong in Kotlin Multiplatform + Compose Multiplatform + Swift/SwiftUI who works independently, uses AI to ship fast, and can implement a pixel-perfect Figma design.

Bonus: Supabase, Amplitude, native Android/iOS knowledge (e.g., Screen Time).

Small team, work directly with founders, long-term role. We’ve got big plans to make Pushscroll the app of the year, and there are exciting challenges to get there.

Reach out: contact@pushscroll.com

nullderef··on The EU moves to kill infinite scrolling
Or even lifespan… It’s crazy that USA is so ahead in tech yet life expectancy is 78 versus 81 in Germany or 84 in Spain
nullderef··on Ask HN: Who is hiring? (February 2026)
Pushscroll | Full-Stack Mobile Engineer (KMP) | REMOTE (GMT-3 to GMT+4)

We make people do push-ups before opening addictive apps - verified through camera pose detection. Our goal is to replace doomscrolling with exercise.

500k+ downloads, bootstrapped and profitable, very quickly growing.

Looking for someone strong in Kotlin Multiplatform + Compose Multiplatform + Swift/SwiftUI who works independently, uses AI to ship fast, and can implement a pixel-perfect Figma design.

Bonus: Supabase, Amplitude, native Android/iOS knowledge (e.g., Screen Time).

Small team, work directly with founders, long-term role. We’ve got big plans to make Pushscroll the app of the year, and there are a lot of challenging problems to get there.

Reach out: contact@pushscroll.com

nullderef··on iPhone Typos? It's Not Just You – The iOS Keyboard Is Broken [video]
Oh my god that’s insanely evil

I would never want to leave my computer open within 300 meters of you

nullderef··on Ask HN: Who is hiring? (December 2025)
Pushscroll | Full-Stack Mobile Engineer (KMP) | REMOTE (GMT-3 to GMT+4) | Full-time | https://pushscroll.com

Screen-time app that makes you do push-ups before you can scroll addictive apps. 350k+ users.

Looking for someone strong in Kotlin Multiplatform + Compose Multiplatform + Swift/SwiftUI who isn't afraid of platform-specific APIs (Screen Time on iOS, Accessibility/UsageStats on Android) and can ship very fast.

Stack: Supabase (auth/DB/edge functions), Superwall, Amplitude, MediaPipe for pose detection. Good design sense matters - you'll be translating Figma → production UI.

Small team, work directly with founders. It’s a long-term role in an exciting app (help us fight doomscrolling!) where you can have a lot of impact. Reach out: contact@pushscroll.com

nullderef··on Ask HN: What are you working on? (September 2025)
Building an app where 1 pushup = 1 minute of scrolling allowed [1]. We've fiiinally started to grow and reached a whooping $30k in the last month!!

I was literally thinking about quitting in August. My motivation is now at an all-time high - some users have done >8k pushups :)

As always, the key has been the marketing (10M views on Instagram). But we have to improve the product to make people love it even more. So the roadmap is more full than ever.

[1] https://pushscroll.com

nullderef··on Ask HN: What are you working on? (May 2025)
I was building an intentionally annoying app against doomscrolling [1]. Being technical, I tried to focus on product, marketing and more instead of the implementation. But I still didn't ship quick enough. It's so hard. Only after a few months did I start with marketing, and it hit me like a wall.

So I'm giving a try to a project which started with marketing. No implementation, just a TikTok to see if people like it. And holy crap, we got 75k views!

The new idea [2] is easier to explain (1 pushup = 1 minute of scrolling) and already has a community. Plus, not working alone helps me focus on what I'm good at: programming. I don't regret learning about other areas but doing marketing for a living is not my thing.

I'm not getting rid of SpeedBump, though. It's a fun side project and it does help people :)

[1] https://speedbumpapp.com

[2] https://pushscroll.com

nullderef··on Ask HN: How are you acquiring your first hundred users?
TikTok - you don't need followers to get views. It's not easy, especially if you've never used the platform before. But for B2C it's one of the best platforms.

Do founder stories ("I built this") or demos ("here's this SaaS you'll like"). They get less views than memes or tangential videos. But conversion is much higher and you'll get replies from people who liked it or tried it out. So you can send them a message to ask for feedback.

nullderef··on Ask HN: What are you working on? (April 2025)
Thank you for the support! I actually wrote an article about it here: https://speedbumpapp.com/en/blog/mobile-app-promotion/. It has the most useful resources I found so far (mostly B2C). I'm also happy to have a chat and help out: https://chat.nullderef.com :)
nullderef··on Ask HN: What are you working on? (April 2025)
I've been building an intentionally annoying app against doomscrolling [1]. I've recently started with marketing, but oh boy is that out of my comfort zone!

I never thought that as an engineer I'd be doing TikToks. And here I am. It's fun to crack the algorithm little by little, but also frustrating because it's like a black box.

So far, I've discovered that going to the point works best. For example, I was sharing student tips and mentioning my app to improve focus. But conversion and engagement were terrible. Instead, I'm doing founder stories and tutorials, which get less views but more downloads. Plus, I can ask people in the comments for feedback on the app!

I'm happy to be doing something that devs overlook so much: marketing. Even if it's tough and slow. It's been an awesome learning experience.

[1] https://speedbumpapp.com/en/

nullderef··on The guide to reduce screen time
The link mentions: "Health experts say screen time at home should be limited to two hours or less a day" -- https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/educational/wecan/reduce-sc...

Maybe doomscrolling is reading too many news for you? Or do you think it's not too excessive?

nullderef··on A guide to reduce screen time
I've had issues with checking HN every too often. News overload is definitely a problem, too. It's also fun to go check the new posts sometimes.
nullderef··on The guide to reduce screen time
Some apps like ScreenZen allow you to block websites, if you're on Android. Pretty much any iOS app will let you restrict websites (because it's easier to implement there).
nullderef··on The guide to reduce screen time
There's TimeLimit on F-Droid. I found it hard to set up, though.
nullderef··on The guide to reduce screen time
How did you end up overcoming the problem?
nullderef··on The guide to reduce screen time
What do you mean -- you couldn't find something else to do?
nullderef··on The guide to reduce screen time
Many of the tools mentioned also support blocking websites, fwiw. This includes ScreenZen on Android and pretty much any app on iOS (it's easier to implement it there)
nullderef··on The guide to reduce screen time
It's awesome to see a Daylight Computer user in the wild :)

Did you also try out an e-paper phone at some point? And how are you doing in terms of connecting with friends and so on?

nullderef··on A guide to reduce screen time
Another tip is that even HN has some screen time features. If you go to your profile, you can play around with the "noprocrast", "maxvisit", and "minaway" options.

When noprocrast is on, you may only view HN for maxvisit minutes at a time, and must stay away for minaway minutes before returning. (taken from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3677504)

nullderef··on Your Startup Doesn't Need to Be a Unicorn
How can I learn more about this? Is it the EXIST program?

I looked into programs like this but they seemed to require so much bureaucracy that I'd be better off without them :(

nullderef··on Are you VC-funded? No, we're profitable
I've recently started an indie hacker journey and cannot emphasize how much work it takes. It's incredibly hard to develop the technical side, listen to feedback to improve the product/UX, do SEO, viral marketing, and more.

Hiring more people seems necessary to stay sane -- at least for my project. But you need money for that, which you won't have for a long time. Even tools for all these aspects (Claude, Revid.ai, ahrefs, etc) stack up in subscription costs.

Maybe this is just because I'm getting started, though.

nullderef··on The German language broke my website
It's not to translate the app's name, but rather for a metaphor on the landing page. That one is indeed translated in Spanish.
nullderef··on The German language broke my website
I wish LLMs asked more clarifying questions for precisely this reason. And that they disagreed with me more often.

I'm not sure that when asking for a translation, even with context, they would have replied that my request doesn't make sense (or advised against using LLMs for translation).

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