ig0r0

Hi HN,

I’ve been watching anime for years and tracking everything on MyAnimeList. Over time I noticed that most tracking apps (including the official one) became noisy — ads, subscriptions, social features, recommendations, and a lot of UI I didn’t want.

These days I mostly watch seasonal anime week by week. What I actually need is very simple: - What is airing this season - What airs today - A quick way to mark episodes as watched

So I built Aira, a small iOS app focused purely on seasonal anime.

Design goals: - No ads, no subscriptions - No backend, works offline - No tracking or analytics - Can be used without a MyAnimeList account (login is optional)

It uses the MyAnimeList API for data and OAuth for optional sync, but the app itself stores everything locally.

App Store: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/aira-seasonal-anime-tracker/id6756657581

Mini site: https://airaapp.kulman.sk

I’m an experienced engineer who works very effectively on projects I fully own (personal apps, tools, solo work), but consistently struggle in team environments where ownership is shared, communication overhead is high, and success depends more on alignment and signaling than execution.

I’m not talking about skill gaps — the issue seems structural. I do fine when incentives, authorship, and responsibility are clear, but disengage when those are diffuse. This has started to affect job stability, especially in the current market.

I’m curious whether others recognize this pattern, and if so: • Have you found ways to operate sustainably in team-heavy orgs? • Did you move toward contracting, smaller teams, or different roles? • Or did you accept this as a constraint and optimize around it?

I’m explicitly not looking for motivation advice — more for patterns and tradeoffs people have observed.

I spent the last few months building an iOS app to help Japanese language learners like myself improve reading fluency.

The app is finished, tested, and the mini-site is live: https://yomuapp.kulman.sk.

Everything is ready for App Store submission — except Apple won’t let me enroll in the Developer Program.

When I try to enroll with my personal Apple ID, the process stops with this message:

“Your enrollment in the Apple Developer Program could not be completed at this time.”

I contacted Apple Support thinking it was just an ID verification issue, but after reviewing my case they told me: • I cannot enroll

• They cannot tell me the reason

• There is nothing more they can do

To rule out issues with my Apple ID, I tried creating a brand-new Apple ID with the same phone number — but even that fails immediately with:

“Your account cannot be created at this time.”

This effectively blocks me from publishing the app or even getting a paid Developer account. I have a working iOS app and no way to distribute it through official channels.

Has anyone dealt with this type of silent block before?

Any advice or shared experience would be really helpful.