On What Drives Me
Recently, I had conversations with several people about what's next for me. When I mentioned making iOS apps in my spare time, they were usually surprised. Totally understandable, after all, my day job is in the Python developer tooling space. iOS apps, consumer products, front end, design... these are so different concepts and require different skills. Am I being inconsistent when I say I'm passionate about supporting Python developers while considering going full-time indie under Mango Umbrella?
Not long ago, this app review of Mango Baby appeared:
Due to some complications, our daughter had to spend time in the NICU when she was born, and when she was released we were told we had to keep close track of her milk intake. With breastfeeding problems related to the NICU stay, we also needed to keep track of my wife's pumping volume.
Enter Mango Baby. I don't know even where to begin. My wife isn't too tech savvy but the beautiful user interface made it easy for her to navigate the app and easily log things. The syncing is seamless, where we can see updates on each other's devices in real time.
Reading these words drives me to continue developing Mango Baby, despite my day job consuming most of my energy and time, and despite our own child being almost 7, well past the age when I needed the app myself. I can’t let Mango Baby rot. Every bit of feedback from new parents reminds me there's a real human behind it, plus the little one(s) they're caring for, potentially in the NICU!
In previous roles, I supported Python for tens of thousands of in-house developers. I know my work, the collective of my lines of code and blobs of documentation have reached most of them. It’s a larger audience than Mango Baby users. Yet what drove me wasn't the numbers but the interactions with these developers. I loved reading and answering their questions, not just because the process helped me to think and identify areas to improve, but also planted motivational seeds in my brain. They made me enjoy my job more, even at times when the work itself became repetitive or unchallenging.
Last year, after my team were laid off, I read so many kind words and reactions from colleagues supporting us (most posted in internal spaces that I technically shouldn't have seen). I still remember them. These images still have an effect in me, even though I had to move on.
I’ve also worked on consumer products reaching hundreds of millions, but never interacted directly with any users. I did enjoy working with my teammates on ambitious projects like rendering Google search results using UIKit, or collaborating with designers on what we can and can’t do as a carrier without the Apple carrier bundle. Yet without direct user interactions, I failed to find long lasting motivations, even though I know my work affected exponentially more lives.
What drives me isn't magnificent or high impact. It is also not something from my inner self, like willpower. I have that sometimes, but willpower runs out. What sustains are the interactions with people, IRL or virtual. These connections drive me forward.
I’m starting a new career chapter soon, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. I’m sure the company mission alone will motivate me for a long time, even leave me little to no time for Mango. Still, I hope to find old and new interactions, in or outside of the company, to have a sustained impact in me.