Morsel #27: local apps for good

Since using marimo, I’ve had an abundance of ideas for apps and it has even inspired me to reorganise my scripts into project folders (long overdue). But earlier today, I realised a lot of these apps were excuses to test features and get accustomed to marimo. This is fine and it helps me learn but the data and use cases aren’t as meaningful.

I looked through my old Jupyter notebooks and Streamlit apps this week and spotted one that I made for my mum who suffers from colitis. She was struggling with finding meals or enjoying food based on her newly acquired dietary requirements. So I decided to build an app with some food recipe data where you click a button and a random dish pops up. Nothing too strenuous or complex, just a way to help someone I love.

And then it hit me: sometimes the best inspiration comes from the people you love. If I know someone close to me has a problem and an app could help solve it, it’s a lot easier to build something, have them test it, and iterate until it’s right and functional.

And there may well be an app or service already out there that can do this sort of thing—my mum could Google the best meals for someone with colitis—but it’s fun to build apps and to certain specifications, just like creating your own recipes with a loved one or a patch quilt.

marimo has been great so far and I think with this new realisation, it’ll be perfect for more local apps for good.

Related: Small and specific wins the AI race