macOS development and being comfortable

How has your week been? It’s Friday, I’m having a sip of the first morning coffee, and I thought it’d be a good idea to write something down in my blog post. For years, I’ve been focusing on building iOS apps and tools around it. Developing macOS was always a far remote thing to me, and somehow postponed every time the idea of doing something for macOS came to my mind.

Have you ever procrastinated to not push yourself out of comfort zone?
That’s exactly what happened to me with macOS. I felt comfortable with iOS and its frameworks, so the idea of confronting new frameworks and paradigms held me back from trying.

I recently started building an app with some friends, Angle, an app that will make it easier for software teams to collaborate when building features. This time I decided it was the time to get my hands dirty with macOS. To my surprise, it’s not that different as I thought it would be. There’s no reason of which being scared. I actually realized that I enjoy it a lot. It reminds me back 8 years ago when I was playing with iOS for the first time. Some APIs are different, some have some weird intricacies exposed and merely documented, but it’s something one can easily learn with a bit of effort.

How many things are we missing because our comfort zone is holding us back from experimenting new things? macOS was just one example but I think this happens to me in other areas of my life. When one grows, you and others put labels on you. You are the person x, that has personality y, that knows z, and that likes w. I have them. I also have prejudices about me. I know what I’m good at and areas where I’m not that good. I avoid them, no one ones to know that they are bad at something. I’d rather remain comfortable around the things in my domain.

Introducing myself into macOS has helped me realize that it’s an stupid idea to get stuck in your comfort area. There are many things to explore and learn, and even though we have grown a personality, and with it a comfort zone, that does not mean that we cannot expand it. I’ll work more and more on feeling uncomfortable.

Have a great weekend!