For today’s contribution to the South Florida Entrepreneur Club’s 10 for 10 challenge I have been Coding with Thoughtfulness. To be thoughtful is one of the most powerful actions we can take toward one another. There are few things in the world that rival the wave of the emotion I feel when someone says, “hey, I was thinking of you!” Whether it be for something small, silly, or even mundane, the knowledge that at sometime, you came across someone’s mind even when you weren’t around can make us feel valued and validated.
There are so many implicit messages surrounding the action of thinking of someone. That simple “I was thinking of you” can also say, “what you shared with me was memorable”, “I was listening to what you said”, “I remember you”. We may not explicitly recognize all of these underlying messages, but we certainly feel them. Because of this, I believe it’s important to share more often with each other acts of thoughtfulness whether it be through words, gifts, or favors.
Of all of the things we can do to be thoughtful, homemade meals and desserts are some of the most impactful gifts a person can receive. When we prepare food for a friend or family member, it takes time to find the perfect recipe, go to the store for the ingredients, and then come home and put it all together. The effort of such an act is packed with love and care, and is greatly appreciated by the recipient. Implicit messages include: “I thought you would enjoy this”, “I wanted to make you feel happy”, “you’re worth this time and energy”.
Therefore, the program I built today is a small web app that allows users to find dessert recipes that they can bake for someone special. For the ones we love, we would give everything, however, that can be a bit unrealistic. For those of us with very busy schedules we can spend all of our time just trying to find a recipe to make leaving no time to actually put it together. This web app helps users quickly find decadent, delicious recipes based on how much time they have to bake. While coding this, I was thinking about all of the busy people I know that would love to do more if they just had the time. Streamlining the ability to find and create desserts that fit within their schedules would hopefully help them stir up a thoughtful gift for that wonderful person they are thinking of.
This tiny app was started with a few recipes from one of my favorite culinary visionaries, Tieghan Gerard, of Half Baked Harvest. For years I have been obsessed with HBH and all of the divine recipes Tieghan posts. There are so many things that I appreciate about her work, but in all of them her thoughtfulness shines through. From her romantically staged photos, to her inventive and unique dishes, to her perfectly sprinkled sea salt, to the fact that she shares all of her recipes with her big family... everything is weaved together with great care and thought.
I hope that users will find this program makes it easier to create a gift of thoughtfulness, and share the decadence of Teighan’s recipes. But even if you’re not the greatest chef (I’m not!), I hope this can inspire you to do something thoughtful for someone you appreciate. So for everyone reading this, I challenge you to share with someone, in whatever way you choose, that you are thinking of them today. I promise the action will echo beyond the words.
Really enjoying your writings. But often read on my phone, via LinkedIn, where I'm not signed-in to GitHub, so not as easy to comment. But here I am, Thinking of you!