Why I Built InspireDrop
I’m a power MacBook user. I write, research, design, take meetings, and capture ideas on macOS all day. I’m also a vibe-coding indie developer—my priority isn’t “how much code I can write,” but “how right the experience feels.”
The more I used my MacBook, the more one contradiction bothered me: the notch is the most visible spot on the screen, yet it’s basically ignored. It sometimes gets in the way, but rarely gives anything back.
At some point I asked myself a practical question:
If my eyes and cursor pass the top of the screen countless times a day, why can’t the notch become a zero-friction entry point for capturing thoughts?
That question became the start of InspireDrop.
1) The real pain point isn’t “the notch looks bad”—it’s “the entry is too slow”
People complain about the notch because of aesthetics or obstruction. For me, the high-frequency pain was different:
An idea shows up while I’m in the middle of something—writing, reading, coding, or in a call. If I try to capture it with a traditional tool, the path is always longer than it should be: switch apps, wait for a window, find an input box, type, then switch back.
And that small interruption is expensive. Either I break my flow, or I don’t record it at all and the idea disappears.
So I stopped thinking about “more note apps” and started thinking about “distance to action.”
The notch is uniquely positioned:
It’s where you naturally look, where the cursor often travels, and it’s always there.
Conclusion: the notch is wasted interaction real estate.
2) I decided to build the closest-to-action solution myself
I looked at existing options—menu bar apps, hotkey capture tools, floating notes, clipboard utilities. Many are good, but none matched what I wanted: a minimal, native-feeling experience that doesn’t feel like “another window.”
So I built it.
The hardest part wasn’t the “technology,” it was getting the interaction right: when it appears, how fast it responds, how it disappears, and how it respects your attention.
And with AI tooling, the loop from idea → usable product got dramatically shorter.
3) Vibe coding in practice: from idea to shippable in 3 days
My core tool was Cursor with LLMs for conversational development. The workflow felt like product + design + engineering in one loop:
AI handled a lot of implementation details, structure suggestions, and debugging hints.
I focused on product decisions: the path, the micro-interactions, the defaults, and the “does this feel right?” test.
Here’s how the first 3 days went:
Day 1: make the notch interactive (MVP)
One goal: detect hover around the notch and open a super fast input entry.
Not feature-complete—just prove the core interaction.
Day 2: wire in the highest-frequency needs
Once the entry point worked, I added what I personally needed most:
quick capture, lightweight reminders, and a “transfer station” style flow for clipboard-like tasks.
Day 3: make it feel like macOS
Animations, timing, layering, visual texture—everything that determines whether a tool feels native or noisy.
I kept a simple standard:
It should feel like part of macOS, not another app demanding attention.
4) The product logic: simple, but sharp
InspireDrop isn’t about stacking features. It’s about removing friction where it matters:
Inspiration Capsule: capture fast, leave fast.
Light reminders: make captured ideas actionable.
Transfer Station: reduce repeated copying and hunting.
Zen Space: create a calmer focus state.
Rich Themes: make the tool feel like your workspace, not a cold utility.
The common thread is simple: less switching, more flow.
5) What this taught me: AI lowers the cost of building, not the cost of judgment
AI can write code and propose architectures. But it can’t decide what matters, what to cut, and what a “good interaction” feels like.
In the AI era, the barrier shifts:
Technology is getting cheaper.
Taste, insight, and clarity are getting more valuable.
Closing
If you’ve ever thought “I wish there was a tiny tool that fixes this one annoying thing on my Mac,” I’d encourage you to try building it now. It doesn’t need to be perfect—just usable and testable.
If you want to try InspireDrop:
Mac App Store: https://apps.apple.com/cn/app/inspiredrop/id6757364625
Website: https://inspiredrop.app
Support: support@inspiredrop.app