Code & Sorrow

My first app Glancd, it died. Well, that’s not really true. I’m not sure it was ever alive. Sure, some people used it. Mostly ones I knew — not nearly enough to build a sustainable business around. So, it died. Eventually I ticked the “Remove from sale” box on the Apple website and shut down the AWS services. That was it. There was no memorial service. Just 6 months of time and money gone, for good, never to return.

The days, weeks and months that followed haven’t been particularly pretty. There may have been time spent lying on the office floor. What happened? How could I have gotten so far off track? Do I just lay here until it all ends on some not too distant day?

Trough of sorrow, I now know thee.

Pen and Paper.

Work slowed down. Time and progress disappeared. This wasn't a nice place to be. But how to get out?

I needed to sort out the cacophony of thoughts I was having, so I started writing everything down. At first, it was just an activity log: when I got up; what I ate, what I worked on; who I saw; where I’d been. Before long I started including other thoughts, ideas, moods, and odds and ends I might someday want to remember. There were things about work, about home, about relationships and the future. I’d read through these tidbits looking for motivation and answers — hoping to find them made clear in patterns I could divine amongst the words.

Somehow I felt better for having written everything down — it forced me to pause, and, for that moment more fully appreciate the thought, place, idea, or person. Unfortunately all of this information, data about me, was locked in an unsortable, unqueriable, unintelligent and ever growing mess of paper.

Software.

I had time. I could program. I could create software. Building something would mean getting off the floor, even if it was just a personal tool to better understand myself. Maybe there really was something interesting hidden in everything I’d written down. Perhaps I just lacked the means to discover it. I wanted to find out. I needed a system to search, visualize, and learn from all this data.

What started with pen and paper soon migrated to an iOS app. I continued to record anything meaningful I did, what I ate, what I read and watched, who I saw and spoke with, ideas I had, names of acquaintances and neighbours I wanted to remember, gift ideas, sports and games I played, short reviews of restaurants and films.

What happened next was unexpected.

Memory.

Each morning I’d read over what I’d captured the previous day. This would jog my memory in vivid ways. Small moments would spring back to life and seemingly solidify. As if re-firing those same synapses before the memories faded away helped cement them in place. It especially helped to go back a second time, one day later, and reflect once again.

The software had also become my searchable memory. I could suddenly answer questions like – what was that guy’s name from down the street I met last week? What was that perfect gift I was thinking about for my partner? What was the name of that painting company Margaret recommended? My axe throwing coach, what’s his name? What was that knockout dish we ordered last month? How long has it been since I’ve seen Jamie?

Much like nvALT has long been for text and notes on the Mac, this software had become a bucket of everything about my life. A box of thoughts in my pocket. A searchable index of me.

Smart.

Because the text was short (limited to 100 characters), and because it encouraged me to reuse content, it became a precise corpus of data about me. Precision which presents opportunity to find patterns and trends. The more I record, and the more feedback I provide, the better it gets. The software was starting to help me accomplish goals and make the changes I needed to right a capsized boat.

The other side.

Glancd was about capturing and sharing what you did as way to be more in touch with the people closest to you. This software is about capturing the same things as a way of being more in touch with yourself. Turns out I’d written a pivot. Attempting to code my way out of the trough of sorrow and ending up a with a better, more interesting, take on the failure that put me there.

Try Occent.

It’s a great way to improve your memory. It’s a zero effort diary. It’s an easily searchable index of thoughts and things to remember. It’s a tool to help you create habits and live a better life.