Labs
Software, directed the way a shoot is directed. One person, one eye, and a list of things the product will refuse to do, written before the first line of code.
Six of them so far. Each one carries the rule that shaped it and what holding that rule cost, because the rule is the more useful half.
Adelaide
A daily attention practice. Three small things each day: a breath, a short game for your mind, one honest question. Answer them or let them pass, and a scene comes into view over about ten days that is yours to keep. Bought one time, like a book.
meetadelaide.comNo streaks, no counters, no reminders. An app about presence cannot spend its life asking for your attention. It cost the retention loop every wellness app is built on.
Lintel
A daily card for the people you actually live with. One small, specific thing to try today, written for these two people rather than for couples in general, and a private note underneath it that waits for the other one to find. No read receipts, no nudge to answer fast. It travels phone to phone, so nothing leaves the two devices.
meetlintel.comA birth chart generates the read and the word never appears, not on a card, not in the name, not in a single keyword. It cost every search term that would have found it.
Hundred Firsts
A question deck for the dinner table. A hundred and twenty questions about the first time you did anything, answered in one sentence each, then you pass left. Three ways to play and three levels of nerve, from sweet to a deck you should know your table for.
hundredfirsts.comNo accounts, no backend, no analytics. Nothing leaves the phone, so there is nothing to sell and nothing to lose. It cost every number that would say whether it works.
Plumbline
A ninety day practice for men who want to pay closer attention to the person they love. Notice, say, act, repeat: one entry a day for the thing you noticed or did. The entries cut into a painting as you go, and at ninety days that painting is a print.
meetplumbline.comThere is no day count anywhere in the app. You see the picture you have made, never the number of days you missed. It cost the one number every habit app leads with.
Tekton
Forty days of scripture, prayer and practice for a Christian man. One passage of the King James Bible a day, prayed in his own words, one practice for the body, two lines laid down at night. A missed day says nothing. Name a brother and he walks his own forty alongside.
meettekton.comThere is not one written prayer in it. The app sets the passage in front of him and then goes quiet, so the words he finds with God are his own. It cost the prayer of the day, which is most of what a devotional is.
Hadar
Forty days of scripture, prayer and practice for a Christian woman, the sister of Tekton. One passage of the King James Bible a day, prayed in her own words, one practice for the body, two lines laid down at night. The women Jesus met carry the forty, from Martha on day one to Mary at the tomb on day thirty-eight. Name a friend and she walks her own forty alongside.
meethadar.comThe forty were chosen by a man, so they do not ship on his word. Three to five women read every day of it first, with the authority to cut. It cost the release date, the one thing on this page he does not get to set.
The tools write the code and draft the words. They are fast, and they are not the point. A trained eye is what decides which of six versions is the one, and that judgment is the scarce input now, not the output.
Every one of these started as a document rather than a prompt. No analytics, no streaks, no subscription. Those lines were written before any of the apps existed and they have killed more features than any deadline ever has.
So the through line is not craftsmanship and it is not the tooling. It is direction. One person decided what each of these is for, what it would refuse to do, and when it was finished, and did not change his mind about what is beautiful along the way. That is the same job as directing a shoot, and it is the job I have done for twenty years.