Why it's so hard to look away.

Apps are built to keep you scrolling. selfOS uses the same design to pull you back.

scroll

Your brain is wired for this.

Getting hooked is built into how your brain works. These apps are made to use it.

Your brain lights up most for what it didn't see coming.

A reward you expected barely registers. A surprise lights it up. An endless scroll keeps the surprises coming, one after another.

Schultz, Dayan & Montague, Science, 1997

your attention a bright new thing

Your attention is captured in an instant. Getting it back takes much longer.

Something bright grabs you in about a tenth of a second, before you can decide to ignore it. Getting your attention back takes far longer, and real effort.

saccade-latency research · Polich, Updating P300, 2007

selfOS turns that same pull toward your own life.

It takes the same pull that keeps you scrolling, and points it at the things you keep meaning to do.

reddit.com

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Calisthenics · 5:00

You set it once, and it runs on its own.

You decide it ahead of time: when you reach to scroll, selfOS hands you the thing you actually want to be doing. Planning it as “when this, then that” is one of the most reliable ways people follow through.

Gollwitzer · implementation intentions · 94 studies

And you're not doing it alone.

Other people are doing the same thing right now, each one a point of light. It's quiet and anonymous. You just see that others are here, redirecting their attention alongside you.

Every screen is built to pull you somewhere.
selfOS pulls you back to your own life.

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Full sources in the project's research notes · hi@wsc.fyi