Archive for 2019

Meet The New Gmail Zero, Same As The Old Gmail Zero

Tuesday, December 17th, 2019
Meet The New Gmail Zero, Same As The Old Gmail Zero

Announcement! We’ve reworked Gmail goals to use a label instead of an arbitrary search query, because Google is making us. (Not just us. Any app wanting access to things like arbitrary search queries has to go through a $10k+ security audit now!) If you need to do something about your Gmail... »

Integery Goals, Timey-Wimey Goals, and Conservarounding

Wednesday, November 27th, 2019
Integery Goals, Timey-Wimey Goals, and Conservarounding

Here’s a thing users really hated about Beeminder until today: when Beeminder told them they needed to floss their teeth 0.23 times or archive 6.8 emails or whatever nonsensical / physically impossible thing. I personally shrugged that off for years. Obviously you just mentally take the ceiling of that number, right? If you have to floss 0.23 times and... »

Social Reality And The Canard About Keeping Your Goals To Yourself

Thursday, November 21st, 2019
Social Reality And The Canard About Keeping Your Goals To Yourself

It’s now been ten years since the publication of Gollwitzer et al’s paper about, as the internet interpreted it, keeping your goals to yourself. I think I’ve heard variants of “did you hear that science shows that you’re... »

Beeminder ♥ Project Euler

Monday, November 4th, 2019
Beeminder ♥ Project Euler

We have a new official integration partner! Except arguably not official, nor a partner. Project Euler is philosophically opposed to any kind of commercialization. So much so that the founder and all volunteers who contribute to it have committed to never profit financially from doing so. Pretty... »

Redqueening, Inbox Zero, Backlogs, and Fluid Dynamics

Wednesday, October 23rd, 2019
Redqueening, Inbox Zero, Backlogs, and Fluid Dynamics

If you’re a fan of Mark Forster (as we certainly are) then this whole post amounts to giving a name — “redqueening” — to step 2 of his »

Dogfood Binge

Thursday, October 10th, 2019
Dogfood Binge

UPDATE 2021:We’re pausing (most of) these dogfood bounties! We still like them in theory but it turns out we all derail often enough that the logistics of getting money from us to users is more than we can keep up with! We do personally enter our personal credit cards in Beeminder and get charged money like... »

How To Technically Count As A Vegetarian While Eating Animals

Thursday, September 26th, 2019
How To Technically Count As A Vegetarian While Eating Animals

Ok, there’s “technically” and there’s “technically”. If your definition of a vegetarian is “someone who never eats meat” then I’m pretty stuck on making good on this title. But someone who ate meat in the past and doesn’t anymore counts, of course. So maybe there’s wiggle room here? Someone who eats meat only at Christmas dinner and never any... »

Motivational Archetypes

Wednesday, September 11th, 2019
Motivational Archetypes

Which motivational archetype do you most identify with: Philosopher — better understand the universe, live the life of the mind Hedonist — go on adventures, have wild romances Caregiver — have meaningful relationships, raise children Creator — make beautiful things, make enduring things Politician — lead and influence people, improve the world I would call myself a Philosopher, then Creator/Politician, followed... »

Add Datapoints From the Notifications Bar (Even While Your Phone Is Locked!)

Friday, August 23rd, 2019
Add Datapoints From the Notifications Bar (Even While Your Phone Is Locked!)

We’re delighted to have a guest post today by Thomas Kahn (who we were also fortunate enough to meet last month at the Frankfurt Beeminder meetup). Thomas is trained as a lawyer... »

Pareto Dominating The Pledge Cap UI For Goal Creation

Friday, August 9th, 2019
Pareto Dominating The Pledge Cap UI For Goal Creation

This is part 3 of a 3-part blog series! Previously we defined Pareto dominance and what that means for software, and then we made our case for and committed to the »