Articles

What the research behind the app shows, where it stops, and what is only my view.

• Six self-control claims that don't hold up

  Self-set deadlines, willpower as a battery, nudges, cheat days, and two numbers about streaks and blockers: what the research shows, and what is left.

• What an app with Screen Time access can see

  Apps that limit screen time on the iPhone use Apple's Screen Time API. What it gives them, what Apple keeps sealed, and where only a contract stands in the way.

• Hi, I'm Michael. I have no self control.

  Why I built an app that interrupts my doomscrolling instead of forbidding it: the ideas I dropped, what my brain needs, and why the app costs money.

• There is AI in my app. It listens for a vacuum cleaner.

  There is AI in my screen-time app: it hears the vacuum cleaner. What isn't in it is an AI that talks to you. I tried one, and this is what came back.

• From a form to a ticket: how the app got its look

  How my screen-time app got its look: a spike built to be ugly, two design rounds thrown away, volt green, a ticket, and a curtain that sells nothing.

• Why there are no streaks in I Have No Self Control

  A tester asked for streaks. Why my app has none, and no scores, badges or guilt messages either: less a scientific decision than a matter of taste.