In earlier posts, I've talked about some lofty ideals about why we're building this thing. What are our motivations, ethics, techniques, and values? I've discussed why we think it's important to bring tech into the world with an always-on ethical mindset. So, dear reader, I hope you're bought into the fact that, when we place Struggle Buddy into your hand and ask what you think, that our hearts are in the right place.

With all that motivation established, however, you're still probably not super clear on what the hell we're building! There's been some background amidst the motivation. But there hasn't been a concrete explanation. Well, I hope Elon doesn't read this and steal our idea! I totally had the SpaceX idea first. But let's dive in a little bit and talk about why we're excited about Struggle Buddy and what it can do for someone you love.

Struggle Buddy aims to help people improve themselves and society by enabling the adoption of health habits. That's it. That's the goal. And in a world of failed New Year's Resolutions, pants that don't fit anymore, unread books, and dusty bicycles, there's a real problem to solve.

And we have an enemy. His name is Ted Lasso.

Over the last week or so, I've watched and enjoyed every episode of Ted Lasso. Brilliant show. Funny, heartwarming, poignant, and well-crafted. But that's several hours that I wasn't reading my ever-growing non-fiction pile. My mountain bike remains unridden even though I live 10 minutes away from fantastic Atlanta trails. What I did was sit on my ass and laugh at the TV for a bit.

Now, I'm glad I watched it. Entertainment and relaxation is important, especially after a hard day's work. Sometimes, you just need to turn off and laugh at a TV show. But how often does that end up in the next recommendation or some YouTube rabbit hole siphoning off an entire Saturday afternoon? The tech we surround ourselves with is actively trying to garner our attention every moment of the day, at the direct expense of our goals and future wellbeing.

Let's paint a picture of the problem. I'm going to use a rather innocuous example here, but imagine getting sober? How about practicing that guitar you bought last year? Imagine the last habit you tried and failed to adopt.

1. You decide you want to form a new habit. Let's say reading a book a month. Or 50 pages a day. Whatever. You've set a goal to read more. Let's say you're into Hard Sci-Fi and you buy the excellent SevenEves, by Neal Stephenson. You take it home on day 1 and start reading. And it grabs you! You're into it. Day 2's the same. Another 50 pages. Day 5 and you're a couple hundred pages into this 880 page opus, finally getting some miles out of that $100 reading lamp you bought a couple years ago. Loving every minute of it.

2. Then on a couple Wednesdays later, about halfway through this, you've got to prep for that client meeting, working late into the evening. So you miss a night. Then, a couple days later, you unwind with a bourbon and an episode of Star Trek instead. Then it happens again. Then again. And that reading lamp is taunting you from the corner of your home office. Somewhere in your mind, as you walk by that lamp and that chair and that inanimate book, you feel this pang of anxiety because you know you're slipping. You're letting yourself down and you feel guilty about it.

3. OK. A few weeks go by and you reread the last chapter. 527 pages to go and you get sucked right back in. You go to the office the next day reinvigorated and you talk to Jim in the cafe about this awesome book you're reading, because he's into that kind of thing too. He says "I'll check it out", but will he?

4. You fall off the wagon again. It was that trip to Denver. Too big a book to put into the carryon, right? I mean. 880 pages. It's basically hauling around a redwood! So a couple weeks go by and you don't read a single page.

5. Then you do. Then you don't. Then you do. Then you don't.

6. Eight months later, you finally turn that last page and get that awesome satisfaction from finishing an amazing book. But you know that you wanted to read six or seven books that time. You know that you can do better.

7. You really wish Jim at the office was reading it so that you could discuss it with him a couple times a week. Especially when that thing happened in chapter 18 and you were like "What!? That was crazy cool."

Sound familiar?

OK Dear Reader. Let's do this again, but with Struggle Buddy.

1. You decide you want to form a new habit. Like reading a book a month. But the last time you tried this, it took you 8 months to get through it and, at the end, you really wished you'd had someone to share the experience with and motivate you to stick to a more regular schedule.

2. You buy a book. Let's say you pick up After On, by Rob Reid. You sure are a glutton for long, challenging, high-concept books, aren't you!?

3. You yank out your phone and set yourself a goal on Struggle Buddy. Form the habit of reading 50 pages a night four nights a week, every week. No excuses.

4. You get paired with someone who's trying to do the same thing. Maybe not the same book. Maybe not the same exact amount of pages. But someone who will hold you accountable and ask you the question "What happened in your book last night?"

5. Stick to the schedule and hold each other accountable by checking off each other's progress.

6. Make a new friend and form a new habit.

That's it!

The missing elements the first time around were that you didn't have a solid plan or someone to hold you accountable. Someone to spot for you in the gym or meet you at the trailhead. Someone who is trying to better themselves in roughly the same way and needs you to hold them accountable.

People seek validation. But they need accountability to better themselves. In our next post, we'll go through some of what we think actual software are going to look like. And we'd love your thoughts when you see them.

As a guy with some pants that don't fit and a pile of books and some dust-collecting bicycles, I know I need Struggle Buddy. And I think you do too.

P.S. Go read both SevenEves and After On. You'll be glad you did.