My cofounders and I were drawn to the question 'What if a computer could understand you?'. We've built Monograph, an iOS app we released in public today after testing over the last 8 months, inspired by this question. Monograph is designed to help you get the most out of life through the power of self reflection in a private, intelligent space.
With Monograph, you can:
> Tune into yourself: daily practices as easy as taking a picture and deeper exercises as revealing as crafting advice from your future self.
> Hold onto what matters: quickly capture the thoughts, ideas, and memories you don’t want to forget.
> Make sense of it all: get in touch with your feelings, hear what you think and explore what you’re curious about.
Monograph’s intelligence exists to help you tap into yours. It remembers what you’ve shared and draws on what it knows, so you can connect the dots.
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A little backstory, inspired by discussions I've been a part of here on HN:
We think in the rush to figure on what AI can (or can't!) do, there's a missing focus on the potential for augmenting human intelligence that's been opened because computers can now work with you in the same language you use to work with your own thoughts.
Computers have gotten smaller, smarter and have steadily made their way into all facets of life. But, they've always been bound up in a pretty fundamental disconnect from us: they interpret the world as binary whereas we exist on a spectrum of possibilities.
So much of what we think exists in this spectrum and, before the introduction of language models, it was hard, or didn't really make sense unless you're someone with an avid journaling habit, to work with a computer in this much fuzzier space. You always had to first come to some kind of intent.
We think AI has tremendous potential, especially when pointed not at replacing us, but at helping humans be more human. When you do this, computers become machines for figuring it out, not just machines for doing. Now a computer can help you ponder the right questions, instead of just providing you answers. This makes them more a space for your curiosity, and not just for closure. And, because computers are still...computers, they can still proudly do machine things like remember more and think faster than us.
We’ve been fortunate, as we’ve built it over the last few months, to hear stories from folks who have worked with their Monograph. For the person dealing with a challenge running their small business, Monograph invited them to consider who else was on their team. Then they called their brother. For the person trying to let go of stress, Monograph encouraged them to offer themselves the advice they’d give their best friend. Now whenever that stress arises again, they think of their friend. For the new dad who wants to remember it all, taking a photo a day with Monograph has turned their phone, typically a source of distraction, into a daily source of gratitude. These things sound simple, but for these folks the effects were profound.
I know there's a lot of discussion around AI, we think there's a different path to take when focused in this way. I'm excited to hear what the HN community thinks. You can find it at the link and we're offering founding members who join in August a free year of Monograph as a thanks for helping us shape it.
