an app for the thing you keep hiding
2:00 AM DOESN'T
GET A VOTE.
You set the terms while you are thinking clearly. The app keeps them when you are not.
The argument
Two men.
One phone.
The man who installs this and the man who wants it gone at 2 a.m. cannot hear each other. Sober, you cannot picture the craving, so you trust yourself more than you should. In the craving, you cannot picture being sober again.
So the app does not ask the second man for permission. It was already answered by the first one.
Loewenstein · the hot-cold empathy gap
How the wall works
The Cold Lock
Ask to unlock and the code arrives about a day later. Not from a person. From the clock.
- 01You set the termsCold, clear, on your own time.
- 02The wall holdsEvery browser. Every app.
- 03You ask to unlockAny hour. No explanation owed.
- 04The code arrivesAbout a day later.
What it isn't
No partner.
No reports.
Nobody watching.
Nobody gets an email when you slip. There is no dashboard with your name on it. Nothing here is built to make you feel caught.
Being watched was never the thing that stopped it.
Gilliland et al. · shame predicted more of the behavior, not less
You are not the worst night you've had.
“When he came to himself.”
Luke 15:17
If you are handing this to someone
You do not have to check on him. That is the whole point. Give him the card and let the app be the one that says no.
Draw the line.
You draw it once, sober. It holds after that.