Hah.. the Swiss Post has an app that lets you design a postcard and send it, it even has a "every user can send 1 free postcard every day" that cool kids use a meme-printing service. I feel like they should also offer a "print-a-letter-in-the-future and send it to user" service. As a bonus they can probably track the movements of their customers because of their "address change" service (if you move houses and use this service they'll let companies know of your new address). And it's the Swiss Post, it shouldn't be disappearing any time soon..
As a peer[1] in the habit-building space, there are so many things I love about this:
* No self-reporting. I can attest this a huge source of friction for users.
* Aligned business model. I also donate 100% of penalties to charity. It's shocking how many accountability apps are incentivized for you to fail.
* External accountability. It's an underrated tool and I'm glad it's gaining more recognition.
However, I think there's also such a thing as too much accountability. Life comes in the way and people won't always hit their goals. When you penalize failure, you penalize trying. Instead, it's better to encourage learning from failure.
That's why I impose compassionate accountability. You're only required to check in on your goals, not succeed at them. This way, you can fight through the problem instead of giving up the moment you fail.
Here's a recent example from Habit Gym that illustrates this quite well. It's a user trying to quit smoking - they start off slow, but pick up momentum quickly because they learned from their mistakes. https://i.imgur.com/1eiZEMy.png
Hey, is there a problem with accepting new registrations (and joining the waitlist)? I get "The change you wanted was rejected." for anything I try to submit.
Exactly! It's the digital equivalent of placing the milk at the back of the grocery store. It's meant to distract you from why you're there in the first place.
https://dearfuture.carrd.com