Blog
Why screen-time software fails, what a price does that a warning cannot, and the decisions behind Last Ferry — written down as they are made.
Why screen-time tools fail harder with ADHD
If every screen-time app has failed you faster than it seems to fail other people, there is a mechanical reason. It has to do with when the cost of a choice arrives.
The five ways screen-time apps try to stop you
Every app in this category uses one of five mechanisms. Knowing which one you are buying predicts how it will fail better than any review, including ours.
Why you cannot stop scrolling
Four design decisions explain most of it, and none of them is about you. Also: whether "scrolling addiction" is a real clinical category, and what the answer changes.
Why it is always 1am
Night scrolling is not a separate habit. It is the same habit meeting the hour when every defence you built is at its cheapest to defeat.
Commitment devices, and what they are for
A commitment device binds your future self by making the wrong choice cost something. What the economics literature actually found, and the four rules that separate a real one from theatre.
The app blocker you cannot delete does not exist
What each platform actually permits an app blocker to do, why "undeletable" is a marketing claim rather than a technical one, and the four things that genuinely raise the cost of quitting.
How to stop doomscrolling
What doomscrolling is, why the usual advice stops working after a week, and what the trial evidence supports. Including the finding most articles leave out.
Screen Time limits not working? The six real fixes
If Screen Time limits are not working, check these six things first: passcode, Block at End of Limit, deletion, clock, browser and Android PIN.
Why the price rises
$0.50, then $1.00, then $2.50. Why an escalating price does what a flat one cannot — and the two rules that keep it honest.
You cannot buy a ticket for a boat that has already left
Top-ups land thirty minutes after you pay. The whole reasoning behind the delay, including the part that looks bad.
Every app blocker becomes a parent
Screen-time apps fail at one specific moment: the instant they say no. The failure is structural, not a matter of tone.