We made an Android application that lets users track their mistakes using Python and Kivy, which is a Python library that allows you to write apps for Android and iOS. What we have is that users type in their daily mistakes and a cost for each mistake, and then they’re able to see how much their mistakes are costing them over time. Based on this info, we let them see their top mistakes, so that users can learn to stop making these mistakes all the time.
We originally got our inspiration from Charlie Munger, the partner of Warren Buffet as vice-chairman of Berkshire Hathaway. Munger takes special note in writing down his mistakes, and never forgetting them. Here’s a few quotes.
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“I like people admitting they were complete stupid horses’ arses. I know I’ll perform better if I rub my nose in my mistakes. This is a wonderful trick to learn.” -Charlie Munger-
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“Forgetting your mistakes is a terrible error if you’re trying to improve your cognition.” -Charlie Munger-
The idea is that if you can’t determine what you’re doing wrong, then you can’t learn. If you can’t learn, you won’t really know what you’re doing. The idea is that instead of working on a problem forward, you go at it backward. Instead of trying to figure out what you need to do, you figure what you should try to avoid.
We want to target people who are accustomed to using daily task-manager apps. We know that these people are trying to manage and improve the quality of their life. We think that our app will help them do this better. These users will also be the digital-friendly generations of today.
We started off with a slightly different app in the beginning. We decided that we would have a journal, where people would write down what they did during the day, including things like their workouts, their meals, and what they learned. One section that users were supposed to fill out was the mistakes that they made during the day, and we were going to display back their top mistakes. The information in the journal was meant to provide context for the mistakes. The main purpose of the journal was to help users recognize their mistakes. After a few iterations, we decided that this app wasn’t focused enough - the user doesn’t need all of the extra information about their day. They just needed to know their top mistakes, so that they could fix them. So, we decided to transform our app into the current version it is today. Now, we associate each mistake with a cost, and then show users how much their mistakes are costing them.
We think that this simpler, more focused app, will better serve our users.
