TheSchoolofAthens Posted November 11, 2015 Posted November 11, 2015 Hello everyone, I have an idea for an open source project and I would love it if the programmers and developers here would be interested.I was reading Nathaniel Branden's "Six Pillars of Self Esteem" when I came across his stem completion exercises. Stem completion exercises are exercises in which one writes out multiple endings for the beginning of a sentence. Here are some examples from Nathaniel's book: Living consciously to me means...If I bring 5 percent more awareness to my activities today...If I pay more attention to how I deal with people today...If I bring 5 percent more awareness to my most important relationships...If I bring 5 percent more awareness to (fill in a particular problem you are concerned about - for example, your relationship with someone, or a barrier you've hit at work, or your feelings of anxiety or depression)...Every morning for the first week, one is supposed to write out six to ten endings to each stem. Then, one writes out six to ten endings every night that compliment the morning stems. I was blown away by the simplicity and genius of these exercises. As Nathaniel says "You will discover that you have set in motion forces that make it virtually impossible for you to avoid operating more consciously."While pen and paper would suffice for these exercises, why not build a web application for this that users can access from their phones, tablets, and computers? It would be so cool to get email reminders saying "Hey usernamehere, click here to start your nightly stem complete exercise." My idea is this:1) Help create a medium for users to become more conscious by providing 2) premade stem completion exercises which they 3) get reminders to complete, and get the chance to 4) review everything they have written. Users also get the ability to 5) create their own stem completion exercises.Here is my idea for a catchy name and landing page. "sntnce" is of course short for sentence, it gets your attention and makes you think "What is that?" Below is a screenshot: 4
Kevin Beal Posted November 11, 2015 Posted November 11, 2015 That's really funny. I had almost exactly the same idea when I read the book, except that instead of it being a website, it was the new tab page in the browser, and it would include quotes that might be related to that week's stems. Unfortunately, I don't have the time to contribute with my other commitments, but it's definitely something I would use. (I do sentence completions every weekday morning). I hope it works out 1
TheSchoolofAthens Posted November 13, 2015 Author Posted November 13, 2015 That's really funny. I had almost exactly the same idea when I read the book, except that instead of it being a website, it was the new tab page in the browser, and it would include quotes that might be related to that week's stems. Unfortunately, I don't have the time to contribute with my other commitments, but it's definitely something I would use. (I do sentence completions every weekday morning). I hope it works out I appreciate it man! It is more of a dream at the moment - my programming skills are not strong enough nor do I plan on making them much stronger as I've realized that I would not like to be in that career field personally, but programming is an absolutely wonderful skill to have, so if anyone here ever wants to pick this project up, let me know! And it is funny that you thought something similar, haha great minds think alike. I'm sure such ideas come natural to us, as a millennial whenever I see someone mention pencil and paper I think "if there's not an app for that already, there really should be."
bitcoin Posted November 16, 2015 Posted November 16, 2015 I am learning Python right now. I'd more than love to contribute and work on a project like this ! Tell me what you want me to do and If I can't I'll learn; if I can, I'm on it
Eternal Growth Posted November 16, 2015 Posted November 16, 2015 I love this idea! (And like the above poster it's similar to a set of ideas I've had as well.) I'd be very happy to contribute to the development process. My concern with this being a website is the privacy side. I personally might not want months or years of my stem endings to be stored on somebody's servers (where they are vulnerable to all kinds of potential attacks and snooping), and the knowledge that privacy isn't in my hands might censor some of the things I write, whereas stem completion is properly supposed to involve absolutely the first thing that comes to mind. Stem completion is essentially a form of self-therapy, and confidentiality in therapy is really important. It still might be possible to maintain privacy and have a website by either 1) using the local web storage API (which would come at the cost of being unable to read sentences completions made on another device) or 2) using client-side javascript encryption (which is not the easiest nor most problem-free process). From a privacy standpoint a single-device application that uses local storage might be preferable. Would you be using a public domain license? (It seems to me to be the only software "license" compatible with voluntaryism).
Eternal Growth Posted November 16, 2015 Posted November 16, 2015 A very easy way to implement this (possibly just as first prototype) that would work on windows/mac/linux desktops and laptops would be to make a text-based native application, which is really all that is necessary for completing sentences. A graphical interface is something that could be added on top later. If made in this way, storage would be local, which would be private/confidential relative to storing it on a website, though there are ways to add secure remote storage as a later feature too. I've made a mock-up (~10 lines of code, named "sencom" after sentence completion) below of what it could be like. You would click the icon, and then a terminal window would open with the sentence stem there for you to complete. By typing in other text commands you could see the completions from previous days, add new stems, etc. I'm not sure if this is at all similar to what you had in mind, if the ability to use it across devices would be an essential (and more important than privacy) feature in your eyes, or if I'm going completely down my own path here. Let me know.
neeeel Posted November 19, 2015 Posted November 19, 2015 I can program in python. Also have some experience in java, and am learning to make android apps. I might be interested in joining some sort of project
Eternal Growth Posted November 19, 2015 Posted November 19, 2015 That's two mentions of Python, which seems like it'd be an ideal language for the project. Does anyone have any further thoughts on the native application vs. website decision? Python could be used for both. If making a native application, there are a lot of options for making it with a graphical interface in Python e.g. PyQt (which can also do things like desktop notifications to remind users to do stem completion): https://wiki.python.org/moin/GuiProgramming Maybe we could get a Skype group chat and github repository open for those who are interested?
TheSchoolofAthens Posted November 22, 2015 Author Posted November 22, 2015 Wow you all are awesome! We could actually make this happen I think Sntnce should be a native application as first and foremost, privacy is the top priority, and secondly we want people to be able to complete their stem exercises even without an internet signal.I am much more of a designer than a developer. I really only know html and css so I wont be of much help to the backend, but I can make the front end pretty!Let's do the public license! Who can set up the GitHub repository?
bitcoin Posted November 22, 2015 Posted November 22, 2015 Github: https://github.com/jakezeal/SenStem Skype: https://join.skype.com/DlZ4VNPAAssb I would suggest as a first step getting everyone on skype for a call and using it as a substitute for Slack. We could also create a Google Drive folder to share information that might be easier than transfering over Github (ie. sentence stems, etc.). Perhaps one of the next steps would be to collect requirements (features, priorities, milestones, etc.) and share our skills, desires and what we are able to do. I look forward to working with all of you ! See you on Skype ! 1
neeeel Posted November 22, 2015 Posted November 22, 2015 Github is something I need to learn about, so I wont be able to set it up, but I can use this project to learn it.
twinklingwinter Posted December 3, 2015 Posted December 3, 2015 For everyone who wants to contribute, please join the Skype conversation (the link is on JakeN's post). We already did some progress. Thanks!
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