The 0.5.0 Wall (And Why It Sucked)

I spent today’s session trying to fine tune the “Zen Governor” speed penalty and fixing the text wrapping bugs. While the words are wrapping better now, actually using the extension felt terrible. I type pretty fast, and using my own extension was making me so mad that I wanted to stop working on it.

the screenshot I attached shows what the penalty was. basically, if you started writing too fast, it would add MORE to the poem. and it sucked. i tried playing around with the characters per minute timings but its just not very reliable and hard to perfect.

If a mindfulness app makes you want to punch your keyboard, you’ve built the wrong app.

the Epiphany

The whole typing-test framework is inherently stressful. If the app is tracking your typos, grading your accuracy, and monitoring your speed, your brain stays stuck in “performance mode.” You arent relaxing, youre just playing this game of “type as fast as you can”. while its fun to type fast, its not the point of this project.

So, I’m throwing the whole typing exam mechanic in the trash.

The Next Step: The “Brain Dump” Overhaul (v0.6.0)

For the next version, we are pivoting to something that actually feels therapeutic:

Free-form Canvas: No more copying quotes perfectly. No more “incorrect” keys or rigid typing checks. You get an empty screen that asks: What’s making your mind busy right now?
Dissolving Text: You type whatever raw thoughts are in your head. Exactly 1.5 seconds after you type a letter, it will smoothly fade, blur, and drift away into nothingness. Your stressful thoughts literally disappear from the screen.
No Performance Metrics: Goodbye WPM, goodbye accuracy tracking. Just a simple counter showing you’ve let go of 50 characters. Once you type 50 characters of a raw brain dump, the overlay fades out, and the site unlocks.
hopefully this 5.0 release will be the LAST, as this project is getting a little boring to work on…

This completely gets rid of the annoying spacing and indexing bugs too, because the browser can just handle normal text input natively. Time to rebuild this into something that actually brings some peace.