This month HWG member Caitlin Quinn will be discussing her custom app "Instead": Have you been scrolling, wishing you were reading that article you saved yesterday? It started as a Google doc, where I dumped every link, video, and half-formed idea I didn't have time for right now. Which is fine, except "right now" never came. The doc just got longer, and I kept scrolling the day away on YouTube anyway.

The problem isn't that I don't have things I want to engage with. I have loads of things. The problem is that when I pick up my phone and my brain goes into passive mode, the path of least resistance is always the algorithm. It knows exactly how to keep me there. My Google doc does not.

So I built Instead. It's a small personal app,just an HTML file, actually, that lives on my home screen next to YouTube. When I reach for my phone to scroll, I can reach for this instead. It shows me things I chose, things I actually want to read or watch or think about, organised into categories: stuff for my own nourishment, professional reading, ideas I want to develop, things I want to share.

This is an app I've been working on with Claude, my own rudimentary html and CSS knowledge, and a whole stack of tabs open on my phone!

We will be based at Eden Court's Community Table from 6:30pm.

We appreciate RSVPs on Kommunity, they help us plan. If you'd like to join us, please mark yourself as attending.

Our group is an informal and friendly setting for chat about all types of web developing/designing/code-related stuff. It’s a good place for techy people of all kinds to get together, socialise and network.