MORNING RADIO 📻

Your personal morning show, mixing world updates, creative inspiration, and project continuity

Core User Context (Direct Quotes)

"Wake up in a sunbeam, my cat is cuddling next to me, I'm well-rested and ready for the day, even a little bit bored; 'What to do?'"

"Morning coffee and spliff time is sacred; it controls the whole day, it is profoundly powerful. The things I think about, consume, and direct my intentionality towards in that time has huge impacts on my life."

"I just wanna know the baseline stuff for my happiness; did any huge bombs go off in the world, is it going to rain today, are my friends all okay, ok, looks good, now to get to work"

DEVELOPMENT PHILOSOPHY

"I need to build the habit template and iterate on improving the app in a daily iterative fashion, like if I spend 15-30 minutes adding/improving features on it at the end of every day for the next morning it would grow in a slow curated careful way"

TARGET USER CLARITY

"a lot of this is formatted around a very specific type of weirdo (me!)"

• Initially building for one user
• No need for multi-user complexity yet

ESSENTIAL TONE

"I wish it was like… a more measured Ram Dass-y tone" vs "YOU'RE IN AMERICA WHERE EVERYTHING IS LOUD AND SWEET! BOOM BOOM BANG BANG"

PROJECT REDISCOVERY

"OH YEAH! I forgot about those photos I took at X, I should edit and publish those" or "OH YEAH! I wrote 80% of that script, I should finish it"

PUBLISHING CYCLE

"Oh yeah! I published that code on GitHub, now I should make a blog post for it!" or "Oh yeah! I published that blog post, now I should make a video for it!"

6. SUCCESS METRICS

• More creation, less consumption
• Better documentation of work
• Maintained morning inspiration
• Reduced doomscrolling

Technical Foundations

• Cloud-based (Fly.io initial choice, cloudflare potential alternative)
• iOS first (SwiftUI)
• Dark mode / light mode linked to system
• Offline-first architecture
• Background refresh critical

MOBILE MARIA (👩‍🎨): Don't forget the crucial timing context:

"30 minutes (doomscrolling) is good and fine, but this morning I woke up at 9 and I didn't get out of bed until 11 and that felt… bad"

CLARENCE THE JANITOR (🧹): making final sweeps

And remember the core balance:

"I want to plan my day with the same low-intensity interactions (as social media), scrolling, clicking, right- but instead of just sorting through the feeds I'm actually planning my day and making legitimate progress"

Existing Systems Integration

1. DAILY PRACTICES

   • Morning pages
   • GTD with Things
   • Obsidian for project notes
   • Regular RSS reading via Reeder

2. CORE DAILY TASKS

   "Every day on my todo list, there are 3 things […] aspirational but core to the type of person I want to be:"

   • Meditate

   • Make something and publish it

   • Write in journal

Documentation & Publishing Flow

• Currently uses Obsidian vault on iCloud
• Frontmatter controls publishing (share: true)
• Weekly notes format with emoji headers
• Struggle with consistent documentation
• Need for "private by default, intentional sharing"

Current Pain Points

1. MORNING ROUTINE

   "I open up social media and scroll a bit; I get some updates on the local wildfire, a new restaurant that opened up in Beacon from Facebook. On Twitter, I learn about new AI technique […] On Instagram I stumble across a really cool reel"

   • Seeking inspiration but finding distraction

   • Need for filtered, meaningful updates

2. DOCUMENTATION CHALLENGES

   "I profoundly struggle with the latter part. I think, after 32 years on this planet, it's mostly about like, not putting myself out there so I won't be 'rejected'"

3. PROJECT CONTINUITY

   "I'll look back and over the course of the week i made like 3 weird little command line tools, a weird art thing, an animation in after effects, and a weird generative modular synth thing"

Interaction Pattern Considerations

1. CURRENT PREFERENCES

   • TikTok-style infinite scroll
   • Instagram next/prev edge taps for details
   • Low cognitive load "fidget toy for your brain"
   • Morning-brain friendly

2. TIMING SENSITIVITY

   • Phone is first touch point
   • Must work before laptop is open
   • Critical 6am - 11am window

System Requirements

• Quick sync across devices
• Offline functionality
• Background refresh at 6am
• Dark mode by default
• Gentle transitions

Future Expansion Potential

• Integration with existing tools
• Project documentation flow
• Publishing workflow
• Community aspects

Core Experience 🌅

1. GENTLE AWAKENING

   • Low cognitive load "fidget toy for your brain"
   • Swipeable card interface
   • Ram Dass-y tone vs LOUD AMERICA
   • Sacred coffee/spliff contemplation companion

2. DAILY BASELINE 🌍

   • Weather & local updates
   • Friend status check
   • Crucial world events
   • Community pulse
   • Curated RSS/inspiration feeds

3. CREATIVE CONTINUITY 🎨

   • "Oh yeah!" project reminders
   • Progress celebrations
   • Work-in-progress status
   • Publication opportunities
   • Community feedback/growth metrics

4. SYSTEM INTEGRATION 🔄

   • Things (task management)
   • Obsidian (project notes)
   • Day One (morning pages)
   • GitHub (code projects)
   • Blog/Website
   • Social platforms

Interaction Patterns 🎛️

• Morning-brain friendly
• Swipe mechanics
• Channel-switching metaphor
• Zero pressure engagement
• Intentional sharing controls
• Time-of-day awareness

CLARENCE THE JANITOR (🧹): in smooth DJ voice Don't forget those transitions, baby… smooth like butter…

MARCUS (🎯): continues writing

Content "Channels" 📡

1. MORNING HEADLINES

   • Local news
   • Weather
   • Critical updates

2. FRIEND FREQUENCY

   • Social updates
   • Community activity
   • Meaningful connections

3. CREATIVE STATION

   • Project reminders
   • Work in progress
   • Publication opportunities

4. INSPIRATION WAVES

   • RSS highlights
   • Artist updates
   • Tech discoveries

5. PROGRESS PULSE

   • Growth metrics
   • Community feedback
   • Achievement celebrations

Documentation Flow 📝

• Private by default
• Intentional sharing
• Automatic capture
• Progress tracking
• Multiple publishing paths

Success Metrics 📊

• Morning doomscroll reduction
• Creative work completion
• Documentation consistency
• Publishing frequency
• User morning satisfaction

V0.0.1 (1 week) - "The First Song" 🎵

Focus: Basic working prototype you'll actually use every morning

CORE VIEWS 📱

1. WELCOME SCREEN / MORNING BRIEF

• Generated daily at 6am
• Dark mode only
• Your location's weather prominently displayed
• "Today's Brief" summary
• "Begin" prompt

2. CARD SEQUENCE

   • Weather Card

     • Big temperature
     • Condition icon
     • Day's forecast

   • News Digest Cards (3-5)

     • Generated from your OPML
     • Headline
     • Quick summary
     • Source

   • Default "End of Brief" Card

     • Simple completion message
     • Time to start the day

3. SETTINGS (MINIMAL)

• Location permission/display
• Dark mode toggle (default on)
• Clear cache button
• Version number

MVP REQUIREMENTS ✅

1. Works offline with cached data
2. Updates in background at 6am
3. Loads instantly
4. Remembers last brief position
5. Graceful failure states

jazz plays a clean ending riff

V0.0.5 (3 months) - "Finding the Rhythm" 🎶

Focus: Personal data integration & improved experience

FEATURES:

• Obsidian integration (R2 sync)
• "Oh yeah!" project reminders
• Improved card animations
• Basic preferences
• Daily brief view
• Simple metrics tracking

TECH:

• Cloudflare R2 for Obsidian sync
• More sophisticated API layer
• Basic data analytics
• Local storage for preferences

SUCCESS METRICS:

• Consistent morning usage
• Project rediscovery happening
• Reduced doomscrolling
• Feature requests emerging

V0.1.0 (1 year) - "Full Morning Show" 🎸

Focus: Refined experience & possible expansion

FEATURES:

• All planned "channels"
• Smart content mixing
• AI-powered summaries
• Sophisticated animations
• Publication workflow
• Progress tracking
• Multiple device sync
• (Maybe) friend invites

TECH:

• Mature backend architecture
• Possible multi-user support
• Enhanced AI integration
• Analytics dashboard
• TestFlight distribution

SUCCESS METRICS:

• Established morning routine
• Increased creative output
• Better project documentation
• Friend interest/usage