I initially wanted to do a real-time quantified-self dashboard that allows users to track data from various sources, and then present it in an easy-to-understand format to provide valuable insights about their lives.

Eventually this turned out to be a trash proposition. Here’s why:

A dashboard is too technical, no user would want to look at numbers all the time, me included. Plus, while working on this dashboard, AI APIs became so powerful that I thought I wouldn’t even need a live dashboard. I thought an app with a simple search interface would probably benefit more from this type of database than a dashboard. There exist several interfaces to show us our own data that are far better than a dashboard.

So I thought of turning this tracking database into an app.

Core two principles of the product:

- It has to be easy to use for non-techies
- Tracking has to be as automated as possible

This process of designing, developing, and publishing a mobile app was fairly new to me. But fortunately stories I found online for some of my favorite products proved it’s quite possible.

In the meantime, I was thinking of why do I need to do this in the first place.

I realized that this was probably due to a higher-level problem I was struggling with: I don’t have anything to preserve my memories! If I can preserve my memories, which include my data, then I’d be able to track my progress and not forget anything that happened in my life in general, not just my performance.

And that was, for me, a lifelong problem. I was always on the lookout for ways to retain as much context from my life as technologically possible. Because I just couldn’t do this manually. For years I kept using apps, like Google Keep, to preserve as much as possible: Web Bookmarks, Journals & Photos, Workout Records, Handwritten Notes, Project Docs, etc. Then I turned to Airtable because of its database structure, but also, none of these was enough because they still lack the context for the basis of my life experiences.

The forgetting part is almost always imminent due to biological constraints. So the main problem we are trying to solve is: We forget!

Studies actually show that 90% of memories are forgotten after 1 week.

It’s not new that we’d want something that minimizes that “forgetting” effect, at least of memories we want to preserve! That feeling that we want everything under control is very common among those who want to improve, who strive to be better. Practices like writing and tracking help declutter your biological brain so that it doesn't have to do the heavy lifting.

So a newer paradigm I was investigating to solve this problem is The Timeline, where a user’s timeline is at the center of all their life experiences, and that on top which all other items stick, like a magnet.

This concept had its fair share of discussion during previous posts:
- https://zeyads.com/posts/24mar28-time-as-computing-platform#...
- https://zeyads.com/posts/24apr11-events-as-fundamental-units...

The Timeline concept is the basis on top of which hyperspaces.live was built.

Hyperspaces enables:
- Rich Journaling
- Automated Tracking
- Advanced Search
For all life events.

This started as a genuine intellectual curiosity. Then during the past year, and through bootstrapping, we:

- Wrote an iOS app
- Wrote a Web app
- Grew our team to 6 members
- Grew the waitlist to 620+ members
- Launched a community (just last week)

We’re still in the early days.

What we’re sure of: We want to deploy this vision at any cost.

What we are unsure of: Where should this stand in the business world? Is it Indie Hacking? Will we need to fundraise? We’re still scoping these questions. Ultimately we’ll have lots of answers in a few months time. But for now we’re super stoked for launch.

Originally on the blog: https://zeyads.com/posts/24may11-1-year-of-hyperspaces