Koan
One statement, full screen, nothing else
A single koan occupies the entire screen with no navigation chrome competing for attention.
Nothing to do with it but sit with it.
WEB / IOS / ANDROID
The Shit-Covered Stick
One koan. No progress bar, no streak, no archive. It arrives when it arrives.
Try it liveFlutterDart
AT A GLANCE
One Koan
At a Time
No Streaks
No Settings
Unpredictable
Delivery Timing
No Archive
Nothing to Scroll Back
THE PROBLEM
Every mindfulness app eventually becomes a habit-tracking app
Streaks, badges, and progress bars turn reflective practice into another number to optimize — which undermines the actual point of sitting with something difficult rather than checking a box.
HOW IT WAS BUILT
Remove every mechanic that turns practice into a metric
The Shit-Covered Stick is a minimal Flutter app that shows one koan at a time and then waits — no progress bar, no streak, no history to scroll back through, no settings to tune.
The next koan arrives on an unpredictable schedule of its own, so there’s nothing to game and nothing to optimize — just the practice of sitting with one impossible statement until the next one shows up.
INSIDE THE PRODUCT
Core surfaces that define the experience
Timing
Delivered on its own schedule
The next koan arrives whenever it arrives — not on a streak, not on a fixed interval a user could plan around.
Unpredictability is the feature.
Absence
No archive, no settings, no streak
Every mechanic that would normally turn this into a habit-tracking app was deliberately left out.
Less than an app, on purpose.
KEY FEATURES
What makes it work
Deliberately No Gamification
No streaks, no progress bar, no settings — every mechanic that usually drives engagement was left out on purpose, because this isn’t built to be engaged with in that way.
Unpredictable Timing by Design
The next koan arrives on its own schedule, not the user’s — removing the ability to game or anticipate delivery is part of the point.
No Archive, No Scrollback
A koan that’s gone is gone — there’s no history to revisit, which forces presence with whatever’s on screen right now instead of collecting past ones.
WORKFLOW
How it actually works
There isn’t much of a workflow — that’s the point.
01
A koan appears
One koan fills the screen, with no context, history, or instructions attached.
02
It waits
The app goes quiet for an unpredictable stretch — hours, days, however long it takes.
03
The next one arrives
A notification signals the next koan is ready, on no fixed schedule.