// niemantslab · personal experiments · jn

Niemantslab

experiments in calm technology and artificial constraints

lab is active — not everything here is finished, and that's the point
current experiments
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e-ink calendar
An e-ink display in the kitchen showing the family's shared Google Calendar — four weeks ahead, today's weather, news headlines, and the kids' pocket money balances. No notifications, no infinite scroll. Just the information you need, when you need it. Calm technology in the most literal sense.
live
🎵
paper card jukebox
A music player for the kids that uses a barcode scanner and physical credit card-sized cards. Scan a card, the song plays — in full, no skipping. Queue one more, no more. Adding new music means consciously deciding to print a new card. The constraint is the feature.
live
📼
retroreverse
Mixtape maker for Spotify. You get 90 minutes and five tapes maximum — same constraints as a real cassette. Each tape gets a hand-labelled cassette identity and syncs back to your Spotify.
in progress
further reading
These experiments are part of a broader argument about trust-centred technology. Read more in From Chief Security Officer to Chief Trust Officer on niemants.land.