A productivity best-seller

Happy Hump Day! Here’s a thought for you: Are dreams the brain’s version of machine learning? 

Anyway, here’s the news: 

🚗 The Apple Car is no more after the company decided to wind down its efforts.

🧵 Threads is on the move — with 3 times as many iOS downloads as X.

📺 Google TV has a new look, and it’s rolling out to customers worldwide. 

⚡ A new Tesla Roadster is on the way, and it could start shipping in 2025.

How are your 2024 resolutions going? Don’t worry. I understand if you don’t want to answer. It takes, on average, two months — 66 days to be exact – to build a new habit, according to James Clear.

Clear is the author of Atomic Habits, a book that has sold 20 million copies worldwide and sat atop the New York Times bestseller list for 146 weeks straight. Now, six years and many requests later, James is releasing Atoms, an app built on the same insights he pioneered in his book.

When you open the app, you’ll be asked to build your first habit. As Clear explains, that’s where many people set themselves up for failure by picking something too hard, so instead of a blank slate, the app gives you a template to fill out based on the activity, time, location, and intended outcome. 

To help you even further, Atoms will give you handy prompts like “What’s 1% better than your current behavior?” and “Is this habit attached to something you already do?” to help you reflect on what you’re trying to accomplish. 

As you progress, the app will keep stock of your chosen habit, regularly assess if it’s the right one for you, and gently suggest ways you can edit to make it more achievable and relatable to your wider goals. Of course, it comes with streaks, but if you miss a day, don’t fret. As long as you return the next day, it will be intact — punishment is not a tactic in Clear’s philosophy. 

The app is already making a name for itself, claiming #17 in the iOS app store, ahead of heavyweights Spotify, Netflix, and Amazon. It comes with a 28-day free trial, after that, it’s $16 a month or $119 a year.

Don’t forget to subscribe to Maker Stacks, our newsletter where we interview founders on their product stacks. In today’s edition we will talk to nomadic indie maker Danielle Johnson, co-founder of Leave Me Alone and Ellie.

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