Introducing 12 Challenges

I'm spending 12 months on 12 Challenges to make the internet a bit better

Why?

For 7 years I’ve worked on ideas to make the internet a bit better.

I created an app called Go Away, which Apple refused to allow on the app store. I made an open source browser extension, Nudge, which 3,000 people use to browse the internet less. I sent Mark Zuckerberg $20 that I stole from him. I got banned for life by Facebook for making a tool called Unfollow Everything which deleted your News Feed.

The countless hours I’ve spent daydreaming about making the internet better have given me countless ideas to do just that. But I’ve become painfully aware that if I don’t sit down and make a plan to get some of those ideas out there, they’ll carry on living rent-free in my head.

So, inspired by the Tiny Projects model, I’ve decided to spend the next 12 months on some of the ideas I’m most excited by.

Why Challenges?

First and foremost, these are challenges to the way the internet works today. All-powerful platforms, hate speech, polarization, addiction, the list goes on. The status quo needs challenging.

Second, I also need to be challenged — to put my ideas out there, even if they aren’t perfect or fully-formed.

Why 12?

Left to my own devices, I end spending way too much time tinkering, and way too little time launching/releasing/writing.

For instance, a few years ago I spent nearly 100 hours designing custom icons for Nudge, instead of just taking them off the shelf and spending the time on making the tool work better.

Doing 12 Challenges will keep me moving fast and experimenting. And 12 feels like a good solid number. Not too small, not too big.

Why now?

My Facebook ban hit the front page of Reddit, and I got amazing support from thousands of people, including figures like Jimmy Wales, Frances Haugen and Cory Doctorow. But despite all that, Facebook’s legal threats scared me, and I retreated into my shell like a tortoise.

For a couple of years I stopped putting ideas out there, worried about every tiny thing that could go wrong. I stayed in the space, advising tech foundations on strategy — but I was too burnt out to do anything myself.

Then last week I realized that life’s too short to worry about being legally threatened by a trillion-dollar company. So I’m poking my head back out of the shell.

What?

The Challenges will take many forms: campaigns, projects, code, products, ideas, things. Some of them, I already have a very clear idea for — others, I’ll shape up as I get further in.

For each Challenge, I will be publishing the following on Substack:

1. The Plan: as it sounds

2. The Results: how it went

3. Extras: other bits and pieces

I’ll also be tweeting here about various twists and turns along the way.

So, what’s Challenge 1?

Speaking of which, let’s talk about the first Challenge:

*drum roll*

Get King Charles to accept the gift of KingCharl.es for Christmas

You might not understand what this means, or how that could possibly make the internet a bit better. If so — great! That’s exactly what I was hoping. In my next post, I’ll be explaining everything.