tick-tock

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Tick Tock: Memento Mori

Inspiration

Value your time.

That was the core thought. We often live our days as if they are infinite resources. The ancient stoic concept of Memento Mori ("remember you must die") isn't about being morbid; it's about clarity. We wanted to take that abstract philosophy and turn it into a concrete, visual, and slightly gamified reality check.

What it does

Makes you value your time :)

Tick Tock acts as a "life dashboard" with a retro, terminal-style aesthetic. It features:

  • Life Visualization: Your life is represented as a grid of dots. Past time is eaten, future time remains.
  • The Pacman Metaphor: In the detailed view, a Pacman character actively "eats" your timeline, representing the relentless march of time.
  • Real-World Data: It calculates your statistical life expectancy based on your current age and country (using 2023 UN estimates), projecting a realistic "Game Over" date.
  • Effective Time: It doesn't just show years; it allows you to subtract sleep, work, and commute hours to reveal how much actual conscious life you have left to pursue your dreams.
  • Deadline Tracking: You can set specific goals, creating a "race" against time to achieve them before the dots run out.
  • Installable App: Full PWA (Progressive Web App) support. You can install it directly on your iPhone (Safari > Share > Add to Home Screen) or Android for a native, full-screen app experience without an app store.

How we built it

With pure willpower, caffeine and Svelte!

  • Framework: We used SvelteKit for its reactivity and performance. Your browser of choice for local storage, and Cloudefront for serving.
  • Styling: The UI is custom CSS, designed to mimic a retro CRT monitor with scanlines.
  • Data Logic: We integrated a dataset of life expectancy statistics from over 200 countries. We built a linear interpolation utility to calculate precise life expectancy based on the user's current age (factoring in survivorship bias).
  • Persistence: All user data—age, deadlines, settings—is persisted locally in the browser, respecting privacy while keeping the experience seamless. No external calls are being made, app is essentially a static webiste.
  • Testing: For rapid testing during development on various devices we have used jprq - join public router, quickly. Check it out!

Challenges we ran into

  • The Math of Mortality: Dealing with life expectancy data is tricky. Simply capping it at 80 years feels wrong if you're already 79. We had to implement a dynamic projection model that extends your expected lifespan the longer you survive, ensuring the "Game Over" line always stays ahead of the player (at least by a bit!).
  • Desing it self: Let's say we had quite a few heated debates about the User Experience.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

  • The "Eulogy" Experience: Creating an immediate emotional impact with a randomized "R.I.P." intro sequence.
  • Dynamic Pacman: Visualizing urgency viscerally as Pacman physically chomps through the life grid.
  • "Effective Time": The shocking realization of how little conscious life remains after subtracting sleep and work.

What we learned

  • Svelte Stores are powerful: Managing complex state (deadlines, multiple view modes, settings) became trivial with Svelte's reactive stores.
  • Data Visualization Impact: A simple grid of dots can be more terrifying/motivating than complex charts. Minimalism works when the message is heavy.
  • Survivorship Bias: We learned a lot about actuarial science! Living to 65 significantly changes your odds of living to 90.

What's next for Tick Tock

  • Calendar Integration: Syncing your "Deadlines" with Google Calendar/iCal.
  • Social Challenges: "Race to the deadline" features to compete with friends on goals.
  • Health Adjustments: Allowing users to input lifestyle choices (smoking, exercise) to see their life expectancy dots dynamically expand or contract.

Made by:

  • Qingyan Lu & Adam Derylo

Built With

  • gcp
  • svelte
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