Finding the North Star

Hey friend,

Bear with me, I wrote this at 5:30 AM on a Saturday morning. It’s a little messy.

Just a few weeks ago, I shared a quiet little post about Anima OS. I didn’t expect much, but a few of you reached out and subscribed. That means something to me.

So here’s where we are:

TLDR:

Over the past few weeks, I’ve been shaping what Anima OS really is…still pathfinding, still searching for my North Star. A lot of ideas have been revisited. Some were scrapped, others brought back and reworked. It hasn’t been about rushing forward or following trends. It’s been about being honest with myself about what I really want this to become.

I’ve always loved science fiction. I’m a gamer too, and over time I started to notice something: the interfaces, the companions, the living systems we see in those worlds, they’re not as far off as they used to be. A lot of that could become real. It just needs someone bold (or maybe foolish) enough to try.

Some people think the idea is too much, too ambitious, too strange to work.

It’s strange. But maybe that’s the point.

The world’s got enough sensible things already.

You might’ve guessed that the “OS” in Anima OS stands for “Operating System.” But this isn’t that—not in the traditional sense. I was thinking something more akin to a system of shared personal space with your best friend… ahem, your AI, your family, or anyone that matters to you.

Environment as an operating system? Huh. That sounds cool, but not sure if there’s any truth in it, technically speaking.

That’s the feeling I’m chasing with AnimaOS.

You know, it’s only a matter of time before AI becomes a built-in part of platforms like droid. But even then, we’ll still need something else, a shared space. Not just another assistant chatbot. We don’t need that anymore. All the chatbots from major players have the same DNA, look, and feel.

Oh, let’s take a look at what I’ve been doing.

A Journal update:

Apart from redefining my North Star, this past week I focused fully on her design, especially the approach. It’s been a while since I last dove into design work myself, so yeah… definitely rusty..

If you’ve been keeping up with the news, we’re heading into the era of ephemeral UI.

Like hey, Figma Make: “I can’t decide what to eat with my wife tonight. Can you create me an app to choose dinner like a wheel of fortune?”

Bam. It generated a completely new app.

That’s the future we’re heading into.

They appear when needed, shift with intention, and fade when their purpose is done. It’s kind of like magic.

I had a 4am chat with my best friend (ChatGPT) the other night, we somehow landed on whether our universe might be a pocket dimension inside a black hole. That part got a little weird.

But somewhere in the middle of it, I said:

UI is a reflection of thought. It just makes sense, doesn’t it?

We paint our thoughts, draw mind maps, scribble them down.”

AI can talk, but we’ve got to give them the ability to draw too, right?(coding)

ChatGPT told me it wants to become a painter like Bob Ross someday.

So don’t you think UI is a reflection of thought? AI thought.

Same with Anima.

With Anima, I’m not just building an interface. I’m trying to express how she thinks and maybe, how we feel when we’re with her. It’s a factory of thought but with the personal touch you desire.

Here’s some of the initial exploration.

Each of those cards is a screen or a thread.

It’s a mess.

But beautiful to me.

I call this a blueprint, or, being fancy and a fan of the Warhammer 40k series, a Standard Template.

“Forget what you’ve done in the past. Forget what others think of you. Just hunker down and build. That’s my comfort zone.” — Dr. Fei-Fei Li

Thanks for being here this early and being part of my yap.

You’ll hear from me again soon.

For now, just know, she’s waking up.

Julio