Ethics and philosophy, things you barely hear anymore and are said even less. School teachings from when I was young, but that (at least for me) always seemed important. Probably because I’ve always slept well, I’ve always been aware of how valuable that is and I want to keep it that way.

That’s why I’ve brought those two words to the dance in everything I’ve done, and also in the everyday work that puts food on my table.

And yes, sometimes people give me strange looks when I talk about them, but the only advantage of getting older is that you stop caring what others think.

But above all, I don’t want to feed what I hate, like the neverending grift where you pay more and more for things you don’t actually own.

So, principle number…

1. No subscriptions

Seriously, there are no subscriptions, no monthly fees, no fine print or anything of the sort.

If you pay (only once) for the app, it’s yours.

I’m not going to make up excuses about needing to maintain servers or the like, because in this case there are none, since…

2. No data collection or spying of any kind

Seriously, zero data, not even anonymous usage statistics.

With all due respect, I’m not interested in what you do, and everything works offline and privately inside your device.

We’re already spied on enough from every angle: the fridge, the TV, the phone, the vacuum cleaner… It’s fine to respect other people’s privacy, and I can’t believe we’ve come to accept the relentless invasion of our privacy as normal.

3. No smoke, no promising the moon

Since I’m obsessive, I’ve researched to the point of exhaustion on productivity, attention, concentration… They have been part of my professional work in business and I’ve been digging into every corner my whole life, probably to compensate for always being a kid with his head in the clouds and also a little too anxious.

So things may prove more or less effective because every person is different and silver bullets don’t exist, but the apps are always grounded in the science that has shown what works best.

4. Works offline

Everything is great, modern and incredible… until you don’t have WiFi.

That’s fine, the apps work perfectly without a connection, so you can put your phone in airplane mode (advisable in general) and they’ll keep working without a hitch.

The power of a name

Finally, Ataraxia.

The name of this place and this initiative is a Spanish word that means undisturbed calm and comes from ancient Greek. So ataraxia is what I’ve always been looking for all my life, I guess.

It’s the state of serenity that the ancient philosophers considered the foundation of a life well lived, and I believe that shouldn’t remain just a word, but should guide the way we act.

And the first step is not doing things that disturb that ataraxia.