Lenses

Read the same day a different way

You can only see an entry from where you were standing when you wrote it. A lens asks one other question of it — what’s underneath, how it reads from another angle, what one small thing might be worth trying — and files the answer alongside your words without changing a single one of them.

  • An entry titled “A small win at work landed harder than expected”, showing its date and length, a waveform with playback controls, and the transcript beneath.

    Start with an entry

    Anything you’ve already said. A lens is something you reach for afterwards, never part of writing it.

  • The Lenses section of an entry, headed “Look at this entry through…”, with chips for A different angle, One small experiment, What’s underneath, Brutal feedback and Phrasing, and an opened “A different angle” reply below reading “You called it small, but you stayed with it long enough to talk about it.”

    Pick a lens, read the reply

    Five ways of asking about the same day, sitting at the bottom of the entry until you tap one — and the answer is filed right there beneath them.

The five lenses

Five questions, one entry

Each is a different thing to ask of the same evening. You can run several, and they don’t have to agree.

  • A different angle

    The same events, read from somewhere other than where you were standing when you wrote them down.

  • What’s underneath

    The thing below the thing. Often the fear or the wish that the surface complaint was standing in front of.

  • One small experiment

    Not a plan and not advice — a single, specific thing worth trying once. The only lens that suggests anything at all.

  • Brutal feedback

    The unsoftened version, for when you already know and would rather someone just said it. You have to ask for this one on purpose.

  • Phrasing

    What your own wording gives away. Sometimes the sentence you chose is the whole finding.

  • And it can decline

    Some entries want to be sat with, not solved. A lens will say so and offer a gentler one rather than manufacture an answer.

Why it helps

The second reading is the useful one

This is the part that’s hard to do for yourself, and easy to refuse when you don’t want it.

  • You already know what you think

    That’s the problem. Reading your own entry back gives you the same reading you had while writing it — a lens is the only way to get a second one.

  • Nothing arrives uninvited

    No lens ever appears on its own. They wait at the bottom of an entry, and an entry you never open never gets interpreted.

  • Disagreeing is fine

    A lens is a reading, not a verdict. Delete one you don’t buy — the entry underneath is untouched, and nothing learns that you rejected it.

Where it lives

A second opinion shouldn’t cost you the entry

Asking for a lens is the one moment an entry’s text leaves the phone — so it’s the moment that gets the most care.

  • The entry stays yours

    Your words and recordings live on your iPhone, in storage the system keeps encrypted while your phone is locked.

  • Names never travel

    Asking for a lens sends that entry’s text to third-party AI providers — with every name in it, including yours, swapped for a stand-in first.

  • Sensitive entries are out

    Mark an entry sensitive and no lens can be run on it. Turn cloud features off and the lens chips stop appearing at all.

FAQ

Questions about Lenses

What are Lenses?

An optional second look at a single entry: what might be underneath it, a kinder reading of it, or one small experiment worth trying. You ask for a lens — none appear on their own, and you can decline any of them.

Which lenses can I pick from?

A different angle, What’s underneath, One small experiment, Brutal feedback, and Phrasing. Each is a different question asked of the same entry, so the same day can read several ways.

Will a lens tell me what to do?

Only the experiment lens suggests anything, and it’s deliberately one small thing to try — not a plan. The rest offer a reading, and you’re free to disagree with it.

Can a lens refuse?

Yes, and it does. Some entries want to be sat with rather than reframed, and in those cases the lens says so and offers a gentler one instead of forcing an answer.

Do lenses change what I wrote?

Never. A lens is filed alongside the entry as a separate reply. Your words stay exactly as you said them, and you can delete any lens reply without touching the entry.

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