Clepsydra

Clepsydra is a Browser Extension that helps you reflect and stay focused on what matters most.

Clepsydra is my way to contribute a “Memento Mori” as Software. It’s a Chrome Extension built with React.

Homepage. You can find it on the Google Chrome Store

It’s a Memento Mori

A while ago I found a diagram online, a bunch of squares, 52 per lines, 100 lines. “Each Square is a week of your life”.

I printed the diagram, and used a marker to “toggle” each of these weeks. Slowly I arrived at my age. This was a powerful visualisation. I physically went thorugh each of these weeks, and you should know: it takes TIMES coloring 52 x whatever old you are. And as I was FEELING the passing of time, I remembered things. I remembered Years, months, and weeks I’ve been through. Smalls memories, big changes, decisions I made, pain or pleasure.

Not everyone will go through this, so I designed this extension as a way to remember the passing of time. I think it is interesting to “remember” you are mortal.

I know you have a strong reaction reading this, I understand, just know it this tells a lot about you.

I’ve often had the same discussion:

• Hey what’s that picture on your browser?
• Ho, it’s an extension I made, these are the weeks I lived, that’s my age, and that’s an estimation of my death.
• That’s creepy, why do you want to remember you will die?

That’s when the discussion starts. Why do we live like we’re immortal? Can we get something from such a device? Is it healthy to remember it? Is it healthy to forget it?

Death Anxiety (wikipedia) Terror Management Theory Memento Mori

There was a quote in Alan Watts’ “The Book” about such a device but I haven’t find it yet, hit me up on Twitter if you want to talk about it.

Tech

Built with React.

I used react-app-rewire-multiple-entry to generate multiple pages used by a Chrome Extension. It runs on Chrome and Brave, I haven’t tried other browsers.

I’ll describe this later, hit me up on Twitter to get more infos!