Bryson has a science-fiction imagination — neon, orbit, the view out of the window — tempered by a hard-won sense of restraint. He reports his own negative results too, a discipline plenty of experienced engineers never pick up.
Life’s Too Short
Bryson Kittelmann · Jacob Terwilliger
The problem they picked
Almost everyone already carries something that counts their steps, and almost nobody does anything with the number. The team's read was that the missing ingredient is not data and not discipline but an audience — activity climbs by as much as 23% when it happens in front of other people. A step counter nobody sees is a step counter nobody opens.
Life's Too Short turns the daily count into a game with friends, rank tiers, and leaderboards — and runs fully without an account, so nothing stands between opening it and using it.
“Studies have shown that a person's physical activity may increase by up to 23% when in a competitive setting. Making our app a game will activate the competitive side of people's friends, so they'll see how far behind or ahead of others they are.”
Life’s Too Short, at the showcase
How it was built
Automation Workflows
Smartwatch step data arrives through an n8n webhook the user pastes into the app's own settings — nothing to configure at build time.
Database Management
Supabase carries optional sign-in, cross-device history, friends, and the three leaderboards.
Testing
A Vitest suite covering the step log, auth, sync, leaderboard, and friends services.
ViteBuild Tool
SupabaseBackend & Database
n8nAutomation Platform
VitestTesting
Also in the buildWatch sync, CSV import, or manual entry · Rank tiers and social leaderboard · Full guest mode with no account
