In web development, using a linter is becoming increasingly popular, not just for companies, but for everyone.
In the words of eslint.org (currently my favorite JavaScript linter) "Code linting is a type of static analysis that is frequently used to find problematic patterns or code that doesn't adhere to certain style guidelines".
Essentially, what eslint allows me to do is to take all of the best practices from a company like Airbnb or Google, and use them in my project.
Anytime I do something that breaks one of these guidelines, my code gets a red underline, and eslint will tell me how to fix my mistake.
What has always fascinated me, is that even this small amount of friction is enough for me to spend the extra time to ensure that my code follows best practices.
Before long, I am using all of these best practices on my own, without a linter telling me to.
Recently, I've started using Grammarly. It's amazing. It basically does the same thing, but for my writing. I just found a few mistakes in this post from using it. I have pretty terrible grammar, so hopefully this will improve it over time :).
So the next question is how can we apply this same concept to our daily lives? How can I introduce just a small amount of friction in order to encourage me to build daily habits that will increase the quality of my life in the long term?
I think even small things like building a daily checklist or a google calendar notification to remind us to meditate can work. That said, I think there's a huge opportunity to build a full-stack solution to solve this problem.
Right now, the way we discover habits and "best practices" for our life is usually through reading or podcasts, but it is left up to us how to implement and incorporate them into our daily life. Imagine an application that allowed you to plug into the habits of top performers to mix and match habits that you want to build, and then automatically generated annoying reminders to help you incorporate them into your life.
I think it's a cool idea. Maybe I'll build it. Maybe someone is already building it. What tools do you use to "lint" your life and build good habits?
