Five phases, 17 skills
Foundation, execution, clear mind, outer world, leverage & meaning — in that order, because each one stands on the one before. Every skill runs 21 days, every week belongs to exactly one book.
Behind the app
Built.
By one person.
How one sentence in a book note turned into 17 skills, 51 books and 357 daily tasks — and how the app changed its face five times along the way.
The big bang
One sentence that nagged.
You read a book, pull out three to five key points — and a month later one or two are left.
That is how it stands in the app’s foundation document — not a study result, but the observation everything started with.
Reading is not remembering, and remembering is a long way from living. That exact sentence is still the first paragraph in the app’s foundation document.
It did not start with a business plan but in the middle of a reading note: between book summaries, product ideas suddenly appeared — «take me by the hand», «small wins every day, one big result at the end». Only months later did they move into a project folder of their own.
One rule from that first note still holds today, word for word: every task must name at least one book as its source. That is why every quest says which book it comes from.
Five months
What it looked like.
- 20 March 2026Prototype
- 17 April 2026Loud
- 13 June 2026Fresh start
- 25 June 2026Colour language
- 26 July 2026Today
From neon cyan with emoji through a colour explosion to the calm palette of today. On the evolution page the old screens run for real — home screen and quests, stage by stage.
How it got here
Paper, Figma, AI, Paint.
- 01
On paper
Drawn first: which screens exist and what happens on each one.
- 02
In Figma
Grid, spacing, first colours — so the idea gets a shape.
- 03
Built with AI
The first versions came out of ready-made kits (Perplexity Computer). Fast to get going, but nobody owned the code.
- 04
Cut to size in Paint
Screenshots painted over, parts moved around, tried again — until an arrangement worked.
- 05
Rewritten
On 13 June the kit was dropped: hand-built in React ever since. 124 KB of own code have grown into 726 KB today.
The numbers come from the files themselves — every stage above is the file from back then.
Where the content comes from
One sentence became 51 books.
51 books · 17 skills · 5 phases — every week belongs to exactly one book.
Books are vetted, not collected
For every book the summary and table of contents were checked, the German edition tracked down, and it was shown that concrete micro-actions can be built from it. Books without action are out.
Why every quest has a story
Out of «Made to Stick» and eight further books on storytelling grew a guide of its own. Hence the structure: first a story that sticks, then the method, then today’s task.
A workshop instead of sticky notes
Concept, book dossiers, quest sources and translations live in a knowledge vault of their own. From there a generator produces the content for the app — no text is ever typed into the app itself.
Back and forth
What changed along the way.
- The Sovereign Path→Go & GrowToo big, too solemn — the name got lighter.
- Calendar grid→The 21-day ringFirst a grid, then a board with tiers, today scout · training · boss.
- Quest format V2→V4Today: a story, one or two steps, every task in easy and hard.
- Loud everywhere→One colour per meaningThe most important design decision of the project.
- German only→German and EnglishAll 357 daily tasks, checked in each language.
- Ready-made kit→Built by handThrown away on 13 June and rewritten from scratch.
Who is behind it
One person, no team.
I build Go & Grow on my own: idea, design, code, content, support. That has one drawback — it is slower. And one advantage: whatever you are missing, you can say it directly, and it does not land in a ticket system but with me.
I read all 51 books behind the skills, summarised them and turned them into daily tasks. That is why every quest names the book it comes from.
What is still coming
The rest is open.
The whole roadmap is public: what is running now, what comes next, what is due later. That is also where you say what you are missing — and if your idea gets built, you get something back.
Year 1become→Year 2have impact
Year 2 is written, but not built yet. Body, wisdom, influence, building, legacy — 17 new skills, and the books for them are already vetted.
- Three difficulty levelsThe easy and the hard version of every quest are the seed of it.
- Journal analysisTurning your entries into a picture: how you have changed over the months.
- Schools and workshopsThe app as a course, with an overview for teachers.
- iPhone, iPad, tabletThe only one of these already fixed in the roadmap.
These are ideas, not promises. Only what stands in the roadmap is binding.
Also from me
What else I build.
TRUVO
Test products and rate them honestly — for companies that want real feedback, and for testers who get something out of it.
In development
CatchMe
Cops versus robbers on the real map: a GPS chase game for outdoors, with a planning layer for your team.
In development
Also in the works: SoMeGu — guided content for social media, in closed testing · Regenglück — weather and mood, in development