Small steps, big kids.
A family of apps made by a dad and his kids, built on the idea that small things, added up over time, are how big things get made.
The science behind it
Kids pick what they work on.
Whether a kid sticks with anything depends heavily on whether they chose it. Self-Determination Theory calls this autonomy. Pimpi never assigns goals. The kid does.
Deci & Ryan, 1985. Ryan & Deci, 2000.
Stamps don't get taken away.
Losing something hurts about twice as much as the same-sized gain feels good. Systems that revoke rewards or punish broken streaks create anxiety kids don't need. Ours can't.
Kahneman & Tversky, 1979.
Practice beats lessons.
The skills adults pay trainers to teach later (like deciding for yourself, or finishing what you started) take root better as daily practice in childhood than as adult subjects. Pimpi is built for that window.
Heckman, 2013. Ericsson, 1993, on deliberate practice.
Different shapes of thinking.
The same idea learned through different kinds of activities sticks better than drilled repetition. Sparks leans on that heavily: activities rotate in shape, not just topic.
Bjork & Bjork on desirable difficulties. Rohrer & Taylor, 2007.
“The kid picks the goal. Showing up is the rest.”
Pimpi comes in a few moods.