THE THING WE BUILT:

Don’t Send It

Sometimes, it’s better to not hit Publish.

When you want to vent about a tough project.

Let off steam about a colleague.

Or fire off a manifesto about hustle culture at 2 AM. (well not us, but maybe you)

But sometimes getting the words out of your head is the only way to move on.

Driving while screaming along to a favorite death metal song is a common pastime of mine, for instance. As “healthy” and “reasonable” as some of these “emotionally healthy ways of coping” are, they lack a certain amount of pizazz. Public justification. That sweet, sweet social validation of folks completely agreeing with how wronged you’ve been.

So we built a thing.

Don’t send it in action

Your Safe Space For LinkedIn Sh*tPosting and Gmail Clapbacks

We recreated the social media post UI and email compose window. Each complete with an aggressively supportive comments section or inbox full of apologies.

1. Write what’s actually on your mind.

2. Hit Post or Send.

3. Watch execs, colleagues, and contacts validate your every word.

4. Bask in the closure… And enjoy the fact you didn’t actually blow up the situation.

Notes from Building

1. This idea came up more than once. First we joked about an app that would auto-reply to your fully justified vent email with a satisfying response. Then, completely separately, a colleague mentioned advising a friend not to post a “scorched earth” rant on LinkedIn. It kept resurfacing enough that we decided to build an outline and see if it scratched a real itch. (Spoiler: it did. Felt pretty good.)

2. AI where we need it, not where we don’t. LLMs are great for generating good enough replies to emails or LinkedIn comments. They can even spit out random names. But you know what is faster and lighter? Pulling from a pre-built list. Same with avatars. DALLE can do it, but a stock library is quicker. The principle is simple: use AI where it adds unique value, and skip it where a simpler tool already works better.

3. Familiar interfaces make it real. We started with a simple textbox and one generated response box. It was fine, but it did not feel real. So we layered in familiar formats: first a social media style feed with real-looking comments, then realistic names, then faces. Suddenly it clicked. Before this, we would just write cathartic drafts and leave them in Notion for a day. That was a decent outlet, but not satisfying. This felt like the real thing.

4. No database is a feature. We have often skipped databases to move faster during prototyping. This time, that decision is the feature. Nothing is stored and nothing is saved. You can write the email you absolutely should not send, hit “post,” feel the relief, and then move on to writing the thoughtful, collected version you actually need.

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