Designing for Stillness: Building Tech Beyond the Attention Economy

Founder Unfiltered with Joanna Trojak

What if your next big startup win wasn’t about streaks, growth hacks, or crushing it — but about creating space to simply be?

In this episode of Founder Unfiltered, I challenge the assumptions behind today’s attention economy and explore what happens when we design apps that prioritize presence over productivity. From Duolingo’s gamified guilt trips to the rise of digital burnout, I unpack the hidden costs of optimization-driven design — and why I’m building my self-dating app around stillness, softness, and emotional connection instead.

This isn’t just a conversation about UX. It’s about reimagining the role of technology in our lives: how metrics shape our moods, why gamification often manipulates rather than motivates, and how founders can design products that actually support human flourishing.

If you’ve ever felt drained by your apps, pressured by streaks, or guilty for not “keeping up,” this episode is for you. Let’s talk about the radical act of building technology that lets you breathe.

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