Hi everyone,
We initially reached out to @dae to explore collaborating more closely on improving Anki. We were both humbled and shocked when he asked if we’d be willing to step into a much larger leadership role than we expected.
At this point, we’re mostly excited…and also feeling a healthy amount of terror. This is a big responsibility. It will push us to grow as individuals, as a team, and as a community, and we don’t take that lightly.
We’re grateful for the trust Damien and others have placed in us. And we also know that trust has to be earned, especially from people who don’t know us yet.
What We Believe
We believe Anki is almost sacred, something bigger than any one person or organization. In an important sense, it belongs to the community.
This article highlights the principles Damien built Anki on; principles we deeply share, such as respect for user agency, refusal of manipulative design patterns, and an emphasis on the craft of building genuinely useful tools that aren’t merely engaging. Anki has never tried to maximize “engagement” by exploiting psychological vulnerabilities purely for profit. Anki gives your time back to you, and that is an exceptional rarity in this world that we want to preserve.
As an organization built by students, for students, our mission is to continue embodying these principles. We are accountable only to you, our users, not external investors, and we plan to keep it that way.
What We Don’t Know Yet
We can’t answer every question right away, as there are many unknowns since much hasn’t been decided yet. But we are sharing everything we can now because the community is important to us. We encourage you all to share your thoughts and questions – we’re all in this together!
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