Cracker takes inspiration from a framework described by bestselling authorJim Collins in the above interview. Collins there describes how value that can derived from three simple datapoints. This mixture of qualitative and quantitative data can be quite telling when properly analyzed. We've tested the framework and found value in it, which is why we want to make it accessible to all. Cracker is the solution we came up with. Your job is to enter the same three fields mentioned in the interview:

• Overview: A record of your day no longer than a tweet. Anything that comes to mind is probably worth noting. Don't sweat the grammar here, just focus on the actions that defined your day
• Number of creative hours: Keep track of the time you spend doing work that is new and creative
• Rating: In retrospect, how do you feel about your day. +2 is excellent, -2 is bad, zero is “eh”

Once you've done so, your dashboard will be updated. The dashboard is a tool that enables you to visualize and step through your data. Jim mentioned that his motivation for starting this was to hold himself to the standard of doing 1000 hours of creative work per year. In the metrics section, we do the math and let you know how many hours you're on track to log this year. We also give you a count of each of the five ratings. You can pivot this section to be representative of the past 30, 60 or 90 days. The dashboard also helps you step through your cumulative overviews by providing a word cloud. This is a visual representation of the amount of times words come up in your data. Words that you used often will appear large in proportion to the number of times they were mentioned, and vice versa. This feature is interactive and allows you to investigate your use of specific words relative to the other two metrics you provide when using them.