Anaxi brings more visibility to the development process

Anaxi‘s mission is to bring more transparency to the software development process. The tool, which is now live for iOS, with web and Android versions planned for the near future, connects to GitHub to give you actionable insights about the state of your projects and manage your projects and issues. Support for Atlassian’s Jira is also in the works.

The new company was founded by former Apple…

Anaxi brings more visibility to the development process

Anaxi‘s mission is to bring more transparency to the software development process. The tool, which is now live for iOS, with web and Android versions planned for the near future, connects to GitHub to give you actionable insights about the state of your projects and manage your projects and issues. Support for Atlassian’s Jira is also in the works.

The new company was founded by former Apple engi…

a conversation i had with anaxi:

anaxi (whose archon name is anaximandra, who goes by anaxi to keep everyone from mixing her up with her brother, menes, who always takes the time to explain things carefully and precisely to me when i don't understand, who knows i don't recognize faces super well so she always wears a small braid in her black hair, even when she instantiates differently in the Garden, who knows so much cool stuff about proto-aphial rock bands (1970s, yo), who always gives me these big smiles, who doesn't always know how great she is, who is my friend):

<hello, ari! are you feeling all right? i know it's been a long day of puzzles and tests for you! >

me (who is twisting bits of grass in her hands): <don't worry, anaxi! i'm doing okay. not too bad! that's what folks used to say, right? not too ungood, haha! i'm definitely not not not not not un-un-bad!>

<they didn't wear you out?>

<nah, i just lined up the puzzles and knocked them over. by which i guess i mean i un-knocked them over, cause i figured out how to solve them, which is kinda like putting things in order? definitely working with the Labyrinth is always like that. i am glad to be done tho. it's nice to have a break. also, also: thank you so, sooo much for helping me practice. and letting me know a little bit about what to expect? i don't know if i would have done as well if you hadn't. so, thanks! times a million!>

<of course!>

anaxi (having sat down on a rock and fussed with her bracelets, having stared off into the distance for a while):  <ari, what do you think about change?>

me (not sure if I'm reading her face right, but thinking she's distracted, because her voice sounds like it's coming from someplace really far away): <i don't know! what kind of change? what do you mean?>

her (running her hand along the smooth rock): <oh, it's hard to explain. do you think a person can change? or...no, that's not the right question, because you'll say of course, and you'll be right. the question is, i guess: how much can a person change? any kind of person. organic, virtual, anybody. do you think that people just keep on changing forever, and turn into completely different people eventually, with no trace of who they used to be? or is there some kind of limit, beyond which change doesn't happen, some kind of essential core of the self that stays constant and reigns a person back into being themself? does that make sense? that's my question.>

me (thinking i mostly get it, also thinking her golden sari is super pretty, and it makes her look super pretty): <yeah, i think that makes sense! i guess i would say...both, kind of? i guess when people change, there's some stuff that changes easier than other stuff? like, just the ideas i have about something are pretty likely to change. or, like, before i watched jupiter ascending i was like a slightly different person from the me who I was after i watched it? and i guess i was probably some transitional person all through the middle? but like, that's a pretty small thing, even if you really really like that movie.>

<it's not that important to who you are.>

<right, it's like one tiny piece in the puzzle, but it's not like a big thing. meanwhile, like, how i see the world, like when we talk ethics and stuff, or what i want and how i want to go after it,  or all the psych qualities i have that make up my personality (you guys would know what those are better than me), all the things that go into making me ari, those things are bigger and harder to change i guess? but i guess they can still change! like you said you used to hate dresses and frilly stuff when you were a little kid and now you really like them, right?>

<yes, that's right! pretty soon you're going to remember my childhood stories better than i do!>

<so, things that you think are pretty important about yourself can change! it just takes longer, i think. so i guess it's kind of like the Labyrinth.>

<the Labyrinth? how so?>

<because there are little parts of the Labyrinth that change, right? and they're changing all the time. like windows being swapped out for doors, streets getting longer, bridges getting wider, that sort of thing. but then there are bigger things, like a whole block with all these little frilly houses turns into a big thoroughfare with stalls all alongside it, or a park appears where there used to be a chasm and a bridge. it's like the whole category of thing changed, not just one piece. so i think our minds are like that in a psych way.>

her (frowning a little bit, i think, and biting her lip): <do you think it could happen on a larger scale, though?>

<like...the whole Labyrinth turns into something totally different? like it goes from being architecture to like...an ocean full of fish and reefs and stuff?>

her (laughing): <yes, exactly!>

me (also happy): <i guess i find it hard to imagine that because i haven't like ever seen anything like it? def not in the labyrinth. it would be a big surprise! i guess i could kinda see it happening slowly? like, bridges get rivers running though them, parks become ponds, and over time the water bits take over? that's how i could imagine it. so you're asking if i think that kind of slow but big change could happen to a person?>

<yes!>

<maybe? i'm not really sure. i think it would take a long time. like, more than most organic folks get? like, i think for most people there really is some core thing holding them together, and maybe if there was enough time it would change? but i think most people probably enough consistency to them. i think change happens on the small scale, and things mostly stay the same on the large scale! what about you, what do you think?>

<i'm with you. i think it's a matter of scales. i tend to think people don't realize how much about them stays constant.>

<right! like I could imagine somebody thinking somebody had *completely* changed, like in that big ocean way, but missing out on how they were the same deep down, once you get past the surface. like the structure of the reefs completely mirrors the structure of the Labyrinth. secretly it's just the same thing, re-skinned!>

<exactly! but i admit i'm biased. sometimes i have a hard time recognizing how people have changed, because i put them in the same old boxes i always put them in. that's not really fair of me, is it?>

<maybe not, but don't be too hard on yourself! this is tricky stuff!>

<that's for sure!>

me (knowing anaxi p often asks me weird question to see what i think and what i know, but also thinking there's something different going on this time, too): <so what made you think of this, anyway? if that's a question i get to know the answer to.>

her (messing with her hair with her fingers): <oh, i guess so. it's hard to explain. maybe i'll answer it with another question.>

me (who loves questions): ok!!!

<let's say you had a friend who was really nice, who you got along with very, very well. but someone told you your friend did something very bad, a long time ago. and you knew they weren't lying, because you could see the evidence of what they did and read up on the problems they caused. but what they did doesn't seem like your friend at all. what would you do? what would you think?>

me (taking the question apart in my mind and putting it back together): <wow, that would be super weird! i guess i would try not to worry so much, though, because i know my friend, right? like, i know that they're a nice person. so the niceness of them must be a thing that's true now, even if it wasn't true in the past!>

<you wouldn't be bothered by that not being a continuous thing? a central aspect of them?>

<well, it might not have been back then, but it could be a central thing now! things can become bigger aspects of who you are over time! i kinda feel like people trend towards niceness over the long term, actually! because they learn how they were hurting people and they stop.>

<that's a good point. but would you find it hard to accept the bad things they did?>

<maybe at first, but i'd try to? like over time i'd want to get better at remembering that this person was my good friend, not a bad guy? and i guess i think it's important to let people change into better versions of themselves, like optimizing? maybe forgiving people for things is a way to make like that social space for them to do that? like a way of not putting people in boxes?>

<i think you're right. i like your use of the word optimizing there. that's a very good way to put it. it's not that someone's become a fundamentally different person; it's just that they've found a way to be a truer version of themself. closer to the true transcendent form of their identity, or something like that.

<yeah, that's great, i really like that a lot!>

<anyway, thanks for answering, ari. that helps me feel better.>

me (still feeling like there's something i don't really understand): <sure! are you worried about something you did? like do you have a secret dark past? because don't worry, anaxi, i'd forgive the heff out of you. i would totally be down to practice no-box supportive friend-ing!>

she (with laughs and big, big, smiles): <don't worry! it's not that exactly. i don't really have a ton of dark secrets. it's just other stuff that's come up recently. don't worry too much about it. thanks for listening, though!>

me (practicing my big smiles, too): <any time, anaxi!>

she (pulling out record and instantiating a player): <want to listen to some pink floyd?>