Most things you choose between come with a badge: 4.7 top-rated, best practice, used by millions. So you read the reviews, shortlist a few of the top ones, try them out, and yet nothing feels completely right.
Rather makes tools for the choices a rating can’t settle. So far: Tuesdays, for where you work, and second draft, for the apps you use.
What we noticed
So when one goes against you, it shows up as a vague feeling that something is off.
People decide they’re bad at it, or that the place is, or the tool. Often it’s none of them. The two just don’t go together.
One night of street noise tells you more than any review. But nothing keeps what you learned, so the next choice starts from the badges again.
We make tools that help you notice what you’d rather, and keep it.
So your next choice starts from what you’ve found out. Then you can choose what fits, or change what doesn’t, and your days take less effort.
You don’t need zero compromise. Spend your compromises where they’re cheap.
The name
Two places to stay, both with 4.7 stars. One is in the centre, where the street is loud at night. The other is by the sea, where the bus runs every half hour. Say you’d rather be by the sea. That doesn’t make the centre worse. It says which cost you’d take: the bus, not the noise.
Nobody can say it for you, and nobody can say it for everyone, so there’s no “best” in it, and no crowd. It isn’t fixed, either: the centre on a work trip, the sea on a weekend to rest.
Products
Some things you can’t redesign, so you find one that already fits. Others can change, so they change for you. We’ve made one tool for each.
When a deadline slips, who answers for it?
Neither is wrong, and no rating tells you which one a workplace does.
Map how you like to work in about three minutes, and look back at past jobs to find out what wore you down and what drew you in. People who worked somewhere describe what actually happens there, by role and level, so you know what to ask before you join. It never rates a workplace, and your profile is never used to screen you.
You haven’t opened an app for a week. What should it do?
Neither is wrong, and no app store tells you which one an app does.
Say what you need in your own words, try what comes back, and change it whenever you like, the small things too. second draft keeps what was decided so you don’t have to explain yourself again, and your records stay yours when you move to another app.
What we hold to
Some questions have a right answer. Others have several answers, none of them wrong. Telling them apart is most of the work.
Pay that arrives late. An app that loses your data. Nobody is better off with these, so there’s nothing to match. They need fixing, and we don’t file them under taste, or under things to get used to.
One person answers, or the team. Remind me, or wait. Each way gives you something and costs you something else. We never rank one above the other. We show you where you stand.
What you’d rather depends on the situation, so you’re never told what type you are.
No stars, no top tens, no winners. We show how each option fits you, and never rank them against each other.
Fit is for the person choosing. It’s never used to screen anyone out, and what you’ve found out is never sold.