Easy, Normal, Hard: why you cannot type your own exchange rate

When we tell people that DontRot lets you adjust how much each activity pays, the first reaction is usually the same: “won’t everyone just set it to maximum and cheat?” It’s a fair question, and answering it shaped one of our favorite design decisions.

A currency you can print is worthless

If you can freely decide that one push-up is worth an hour of your favorite feed, your effort stops meaning anything — to you, and to anyone you compare yourself with. The whole point of earning screen time is that the earning is real.

Three levels, no numbers

So instead of a free slider, DontRot offers exactly three modes: Easy, Normal and Hard. Easy doubles what activities pay. Hard halves it. Nobody types a figure, and the same level applies to kilometers, reps and plank seconds alike — no inventing a scale per activity, and no hunting for the “optimal” number, because there isn’t one. There is only a choice about how demanding you want to be with yourself.

The base rate is sacred

Underneath your chosen level, the base rate never changes: 100 steps is one minute for everyone, everywhere. Anything that compares people — challenges, rankings, shared goals — runs on the base rate, never on your personal multiplier. If two friends share a challenge, what counts is what they did, not how generous each one decided to be with themselves.

Changes apply instantly, and that’s deliberate

We considered making it so that switching to an easier mode only took effect the next day — so nobody could go soft in the middle of a craving. We killed the idea: it forces every screen to explain a delay, and it leaves you staring at a setting that says one thing and does another. Honesty in the interface beats cleverness in the rules. For those who want a ceiling, a daily spending cap covers the craving case better than a waiting period ever could.

Small decisions like this are most of what building DontRot looks like. More build notes soon.