How it works

Journal with Marcus is a journal. You write what happened, and the app finds the passage in Meditations that speaks to it and asks you one question. That is the whole loop, and it is meant to take about three minutes.

What do I read?

One passage, chosen for what you wrote and not for the date. It is George Long's translation of 1862, quoted exactly as he wrote it and cited by book and section, so you can find it in any copy. The app never paraphrases Marcus and never puts words in his mouth. A short note in the app's own words can be shown beneath, and is marked as the app's.

What does it ask me?

One question about what you wrote, drawn from the passage. The app asks. It does not answer, and it does not advise. When it is less sure what you wrote was about, it asks something more general rather than something that presumes.

What do I write down?

If the question leaves you with something to do, or to watch for, or a judgement you have changed, you can write it down beneath. It is optional and it is yours. The entry, the passage, the question and that line are kept together, so you can read the whole thing back later.

What will it notice over time?

Over months the app will keep a private note of what recurs in your writing, and will use it to ask a better question. Always as a question: "You have written about this before. Is that part of what is happening now?" It never tells you what you are like, and you can see, correct and remove everything it has noticed.

What happens when it has nothing to say?

Some entries are not about anything the book speaks to, and then the app says so and keeps what you wrote. It does not reach for the nearest passage and pretend. Declining is deliberate: a journal that always had a quote ready would be a quote app, and the answer would be worth less every time.

What does it not do?

• It does not give advice, and it does not diagnose anything. It is a reflective practice grounded in a book, not therapy and not medical care.
• It does not hold a conversation. One passage, one question, then back to your day.
• It does not send you a quote a day, and it is not a way to read the whole of Meditations. Other things do those well.
• It does not pretend to be Marcus. What he wrote is quoted. What the app asks is the app's, and the two are always marked apart.
• It does not reach a conclusion about you. What it notices is a question you answer, and it is yours to delete.
• It does not measure your mood, count the days you have written in a row, or remark when you have not.

Where does all this happen?

Everything above will happen in your browser. The app will work from its first load with a list of cues, and reads more finely once a small model has been fetched in the background, which is optional, announced with its size beforehand, and can be removed. There is one feature that can send what you wrote to a model elsewhere, for the length of one request. It is off until you turn it on, and the app says what it sends before it sends it. Where the writing goes, in sentences you can check.

What Marcus Aurelius has to say about the situations people bring · How to start