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Show HN: Cadence – convert any long form content into byte-sized texts
Hey HN,
I am a CS junior at the University of Waterloo, and like many other students my age, I struggle with attention deficit (aka "TikTok brain").
This applies to anyone with a busy schedule though. Ever left a tab open for weeks because "I'll read it later"? Or maybe there's a podcast you can't commit to because it’s too long, or a research paper you read ages ago but can’t remember the details?
Over the past week, I’ve been heads-down building Cadence, a tool that turns those long-form pieces of content—PDFs, YouTube videos, articles, podcasts, and more—into short, digestible text messages sent directly to your inbox.
Here’s why I built it:
- I have a classic case of "TikTok brain" and struggle with long-form content.
- I wanted something to help me keep learning or revisiting important info without sacrificing hours of my day.
- And let’s face it, we all have tabs that we swear we’ll get back to… someday.
Cadence is perfect for people with short attention spans (like me) or anyone with a busy schedule who still wants to learn and stay on top of things.
Try Cadence here: https://getcadence.fyi https://getcadence.fyi
Would love your feedback! I’m here to answer questions and talk about the tech behind it.
What do you think? Could Cadence help you finally close some of those tabs?
- scarecrowbob 2y agoI hate to be critical, cause whatever works for you, works. And if you worked hard on something, that's a good thing even if some nerd on the internet is critical of it. Having a long attention span is something you can develop, and you'd probably better served trying to develop that attention span instead removing the texts which encourage that development from your life. The more classic solutions (training, meditation, medication, or waiting till you get a little older to try certain things) are probably all better fixes for the issue than an app would be.
- Hamza-Mos 2y agoI appreciate any critical criticism, so thanks for posting this and thanks for replying in the first place! I will agree with you that long attention span could be trained, and that maybe I did not do a good job of highlighting all the other use cases of the app. I think one of the main reasons I use the app as well is for spaced repetition and memory retention. I have trouble remembering things I have learned in freshman year, from research papers I have read in the past, podcasts, etc, and a regularly scheduled text is just enough to jog my memory and keep that information in my brain. The whole TikTok brain was exaggerated just to prove a point, but there are lots of other use cases for the app, and plenty of other directions I could take this app as well.