The Technology Paradox (how I named Opal)

A bit about the name Opal.

Humans have a paradoxical relationship with technology.

We love it. We adopt it instantly and push it everywhere.

As we're doing that, we're also all trying to escape it.

We use AI for everything and at the same time we crave to return to ancient rituals like sauna, meditation, fasting, conversation.

We industrialize everything and yet we're drawn to small-batch, artisanal work.

We live through screens but we design our interiors with raw wood and dream of going off the grid.

It's the same paradox everywhere: maximum artificial, maximum desire for the primal.

This idea stayed with me when I chose the name for Opal.

I realized that people spend far more time touching their phones (100s of times per day) than touching another human being, or even something organic. That felt wrong in a very deep way.

So I asked myself: what is the exact opposite of a phone, from a tactile perspective?

A phone is glass and aluminum. It's warm, engineered and electrically charged.

The opposite is a gemstone. Cool, rough, organic. Something that absorbs rather than emits.

I was thinking about this when I was travelling up the coast in California in the first days of 2020 and stopped in a book store up on a cliff where I came upon "The Book of Stones" thanks to my fiancée Alexi. I read it in the car and found Opal — which amongst other properties is said to calm the mind and help emotional healing.

That's how I arrived at Opal. There is an amazing tactile quality that comes with holding an Opal, it absorbs energy in a unique way.

I was already working on the app prototype back then together with Matt — with the help of many friends (Bobby, Maxime, Emilien), but finding the name clicked it all together.

Once I had the name I commissioned some brand research on Opal — we dug references that include photography of Opal miners in Australia, inspiration for designing serenity and aura photography.

That last part stayed with me — I always loved the idea of Opal evolving based on how you're feeling. Giving users constant feedback on how well they are doing (this will become a lot more obvious on next versions of Opal coming very soon).

Today, you can unlock Opal gemstones inside the app as rewards on your focus journey. We keep making them better when you choose an Opal; it themes the entire app.

When you get an Opal, you have to crack it open, which is one of the most loved interactions inside the app. I love the Opal and we keep investing in it. It's become a playground for creativity and meaning.

Opal illustrates the fundamental human paradox — maximum artificial, maximum desire for the primal.

We're a technology company, and at the same time, we help humans escape it.

Bonus: shoutout to Esalen — where I first talked to people about this idea as "Opal".

You can find Opal here: opal.so