Pick started from a small annoyance: every dinner-time my wife and I would ask each other what to eat, and every night we’d circle back to the same few places. We didn’t need a smarter recommendation system. We needed a small tool that could bring the choice to a stop.
As for the name — her family name means fire (火), and I go by Little Tree (小树). Put the two together, and a flame tree blooms.
The cure for indecision
What to eat, where to go, which movie to watch — these small decisions drain more energy than you’d think. Pick keeps it simple: add your options, pick one at random, and go with it.
Some choices don’t need a perfect answer.
More toy than tool
We didn’t want to make a slot-machine randomizer. Pick uses physics simulation to drive the selection — cards drift across the screen, slow down, and settle, with haptic feedback that gives each choice a clear ending point. The outcome matters; the way the outcome appears matters too.
What we learned
Many decision tools try to give you a “more correct” answer through history, weights, or machine learning. Pick does the opposite — no advice, no pressure, just a fair random result. The best decision tool is the one that gets out of the way.