About
Built by one person, and selective on purpose
Short video is the best teaching format the internet has produced. The delivery system around it is designed to keep you there. ration takes the first part and leaves the second.
The premise
Curation instead of blocking
Screen-time tools work by subtraction. They lock the app, grey the screen, and count the minutes you lost. ration takes the other side of the problem. The good material is already out there, made by people who are good at explaining things. What is missing is a way to reach it without the machinery that sells your afternoon.
So the app hands you a finite queue. You watch it. It ends.
Editorial standard
Selective on purpose
- Per video, not per channel
- A channel is never approved wholesale. Each video type from a creator is judged on its own, and the reasoning is kept with the record.
- Sourcing over titles
- A careful amateur who cites primary work can outrank a credentialed presenter who does not. Both are checked.
- Known risk areas are gated
- Medicine, finance and ancient history each carry their own failure mode. Categories with a high density of pseudoscience have a standing blocklist.
- No engagement signal
- View counts, watch time and virality play no part in what enters the library or what a session serves you.
Creators
Where ration stands
ration does not host video, does not re-encode it, and does not sell access to it. Every play opens on the platform the creator published to, under that platform's own player and terms, and counts for them. ration claims no licence over any of it. A creator who would rather not be listed can say so and the entry comes out.
Who makes it
One editor
ration is made by Sam, an engineer in Massachusetts. One person chooses every creator and sets the standard their videos must meet. Software helps sort and label the library. It does not decide what belongs.