WEBVTT 00:00.560 --> 00:07.180 Saturday morning, half ten. I've already got my coat on, keys in my hand, one foot out the door. 00:07.920 --> 00:13.720 And there's one line going round my head. I've run out of Zoverax, I'm off to the chemists. 00:15.100 --> 00:19.980 And that's when Thomas, over the top of his coffee mug, says ever so casually, 00:20.940 --> 00:23.480 Have you checked the app? Are you sure you haven't got any? 00:23.920 --> 00:26.900 And I go, a bit tetchy, I'll admit. 00:26.900 --> 00:30.360 Well, of course I know I haven't. That's why I'm going. 00:31.680 --> 00:36.380 I got my phone out, more to prove I was right than to actually check. 00:37.080 --> 00:41.920 Typed in the name, and the app shows me two packs. 00:43.160 --> 00:48.900 Two, sitting in the bathroom drawer, bought, unopened. 00:49.540 --> 00:53.380 Hello, I'm Thomas Schuster, and I built the Moyab-Tetchka app. 00:53.920 --> 00:56.700 And yes, this actually happened. 00:56.900 --> 00:59.580 This very Saturday, in our house. 01:00.420 --> 01:04.200 The worst part is, I'd have sworn I didn't have any. 01:04.860 --> 01:07.300 I was a hundred percent certain. 01:07.920 --> 01:09.260 And that's the interesting bit. 01:09.700 --> 01:11.080 Because you weren't lying. 01:11.740 --> 01:13.760 You genuinely were certain. 01:14.360 --> 01:16.120 I stood there with my phone, 01:16.640 --> 01:20.320 staring at those two entries like someone had planted them on me. 01:20.720 --> 01:22.740 When I'd put them there myself. 01:22.740 --> 01:26.080 And that's exactly what this episode's about. 01:26.660 --> 01:29.180 Because you know what actually let you down here? 01:29.700 --> 01:30.480 Not your memory. 01:31.300 --> 01:32.140 And not the app. 01:32.620 --> 01:33.140 What then? 01:33.520 --> 01:34.140 The habit. 01:34.840 --> 01:36.760 That old, drilled-in reflex. 01:37.420 --> 01:39.640 I need a medicine, so I go to the chemists. 01:40.140 --> 01:40.880 Full stop. 01:40.880 --> 01:43.940 That reflex runs on autopilot. 01:43.940 --> 01:48.840 And it skips right past everything you already know you've got at home. 01:49.560 --> 01:52.160 All right, but I've always done it that way. 01:52.720 --> 01:53.700 Thirty years. 01:54.260 --> 01:56.500 Something runs out, I go and buy it. 01:56.940 --> 01:58.260 It's just quick. 01:58.940 --> 01:59.340 Quick. 01:59.340 --> 02:02.160 And sometimes completely unnecessary. 02:03.000 --> 02:07.480 Because in that one move, you paid twice for something that's already in the drawer. 02:08.160 --> 02:09.800 Sitting there, twice over. 02:10.520 --> 02:12.520 Three times over it'd have been. 02:13.120 --> 02:16.160 Because if I got in the car, I'd have bought a third. 02:16.320 --> 02:16.820 A third. 02:17.520 --> 02:18.600 And that's the crux of it. 02:19.120 --> 02:23.100 The hardest thing about using a digital medicine cabinet isn't learning the app. 02:23.580 --> 02:24.760 The app's dead simple. 02:25.380 --> 02:28.180 The hardest thing is changing one tiny habit. 02:28.180 --> 02:30.820 Check first, then buy. 02:31.380 --> 02:32.540 That sounds simple. 02:32.840 --> 02:34.220 And it really isn't. 02:34.620 --> 02:36.960 Because you're up against thirty years of reflex. 02:37.700 --> 02:38.720 It's like seatbelts. 02:39.280 --> 02:40.440 Nobody used to put them on. 02:40.800 --> 02:42.040 Now you do it without thinking. 02:42.760 --> 02:43.980 A habit can be reset. 02:44.600 --> 02:46.520 You've just got to catch that one moment. 02:47.060 --> 02:48.980 But you know what's sneaky about it? 02:49.640 --> 02:53.940 In that moment, I honestly felt it'd be quicker to buy than to check. 02:54.200 --> 02:55.600 That's exactly the trap. 02:56.220 --> 02:57.380 Your brain pipes up. 02:57.380 --> 03:00.140 Checking will take time, and I'm in a hurry. 03:00.960 --> 03:02.220 And the truth is the opposite. 03:02.920 --> 03:04.200 Checking is ten seconds. 03:04.800 --> 03:06.720 The top is sometimes half an hour. 03:07.160 --> 03:08.120 And there's another thing. 03:08.720 --> 03:12.720 I just trust what I can see in the cupboard more than what the phone tells me. 03:12.720 --> 03:14.420 And that bit I do understand. 03:14.420 --> 03:15.920 But think about it. 03:16.100 --> 03:17.480 The cupboard lies too. 03:18.100 --> 03:21.360 You're looking at one shelf, and the Zovorax was in the bathroom. 03:22.140 --> 03:25.040 Your head says, haven't got any, because you can't see it. 03:25.460 --> 03:29.280 The phone says, you've got two, because someone entered it once. 03:29.280 --> 03:32.400 So it isn't really a question of who to trust. 03:32.860 --> 03:36.080 It's that I never stopped to look in the first place. 03:36.080 --> 03:36.920 Exactly. 03:37.740 --> 03:39.080 Autopilot doesn't ask. 03:39.500 --> 03:41.180 It just drives you to the chemists. 03:41.180 --> 03:41.920 Okay. 03:42.440 --> 03:46.060 But tell me exactly what this old habit costs me. 03:46.660 --> 03:50.280 Because you paid twice sounds like a small thing. 03:50.740 --> 03:52.880 One medicine, a couple of quid. 03:52.880 --> 03:54.340 Let's break it into three. 03:54.980 --> 03:55.960 The first is obvious. 03:56.360 --> 03:56.600 Money. 03:57.380 --> 03:59.140 You pay for something you already have. 03:59.720 --> 04:02.160 Once, twice, sometimes three times. 04:02.800 --> 04:04.260 A single pack isn't a fortune. 04:05.000 --> 04:08.620 But multiply it by every medicine that gets bought, just in case. 04:09.160 --> 04:11.380 Because nobody knows what's actually in stock. 04:11.800 --> 04:12.520 Second thing? 04:12.960 --> 04:13.440 Time. 04:14.020 --> 04:15.800 That day it happened to be a Saturday morning. 04:16.220 --> 04:17.620 Chemists round the corner open. 04:18.400 --> 04:20.420 But picture the same thing on a Sunday night. 04:21.040 --> 04:22.100 Or in the middle of the night. 04:22.880 --> 04:24.720 Oh, that one I know. 04:25.320 --> 04:29.800 You're driving halfway across town because the three nearest chemists are shut. 04:30.440 --> 04:30.840 Exactly. 04:31.460 --> 04:35.140 You already know how few are genuinely open at night or on a Sunday. 04:35.580 --> 04:36.500 Surprisingly few. 04:37.220 --> 04:44.280 And now, layer on top of that, the thought that the whole mad dash is for a medicine that was sitting quietly in the drawer. 04:44.720 --> 04:46.720 That stings more than the money. 04:47.560 --> 04:49.560 And the third thing is the least visible. 04:50.280 --> 04:50.920 The environment. 04:50.920 --> 04:54.920 That duplicate you never use just sits there, waiting. 04:55.660 --> 04:57.500 Its expiry date comes and goes. 04:57.940 --> 05:00.260 And in the end, it ends up as waste. 05:00.880 --> 05:02.220 And you throw it out. 05:03.020 --> 05:06.400 Except you don't just chuck a medicine in the bin or down the sink. 05:06.920 --> 05:10.360 You're meant to take it back to the pharmacy to be disposed of properly. 05:10.360 --> 05:12.360 And you know why that matters? 05:13.020 --> 05:19.980 Because traces of the substances from medicines flushed away or binned with the rubbish turn up later in the groundwater. 05:19.980 --> 05:24.320 So, fewer duplicates means less to hand back? 05:24.320 --> 05:26.460 That's exactly how it joins up. 05:26.460 --> 05:30.340 Less buying blind means fewer out-of-date medicines. 05:30.840 --> 05:34.180 Fewer out-of-date medicines means fewer things to throw away. 05:34.180 --> 05:41.260 One small decision in the doorway and it drags your wallet, your time and the environment along with it. 05:41.260 --> 05:46.980 You know, I never thought of buying too much of a medicine as an environmental problem. 05:47.660 --> 05:49.640 To me, it was always a clutter problem. 05:50.140 --> 05:51.280 A mess in the cupboard. 05:51.720 --> 05:53.180 Because that's how we see it. 05:53.480 --> 05:54.100 As clutter. 05:54.600 --> 05:56.020 But it's a whole chain. 05:56.620 --> 05:58.680 First, the making of a medicine you didn't need. 05:59.200 --> 05:59.940 Then the packaging. 06:00.460 --> 06:01.300 Then the transport. 06:01.300 --> 06:05.420 And at the end, the disposal, which somebody has to carry out. 06:06.020 --> 06:08.160 And someone paid for all of it. 06:08.800 --> 06:10.700 Either me or the environment. 06:11.640 --> 06:12.300 Usually both. 06:12.860 --> 06:14.580 That's why I say it's not a small thing. 06:15.100 --> 06:19.040 It's one small habit, but it sits right at the very start of that chain. 06:19.840 --> 06:23.000 Stop it in the doorway and none of the rest even gets going. 06:23.420 --> 06:26.560 By the way, everything you're talking about here, 06:27.240 --> 06:30.480 these are real features in the Moya Pdejka app, yes? 06:31.340 --> 06:32.420 This isn't an advert. 06:33.220 --> 06:34.540 I'm asking to be clear. 06:35.100 --> 06:37.600 Yes, these are things the app genuinely does. 06:38.160 --> 06:40.000 I say it plainly, to keep it honest. 06:40.560 --> 06:41.700 I'm not selling you magic. 06:42.220 --> 06:43.840 Just a list and a few reminders. 06:44.560 --> 06:44.880 Good. 06:45.640 --> 06:47.900 Because now I'll be the stubborn one. 06:48.580 --> 06:52.780 Because I really would rather have a look in the cupboard with my own eyes 06:52.780 --> 06:54.060 than trust the phone. 06:54.860 --> 06:57.640 How do I know the app isn't getting it wrong? 06:58.320 --> 06:58.940 Fair question. 06:58.940 --> 07:00.580 And here's the important line. 07:01.300 --> 07:04.300 The app doesn't guess anything and it doesn't prescribe anything. 07:04.980 --> 07:07.500 It won't tell you whether to take a medicine or what it's for. 07:08.320 --> 07:09.500 It does one simple thing. 07:10.100 --> 07:12.360 It shows you what you told it you had in the house. 07:12.960 --> 07:14.620 So I have to put it in first? 07:14.620 --> 07:15.620 Yes. 07:15.620 --> 07:18.220 You scan the pack or add it by hand. 07:18.900 --> 07:22.500 And then, when you're standing in the doorway, you type the name and you see 07:22.500 --> 07:23.580 Got it? 07:24.000 --> 07:24.640 Haven't got it? 07:25.040 --> 07:25.520 How many? 07:25.520 --> 07:30.460 Those two Zover axes were two entries that you had added earlier. 07:30.460 --> 07:32.500 The app didn't invent a thing. 07:32.500 --> 07:34.680 It just showed them to you when you asked. 07:35.380 --> 07:39.260 And if I hadn't checked and had gone off to buy that third pack? 07:39.260 --> 07:42.300 That's the second layer and this bit I do like. 07:42.620 --> 07:47.820 The moment you add a new pack by scanning the barcode, the app checks whether that same barcode 07:47.820 --> 07:49.440 is already on your list. 07:49.820 --> 07:52.940 And if it is, it flags that you've already got it. 07:52.940 --> 07:55.960 So it catches me even after the fact. 07:56.620 --> 07:58.020 It gives you a second chance. 07:58.880 --> 08:06.000 It helps once before you buy, with the search by name, and once after, by the barcode, as you're adding the pack. 08:06.780 --> 08:10.600 Even if the old habit wins, you've still got a moment to think again. 08:11.260 --> 08:13.260 And those expiry dates you mentioned? 08:13.780 --> 08:14.820 That's the third thing. 08:15.440 --> 08:18.000 The app reminds you before a medicine goes out of date. 08:18.000 --> 08:23.080 So you don't only find out about the duplicate once it's nothing but waste to hand back. 08:23.380 --> 08:25.320 Okay, that does sound honest. 08:26.100 --> 08:28.360 The app doesn't pretend it knows better than me. 08:28.720 --> 08:31.300 It just keeps a list and gives you a nudge. 08:31.720 --> 08:32.480 And that's plenty. 08:33.160 --> 08:34.800 All the rest is ten seconds. 08:35.320 --> 08:39.140 Before you head out for a medicine, have a quick look to see whether you've already got it. 08:39.540 --> 08:41.060 Tell me one more thing then. 08:41.620 --> 08:44.860 How did we end up with two packs in the first place? 08:45.500 --> 08:47.340 Because I don't think I bought both. 08:48.000 --> 08:50.000 One you, one me. 08:50.800 --> 08:52.100 About a month apart, I think. 08:52.720 --> 08:55.100 Each of us was dead certain there was none in the house. 08:55.420 --> 08:57.020 So each of us bought more. 08:57.600 --> 08:58.480 And nobody checked. 08:59.080 --> 09:00.800 Because nobody had anywhere to check. 09:01.300 --> 09:04.440 And that's the argument for a shared cabinet in the family. 09:05.140 --> 09:08.600 Not to keep tabs on each other, but so that... 09:08.600 --> 09:10.100 So that we see the same thing. 09:10.860 --> 09:14.620 When we're both looking at the same list, you don't buy what I bought yesterday. 09:14.960 --> 09:17.120 A family cabinet isn't surveillance. 09:17.120 --> 09:21.120 It's one shared view instead of two separate guesses. 09:21.120 --> 09:25.300 So now I've just got to reset that reflex. 09:25.800 --> 09:26.420 We all have. 09:27.040 --> 09:28.240 And that's the hardest part. 09:28.660 --> 09:29.500 Not the technology. 09:29.980 --> 09:31.660 Just that one second of stopping. 09:32.800 --> 09:33.400 Old habit. 09:33.980 --> 09:34.860 Hand to the keys. 09:35.660 --> 09:36.260 New habit. 09:36.900 --> 09:37.660 Hand to the phone. 09:38.180 --> 09:38.800 Ten seconds. 09:39.220 --> 09:40.760 And only then the keys. 09:41.140 --> 09:46.420 Ten seconds versus a drive halfway across town for something I've got in the bathroom anyway. 09:46.420 --> 09:50.640 Once you've set it in that order, you're amazed you ever did it the other way. 09:51.100 --> 09:54.020 And it's not just about that one Zovorax, is it? 09:54.420 --> 09:54.680 No. 09:55.180 --> 09:56.120 Think about vitamins. 09:56.720 --> 09:57.240 Painkillers. 09:57.700 --> 10:01.220 Everything you buy to stock up, since I'm at the chemist's anyway. 10:01.940 --> 10:03.880 There's more of that in the house than anything. 10:04.340 --> 10:06.340 And it's what gets doubled up most often. 10:06.340 --> 10:08.820 And goes out of date most often. 10:09.500 --> 10:15.380 Because you buy a third pack of magnesium, and the first two are lurking somewhere at the back of the cupboard. 10:16.000 --> 10:17.400 And so it comes full circle. 10:18.160 --> 10:24.740 That's why this one habit, check first, works not on one medicine, but on the whole cabinet at once. 10:25.280 --> 10:27.220 So where do people find the app? 10:27.340 --> 10:29.200 That'd be the Moya Potechka app. 10:29.780 --> 10:31.840 The app is free and works offline. 10:32.480 --> 10:34.420 You'll find the link in the episode description. 10:34.420 --> 10:40.340 And if you enjoyed this episode, share it with someone who's got a drawer full of medicines at home, 10:40.620 --> 10:43.080 and hasn't the foggiest what's actually in there. 10:44.560 --> 10:46.340 One more thing before we go. 10:46.860 --> 10:49.820 This podcast is made with the help of artificial intelligence. 10:50.620 --> 10:54.960 I wrote the dialogue myself, but the voices you're hearing aren't ours. 10:55.360 --> 10:57.880 They're AI-generated synthetic voices. 10:57.880 --> 11:04.780 We're telling you this straight out because we think it should be the standard for any podcast made this way. 11:05.740 --> 11:09.600 Full details are in the show notes and in every episode description. 11:11.160 --> 11:15.820 And from today, it's phone first, then keys. 11:17.100 --> 11:19.740 Phone first, then keys. 11:20.380 --> 11:21.980 Until next time. 11:22.580 --> 11:24.100 Until next time.