A philosophy of human agency.
The tools we use influence how we think, what we notice, and what we become capable of doing.
We are building HELM with a responsibility to the person using it.
Authorship
Human
We believe judgment grows through experience.
To make something is to choose what deserves care, what can remain uncertain, and when the work is ready. The effort involved in those decisions develops understanding.
We want HELM to preserve that authorship. We are building it to leave you room to question, revise, and arrive at a view you can call your own.
Capability
Extension
We see a tool as something that becomes part of how a person thinks and works.
A notebook gives memory a place to return to. A drawing lets an idea be examined before it exists. Tools change the scale at which we can think and act.
We place HELM in this tradition. We want to help people work with complexity, develop unfamiliar skills, and carry their own intentions further.
Attention
Liaison
We believe sustained attention deserves care.
Understanding often develops while we remain with a problem: holding details together, testing a possibility, following a thought far enough to see where it leads.
We are giving HELM a specific role: connect you with what the task requires, then return your attention to the work. We judge its value by what you can understand and complete, and by the space it leaves for concentration.
Privacy
Model
We believe people need room to think before they are ready to share.
Personal work contains uncertainty: early ideas, private questions, material that has meaning only in context. We have a responsibility to explain what HELM uses and where that information goes.
We keep Library files on your computer. Relevant text can be processed online when you use HELM. We do not sell your personal information.
How HELM handles your information
Your Library files stay on your computer. Relevant text may be sent to online services to make files searchable or answer a question. Those operations involve online processing. Encryption is a separate property; local storage alone provides no encryption guarantee.
HELM also uses account, billing, and service records to operate the service. The privacy policy explains how information is handled.
Read the privacy policyThe people building HELM
The founders.
Founder / Systems Architect
Jacob Barglof
Jacob builds the desktop app and the systems behind it.
Co-Founder / UX Architect
Colette Barnes
Colette brings her architecture background to HELM’s interface and how people use it.