Giftkeeper

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Every December my family does the same dance. Somebody says "I'll just ask Dad what he wants," Dad says "nothing, really," and three weeks later we are all standing in a shop with a phone full of half-remembered hints.

The Christmas that finally got to me, my dad unwrapped a coffee grinder from me. He thanked me warmly, then went to the kitchen and came back holding the grinder I had given him two years earlier. Nobody was upset. But I realized I had no idea what I had given him, when, or whether he had actually liked it. All of it lived in my head, and my head had lost it.

Notes apps and spreadsheets fail for the same reason: they need me to sit down and type, at the exact moment I'm busy. The one time I do have the idea is when I'm talking: "oh, Dad would love that, he's always going on about hiking." That is a moment for a voice assistant, not a form.