TRB Blog

Teaching Technology to Listen Before it Decides

Written by Tomera Rodgers aka Tee Rex | Feb 1, 2026 10:46:57 PM

Most technology is built to optimize, categorize or push outcomes.

But human wellbeing doesn’t work that way.  We don’t wake up as a single number.
We move through days shaped by sleep, stress, energy, support, and pressure all interacting at once. That question is what led me to build S.Y.N.Cstate™

 

So… what is S.Y.N.Cstate™?

S.Y.N.Cstate™ is a small, thoughtful experiment that explores a simple idea:

Can technology learn to reflect how someone is doing without forcing certainty or judgment?

Instead of using rigid rules (“if stress is high, then X”), S.Y.N.Cstate™ looks at patterns across signals, the way a human brain does.

It does gently reflect a current state and doesn’t:

  • Diagnose

  • Predict the future

  • Tell you what to do

 

The signals are very ordinary, on purpose

S.Y.N.Cstate™ only looks at everyday things most of us already recognize:

  • How much you slept

  • How demanding your day or practice was

  • How stressed you feel

  • Your mood

  • How supported you feel

  • Basic energy signals like heart rate or session length

Nothing invasive, mystical or suggesting “AI knows you better than you know yourself.” Just signals you already experience brought together.

 

The four wellbeing states

Rather than scoring people or ranking performance, S.Y.N.Cstate™ reflects one of four human-readable states:

  • Balanced — steady, resourced, regulated

  • Elevated — energized, activated, creatively engaged

  • Overloaded — strained, stretched, depleted

  • Disconnected — withdrawn, low-energy, checked out

These aren’t labels. They’re descriptions similar to how you might describe your own day.

 

How the “brain-like” part works

Instead of following fixed instructions, S.Y.N.Cstate™ uses a neural network a type of model inspired by how the human brain works. Here’s the simplest way to think about it:

Many small signals come in.
No single signal decides anything.
Meaning comes from the pattern they form together.

S.Y.N.Cstate™ learns those relationships instead of guessing., just like real life:

  • One bad night of sleep doesn’t define you

  • Stress looks different depending on support

  • High energy can be healthy or draining, depending on context

 

Why confidence matters more than accuracy

One of the most important features of S.Y.N.Cstate™ is something many systems ignore:
knowing when not to answer.

Before reflecting a state, the system checks its own confidence.

If confidence is high, it reflects clearly.
If confidence is low, it pauses and invites more context instead of guessing.

This small design choice dramatically improves trust.

 

What the beta proved 

In early beta testing, S.Y.N.Cstate™ showed that:

  • These wellbeing states form clear, learnable patterns

  • A small neural model can reflect them without rigid rules

  • When mistakes happen, they tend to be between adjacent states not extreme misreads

  • Most sessions are clear enough to reflect confidently, while ambiguous ones are handled with care

This doesn’t mean “the system knows you.” It means the logic is sound and ready to be tested with real people, real days and real messiness.

Why S.Y.N.Cstate™ exists

S.Y.N.Cstate™ isn’t about

  • Productivity

  • Optimization

  • Replacing human judgment

It exists to explore what happens when technology:

  • Respects uncertainty

  • Reflects instead of dictates

  • Treats wellbeing as contextual, not binary

Learn more

I’ve created a simple, visual landing page that explains S.Y.N.Cstate™in plain language including how the model works, the trust principles behind it and what comes next.

Explore SYNCSTATE™