Something I learned from being around a few outgoing friends over the years, the easiest way to start a conversation is to ask questions. Even if you already know the answer, it breaks the ice and let's them do the talking. Don't know what to say next? Ask another question.
I've been using Screen Time this year so far and it's been working pretty well. For me Twitter, FB, and Reddit were the go to dopamine hits.
I have separate 5 min daily limits for Twitter and Facebook. And a 15 min daily limit for Reddit. Reddit is much easier to curate topics that I'm actually interested in, so I give myself a little more time there since the comments add to the conversation more commonly than the other platforms.
This helps make it feel like I'm "checking-in" and leaving it behind, rather than letting it consume my time. It also makes me think twice about logging in as a habit since my limit will be up without recollecting at all what I just scrolled through. I find myself more often thinking, "Am I going to pay attention to what I'm looking at now?". If not, I'll save the session for later when I have the attention to give.
I notice an interesting adaption to this in the metalcore scene. Bands release shorter EP's (5-6 song mini albums) more frequently. In some cases 2 separate EP's are re-released after as a combined album plus 1-3 new bonus tracks.
At first I didn't really like this trend b/c I enjoy listening to the full album through on first listen. But I do understand why they are doing this to adapt to the streaming age.
Instead of releasing a 12-song album once every two years, they split that release into 3 every 6 months (5 song EP, 5 song EP, combined album + 2 bonus). As consumers we get the music earlier and more frequently. They get 3 release hype cycles for the same amount of creative work, which is what they need to be discovered in streaming platforms.
That has been going on in the greater metal scene for a long time. Especially for smaller artists, they put out a bunch of demos and EPs before putting together an album. In contrast to what you're mentioning, often the main tracks of some of the EPs will be on the album, but all of the "b-sides" will only be available on the EPs, but I've also seen examples of multiple EPs being re-released together. Not necessarily as an album in the traditional sense, but as a compilation.
Speed derived from managing scope is the real value IMO. It's not about working faster, but rather minimizing scope constantly to ship faster and collect feedback.
Your solution may be the better product, but info on receipt has 100% user adoption compared to the extreme minority that will put in the extra work to download the app, scan the receipt, etc. Distribution is the big win here.
If you overhaul the system to provide those data via an API (instead of OCR-ing receipts or printing these relatively useless visualizations), then not only could DIY folks like the parent and myself do the analyses ourselves, but any number of personal finance tools could also support the system to make it easy for their customers to visualize their own data.
This is obviously frustrating, but do not focus on it. They were wrong and lazy to blatantly copy, but would it really make a difference if they spent an extra couple hours with a few copy/css changes to make it look more unique?
Unfortunately, the market does not care about who had what first. This is a validation for you. Frustrating validation. You likely do not have the resources to fight them for anything meaningful. Stay focused on your customers.
A shift in consumer habits require orders of magnitude in improvement over previous solutions to achieve mass adoption and become the new true "normal".
The reality is bitcoin and crypto are not much of an improvement (if any) for the avg consumer compared to cash/debit/credit card.
Something I learned from being around a few outgoing friends over the years, the easiest way to start a conversation is to ask questions. Even if you already know the answer, it breaks the ice and let's them do the talking. Don't know what to say next? Ask another question.