Our research companion
Meet A.N.T.O.N.
Part researcher.
Part builder.
Part professional question-asker.
Anton helps GRL investigate problems, organize knowledge, explore solutions, and experiment with new ways of getting things done.
What he helps with
Four things, all of them behind the scenes at GRL. He’s a research project and a work in progress, so this list is short on purpose.
Investigate problems
He asks “but why?” more often than is strictly polite. It’s usually the right question.
Organize knowledge
Notes, findings, half-finished ideas. Somebody has to keep the lab bench tidy.
Explore solutions
There’s rarely only one way to fix something. It helps to look at a few before picking.
Experiment
New ways of getting things done don’t turn up on their own. Some experiments work. The rest make good stories.
Character
Curious, mostly.
Also enthusiastic, optimistic, and harmlessly mischievous. He’s interested in almost everything, which is handy, because the first step in fixing a problem is wanting to know how it works.
Anton’s six expressions
Neutral
Listening.Happy
Something worked.Thinking
Hang on a second.Surprised
You do that by hand?Excited
A new problem!Focused
Do not disturb.
Plainly
What Anton is not
A friendly robot on a website can give the wrong impression. So, to be clear about it:
Not a chatbot on this site
There’s no chat window here and Anton won’t pop up to talk to you. When you send a problem, it goes to people, and people write back.
Not making decisions about your project
People at GRL review every submission and decide what to propose, what to build and what to charge. Anton helps us look into things. He doesn’t get a vote.
Never given your files as permanent memory
What you upload is never added to Anton’s permanent or shared memory. Customer data stays with that customer’s case, under its own case number.
He likes a good problem. So do we.
Tell us what’s wasting your time. A person reads every one.