>Does your email client, text editor, or todo app need to essentially be another operating system unto itself? So much so that they very likely have complete support for Xbox-360 controllers for some reason? Could you achieve just as much, if not more functionality, by putting everything in a simple text file?
I love note-taking apps as much as the next guy ... but prefer a physical notebook more often than not (along with a good pen or mechanical pencil)
A text file? What would I edit it with on mobile? How would I quickly access it without scrolling through file menus? Does anyone have a text editor with a Keep-style pinned/recent/tagging based UI? How would I look at it on a watch?
I could use a text file for notes, but I wouldn't get access to features I enjoy, that save me time, and I might wonder why I was even bothering with digital notes at all.
I really like the idea of getting into paper notetaking again, for the tradition, history, and brain benefits.
But I like the convenience, ease of use in any position, sitting, standing, laying down, walking, etc, the greatly increased security (Big tech can spy, but that is a lot less scary than the risk of leaving my notebook behind and someone I know finding it), and the fact I don't have to think about the physical process of writing.
With a pen, it feels a lot like executing G-code in my head. It's a project, something involving both hands and total focus, with persistent physical objects that have to be managed or they become clutter....
Digital notes are effortless, something that just kinda happens without going out of your way. Which, I suppose, is also the downside of them.
> A text file? What would I edit it with on mobile? How would I quickly access it without scrolling through file menus? Does anyone have a text editor with a Keep-style pinned/recent/tagging based UI? How would I look at it on a watch?
I used to use CloudNotes (iirc) to edit text (.md) files synced between my mobile devices and my laptop with Nextcloud
Always kept the most recently edited items at the top of the list
The difference with software and real things is the physical weight, size, and mental effort to manage them.
Electron is pretty well optimized these days. Once something is not notably slow on the oldest cheapest hardware I own, I lose interest in making things any lighter or smaller.
I think the backpack is a good metaphor though, because I don't want to avoid Complexity, I want to avoid metaphorical "Weight".
Like, take Etcher. What it does could be done in just a few kilobytes, instead it's 80MB. But I have the 80MB to spare, and it loads fast. So I use it(Except on Pi when I use the far better Pi flasher that lets you do headless config right while burning the card).
Now, if Etcher was not available easier and I had to compile it myself and actually deal with all of the libraries, I wouldn't like it as much. It would "weigh" far too much. If it took time to load, or was unreliable, I wouldn't like it.
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[ 3.1 ms ] story [ 31.3 ms ] threadI love note-taking apps as much as the next guy ... but prefer a physical notebook more often than not (along with a good pen or mechanical pencil)
I could use a text file for notes, but I wouldn't get access to features I enjoy, that save me time, and I might wonder why I was even bothering with digital notes at all.
I really like the idea of getting into paper notetaking again, for the tradition, history, and brain benefits.
But I like the convenience, ease of use in any position, sitting, standing, laying down, walking, etc, the greatly increased security (Big tech can spy, but that is a lot less scary than the risk of leaving my notebook behind and someone I know finding it), and the fact I don't have to think about the physical process of writing.
With a pen, it feels a lot like executing G-code in my head. It's a project, something involving both hands and total focus, with persistent physical objects that have to be managed or they become clutter....
Digital notes are effortless, something that just kinda happens without going out of your way. Which, I suppose, is also the downside of them.
I used to use CloudNotes (iirc) to edit text (.md) files synced between my mobile devices and my laptop with Nextcloud
Always kept the most recently edited items at the top of the list
Likewise with Obsidian
that is definitely the downside to them
that's both my biggest like AND biggest dislike of e-noting
Electron is pretty well optimized these days. Once something is not notably slow on the oldest cheapest hardware I own, I lose interest in making things any lighter or smaller.
I think the backpack is a good metaphor though, because I don't want to avoid Complexity, I want to avoid metaphorical "Weight".
Like, take Etcher. What it does could be done in just a few kilobytes, instead it's 80MB. But I have the 80MB to spare, and it loads fast. So I use it(Except on Pi when I use the far better Pi flasher that lets you do headless config right while burning the card).
Now, if Etcher was not available easier and I had to compile it myself and actually deal with all of the libraries, I wouldn't like it as much. It would "weigh" far too much. If it took time to load, or was unreliable, I wouldn't like it.
I think "mental 'weight'" / "thinking overhead" is as important, yet less thought about, as "physical weight"
Sure you’ll continue to dabble with new software but like a chef with their knife collections, they use only a few trusty one when they actually cook.
The collection is not the craft. Same reason markdown swung into community love.
Time favors the useful tool.
Stream of thoughts.