I use an Alphasmart Neo to write my novels. It's incredibly easy to focus with such a machine. If it just had bigger storage capacity and a microSD slot I'd never consider another option.
I used to try and optimize my distraction-free writing setup, until I realized that by doing so I was distracting myself from writing. I’ve come to realize that if you want to write, then just write. It sounds oversimplified, but that’s the crux of it. Once you get over the initial hill and form the habit of writing, tools no longer matter.
That said, I'd issue a warning to aspiring writers here on HN: the writer deck culture is really just a big distraction from writing to which technically inclined people are especially prone, and I say this as a huge fan of the concept.
Ultimately, you need discipline to write, period. A writer deck is not going to solve that problem for you. If you already have a functioning laptop you can likely save yourself some money and work on being disciplined and conducting dedicated writing sessions first. After you've done that, writer decks are a good investment if portability is important for your practice and a laptop is too much to lug around.
Otherwise, resist the tantalizing urge to dive down the writer deck rabbit hole. You are really just distracting yourself from writing and spending more time on romanticizing the idea of writing than actually doing it—at least this was the case for me.
They seem like a better razor for your Yak Shaving than an actually useful product (generally, I'm assuming some people do benefit from them).
Honestly if constant online distractions are an issue - just put your laptop/PC in airplane mode, if you don't have the self control to not turn air plane mode off you likely aren't going to have enough to not pull your phone out/grab your laptop.
I still don't get how one is supposed to easily get docs to and from this machine.
It's billed as a distraction-free writing device, but if you're supposed to quit the program, stick in a thumb drive, issue commands to mount it, copy the files from some unknown location, dismount, and return to the program, then it's a pretty distraction-full experience.
There basically needs to be a single program (an "OS" in a sense of the word even if it's based on Linux) that is launched upon boot that does more than just editing docs but can also trigger a shutdown, automates mounting of media and copies files over, show overall disk usage, dictionary, spell checking, etc.
I remember that in the early 2000s, when Internet access was scarce where I lived, most of my writing (including writing software) happened offline. Everything I needed to do my work was available offline. This included physical books like K&R and the Core Java series that sat on my desk as well as entire sets of documentation such as MSDN discs, Javadoc HTML bundles, the Python documentation and whatever manuals shipped with compilers and IDEs. It was common to curate all the documentation you needed and keep it on your local disk as HTML or PDF.
In fact, back then the phrase 'online documentation' did not refer to anything hosted on the Internet. 'Online' simply meant 'on the computer' rather than 'in a printed manual'. So online documentation covered man pages, info manuals and the integrated help systems built into environments like QBASIC, Visual Studio (not to be confused with Visual Studio Code), Emacs, Vim or the WinHelp and CHM viewers on Windows.
I sometimes wonder whether that sort of entirely offline workflow is still viable with an ordinary computer with no Internet connection. In limited cases it is. Retrocomputing with something like QBASIC is an obvious example, since it comes with a complete hypertext manual accessible through Alt+H C (for Help > Contents) or F1 for looking up documentation for the current identifier. I still follow this style while working on my Emacs workflows and packages since all of Emacs documentation (including that of every single package installed) is available locally with the helpful C-h bindings. I am also glad that Go and Rust make viewing documentation on the computer so convenient.
But I'm not sure this style of development is possible, in general, anymore for the vast majority of software development since software today have so many dependencies and each dependency may have its own bespoke way of publishing documentation.
My 'writer deck' is an old 11" 2014 Macbook Air with no wifi enabled, running Linux Mint. It only has a few apps. Beautiful machine, works perfectly. I paid $35 for it.
And by 'no wifi enabled', I mean it's not enabled in the OS, so I can't even be tempted to turn it on. When I need to sync files/update, I have a USB ethernet dongle.
I love refurbishing old Macbooks/ThinkPads, and I always tell people just buy one, customize it any way you like--paint it, stickers, whatever--and for a few bucks you've got something great.
I have an old MacBook Air from that era I could boot up. But don't the screens get dimmer over time? I guess it doesn't effect the functionality in any way.
I think an ideal set up for me would be if I could boot my laptop to an different user on the same os where I only had 1 or 2 apps: Obsidian for notes, and possibly an e-reader for some use cases. Then somehow put a timed lock out on the main os/user. That way I could set a period of time where I was locked into that task, but I wouldn't need a dedicated device
17 comments
[ 2.6 ms ] story [ 41.3 ms ] thread- distraction free (except doodling)
- lower power consumption
- expressive in a way that typing can never be
- tends to discourage editing as you write
edit: and less eye strain
That said, I'd issue a warning to aspiring writers here on HN: the writer deck culture is really just a big distraction from writing to which technically inclined people are especially prone, and I say this as a huge fan of the concept.
Ultimately, you need discipline to write, period. A writer deck is not going to solve that problem for you. If you already have a functioning laptop you can likely save yourself some money and work on being disciplined and conducting dedicated writing sessions first. After you've done that, writer decks are a good investment if portability is important for your practice and a laptop is too much to lug around.
Otherwise, resist the tantalizing urge to dive down the writer deck rabbit hole. You are really just distracting yourself from writing and spending more time on romanticizing the idea of writing than actually doing it—at least this was the case for me.
Honestly if constant online distractions are an issue - just put your laptop/PC in airplane mode, if you don't have the self control to not turn air plane mode off you likely aren't going to have enough to not pull your phone out/grab your laptop.
Use cases: Patio bars in Austin Texas, sunny Medellin Colombia, outside plaza cafes in Barcelona.
Thank you!
It's billed as a distraction-free writing device, but if you're supposed to quit the program, stick in a thumb drive, issue commands to mount it, copy the files from some unknown location, dismount, and return to the program, then it's a pretty distraction-full experience.
There basically needs to be a single program (an "OS" in a sense of the word even if it's based on Linux) that is launched upon boot that does more than just editing docs but can also trigger a shutdown, automates mounting of media and copies files over, show overall disk usage, dictionary, spell checking, etc.
In fact, back then the phrase 'online documentation' did not refer to anything hosted on the Internet. 'Online' simply meant 'on the computer' rather than 'in a printed manual'. So online documentation covered man pages, info manuals and the integrated help systems built into environments like QBASIC, Visual Studio (not to be confused with Visual Studio Code), Emacs, Vim or the WinHelp and CHM viewers on Windows.
I sometimes wonder whether that sort of entirely offline workflow is still viable with an ordinary computer with no Internet connection. In limited cases it is. Retrocomputing with something like QBASIC is an obvious example, since it comes with a complete hypertext manual accessible through Alt+H C (for Help > Contents) or F1 for looking up documentation for the current identifier. I still follow this style while working on my Emacs workflows and packages since all of Emacs documentation (including that of every single package installed) is available locally with the helpful C-h bindings. I am also glad that Go and Rust make viewing documentation on the computer so convenient.
But I'm not sure this style of development is possible, in general, anymore for the vast majority of software development since software today have so many dependencies and each dependency may have its own bespoke way of publishing documentation.
And by 'no wifi enabled', I mean it's not enabled in the OS, so I can't even be tempted to turn it on. When I need to sync files/update, I have a USB ethernet dongle.
I love refurbishing old Macbooks/ThinkPads, and I always tell people just buy one, customize it any way you like--paint it, stickers, whatever--and for a few bucks you've got something great.
They have 1 thing wrong: there's nothing virtual about the DOS on my USB keys. 100% the real thing, on the metal.
I think an ideal set up for me would be if I could boot my laptop to an different user on the same os where I only had 1 or 2 apps: Obsidian for notes, and possibly an e-reader for some use cases. Then somehow put a timed lock out on the main os/user. That way I could set a period of time where I was locked into that task, but I wouldn't need a dedicated device