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Show HN: A tool to help you remember shit you are interested in

recall-app.com

151–160 of 180 posts

Re: Show HN: A tool to help you remember shit you are interested in

#151

Remembering is so 1982. One of the main goals of tech is superseding memory.

That is a straight path to becoming an unthinking entity. The first requirement of thought is memory. You can only think with it.

I didn't say we should abandon memory - that would be indeed absurd to even consider. But the conditions for it should change and are changing. Written text is part of this movement, aswell as, more recently, photography - there's a reason a massive (maybe more than 99,9%?) amount of photos are just abandoned after they are produced. A lot of times "memory" is the denial of time.

I'm not trying to be cryptic here - it's just a very complex subject unsuitable for this medium because of size, and also I'm not native and lack the proper terms for this kind of conversation.

A small anecdote: my father is approaching the age of 80, and recently approached me sharing he has noticed he was "losing his memory" and didn't like it. I surveyed him and we understood the only memories that were sometimes slipping were only stupid stuff like day-to-day low-priority routine tasks - things that he could really go without: the fact he was forgetting them was more impactful to him at that time than not having performed them, because "he always had such a good memory". Long story short: I instructed him on how to use alarms and calendar on iPhone (he's already a frequent and somewhat comfortable smartphone user). He used them for a while and enjoyed the ease of not having to "remember" the tasks. Shortly afterwards he felt annoyed by so many alarms, and drastically reduced usage. Now he's happy and "feels lighter" knowing he is healthy and not at all forgetting stuff he deems important, and can count on easy tech to help when needed. He also now benefits from scheduling long-term important stuff on google calendar, and having multiple notifications to remember him 1 month prior, 2 weeks, 1 week, 3 days. What he's realizing is there's better usage for his brain and energy than storing easy "memories".

Re: Show HN: A tool to help you remember shit you are interested in

#152

I have a home-baked system like this, mostly just files in folders and in some cases HTML-based indexes. It's not perfect and nowhere near as usable as Recall looks, but it works for me nonetheless. I won't use Recall. It's just another Web app, and thus subject to the whims of the owners (selling my data, injecting ads when other sources of income fail, etc). I would be much more amenable to a desktop app I have abs…

For what its worth, your data lives primarily in IndexedDB in your browser. It's then synced on the server for backup and sync between devices. And I don't have any intention on selling data or ads.

Re: Show HN: A tool to help you remember shit you are interested in

#153

I have a home-baked system like this, mostly just files in folders and in some cases HTML-based indexes. It's not perfect and nowhere near as usable as Recall looks, but it works for me nonetheless. I won't use Recall. It's just another Web app, and thus subject to the whims of the owners (selling my data, injecting ads when other sources of income fail, etc). I would be much more amenable to a desktop app I have abs…

I have a similar system except I make use of Zim Wiki for managing it. It's not on mobile but I don't do much of any import on mobile.

I have to agree with you, I didn't comment before because I didn't want to criticise something that has had a ton of work put into it.

If I was going to use something like this it would have to be local only with the potential to backup to the cloud of my choice, and sync (e2e encrypted) to other devices.

I'm not signing up for a subscription or web version for something I'm capable of doing with text files and folders on a computer, or in a notebook by hand.

I do think a ton of work has gone into this and it looks polished but I don't see a business model in it.

Re: Show HN: A tool to help you remember shit you are interested in

#154
Are you banned from Google? Searching for "recall app" you don't appear at all.

I also will assume that anyone praising the UI has not actually tested the application but only seen the homepage, because the UX is abysmal. In just 3 minutes it has managed to frustrate me:

- You cannot create a new category from the selector of category while creating a note,

- You have to look for the button to create a new note if not from search, and the fact that it appears on hover only is awful,

- The UI for seeing a note is ugly, the bullet points just seem like a straight up bug because of how weirdly they are placed.

Re: Show HN: A tool to help you remember shit you are interested in

#155

I see what this app is about but at the same time it enforces information overload which is an instant turn off for me. What'll happen if I were to use it: I'll pile up more and more stuff I'm interested into, I'll receive news about all things I've subscribed to and eventually I'll get annoyed from the "spam". Then I'll unsubscribe realizing that information overload can't be handled with apps, I have to solve that…

The idea is you collect stuff that you can kinda forget about over time. When you add something new that is related to content you have already added, a link is automatically created which resurfaces the content from the past helping you draw connections that you may have not seen yourself.

I’ve wanted to home-roll something like this as a project. I don’t have interest to adopt a third party platform because,

- Been burned before putting my collected notes into op-software only to find it doesn’t think how I work

- I prefer text files and directories for long term storage. (JSON Data Export _coming soon_? Hard pass)

- I don’t have problem with paying for software that I like to use. But I don’t like software subscriptions that lock up my info or have arbitrary limits. I’d rather have full data access with less functionality, and pay intermittently for better functionality.

- don’t want my data stored off site. Period.

There is interest in this topic. If this is your thing, I say keep at it.

Re: Show HN: A tool to help you remember shit you are interested in

#156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just setup FreshRSS for myself to get off feedly and am much MUCH happier. While I'd like to use that service I have to agree with you. I want to self host this goldmine of personal information myself as well.

This is coming up a lot so I will look at how I can do it. Would the ability to export your data be enough or does it need to be selfhosted.

self hosted. I dont want that data residing out of my control

Re: Show HN: A tool to help you remember shit you are interested in

#157

Are you banned from Google? Searching for "recall app" you don't appear at all. I also will assume that anyone praising the UI has not actually tested the application but only seen the homepage, because the UX is abysmal. In just 3 minutes it has managed to frustrate me: - You cannot create a new category from the selector of category while creating a note, - You have to look for the button to create a new note if no…

My SEO isn't great, its still quite early stage. Thanks for the feedback on the UI, I will try make it better.

Re: Show HN: A tool to help you remember shit you are interested in

#159
post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Personally I run into interesting things all the time, and it seems great to be able to have a place to store them so I don’t forget about them. >I use several different kinds of apps for that already. Google, Pocket, a note-taking app, a list app. Heck, Anki fits the description as well. I've found an unexpected use case here for Telegram. I have Telegram open all the time in the background on all my computers and…

Yeah, Saved Messages is that unexpected feature for me too. I also use it to easily send photos from my phone to my laptop. It makes it convenient because Telegram is right at the top in the Share options, and it’s async, so I can send something now and use it whenever.

can Telegram send the full quality photo file? I recently realised that Signal does not, and couldn't see a way to do so.

Re: Show HN: A tool to help you remember shit you are interested in

#160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, my take is that the hierarchy is web site >> mobile web site >> mobile (cr)app With the modification that if you have a very small phone sometimes the mobile site comes out ahead. To take an example, right when a search has brought you to something you want to read on reddit, reddit distracts you with a popup telling you it is ‘better’ to use the app. Well, once you’ve installed the app they punch you in the fa…

I find apps almost always preferable. Not only do I get dedicated backup, the apps are usually better for mobile UX. Of course, that excludes crappy apps like Reddit’s, in those cases there are often 3rd-party-apps.

Dedicated backup?
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