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Show HN: Write a private diary using good old email

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Re: Show HN: Write a private diary using good old email

#101

Post by Pyrodogg »

latortuga wrote: post #77

This used to exist, it was called OhLife. They would email you every day and say "What's happening in your life" and "Hey do you remember this?" with one random email from your history included. I always liked this service and was sad when they shut down. Pretty sure I started using it due to a post right here on HN.

I also used to use Oh Life and loved it. When it shut down I started using DailyDiary [0] which launched an Oh Life importer on Oct 8th, 2014. That's _before_ Oh Life even shut down on Oct 15th, 2014.

I've been continuing to use DailyDiary since.

I have an apps script that automatically adds a draft response to these prompts, which still starts with an "Oh Life, ...." salutation. The script also adds the day's weather report to the bottom of the draft. My todo list has an item to add top and random tracks from my scrobbled music listening for the day.

In the evening I fill in the body of the response with reflections from the day and off it goes.

[0] https://www.dailydiary.com/

Re: Show HN: Write a private diary using good old email

#102

Post by oefrha »

Waterluvian wrote: post #68
oefrha wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I've managed a personal "diary" that's on Github publically. Well that's more of a journal. But yeah, a "diary" service can be used for less private stuff too.

Fair. I've always considered the two to be synonyms.

I was referring to a non-diary journal (in the general logbook sense), but the difference is murky at best.

Re: Show HN: Write a private diary using good old email

#103

Post by graeme »

athenot wrote: post #75

The very humble Notes app on macOS/iOS fulfills this for me. I just start typing, the minimalistic interface gets out of the way. Timestamping is on last modification instead of creation date but I add one manually. That's about my only drawback. Some features I find compelling: - I can start a train of thought on the mac, continue it on the phone and complete it on my mac. - It's not mined by some advertising compan…

My first thought when reading this was “how do you automate it?” as that was part of the spec.

But you can actually do that with Shortcuts, which is build into the system.

1. Make a note with a title like “journal” or “daily log”

2. Open shortcuts, go to automations. Make a new one with a time of day trigger. (Or an alternate if you prefer)

3. Actions: “find all notes where” —> filter for notes name. “ask for input” —-> ask the question you want + put “current date” as default entry. “Append to note” —> use magic variables. Select ask for input as the text to append, and note as the note to append to. (Specifically, the note your filter found)

4. Duplicate this for as many times of day as you want to be asked

5. At the appropriate time, click the notification and enter text to log it. Also add a trailing newline for note formatting. If anyone knows how to automate this on shortcuts, let me know: newlines seem tricky and I haven’t figured it out.

This automates the asking, and also the timestamp. Thanks for posting your idea, it prompted me to setup alerts for 11:00 and 5:00 pm.

Edit: this doesn’t transfer bullets to notes. If anyone knows how to append bulleted text via shortcut, let me know.

Re: Show HN: Write a private diary using good old email

#104

Post by j45 »

obiefernandez wrote: post #87
latortuga wrote: post #77

This used to exist, it was called OhLife. They would email you every day and say "What's happening in your life" and "Hey do you remember this?" with one random email from your history included. I always liked this service and was sad when they shut down. Pretty sure I started using it due to a post right here on HN.

The OhLife replacement I wrote is called AhhLife and I have maintained it as a personal side project for many years now. https://ahhlife.com

Ahhlife seems pretty capable except it doesn’t seem to handle photo attachments or logins only via gmail.

Re: Show HN: Write a private diary using good old email

#105

Post by graeme »

the_watcher wrote: post #79
athenot wrote: post #75

The very humble Notes app on macOS/iOS fulfills this for me. I just start typing, the minimalistic interface gets out of the way. Timestamping is on last modification instead of creation date but I add one manually. That's about my only drawback. Some features I find compelling: - I can start a train of thought on the mac, continue it on the phone and complete it on my mac. - It's not mined by some advertising compan…

Agreed that this works well for some workflows. That said, part of pg's "design brief" was the workflow: receive an email and reply to it, his reason for replying being "to get it out of my inbox".

If a phone or ipad notification would be acceptable, I figured out that part in a comment here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22046379

Re: Show HN: Write a private diary using good old email

#106

Post by gist »

windowshopping wrote: post #61

Why doesn't the guy just write a python script to mail himself that prompt everyday? Sometimes I think if Paul Graham tripped he would start wondering if there was a start-up aiming to put an end to uneven ground.

Exactly my thought. But further I love when some well off VC (Fred Wilson does this type of thing often) will ask the community for something they could simply pay someone to write that fills 100% the need they have and is tailored toward them specifically with features that they want. Or just hack it together themselves. Much easier generally (for this type of thing) than having to trust and use a product with bells and whistles that may not matter to you.

I mean I get the trying to push a startup in a direction (so they can invest potentially) but somehow I don't think that is what is going on.

Re: Show HN: Write a private diary using good old email

#107

Post by newzombie »

kossnocorp wrote: post #62
alfonsodev wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He also wrote > Unfortunately, though, in this one case I can't promise that if you build it, I'll use it. Unless I know you, I can't trust that you won't read my emails. (I trusted the previous startup that did it because we'd funded them.) How do you solve the "won't read my emails" problem ? I've seen the statement in your website: > Your data stored and transferred securely. No one will ever read or process your…

I addressed it in a comment: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22045670 > But once the data leaves the browser there is no way to know, wouldn't you consider to partner with Gmail(or others) and appear as an addon to an already trusted company in order to start off the business ? Also, I understand the concern and that Paul most likely will not trust their secrets to anyone. The problem is that's not a business, b…

An idea would be to open source it and make it simple to run an instance.

Re: Show HN: Write a private diary using good old email

#110

Post by Alex3917 »

alfonsodev wrote: post #43
kossnocorp wrote: post #2

Yesterday Paul Graham asked for an email diary service ( https://twitter.com/paulg/status/1216714155731890176 ): > Is there an easy way to build, or a startup that offers, something that will email you once a day asking "What's happening?" and then accumulate the replies? I did just that! Let me know what you think.

He also wrote > Unfortunately, though, in this one case I can't promise that if you build it, I'll use it. Unless I know you, I can't trust that you won't read my emails. (I trusted the previous startup that did it because we'd funded them.) How do you solve the "won't read my emails" problem ? I've seen the statement in your website: > Your data stored and transferred securely. No one will ever read or process your…

> How do you solve the "won't read my emails" problem ?

99% of the people who tell you they wouldn’t use the product unless it can’t read your email wouldn’t actually use it regardless, and are just asking for things they don’t really have any intention of using.

edit: I just wanted to add I think it's kind of a dick move on pg's part to ask someone to build this when there are like four different versions that already exist. If you like those products then you should promote them, and if you don't like them then you should email the creators with feedback. Asking folks to build additional competing products without doing that first is poor form, as is asking people to build stuff that you don't actually care enough about to Google to see if it already exists. I don't mean to pick on pg specifically, I just see this kind of behavior on Twitter (and HN) all the time, often from startup investors, and I think it deserves to be called out.

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