Hey! I'm actually one of the makers of Nototo. I'm quite surprised to find my own project trending on HackerNews!
If anyone has questions feel free to ask me here! or at chen@nototo.app
Nototo – Build a unified mental map of notes
11–20 of 134 posts
Re: Nototo – Build a unified mental map of notes
#12This is very cool. Relatedly: I often run while listening to podcasts. When I do, I remember much more of the material. And when I revisit certain blocks around the neighborhood, I find myself recalling what I heard during the run. The spacial encoding of memories seems very potent and under-investigated.
It's called the Method of loci: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Method_of_loci
Another term for that is the "memory palace".
BTW, I wonder if anyone here in HN used it to learn significant things using this method?
Re: Nototo – Build a unified mental map of notes
#13This is pretty cool, and I want to try it! but I was expecting it to be a paid Mac native app, not a web app behind a sign-up process... If you plan to keep it web-based, I'd encourage you to create a demo portal that doesn't require a signup. But I'd love a native app with export functionality (so I can use my own backups)!
Hey! Thanks for the encouragement!
A native app is definitely on the to-do list. The reason why we chose the browser is mainly so that we can distribute it to a broader audience. Also, I use a MacBook and my Co-founder uses windows, and we'd both like to use the app ourselves haha.
I may be wrong on this, but I think the friction to download a native app is much higher than a web app. And we really want as many users, from as many demographics, as we can to test the product and guide our development.
A demo portal/sandbox on our front page would be cool too! But we have some bugs/features that are much higher on our todo list.
Again, thanks a lot for the feedback!
Re: Nototo – Build a unified mental map of notes
#14So what happens when I fill up an island and I want to capture an idea in the proper place RIGHT NOW? Especially if I've got it surrounded by other islands. Aw shit, I just lost my fragile new idea while getting distracted by landscaping. Also holy crap the body type in these notes is microscopic.
I think the app is more a solution for organizing your thoughts rather than capturing them when they come. But I agree that something should be done in that regards.
Re: Nototo – Build a unified mental map of notes
#15This is pretty cool, and I want to try it! but I was expecting it to be a paid Mac native app, not a web app behind a sign-up process... If you plan to keep it web-based, I'd encourage you to create a demo portal that doesn't require a signup. But I'd love a native app with export functionality (so I can use my own backups)!
Hey! Thanks for the encouragement! A native app is definitely on the to-do list. The reason why we chose the browser is mainly so that we can distribute it to a broader audience. Also, I use a MacBook and my Co-founder uses windows, and we'd both like to use the app ourselves haha. I may be wrong on this, but I think the friction to download a native app is much higher than a web app. And we really want as many users…
I think the threshold for downloading a native app vs a web app is when you have to start putting your person data in the application.
what you are creating is something that will be filled with peoples personal data. Many of us, are required by employers, law, or a sense of owning the data, are going to prevent people from storing the data on your server.
you could look at a native app, if your rending is done client side, you could make the data files exportable, and make use of client side encryption.
Think the way a lot of password managers are working.
Additionally, on your demo video, I know voice over can be a pain for small devs, but have some on screen techs would really be helpful, or hell even some background music.
I know I personally started checking my headphone, trying to see if they were muted.
Re: Nototo – Build a unified mental map of notes
#16So what happens when I fill up an island and I want to capture an idea in the proper place RIGHT NOW? Especially if I've got it surrounded by other islands. Aw shit, I just lost my fragile new idea while getting distracted by landscaping. Also holy crap the body type in these notes is microscopic.
Great point! The idea of running out of real estate is something that we thought quite a bit about in the beginning.
So, we used to have somewhat like a tag system that we thought would lower the friction required to make a note. Where you can open up a notebook anywhere and we'll put it on the correct island for you after #tag it. But it kinda defeated the purpose of this app, for people to place their notes down like how they place a lego block down.
Also, it turns out, people usually don't fill up their islands to the point of collision. They have a lot of empty spaces between notes. So, it's actually a problem that we haven't encountered yet.
Additionally, note blocks can be seen as their own word documents and the tiny words on top are previews. So you can also just "open up" one of these blocks and put your idea there.
OR, what I do, is I have an island for random ideas like that. Write it down first, organize it later.
lastly, we will add a font size option for the rooftop fonts soon, don't wanna get eye damage lawsuits haha.
Re: Nototo – Build a unified mental map of notes
#17This is very cool. Relatedly: I often run while listening to podcasts. When I do, I remember much more of the material. And when I revisit certain blocks around the neighborhood, I find myself recalling what I heard during the run. The spacial encoding of memories seems very potent and under-investigated.
That's very interesting!
You're effectively building "memory palaces" without consciously doing it by associating podcast content with real-life locations.
Some memory athletes use that ability to remember digits of pi or decks of cards!
Re: Nototo – Build a unified mental map of notes
#18Suggestions from an old side-project: automate land management.
- Placing a note automatically creates an island around it with a recognizable landmark nearby. Add a tree after each addition. Add or enlarge a pond after each deletion.
- Dragging a line between two islands/hills either merges the two or moves them closer, depending on the size of the islands/hills involved and the population of the area. Locations, distance, and scale can change but the relative direction should not.
Re: Nototo – Build a unified mental map of notes
#19Interesting concept. The brain does store information with visual location so that works in that way. reminds me a bit of Jurassic Park's OS :)
The OS in Jurassic Park (the original movie) was plain Irix running accelerated GL X11, with a well known demo program for 3D.
I remember we got one of those workstations at work. No one could figure out what it’s purpose should be.. someone suggested it would make a decent mmorpg server... and it was.
Re: Nototo – Build a unified mental map of notes
#20Take my money. I've been thinking about this for a long time, just dont have the energy. Implement this well and I think it's a kick ass idea.