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Tired of note-taking apps

akkshaya.blog

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Re: Tired of note-taking apps

#431

Post by ben509 »

kawfey wrote: post #148
sneak wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple Notes are not end to end encrypted. Thanks to programs like PRISM, US military intelligence has realtime access to the plaintext contents of much of the information you store in iCloud (including notes and photos), without a court order. That, for me, makes it a nonstarter.

You must have some very interesting notes. I think for most of us, the US government wouldn't be particularly interested in our musings, but what do you suggest?

There just need to be snippets that can be taken out of context for you to be crucified by a mob. That's happening every week or so.

Re: Tired of note-taking apps

#432

Post by woadwarrior01 »

_eigenfoo wrote: post #28
woadwarrior01 wrote: post #24

I've tried Evernote, Apple Notes, the Remarkable Tablet, vimwiki, and I keep going back to handwritten notes on paper. My current workflow for notes is: I take notes on the notes app on the iPhone or my Mac if I don't have my A4 Moleskin notebook handy. And then I transcribe the notes on the Moleskin whenever I can. Another recent addition I have to this workflow is a Brother VC-500W label printer. I use it to print…

Have you considered linking notes from one notebook to another? E.g. if you named each notebook and numbered pages, you could just point to "page X in notebook Y", and wouldn't need to transcribe. Would this be something helpful to you?

I run through about two A4 192 page Moleskin notebooks in a year. Every entry is dated, and back references are essentially in the form of “On $date, I wrote ...”, so the lookup is sub-linear time.

Re: Tired of note-taking apps

#433

Post by the_dripper »

Im actually trying to build a note-taking app myself. I haven't gotten very far, becuase I kinda suck at managing my project. But I think if I manage to improve in that regard, sooner or later I will have a functioning note-taking app.

Re: Tired of note-taking apps

#434

Post by vvillena »

Multicomp wrote: post #397
grtehy wrote: post #195

Just another opinion on the balanced note taking method: I think org-mode solves almost all offline note-taking requirements * org-roam makes it super-easy to link notes * emacs as an editor is as usable as any other editor * Rich media is possible and easy to do in org-mode. Attach a snapshot, embed a video file * Code with documentation is a feature not available in most other note taking methods/apps. It's possibl…

if org-mode would support Ctrl+V pasting a random image or file into it, and if it could have rudimentary inking support, it sounds just about perfect to me. Sadly, the combo of (rich optional) text, easy paste in pictures, inking, file embedding, easy linking, open file formats / all in a sqlite file you can sync / stick on a flash drive, that runs on Windows/Android/Linux/maaaaybe web is just not there yet that I c…

If you want to insert an image in an org file, drag-and-drop usually works, although the default UX isn't good (e.g. images show in its native size until you set a "#+ATTR_ORG: :width 600px" header above the image).

Re: Tired of note-taking apps

#435

Post by Cthulhu_ »

j0hnml wrote: post #78

The biggest issue I have with note taking is not the medium or app, it’s the fact that I would often write something and never look at the note again. This essentially made the act of note writing, at least for me, futile since I rarely remember my notes as I’m writing them. The best solution for this, I’ve found, is to still take notes on the bigger picture but then to add the smaller details, definitions, concepts…

Same; some exceptions are when I write things down to turn into a presentation or blog post, or if it's like notes / actions from a meeting.

That said, for me writing things down does help me organize my thought process.

Another thing that I do think is beneficial but directly work-related is writing ADR's (https://github.com/joelparkerhenderson/architecture_decision...; basically technical documentation, one file per decision (architectural, language, library, etc); I can start those as a stream-of-consciousness ramble, then add some research / alternatives, and finally do some formatting and commit it into my project's repository.

From there it'll take on a life of its own, I'll reconsider things down the line (most recently, replacing Reach with React Router because the former is end-of-life and in retrospect had some quirks I ran into). My hope is that when more people join my project or take over, they'll be able to read it and understand where things have come from, and then add their own ideas to it.

Of course, they'll likely opt to just ignore it entirely because tl;dr show me the code.

Re: Tired of note-taking apps

#436

Post by Cthulhu_ »

qwerty456127 wrote: post #430

If only somebody would make a really good, deep, explanatory review and comparison of note-taking and knowledge organizing apps available today (including old and simple tools like Apple Notes and Evernote as well as Notion, Roam and all the apps they inspired) I would even pay some real money to read it.

There's plenty of reviews and comparison posts out there; it would help if you would cite some of them and explain what you think is wrong with them.

My take: usually they're written by the note taking app themselves or an employee thereof. The rest is people who went for one app (usually emacs org-mode, lol) and are evangelizing about it.

Re: Tired of note-taking apps

#437

Post by Cthulhu_ »

jkelleyrtp wrote: post #227
fblp wrote: post #223

Quick rant triggered by this... We have our - Cloud document systems (Google docs, Dropbox paper, Notion).... - Project management systems (Trello, Asana, Monday) - Todo/task/notes management (Keep, Todoist, Evernote) - Customer Ticketing systems (Zendesk, helpscout, freshdesk) - Bug/issue tracking systems (Pivotal, Jira, Github) - Crms (Salesforce, Hubspot, Streak) - And then theres even specialized customer facing…

You can full-send into Notion (or any one of these systems) for a "jack of all trades, master of none." Obviously, not as good as a single-purpose system, but there really needs to be a space for unified data.

+ you don't own the data with Notion; only a matter of time before they force you into a subscription like Evernote did.

Re: Tired of note-taking apps

#438

Post by slightwinder »

cycomanic wrote: post #160

I think the note taking market is due for a takeover by one of the epaper writers, like the remarkable, the Sony epaper or the onyx boox. I feel very similar to the author, at the same time I've been using my Sony epaper for reading papers and taking meeting notes which is much more convenient than using a computer. If one of these companies would come up with a good note taking app, preferably with some way of makin…

What do epaper-writers offer featurewise that normal tables with stylus-pens are missing?

Re: Tired of note-taking apps

#439

Post by gverrilla »

heyoni wrote: post #175
gverrilla wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The secret here is about the input: a key stroke on the keyboard is always the same movement, more or less, while letters are each a different symbol/drawing. There's very little creativity to pressing keys on a keyboard, while handwritten text is unique to each person, in time.

Every keystroke isn’t the same if that’s how deep you’re going to get into it. You never use the exact amount of force, or fall from exactly the same angle when typing either. It has nothing to do with that. There’s nothing inherently creative about writing. But it adds value in that it forces you to spend more time on a single thought while writing, which is not the case while typing. On a computer, you write your n…

that's why I said "more or less". force and angle ain't really comparable to the freedom that exists in handwriting. this is why there is calligraphy as an art-form, and no equivalent for keyboards.

about time to type, there's nothing stopping you from typing slower at all. also, if you choose to do it, it won't stop the forgetting-effect you mentioned.

not to mention how much harder it is to learn how to draw letters and words vs typing in a keyboard..

Re: Tired of note-taking apps

#440

Post by osmarks »

gukov wrote: post #305
gexla wrote: post #131

Taking notes is a process. If you're tired of the apps, then you haven't put enough thought into the process. The available apps are fine. Picking a tool to solve a problem is the opposite approach to how you solve the problem. You instead need to define the problem and then find the tool which is the best fit. If you're frustrated with the tool, then you might need to put more thought into the problem.

Premature optimization also plays a role. Everyone should start with a notepad and a pencil and move up to something more advanced once they outgrow the most basic method of note taking. It's a bit like buying a top of line DSLR when you're just starting to get into photography.

Having to carry some paper and writing tools around would make note-taking significantly more annoying for me than just being able to use my phone/laptop.
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