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Note Taking in 2021

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Re: Note Taking in 2021

#121

Post by japanuspus »

romwell wrote: post #56
japanuspus wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you tried TiddlyWiki [0] which is running the brainfck.org Zettelkasten mentioned in the article. Seems like a very similar concept. I am intrigued by the concept and thinking about trying it out, so any input on picking one or the other would be great. [0]: https://tiddlywiki.com/

I've been using Tiddly Wiki for years, and can very much recommend it. To start, all you need is a template HTML file. No installation, no nothing - it's self-hosted within the HTML! You save changes by clicking the "Save" button, which generates an HTML with changes . If you really want, you can install a Node.js version which saves changes automatically. But you don't need it to start. I mostly use Tiddly Wiki to k…

Thanks. Spent half an hour playing around with it, and must admit that it seems magical.

Implementation aside, the whole idea of splitting information into minimal parts _and then displaying your whole route_ on one page is a stroke of genius.

The hardest part coming from the outside is grokking where the state (/database) lives: I soon found out that you could save everything in a new .html-file, and also got github sync to work, but I missed the option to use a local node-install. This is something I need to look into before comitting, as much of my workflow is centered around scripts modifying notes.

Re: Note Taking in 2021

#122

Post by marttt »

slightwinder wrote: post #88

It's kinda fascinating how something as simple as notetaking is still one of the big unsolved challanges in IT. We are constantly reimplementing the same decade-old concepts again and again, in slight variations and combinations, but yet hardly moving into a higher level of conquering this domain. One reason is for sure is the wide number of requirements that everyone has. But another one seems to be the lack of big…

> It's kinda fascinating how something as simple as notetaking is still one of the big unsolved challanges in IT.

IIRC, author of the (now closed) Taking Note blog [1] once said that you're actually lucky if you haven't yet decided for a "final" note taking technique by your 40s or even 50s. Unfortunately I can't find the exact quote.

1: https://web.archive.org/web/20201021201608/https://takingnot...

Re: Note Taking in 2021

#123

Post by riccardomc »

jrm4 wrote: post #18

Gotta get in the greatest (IMHO of course.) https://zim-wiki.org I'm continually baffled at how the rest of the world hasn't discovered this, but it could be because I sort of live at the margins of "ultra geek" and "normie." Local, self-hosted "wiki-like" tool. You write notes, it saves them, supports links and todos and calendars etc. Tons of plugins for math, git, etc etc. The killer aspect, I think, though. Any h…

I've tried many alternatives, but I end up going back to Zim. I've been using it for a decade now with Dropbox/GDrive sync.

I wish it had a mobile version and a better markdown editor like https://typora.io/

Re: Note Taking in 2021

#124

Post by subpixel »

ozzydave wrote: post #24
tptacek wrote: post #6

This is going to be one of those threads where everyone rattles off their own note-taking setup, which is great and all. So: There's a lot of things people tend to want from note-taking setups: easy entry, navigation and organization, wiki-like linkages, export to various formats, encryption. What I've found actually matters for my day-to-day and gets me to actually take lots of notes, though, is just (1) search and…

I really like Agenda app. Similar to Bear notes with two advantages- connecting notes to calendar entries is smart, it means you are organized with no effort, and create reminders in line in your notes.

I'm using Agenda app and I find search and browsing to be rather difficult compared to Bear. Perhaps the 1-to-1 connection to calendar events makes it worth it - that's what made me switch.

Re: Note Taking in 2021

#125

Post by _def »

riccardomc wrote: post #123
jrm4 wrote: post #18

Gotta get in the greatest (IMHO of course.) https://zim-wiki.org I'm continually baffled at how the rest of the world hasn't discovered this, but it could be because I sort of live at the margins of "ultra geek" and "normie." Local, self-hosted "wiki-like" tool. You write notes, it saves them, supports links and todos and calendars etc. Tons of plugins for math, git, etc etc. The killer aspect, I think, though. Any h…

I've tried many alternatives, but I end up going back to Zim. I've been using it for a decade now with Dropbox/GDrive sync. I wish it had a mobile version and a better markdown editor like https://typora.io/

Yes. It's insane how many approaches I tried for note keeping. Zim is almost my favorite. Needs a mobile client though :(

Re: Note Taking in 2021

#126

Post by gregd »

skinkestek wrote: post #100
blairbeckwith wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I followed the same trajectory as you from Notes to Bear, but have ended up on Craft. It might do too much for you, but I’ve honestly never used an app that is both so featureful and some beautiful.

Just looked at it and it is promising. One question: the price is free but there seems to be in app purchases but I haven't found what they are despite actively looking for them. Anyone knows what they are? It makes a ton of difference if it is a mandatory monthly plan that kicks in after I migrated everything, or skins or optional collaboration features etc.

https://www.craft.do/pricing lays out the pricing structure

Re: Note Taking in 2021

#127

Post by blairbeckwith »

Lerain wrote: post #77
blairbeckwith wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I followed the same trajectory as you from Notes to Bear, but have ended up on Craft. It might do too much for you, but I’ve honestly never used an app that is both so featureful and some beautiful.

My god, I haven't seen Craft before and... I haven't been so hyped about a software in a while. It's the perfect sweet-spot between Bear and Notion. Seriously... thank you! At first I was a little concerned when I saw Notions "block concept" and it doesn't feel as snappy as Bear because of that, but the way you can start a new related document super easily from each block is just really good. The Search is amazing, c…

I had déjà vu when I read this comment, as I think I tweeted almost word for word your first paragraph when I discovered Craft.

I’m something of an unpaid evangelist for it - it’s pretty close to life changing software for me, as it’s completely changed how I think and write. Glad you love it!

They have an extremely active Slack community that’s well-staffed, and their extremely responsive to feature requests. Their pace of development over the first year of their launch is incredible.

Re: Note Taking in 2021

#128

Post by codq »

reacharavindh wrote: post #79
tptacek wrote: post #6

This is going to be one of those threads where everyone rattles off their own note-taking setup, which is great and all. So: There's a lot of things people tend to want from note-taking setups: easy entry, navigation and organization, wiki-like linkages, export to various formats, encryption. What I've found actually matters for my day-to-day and gets me to actually take lots of notes, though, is just (1) search and…

Apple Notes user and fan here. Being able to drag and drop images to a note and annotating it is super useful to me. Also, being able to pickup writing or sketching on the iPad or iPhone works superb. Being part of the walled-garden and all. I wanted to try Bear after reading your comment. But, I don’t need yet another subscription software. If it was a one time paid app, I would have thought of it, but subscription…

There’s been a rise in notes apps inspired by Bear’s style but without a subscription, and I’ve tried a few, coming away with UpNote.app as the winner. It’s beautiful, multi-platform (Mac, iOS, Windows, Android), and has a super-responsive dev who’s already implemented a few of my suggestions. Bear development seems glacial compared to UpNote. I’m extremely happy with it! http://www.getupnote.com

Re: Note Taking in 2021

#129

Post by msravi »

milkers wrote: post #75
tanin wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Time for me to shine! I use 2 giant plain-text files. One for notes. The other for to-dos. I use git to sync to a private git repo using my own app https://github.com/tanin47/git-notes (work with Mac, windows, Linux) My priority is that I want my notes to live forever. Using GitHub seems to achieve that purpose. (I used many notes app before which I threw away when moving to a new app)

I am curious how many people at least tried Git/GitHub in their note keeping journey to keep their notes safe and secure and accessible.

I use nb (https://github.com/xwmx/nb) and sync to gitlab. The best part of nb, is that you can bookmark a url, and nb will keep a copy of the page with the bookmarked url. So if the page disappears later, you still have a copy with your notes.

It's all stored as markdown, so you can go in and edit the page. nb also syncs automatically every time a note is edited.

Images, pdfs, docs, etc. can all be dumped into nb.

On mobile, I use gitjournal, and point it to the same gitlab repository, so the same notes are synced on mobile.

The notational-fzf vim plugin (https://github.com/alok/notational-fzf-vim) is excellent for searching notes and just works if you point it to your .nb root directory.

The next best thing is notable (https://notable.app/), which provides a much better interface, but doesn't do the download url thing. Gitjournal and notational-fzf also work with notable.

Re: Note Taking in 2021

#130

Post by larrywright »

Multicomp wrote: post #116
marcus_cemes wrote: post #83

I did a lot of research on the topic when I started my university studies in microengineering. At the start of uni, there's a lot of money and time being spent by students to set up the "best note taking environment" to ensure their success, usually resulting in expensive iPad Pros with Apple Pencils or the Windows Surface equivilent. In the end I chose a simple piece of software for my 2012 Thinkpad: OneNote. Why? E…

I'm with you, Onenote has a unique niche. My pet theory is that Onenote can be seen by some HN types as too pedestrian (therefore not worth mentioning) because it is so popular yet is looked down on because it is made by Microsoft. MS is often looked down on by linux-first-everything-is-markdown techies because of their 90s and Windows 10 sins.

OneNote is ok, but the dealbreaker for me is the web clipper. It’s so useless that I can’t imagine anyone at Microsoft actually uses it.
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