I've been really happy with Logseq. It has a similar interface to Reflect by the looks of it, but it saves to the local file system in plain text (markdown-ish) format. They have sync now, but roll your own sync via git is also very feasible. Obsidian is similar but I like the 'outliner' 'Roam like' apps that can infer relationships via blocks and indentation.
Reflect – App for recording and connecting notes, ideas and contacts
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Re: Reflect – App for recording and connecting notes, ideas and contacts
#22So is this like obsidian but without a free version? What’s the difference from obsidian?
Re: Reflect – App for recording and connecting notes, ideas and contacts
#23For years I’ve been pouring through all the apps/platforms like this, but after being burned too many times I am (incredibly) reluctant to tie my second brain to a box that will lock itself unless I pay. Even if it’s just an interface, it’s too disruptive when my whole workflow is upended by a service getting bought/shutting down/“upgrading” to break old features/increases fees. I see a “free trial”. That plus the la…
And what if I put all your data in a SQLite file the app uses, which you could theoretically, just use yourself?
Re: Reflect – App for recording and connecting notes, ideas and contacts
#24For years I’ve been pouring through all the apps/platforms like this, but after being burned too many times I am (incredibly) reluctant to tie my second brain to a box that will lock itself unless I pay. Even if it’s just an interface, it’s too disruptive when my whole workflow is upended by a service getting bought/shutting down/“upgrading” to break old features/increases fees. I see a “free trial”. That plus the la…
I also felt this way (jumping from tool to tool) until I found Obsidian, which is just sugar on top of markdown files and normal folders: https://obsidian.md
Another vote for Obsidian. I pay for the app even though I don't have to.
Great piece of tech. I really like using it.
Re: Reflect – App for recording and connecting notes, ideas and contacts
#25Obsidian: https://obsidian.md has been the best free (for personal use) 'second brain' app I've used so far. What's better about reflect?
I use and really like Obsidian, but there is something about the UX that is often making me come back to Apple Notes: it feels easier/faster to create new notes, retrieve them and search in Apple Notes.
Re: Reflect – App for recording and connecting notes, ideas and contacts
#26Seems very similar to noteplan.co, which doesn't require logging in. (uses local or cloud storage)
Re: Reflect – App for recording and connecting notes, ideas and contacts
#27Nice. I'd be super interested in deeper AI integrations for note taking apps, to help you reach certain goals, e.g.: - calorie counting or diets: just write down what you ate, and it should be good enough to compute calories, macros etc. - gym logging: write down when you went to the gym and what you did, and it should give you tips, help you maintain your routine and other helpful things
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You're pretty wrong on all of those points. Take bodybuilders for example. Most bodybuilders track number of reps daily because if they're not progressively overloading, they're not making progress. It also tells them when to take a deload week.
Track your meals for a week or two and you'll see the actual calories and macros are pretty far from what you might think in your mind. When you're doing a lean bulk and shooting for a +250 calorie surplus, how in the world are you supposed to actually know you're around a +250 calorie surplus without tracking? It would be almost impossible to know your actually TDEE without counting calories for a few weeks or months.
Re: Reflect – App for recording and connecting notes, ideas and contacts
#28Woah, cool to see Reflect on HN. I started Reflect a few years ago. We're building it as a lifestyle company. There's only four of us. We bootstrapped for a while, and then did a $1m crowdfund. Now our goal is to get to profitability, and we're half-way there. Product wise, our goal is to make something beautiful, fast, secure - that just works out the box. We're end-to-encrypted, which I think this crowd will apprec…
What happens if you go out of business?
Re: Reflect – App for recording and connecting notes, ideas and contacts
#29[flagged]
I walk around outside and jot down thoughts in Apple notes.
If you don’t write things down, many ideas are forgotten.
Re: Reflect – App for recording and connecting notes, ideas and contacts
#30how do I get something like this but in VSC or Obsidian? or to come at a slightly different angle, is anyone working on a version of this sort of product that can be self-hosted?
I'd recommend exploring Obsidian. It's inherently self-hosted : it's just local markdown files (but you can sync via git or their for-pay sync service). The plugin community is large and it has some of the best extensibility going.
My suggested starting point (others' may be superior): switch to Minimal theme plus watch a few videos (search for 'my obsidian setup' and you'll find a broad range of fairly different takes on how to use and configure Obsidian, and you'll likely get a hint of the plugins available -- 'top obsidian plugins' is also a decent quick tour of what kinds of things are already available).
On balance, it took a couple of tries w/ Logseq and Obsidian and then a month of iterating and adding to Obsidian, and I had something better than what I liked about Bear, Ulysses, Craft, Spaces, Roam, Logseq, Evernote, Simplenote... I feel like I've tried them all.
You won't end up with the 100% polished experience of some of the well crafted paid apps above, but it's pretty close and the depth of features w/ extensibility is worth the delta. Obviously, this is very much based upon which features and workflows matter most, but it's been a delightful piece of software that no single other product seems to best right now.