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Time to talk about my writerdeck

veronicaexplains.net

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Re: Time to talk about my writerdeck

#281

Post by caconym_ »

celsius1414 wrote: post #269
caconym_ wrote: post #193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Pomera line of devices from the Japanese company "King Jim" (yeah, I don't know) are really nice from a features point of view: limited enough to stay out of your way when you're writing, functional enough to enable the basic workflows you'd expect e.g. basic file management, SD card/USB transfers (something that many/most/all Western boutique writing devices like the Freewrite somehow didn't support well or at a…

The US version (the DM250US) is now $549, alas. I was looking at these briefly, but can’t justify the expense — might as well get a MacBook Neo if I were in the market.

Yeah I think that's substantially more than I paid for my JP market version.

I will say it is a really nice device, probably the all-around best of the dedicated writing devices I've owned and/or researched over the years. But on a typical value scale, it's not worth that.

Re: Time to talk about my writerdeck

#282

Post by kaashif »

moondance wrote: post #259
komali2 wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Who are we to say what is the right or wrong thing to focus on? Just observers pointing out that her stated goal was "to write more." If she uses the writerdeck as-is for a couple years, then, she was one of those rare people that discovered an actual single structural obstacle that stood between her and her goal, and then solved it in one fell swoop. As an ADHD guy, I completely understand the cycle: have a thing…

This really resonates with me. Not to be annoying but I think that the people challenging you in your replies haven’t experienced this as a consistent and problematic pattern in their life in the way that many people with severe ADHD have. It’s a very specific, almost obsessive behavior, and it’s less romantic than they’d like to imagine when observed as a habit.

Indeed. And someone accused me of being hostile and thought my initial comment was me making a mean joke:

> This reads like someone with ADHD took Adderall and accidentally focused hard for a day on the wrong thing. It has happened to me.

It is very far away from being a joke.

Re: Time to talk about my writerdeck

#283

Post by ChrisMarshallNY »

treavorpasan wrote: post #224
michaelbuckbee wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It it reminds me of a lot of friends who wanted to "start blogging" and their first step was writing a new static site system from scratch.

Isn't this the definition of procrastination?

I'd say more yak-shaving[0] or bikeshedding[1].

But I am also currently writing version 2 of an app that utilizes a general-purpose application server that I wrote (took about seven months), at first. It's been shipping for a couple of years. The server does great, but is unwieldy. I suggest against writing general-purpose servers.

The new version uses a newer, more focused, server that is a lot lighter.

[0] https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/yak_shaving

[1] https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/bikeshedding

Re: Time to talk about my writerdeck

#285

Post by linux2647 »

ksd482 wrote: post #284

Nowhere it mentioned anything about saving the progress. Can someone comment on if there's a way to autosave the files on every keystroke?

Vim swap files (.swp) are periodically saved out to disk. In the event of a crash, reopening a file will present you with a screen asking if you want to recover the file. I doubt it’s character by character, but I’m sure vim has a setting to speed it up

Re: Time to talk about my writerdeck

#286

Post by 0cf8612b2e1e »

CobrastanJorji wrote: post #275
jcelerier wrote: post #268

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> it's OK to not be the most efficient all the time is it ? it's a non-negligible reason for the absolutely unsufferable technological world we are currently living in

It absolutely is wonderfully alright to not be the most efficient all the time. I'm going to use this opportunity to quote Kurt Vonnegut at length: I work at home, and if I wanted to, I could have a computer right by my bed, and I’d never have to leave it. But I use a typewriter, and afterwards I mark up the pages with a pencil. Then I call up this woman named Carol out in Woodstock and say, “Are you still doing typi…

Now I want to read the wife’s thoughts on this piece.

Re: Time to talk about my writerdeck

#287

Post by keyle »

throw10920 wrote: post #192

There's a pattern that I notice a lot on HN. "To solve this problem, I engineered an entire system from scratch." Response: "That's a cool solution. But, isn't it a lot more work than this straightforward solution?" (the user is right - the complicated solution is massively more work than the straightforward one) Response: "Yes, but it's a cool project - it's OK to not be the most efficient all the time." (also right…

It's the natural flow of tech conversations. Like a splash, it follows with ripples, the sine wave of for-comments and against-comments, and eventually comes to an equilibrium.

Re: Time to talk about my writerdeck

#289

Post by SanjayMehta »

sixtyj wrote: post #258
SanjayMehta wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You might want to check out Scrivener (Mac and Windows). I use that in lieu of note cards. The cork board function lets you re-arrange text and media to your hearts content and then compile the final output to Word, PDF whatever. It's designed for non-linear writing. https://literatureandlatte.com

The point here is imho that you intentionally remove the computer from the path (in some part of your work) if you want to achieve some focused deep work (in case that you aren’t coding ofc :)

I started out using the back of punched cards, when those ran out, made my own out of scrap paper.

Scrivener just matched my workflow - usually for technical reports. Lot of cut/paste from a variety of sources.

Re: Time to talk about my writerdeck

#290

Post by maleldil »

righthand wrote: post #272
maleldil wrote: post #238

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's doing wonders for his productivity.

I mean really… he hasn’t finished writing a book that’s narratively trapped but he certainly has been writing and working on a lot more than that one book. He certainly is productive at the very least. Is he satisfying your direct desires and expectations about what he should be working on? No. Does that mean his writing device is unproductive or bad or silly or a waste of time? No.

It was a joke. I don't care how much he writes. Anything we get from him is a gift.
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