Live data from Hacker News

Nototo – Build a unified mental map of notes

nototo.app

81–90 of 134 posts

Re: Nototo – Build a unified mental map of notes

#82

@dang - is this some kind of marketing post that was promoted? There’s very little chance that there are this many people this excited about some note taking app where you drag your notes as trees and park benches on a windows 95 looking map UI. Also, the number of people requesting a native app for purchase and talking about pricing… Something isn’t right here.

[deleted]

Re: Nototo – Build a unified mental map of notes

#83
post #59

Their pricing page really bothers me: > We are just three engineering students in an apartment living room, eating lentils everyday, and spending every waking moment of our lives trying to make Nototo into something that people love. > Therefore, we really can't afford to spend time and figure out the best way to take money from you. I really dislike this trend of "formulating a business plan for our business isn't i…

Yet i remember the times where people where doing things on internet for free.

It is that. It's free unless you find it so compelling you want to give the creators money you can. I'm sure the only thing stopping that from happening "back in your times" was that setting up a payment processor and accepting payments didn't take 15 mins. At no point do they say you can't use it if you don't pay

Re: Nototo – Build a unified mental map of notes

#84

Their pricing page really bothers me: > We are just three engineering students in an apartment living room, eating lentils everyday, and spending every waking moment of our lives trying to make Nototo into something that people love. > Therefore, we really can't afford to spend time and figure out the best way to take money from you. I really dislike this trend of "formulating a business plan for our business isn't i…

It's totally fine to dip feet in the water without commiting to anything.

Clearly this is all just validation of a product. Will people use our product if it's free? Will they use if there is a small price? A business plan is easy when theres demand for a product established.

Re: Nototo – Build a unified mental map of notes

#85

This 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.

I've found this to strangely work (tangentially) with music and intense exercise too.

When I accidentally listened to an old gym playlist from 2 years ago at my office desk, I felt a rush of the old determination that used to fuel my HIIT workouts. It was jarring and incredible.

Re: Nototo – Build a unified mental map of notes

#86
post #70
post #18

Suggestions 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, di…

I was thinking of using an old game one was addicted to for the memory palace. I still remember a lot of the maps in Doom, which I played as a student, for instance.

This is what i used too. I used CS maps. I knew a few of them so well (dust, dust2, office, piranesi etc)

Re: Nototo – Build a unified mental map of notes

#87

Their pricing page really bothers me: > We are just three engineering students in an apartment living room, eating lentils everyday, and spending every waking moment of our lives trying to make Nototo into something that people love. > Therefore, we really can't afford to spend time and figure out the best way to take money from you. I really dislike this trend of "formulating a business plan for our business isn't i…

I disagree with the critique. Not all software or services need to be businesses - they don't present themselves as one. It's a student project fur fun and maybe recognition. You could also argue in the other direction that they could release the source and let people self-host it. For someone with the intention to make a profitable SaaS business (which, as you say, there's nothing at all wrong with) it'd be valid ad…

Student projects are great, but for me to invest my time and effort into using just about anything (especially something that is supposed to store my notes), I do need to see a stable long-term sustainable business.

Incidentally, that also excludes most VC-funded companies, because these are neither long-term nor sustainable and usually have a user-facing lifespan of 3-5 years.

Re: Nototo – Build a unified mental map of notes

#88

This 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.

Two effects working here:

- The recall effect when you see the same areas again. [0]

- The effect of running itself. Your ARAS (or Ascending RAS, or Ascending Reticular Activating System -- not everyone uses the same acronym) in your brainstem is hurling a whole lot of neurotransmitters (like adrenaline and dopamine) towards your hippocampus. Long story short: you'll be able to remember better for the next 30 to 60 minutes. [1]

[0] Too lazy to look up the source (sorry, not having my day in terms of productivity), anyone who studied psychology would've learned the study about people diving under water and doing a memory task and then having a much better recall underwater then on land regarding that memory task.

[1] Source: learned it at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam from Prof. Dr. Erik Scherder. I still don't know where a paper is that describes the full story. I also couldn't find too much information about it online, and I never had enough time to fully figure the story out. So if there's a neuroscientist in the room, please help me out :D

Re: Nototo – Build a unified mental map of notes

#89

@dang - is this some kind of marketing post that was promoted? There’s very little chance that there are this many people this excited about some note taking app where you drag your notes as trees and park benches on a windows 95 looking map UI. Also, the number of people requesting a native app for purchase and talking about pricing… Something isn’t right here.

Not as far as I can tell, but I only have my phone and can't do much with that. I'll check again when I've got my laptop. But the votes look clean and the comments I saw so far are by established users.

It's not uncommon that a post like this strikes a whimsical chord. Promotional behavior is usually more mechanical and samey.

Re: Nototo – Build a unified mental map of notes

#90
I just saw the intro video. I agree with the key insight (I'm a psychology graduate, I'm basing it on that knowledge).

Here's some raw feedback from an n = 1. I'm being as critical as I can here, because your project can take it.

Personally, I don't think this is the final answer to the problem your solving but a good step towards it. I see some UX issues. It feels like I'm looking at a Blackberry (in a pre-Blackberry era) and not an iPhone.

So in conclusion: you found a key insight that everyone missed, executed well on it, but I'm missing a certain polish. I wouldn't know what this certain polish is, otherwise I'd have told you. It's simply a gut feeling (and gut feelings are terrible at picking things apart).

I know it sounds a bit nitpicky, but view it this way: your one step away from world domination as far your product is concerned in my eyes. I'd say in a sense that's really positive feedback, isn't it?

---

I'm going to riff on this idea in my free time: how can visual layout information help recall? I mean, one quick thought I have is: you can also make a VR app for this. Not sure if that would be the way to go (I think not), but I can imagine how it could help.

Post reply on HN