Tired of note-taking apps • Hacker News Board

Re: Tired of note-taking apps

#91

Post by wintermutestwin » Sun, Jul 19, 2020, 2:57 PM UTC

tomduncalf wrote: post #81

Personally I find Apple Notes the most convenient for quick jotting down of ideas etc. It’s not the most advanced in terms of features but it loads instantly, is quick to use and is available on all of my devices. Have tried numerous alternatives but they’ve never stuck e.g. they’re slow to start up or are fussy to use or don’t work well on one platform. For deeper sketching out of ideas, diagrams etc I really like C…

The best thing about Apple notes is that I can dictate while I am hiking. The problem is that it seems to require >2 bars of service, which is a rarity when I actually need it.

Re: Tired of note-taking apps

#92

Post by appleflaxen » Sun, Jul 19, 2020, 2:59 PM UTC

dageshi wrote: post #33

Roam Research was the one I settled on. It melds exactly with how my mind works. I think it's probably doubled my productivity.

If it matters to you: athens research is an open source alternative

https://github.com/athensresearch/athens

Re: Tired of note-taking apps

#93

Post by DigitallyFidget » Sun, Jul 19, 2020, 2:59 PM UTC

I actually use GIMP for taking notes and save as both an xcf and pdf. GIMP is basically a simplified and free Photoshop. I can doodle concepts that can't be explained clearly with text alone unless I do a bunch of formatting and ASCII art.

Re: Tired of note-taking apps

#94

Post by MH15 » Sun, Jul 19, 2020, 3:00 PM UTC

I've been using Google Keep for temporary things, e.g. grocery lists or ideas I'll need to expand upon later; and I use notebooks to brainstorm/document my ideas as I actually go in depth. This is what works for me for software engineering and my general life.

Re: Tired of note-taking apps

#95

Post by iflp » Sun, Jul 19, 2020, 3:01 PM UTC

threatofrain wrote: post #71

What are people's preferred solutions for markdown + latex?

Coming from an academic background where I need to reference theorems and equations frequently, I've found pandoc and madoko closest to usable. But plain LaTeX (with the help of macros) turns out to be more convenient.

Re: Tired of note-taking apps

#96

Post by unixhero » Sun, Jul 19, 2020, 3:01 PM UTC

Simplenote for the win. Used it for 4 years, absolutely no fuzz.

https://simplenote.com/

Re: Tired of note-taking apps

#97

Post by andylynch » Sun, Jul 19, 2020, 3:02 PM UTC

I think this post almost touches on an interesting point - note taking apps & software are also competing against pen and paper, which are many ways stronger.

As a product for example, Moleskine (arguably the brand leader) most recently reports nearly EUR 175M in sales - nearly double that of Evernote, and you have many good alternatives in any stationer for just a few dollars.

Re: Tired of note-taking apps

#98

Post by Maha-pudma » Sun, Jul 19, 2020, 3:02 PM UTC

I used both.

If I'm learning I will write notes with a pencil and paper (pencil over pen every time). This means I have to think more about what I'm writing and for me is more flexible. I use an A4 squared pad with an index at the front, each page is split similar to the Cornell note taking system which is good for summarising and adding tags for quickly finding information. My notes are scribbled and messy. I will then transcribe these onto a computer using text files and folders for structure. You can't beat text files. As a front end for this I use Zim Desktop Wiki. Cross platform, portable, and easy to use with a simple markup syntax. It offers many excellent features, including a journal, tasks, diagrams, spell checking, interlinking, back links, searching, tags, images, tables, version control, and many others. Drop the notes into Dropbox and you have syncing.

If the worse comes and Zim disappears it's all just text files and folders. Pandoc can convert Zim to markdown or whatever you like.

For other quick notes I use a reporters jotter. I will transcribe them onto the computer if they are important. But generally these notes are throw away.

Re: Tired of note-taking apps

#99

Post by unixhero » Sun, Jul 19, 2020, 3:02 PM UTC

DigitallyFidget wrote: post #93

I actually use GIMP for taking notes and save as both an xcf and pdf. GIMP is basically a simplified and free Photoshop. I can doodle concepts that can't be explained clearly with text alone unless I do a bunch of formatting and ASCII art.

Radical!

Re: Tired of note-taking apps

#100

Post by LoveMortuus » Sun, Jul 19, 2020, 3:02 PM UTC

I agree with y'all there is magic when writing on paper. When you're actually writing. That's why Sony's DPT-RP1 (DPT-S1, DPT-CP1) feel like magic and future for note taking the only downside is the price and the availability of replacements pen tips. While there is, of course, a lot that could be improved, I was moved by the core idea itself, virtually infinite notebook. Imagine how much different your experience through schools and life would be of all of your notes from elementary school until now we're always in one place, always available to you. So much potential... Makes me quite excited for the future. (There are of course other 'digital paper' devices (remarkable, ...), but DPT-S1 was my first love, although we never got to meet, I did, for a week, own DPT-RP1 before I returned it to Amazon, because at the time I couldn't afford a ~700-900€ device)