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The author makes some points about the benefits of doing this, but I really think he's making things more difficult for himself. Even a basic note-taking app wo

The author makes some points about the benefits of doing this, but I really think he's making things more difficult for himself. Even a basic note-taking app would provide a much larger number of features and be equally easy to use. It's quirky idea but it's really not that practical.

tajd 5y ago
Sometimes its good to remember that the best method is the one that you actually use - the author clearly uses their method! You could also argue that reducing your number of dependencies to a calendar and a note file is actually quite practical. It depends on your perspective.
superkuh 5y ago
Nope. A note-taking application would not work for 12 years. And it certainly wouldn't work for the 20+ years I've been using a single .txt file. The longevity and ease of longevity of simple plain text is the major benefit.
- cableshaft 5y ago
  But what about an application wrapper around plain text files, like Obsidian or a Markdown editor? You get some benefits while the files are also saved in plain-text format.
  - superkuh 5y ago
    What benefits? My notes are now full of someone elses arbitrary mark-up I get to see with my eyes? That's just clutter. I doubt those programs have existed for more than a handful of years and I doubt they'll exist longer than that into the future.
    - dotancohen 5y ago
      I had exactly that line of thought for decades. My notes files go back to 1999. That's why I'm so happy with org-mode. Seriously give it a try. It's syntax is not far from what I was using on my own - though it seems that I independently invented Mardown - just that it uses a * for headings rather than # (which I choose because of C comments). Org-mode has been around since around the turn of the century I think. And I'm happy to open the org-mode files in VIM and edit them there if need be.
egypturnash 5y ago
It's been working for him for twelve years. I think that's pretty practical. App require maintenance and are out of your control; right now a chunk of my personal process is a mess because some stuff depended on Evernote. Which was great for about a decade until it got a complete rewrite as an Electron app, and now it's super slow and keeps adding new "friendly" stuff that gets in between me and my notes. I haven't found a replacement that's not full of its own problems and it's impossible to downgrade to the old, perfectly functional native apps on the iThings (and eventually an OS update will break all the apps), it's incredibly frustrating. The parts of my process that depend on writing stuff down in a paper journal, meanwhile, continue to work exactly the same.
- justsomeuser 5y ago
  Same here, native Evernote has worked fine for me, but the Electron version adds too much latency, and the writing/reading of notes feels different in a worse way. Apple Notes will let you import directly from an Evernote export, but it is missing some features (no note links, no quick search/jump, hard to navigate nested folders as notes are hidden by default, no export).
lelanthran 5y ago
> The author makes some points about the benefits of doing this, but I really think he's making things more difficult for himself. Even a basic note-taking app would provide a much larger number of features and be equally easy to use. Yeah, and probably online-only. Or, if offline-use is allowed, probably use as much memory as his system has free... And, of course, every 2 years it would stop being supported, be sold to another company, turned into online-only and contain non-stop ads, and he'd maybe switch to a new app. And relearn how to take notes again. > It's quirky idea but it's really not that practical. Seems pretty practical to me: 1. Easy and flexible searching. 2. Very quick to add notes to (Double-clicking on a .txt file takes maybe 250ms to open in Vim). 3. Versioning, if you want it (add it to your repo). 4. Online-editing if he wants that (host it on a WebDAV server). 5. Viewable (and likely editable) on every single device he owns, even his TV if its hosted somewhere. Downsides: 1. No Ads. 2. Not forced into learning a new workflow every few years. 3. Doesn't cost anything. (Admittedly, the downside is only a downside for those in the business of trrr to replace the text file)..
dgreensp 5y ago
A text file is not difficult and impractical. "Number of features" is not what makes a tool practical.

tajd 5y ago

Sometimes its good to remember that the best method is the one that you actually use - the author clearly uses their method! You could also argue that reducing your number of dependencies to a calendar and a note file is actually quite practical. It depends on your perspective.

superkuh 5y ago

Nope. A note-taking application would not work for 12 years. And it certainly wouldn't work for the 20+ years I've been using a single .txt file. The longevity and ease of longevity of simple plain text is the major benefit.

cableshaft 5y ago
But what about an application wrapper around plain text files, like Obsidian or a Markdown editor? You get some benefits while the files are also saved in plain-text format.
- superkuh 5y ago
  What benefits? My notes are now full of someone elses arbitrary mark-up I get to see with my eyes? That's just clutter. I doubt those programs have existed for more than a handful of years and I doubt they'll exist longer than that into the future.
  - dotancohen 5y ago
    I had exactly that line of thought for decades. My notes files go back to 1999. That's why I'm so happy with org-mode. Seriously give it a try. It's syntax is not far from what I was using on my own - though it seems that I independently invented Mardown - just that it uses a * for headings rather than # (which I choose because of C comments). Org-mode has been around since around the turn of the century I think. And I'm happy to open the org-mode files in VIM and edit them there if need be.

egypturnash 5y ago

It's been working for him for twelve years. I think that's pretty practical. App require maintenance and are out of your control; right now a chunk of my personal process is a mess because some stuff depended on Evernote. Which was great for about a decade until it got a complete rewrite as an Electron app, and now it's super slow and keeps adding new "friendly" stuff that gets in between me and my notes. I haven't found a replacement that's not full of its own problems and it's impossible to downgrade to the old, perfectly functional native apps on the iThings (and eventually an OS update will break all the apps), it's incredibly frustrating. The parts of my process that depend on writing stuff down in a paper journal, meanwhile, continue to work exactly the same.

justsomeuser 5y ago
Same here, native Evernote has worked fine for me, but the Electron version adds too much latency, and the writing/reading of notes feels different in a worse way. Apple Notes will let you import directly from an Evernote export, but it is missing some features (no note links, no quick search/jump, hard to navigate nested folders as notes are hidden by default, no export).

lelanthran 5y ago

> The author makes some points about the benefits of doing this, but I really think he's making things more difficult for himself. Even a basic note-taking app would provide a much larger number of features and be equally easy to use. Yeah, and probably online-only. Or, if offline-use is allowed, probably use as much memory as his system has free... And, of course, every 2 years it would stop being supported, be sold to another company, turned into online-only and contain non-stop ads, and he'd maybe switch to a new app. And relearn how to take notes again. > It's quirky idea but it's really not that practical. Seems pretty practical to me: 1. Easy and flexible searching. 2. Very quick to add notes to (Double-clicking on a .txt file takes maybe 250ms to open in Vim). 3. Versioning, if you want it (add it to your repo). 4. Online-editing if he wants that (host it on a WebDAV server). 5. Viewable (and likely editable) on every single device he owns, even his TV if its hosted somewhere. Downsides: 1. No Ads. 2. Not forced into learning a new workflow every few years. 3. Doesn't cost anything. (Admittedly, the downside is only a downside for those in the business of trrr to replace the text file)..

dgreensp 5y ago

A text file is not difficult and impractical. "Number of features" is not what makes a tool practical.