9 ms·

Reflect – App for recording and connecting notes, ideas and contacts

152 points by gardenfelder 4y ago

hilltopeagle 4y ago
Obsidian: https://obsidian.md https://obsidian.md has been the best free (for personal use) 'second brain' app I've used so far. What's better about reflect?
- ngrilly 4y ago
  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.
  - cyanf 4y ago
    There’s too many considerations: “What should I name this note?” “What should I link this note to?” “What folder should this be under?”
    - grantc 4y ago
      W/ my obsidian setup, the note's name equalst its headline and I don't do a ton of linking for the sake of linking. I like to pick folders of broad realms or topics. But the act of creating a new note is no different than most tools, except maybe for Notes or Keep where you just hit plus and throw them pretty much in the same stack.
    - swordsmith 4y ago
      Hard agree. This type of app looks awesome in theory, but also makes me want to really organize my thoughts, make sure the tags are not too redundant, and think about how to merge with my previous notes (a lot of which is on paper). Then the perceived work involved for using such an app just for taking spontaneous notes become way too much.
- JamestUSA 4y ago
  I've tried many second-brain note apps, including Obsidian. What drew me to Reflect (away from Obsidian) was full functionality out of the box without the need for plugins. Some may like plugins, but for me, I got tired of having to update one or more plugins almost every time I opened the app. I shouldn't have to have plugins for what I consider core features. Reflect is fully functional without any plugins to update (or get compromised or stop getting updated). Plus, the design team is super thoughtful about what they incorporate. In my mind, they are just opinionated enough to make good calls and not bloat the program.
MagicMoonlight 4y ago
Having GPT integration is a very good idea
gardenfelder 4y ago
Discovered on twitter
- adr1an 4y ago
  https://alternativeto.net/software/reflect-notes/?license=opensource https://alternativeto.net/software/reflect-notes/?license=op...
jatins 4y ago
I used Reflect when this was in Beta and free and liked the experience. However most of what you get from this, you can get from Obsidian as well. Despite that Obsidian never stuck for me while Reflect kinda did. These days I am back to Bear since it's free, native, fast and editing experience is top notch and I never found much use of bidirectional links. It really has to be some kind of behavioural trait that makes some of us try every notes app out there.
- sgarman 4y ago
  I've been using Roam but seems like development is stalled. I'm mostly happy with it as is but I see a lot more people talking about Obsidian, wonder what I'm missing.
  - jatins 4y ago
    Roam was slow as hell when I tried it. And there have been reports of terrible behaviour from their founder that I don't want to condone, so don't use it in principle.
- fsociety 4y ago
  People are wow’d by the features of Obsidian however it comes at a significant cost of usability. I love using Bear too and btw they are supporting backlinks with 2.0 which just hit public beta. Also Obsidian weirds me out that they will not have a third-party security audit + give full access to plugins. Bear had Cossack Labs help implement their E2EE which is great for peace of mind. Props to Reflect for their security audit too. I will be keeping an eye on how they progress.
maccaw 4y ago
Woah, 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 appreciate. Happy to answer any questions.
- beefman 4y ago
  What happens if you go out of business?
  - maccaw 4y ago
    Then you can export your notes to HTML or Markdown.
    - joshspankit 4y ago
      With all metadata? In a machine-parseable format? How easy is it to export notes right now?
      - maccaw 4y ago
        We have all of the above. Export anytime. It's part of our company values. https://reflect.academy/492a5b05bc2b4538ac6d1c08c971070d https://reflect.academy/492a5b05bc2b4538ac6d1c08c971070d
        joshspankit 4y ago
        Excellent excellent. It’s now officially on my radar.
    - beefman 4y ago
      That's good of course. I'd also like to suggest you promise to release the code under an open source license should you cease operations.
riffic 4y ago
how 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?
- grantc 4y ago
  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.
  - riffic 4y ago
    nice, thank you. I've had Obsidian installed since its release and have been using it off and on but something about my own workflow has always kept it at quite an "almost there level" but never approaching something I'm 100% invested in. The only reason I ask about self-hosted options would be to roll this kind of software out within a group environment.
- emptysongglass 4y ago
  In VSC there's Dendron and Foam available
Hamuko 4y ago
Let me guess: Electron?
- meindnoch 4y ago
  Bingo!
gabipurcaru 4y ago
Nice. 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
- maccaw 4y ago
  I love this! You should be able to do both of these today - we let you save custom prompt templates.
- waboremo 4y ago
  I'd be more interested in the ability to implement such in a way that respects privacy and customizing per folder/note/line. A difficult task given how many are just relying on OpenAI as-is.
- imwithstoopid 4y ago
  [flagged]
  - goosinmouse 4y ago
    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.
  - Buttons840 4y ago
    Nothing is "fattening", because you can lose fat while eating any one thing. You can lose weight while only eating lasagna, thus, it is not necessarily fattening. But in general I agree, saying "I ate lasagna" could be 400 calories, or it could be 2400 calories. However, a calorie estimating AI could be useful if it indicates a level of uncertainty. You list "lasagna", and the AI estimates it's 1200 calories, plus or minus 1000, or something like that. Maybe this level of accuracy is good enough for some people, and it makes tracking and losing weight easy. Or maybe you're not losing weight, and so you realize you have to be more specific, listing the food weights and individual ingredients, etc.
sacl4350 4y ago
Been using Reflect since last year, definitely has one of the easiest interfaces to use.
karl_gluck 4y ago
For 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 landing page not mentioning open source, a permanent license, or common/interchangeable formats bounced me immediately, despite what I’m sure are some great capabilities that folks put a lot of time and work into. Maybe I’m missing something? Is that kind of app not sustainable so we don’t see them, or do I just not know where to look?
- maccaw 4y ago
  I totally agree. In fact, that's the entire reason we didn't raise venture capital, because that would have forced an 'exit' (which typically means an acquihire/getting shut down). I'm sick of seeing otherwise good businesses ruined because they raised VC without a good reason to. Our goals are modest, we're just trying to create a sustainable business. We're currently half-way towards profitability, and are on track to be profitable by the end of the year. Regarding export formats, you can always export your notes into markdown or HTML so you shouldn't feel too locked in.
  - Xeoncross 4y ago
    That's great to hear, but if someone offers you a substantial chunk of change I'd hate to get proficient at software that will stop working in 60 days. On-boarding to new tools has a cost.
- sroussey 4y ago
  And what if I put all your data in a SQLite file the app uses, which you could theoretically, just use yourself?
- davidg109 4y ago
  Agreed. And tired of them being hacked into, deciding to change their pricing model, retiring the product, etc. no replacement for good old note taking and using your noggin’.
imwithstoopid 4y ago
[flagged]
- devmunchies 4y ago
  I walk around outside and jot down thoughts in Apple notes. If you don’t write things down, many ideas are forgotten.
jbverschoor 4y ago
Seems very similar to noteplan.co, which doesn't require logging in. (uses local or cloud storage)
Bishonen88 4y ago
So is this like obsidian but without a free version? What’s the difference from obsidian?
gbro3n 4y ago
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.
- grantc 4y ago
  Logseq is well done. I ended up using it for about a month but then went to Obsidian -- I ended up realizing I like to use outliner mode for certain types of notes, but found Obsidian to be better for straight writing. There's an outliner plugin for Obsidian that gets you close-ish to Logseq and other outlners, but I ended up detuning its settings to just make bulleted lists better. Totally recommend checking out Logseq though, it's good software.
  - gbro3n 4y ago
    Yeah agree Obsidian is better for long form. You can change the enter key behaviour so on it's own it doesn't create a new block, but small blocks works better for my note taking style.
artursapek 4y ago
what inspires people to build software like this? there are so many good solutions already and the problem with "getting organized" is usually a lack of motivation, not a lack of available tools.
- stathibus 4y ago
  It usually starts with "I want to build some software" instead of "I want to solve a problem."
wetpaws 4y ago
More competition to Roam is always welcome
marban 4y ago
People who are obsessed with second-brain tools often accomplish the least because they are preoccupied with optimizing the perfect setup. Notes.app FTW
- rchaud 4y ago
  Apple notes cannot even link to a different note. There's a lot of middle ground between linked Markdown notes and the dogmatic "build a second brain" stuff.
  - voltaireodactyl 4y ago
    For what it’s worth, Apple Notes can link between notes. Share, copy link, paste into another note. It could definitely be a bit more fluid though. I imagine shortcuts could help achieve that.
    - pps 4y ago
      Hookmark app, which gives a shortcut to copy the formatted link, is all you need to link between notes in AN. They should release the mobile version soon, it's been in the works for some time.
- jyriand 4y ago
  And they never stick to one app long enough to get the benefits. Constantly switching, looking for better and faster. I switched to index cards, and honestly, I don't miss digital FOMO.
- 8fingerlouie 4y ago
  I'm also on team Notes.app, but i honestly never got very good at consistent organized note taking. My workflow is mostly: If it's important i use my "first brain". I tend to be great at remembering stuff, which is probably also why i never really got into note taking. And yes, i still remember most phone numbers from my childhood, despite 99% of them having been out of use for a couple of decades by now :D If i'm at my desk there is always pen & paper next to my keyboard, and anything "short term" gets noted there. That would mostly be meeting notes, questions (for meetings), and high level architecture sketches that will then go into a drawing tool at some point. Anything else lives in Notes.app, but not as complex notes, but rather just a short sentence or link to an article on the web. I also use the Apple Reading List for interesting articles i intend to read, but much like Pocket it is more a place where links go to die. I very rarely ever read anything i put there, so maybe i should just stop doing that :) I have tried pretty much every "modern" note taking tool out there, including RocketBook (yes, physical), but none of them ever really "clicked" with me. Notes.app gets the job done, works well across different platforms, and integrates well into every platform i use.
dmix 4y ago
I use https://ticktick.com/ https://ticktick.com/ for this and I'm 100% happy after years of jumping between GTD style apps (OmniFocus combined with Obsidian being a close 2nd). Todo lists, markdown notes, and a calendar. 3 critical organization apps combined in the same interface, all I need. $10/m seems steep for this sort of thing. Premium on TickTick is $27/yr and optional.
- Shank 4y ago
  Assuming we trust TickTick and Reflect equally and both implementations are perfect, Reflect is E2EE, whereas TickTick: > All the databases and servers are hosted by Amazon Web Services (AWS) in the United States. We make extensive use of their built-in firewalls to protect your data against unauthorized remote access and to support continuous monitoring for potential vulnerabilities. User data, including task details, account information and payment details, are all stored and encrypted at rest. > TickTick reserves the right to hold onto the data and not turn it over to any third parties. We will never share your data with third parties without your prior permission. Although we own the databases and all rights to the application, you retain all rights to your data. Strictly speaking, the price difference includes a substantial security upgrade (among other things).
  - dmix 4y ago
    Meh I'm not storing sensitive information in my todo lists and notes (and my calendar is entirely uninteresting) where that threat model concerns me much. I would certainly prefer such a feature but that's not worth paying 4.5x as much money every month. I'd rather keep sensitive notes stored on my local machine or in Bitwarden if I need remote access.
  - return_to_monke 4y ago
    Tick tick has a free version. Reflect does not.
SkyPuncher 4y ago
Question for anyone who uses this or similar knowledge management tools. Besides a fancy interface and visualizations, what do you get? I really want to like this tools, but I've found they all suffer from some major problems: It requires a lot of detail to capture thoughts accurately. I've always ended up in a situation where: * I can capture the "complete picture" of my thoughts, but the notes/visualizations are basically useless. The details are missing. * I cycle into the details, then loose track of the bigger picture. Combine this with the fact that all of these things are basically fancy notebooks, I find they don't offer enough opinion to be useful.
jdthedisciple 4y ago
How does this compare to Joplin (joplinapp.org)?
altryne1 4y ago
I've been a reflect user since the beta, paid and then stopped. Switched to mem (never paid them) and really liked the quickness with which I can just "dump" my brain into mem. But their are not customer focused, and seeing that they kept piling on VC money, felt wrong to me. Then a friend suggested that I try Reflect again, I think after they added tasks, and I resubscribed and couldn't be happier. But I was, when they added whisper voice notes, and then implemented AI features, and then upgraded to GPT-4! The customer attention is top notch, the interface was recently re-designed by the designer of tailwind UI, James. It's a joy to use, super fast, stupid simple.
- moritz 4y ago
  “Super fast”… it’s Electron
  - pps 4y ago
    The same is true for Obsidian, an application that is constantly praised by its users for the speed with which it works, even with thousands of notes and files in it.
- hdjebdkdb 4y ago
  wait, gpt-4... that means they feed your notes to openai? whats end to end encryption and all the privacy claims good for then?
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
olliepop 4y ago
I'm a long-time Reflect user, the progress in the last 12 months alone has been enormous. - The web app is super snappy, works well offline on long-haul flights, and notes are end-to-end encrypted. - I backup my notes weekly on Monday mornings by downloading the raw JSON file and storing it in safe cloud storage. - The UX is a pleasure to use, and each new feature is added thoughtfully and seems an obvious addition once implemented.
glass3 4y ago
Does it allow me to collaborate on notes with others?
ithkuil 4y ago
It seems very interesting. I'm just trying it out on mobile Android and the experience is horrible. All I can do is to edit the text but I can't navigate anywhere else unless I activate desktop mode on chrome, at which point the sidebars open but all text is so tiny ai have to zoom all the time and despite that I can't add new graphs and import my stuff from workflowy because the select box renders outside the viewport and I can't choose the import file format. I'll give it another try once they get out of the "everybody has iPhones" bubble
herczegzsolt 4y ago
Very interesting, but $10/month is steeep pricing. I hope you get to profitability and will be able to offer something more affordable for me (and my team).

152 points by gardenfelder 4y ago

Obsidian: https://obsidian.md https://obsidian.md has been the best free (for personal use) 'second brain' app I've used so far. What's better about reflect?

ngrilly 4y ago
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.
- cyanf 4y ago
  There’s too many considerations: “What should I name this note?” “What should I link this note to?” “What folder should this be under?”
  - grantc 4y ago
    W/ my obsidian setup, the note's name equalst its headline and I don't do a ton of linking for the sake of linking. I like to pick folders of broad realms or topics. But the act of creating a new note is no different than most tools, except maybe for Notes or Keep where you just hit plus and throw them pretty much in the same stack.
  - swordsmith 4y ago
    Hard agree. This type of app looks awesome in theory, but also makes me want to really organize my thoughts, make sure the tags are not too redundant, and think about how to merge with my previous notes (a lot of which is on paper). Then the perceived work involved for using such an app just for taking spontaneous notes become way too much.
JamestUSA 4y ago
I've tried many second-brain note apps, including Obsidian. What drew me to Reflect (away from Obsidian) was full functionality out of the box without the need for plugins. Some may like plugins, but for me, I got tired of having to update one or more plugins almost every time I opened the app. I shouldn't have to have plugins for what I consider core features. Reflect is fully functional without any plugins to update (or get compromised or stop getting updated). Plus, the design team is super thoughtful about what they incorporate. In my mind, they are just opinionated enough to make good calls and not bloat the program.

MagicMoonlight 4y ago

Having GPT integration is a very good idea

gardenfelder 4y ago

Discovered on twitter

adr1an 4y ago
https://alternativeto.net/software/reflect-notes/?license=opensource https://alternativeto.net/software/reflect-notes/?license=op...

jatins 4y ago

I used Reflect when this was in Beta and free and liked the experience. However most of what you get from this, you can get from Obsidian as well. Despite that Obsidian never stuck for me while Reflect kinda did. These days I am back to Bear since it's free, native, fast and editing experience is top notch and I never found much use of bidirectional links. It really has to be some kind of behavioural trait that makes some of us try every notes app out there.

sgarman 4y ago
I've been using Roam but seems like development is stalled. I'm mostly happy with it as is but I see a lot more people talking about Obsidian, wonder what I'm missing.
- jatins 4y ago
  Roam was slow as hell when I tried it. And there have been reports of terrible behaviour from their founder that I don't want to condone, so don't use it in principle.
fsociety 4y ago
People are wow’d by the features of Obsidian however it comes at a significant cost of usability. I love using Bear too and btw they are supporting backlinks with 2.0 which just hit public beta. Also Obsidian weirds me out that they will not have a third-party security audit + give full access to plugins. Bear had Cossack Labs help implement their E2EE which is great for peace of mind. Props to Reflect for their security audit too. I will be keeping an eye on how they progress.

maccaw 4y ago

Woah, 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 appreciate. Happy to answer any questions.

beefman 4y ago
What happens if you go out of business?
- maccaw 4y ago
  Then you can export your notes to HTML or Markdown.
  - joshspankit 4y ago
    With all metadata? In a machine-parseable format? How easy is it to export notes right now?
    - maccaw 4y ago
      We have all of the above. Export anytime. It's part of our company values. https://reflect.academy/492a5b05bc2b4538ac6d1c08c971070d https://reflect.academy/492a5b05bc2b4538ac6d1c08c971070d
      - joshspankit 4y ago
        Excellent excellent. It’s now officially on my radar.
  - beefman 4y ago
    That's good of course. I'd also like to suggest you promise to release the code under an open source license should you cease operations.

riffic 4y ago

how 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?

grantc 4y ago
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.
- riffic 4y ago
  nice, thank you. I've had Obsidian installed since its release and have been using it off and on but something about my own workflow has always kept it at quite an "almost there level" but never approaching something I'm 100% invested in. The only reason I ask about self-hosted options would be to roll this kind of software out within a group environment.
emptysongglass 4y ago
In VSC there's Dendron and Foam available

Hamuko 4y ago

Let me guess: Electron?

meindnoch 4y ago
Bingo!

gabipurcaru 4y ago

Nice. 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

maccaw 4y ago
I love this! You should be able to do both of these today - we let you save custom prompt templates.
waboremo 4y ago
I'd be more interested in the ability to implement such in a way that respects privacy and customizing per folder/note/line. A difficult task given how many are just relying on OpenAI as-is.
imwithstoopid 4y ago
[flagged]
- goosinmouse 4y ago
  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.
- Buttons840 4y ago
  Nothing is "fattening", because you can lose fat while eating any one thing. You can lose weight while only eating lasagna, thus, it is not necessarily fattening. But in general I agree, saying "I ate lasagna" could be 400 calories, or it could be 2400 calories. However, a calorie estimating AI could be useful if it indicates a level of uncertainty. You list "lasagna", and the AI estimates it's 1200 calories, plus or minus 1000, or something like that. Maybe this level of accuracy is good enough for some people, and it makes tracking and losing weight easy. Or maybe you're not losing weight, and so you realize you have to be more specific, listing the food weights and individual ingredients, etc.

sacl4350 4y ago

Been using Reflect since last year, definitely has one of the easiest interfaces to use.

karl_gluck 4y ago

For 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 landing page not mentioning open source, a permanent license, or common/interchangeable formats bounced me immediately, despite what I’m sure are some great capabilities that folks put a lot of time and work into. Maybe I’m missing something? Is that kind of app not sustainable so we don’t see them, or do I just not know where to look?

maccaw 4y ago
I totally agree. In fact, that's the entire reason we didn't raise venture capital, because that would have forced an 'exit' (which typically means an acquihire/getting shut down). I'm sick of seeing otherwise good businesses ruined because they raised VC without a good reason to. Our goals are modest, we're just trying to create a sustainable business. We're currently half-way towards profitability, and are on track to be profitable by the end of the year. Regarding export formats, you can always export your notes into markdown or HTML so you shouldn't feel too locked in.
- Xeoncross 4y ago
  That's great to hear, but if someone offers you a substantial chunk of change I'd hate to get proficient at software that will stop working in 60 days. On-boarding to new tools has a cost.
sroussey 4y ago
And what if I put all your data in a SQLite file the app uses, which you could theoretically, just use yourself?
davidg109 4y ago
Agreed. And tired of them being hacked into, deciding to change their pricing model, retiring the product, etc. no replacement for good old note taking and using your noggin’.

imwithstoopid 4y ago

[flagged]

devmunchies 4y ago
I walk around outside and jot down thoughts in Apple notes. If you don’t write things down, many ideas are forgotten.

jbverschoor 4y ago

Seems very similar to noteplan.co, which doesn't require logging in. (uses local or cloud storage)

Bishonen88 4y ago

So is this like obsidian but without a free version? What’s the difference from obsidian?

gbro3n 4y ago

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.

grantc 4y ago
Logseq is well done. I ended up using it for about a month but then went to Obsidian -- I ended up realizing I like to use outliner mode for certain types of notes, but found Obsidian to be better for straight writing. There's an outliner plugin for Obsidian that gets you close-ish to Logseq and other outlners, but I ended up detuning its settings to just make bulleted lists better. Totally recommend checking out Logseq though, it's good software.
- gbro3n 4y ago
  Yeah agree Obsidian is better for long form. You can change the enter key behaviour so on it's own it doesn't create a new block, but small blocks works better for my note taking style.

artursapek 4y ago

what inspires people to build software like this? there are so many good solutions already and the problem with "getting organized" is usually a lack of motivation, not a lack of available tools.

stathibus 4y ago
It usually starts with "I want to build some software" instead of "I want to solve a problem."

wetpaws 4y ago

More competition to Roam is always welcome

marban 4y ago

People who are obsessed with second-brain tools often accomplish the least because they are preoccupied with optimizing the perfect setup. Notes.app FTW

rchaud 4y ago
Apple notes cannot even link to a different note. There's a lot of middle ground between linked Markdown notes and the dogmatic "build a second brain" stuff.
- voltaireodactyl 4y ago
  For what it’s worth, Apple Notes can link between notes. Share, copy link, paste into another note. It could definitely be a bit more fluid though. I imagine shortcuts could help achieve that.
  - pps 4y ago
    Hookmark app, which gives a shortcut to copy the formatted link, is all you need to link between notes in AN. They should release the mobile version soon, it's been in the works for some time.
jyriand 4y ago
And they never stick to one app long enough to get the benefits. Constantly switching, looking for better and faster. I switched to index cards, and honestly, I don't miss digital FOMO.
8fingerlouie 4y ago
I'm also on team Notes.app, but i honestly never got very good at consistent organized note taking. My workflow is mostly: If it's important i use my "first brain". I tend to be great at remembering stuff, which is probably also why i never really got into note taking. And yes, i still remember most phone numbers from my childhood, despite 99% of them having been out of use for a couple of decades by now :D If i'm at my desk there is always pen & paper next to my keyboard, and anything "short term" gets noted there. That would mostly be meeting notes, questions (for meetings), and high level architecture sketches that will then go into a drawing tool at some point. Anything else lives in Notes.app, but not as complex notes, but rather just a short sentence or link to an article on the web. I also use the Apple Reading List for interesting articles i intend to read, but much like Pocket it is more a place where links go to die. I very rarely ever read anything i put there, so maybe i should just stop doing that :) I have tried pretty much every "modern" note taking tool out there, including RocketBook (yes, physical), but none of them ever really "clicked" with me. Notes.app gets the job done, works well across different platforms, and integrates well into every platform i use.

dmix 4y ago

I use https://ticktick.com/ https://ticktick.com/ for this and I'm 100% happy after years of jumping between GTD style apps (OmniFocus combined with Obsidian being a close 2nd). Todo lists, markdown notes, and a calendar. 3 critical organization apps combined in the same interface, all I need. $10/m seems steep for this sort of thing. Premium on TickTick is $27/yr and optional.

Shank 4y ago
Assuming we trust TickTick and Reflect equally and both implementations are perfect, Reflect is E2EE, whereas TickTick: > All the databases and servers are hosted by Amazon Web Services (AWS) in the United States. We make extensive use of their built-in firewalls to protect your data against unauthorized remote access and to support continuous monitoring for potential vulnerabilities. User data, including task details, account information and payment details, are all stored and encrypted at rest. > TickTick reserves the right to hold onto the data and not turn it over to any third parties. We will never share your data with third parties without your prior permission. Although we own the databases and all rights to the application, you retain all rights to your data. Strictly speaking, the price difference includes a substantial security upgrade (among other things).
- dmix 4y ago
  Meh I'm not storing sensitive information in my todo lists and notes (and my calendar is entirely uninteresting) where that threat model concerns me much. I would certainly prefer such a feature but that's not worth paying 4.5x as much money every month. I'd rather keep sensitive notes stored on my local machine or in Bitwarden if I need remote access.
- return_to_monke 4y ago
  Tick tick has a free version. Reflect does not.

SkyPuncher 4y ago

Question for anyone who uses this or similar knowledge management tools. Besides a fancy interface and visualizations, what do you get? I really want to like this tools, but I've found they all suffer from some major problems: It requires a lot of detail to capture thoughts accurately. I've always ended up in a situation where: * I can capture the "complete picture" of my thoughts, but the notes/visualizations are basically useless. The details are missing. * I cycle into the details, then loose track of the bigger picture. Combine this with the fact that all of these things are basically fancy notebooks, I find they don't offer enough opinion to be useful.

jdthedisciple 4y ago

How does this compare to Joplin (joplinapp.org)?

altryne1 4y ago

I've been a reflect user since the beta, paid and then stopped. Switched to mem (never paid them) and really liked the quickness with which I can just "dump" my brain into mem. But their are not customer focused, and seeing that they kept piling on VC money, felt wrong to me. Then a friend suggested that I try Reflect again, I think after they added tasks, and I resubscribed and couldn't be happier. But I was, when they added whisper voice notes, and then implemented AI features, and then upgraded to GPT-4! The customer attention is top notch, the interface was recently re-designed by the designer of tailwind UI, James. It's a joy to use, super fast, stupid simple.

moritz 4y ago
“Super fast”… it’s Electron
- pps 4y ago
  The same is true for Obsidian, an application that is constantly praised by its users for the speed with which it works, even with thousands of notes and files in it.
hdjebdkdb 4y ago
wait, gpt-4... that means they feed your notes to openai? whats end to end encryption and all the privacy claims good for then?

deleted 4y ago

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olliepop 4y ago

I'm a long-time Reflect user, the progress in the last 12 months alone has been enormous. - The web app is super snappy, works well offline on long-haul flights, and notes are end-to-end encrypted. - I backup my notes weekly on Monday mornings by downloading the raw JSON file and storing it in safe cloud storage. - The UX is a pleasure to use, and each new feature is added thoughtfully and seems an obvious addition once implemented.

glass3 4y ago

Does it allow me to collaborate on notes with others?

ithkuil 4y ago

It seems very interesting. I'm just trying it out on mobile Android and the experience is horrible. All I can do is to edit the text but I can't navigate anywhere else unless I activate desktop mode on chrome, at which point the sidebars open but all text is so tiny ai have to zoom all the time and despite that I can't add new graphs and import my stuff from workflowy because the select box renders outside the viewport and I can't choose the import file format. I'll give it another try once they get out of the "everybody has iPhones" bubble

herczegzsolt 4y ago

Very interesting, but $10/month is steeep pricing. I hope you get to profitability and will be able to offer something more affordable for me (and my team).