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I built minimal.app as the antithesis of over-planning, over-documenting, over-organizing, and over-thinking. The feature that keeps the mind open is the Note L
by arthurofbabylon 3y ago
I built minimal.app as the antithesis of over-planning, over-documenting, over-organizing, and over-thinking. The feature that keeps the mind open is the Note Lifetime, whereby notes die when you don’t engage with them [1].
This is in contrast to notion, evernote, et al where writers collect stuff and live in these information silos, trapped by the confines of their tools. Of course many (most?) thoughtful people can pull themselves out of these traps with discipline, but I prefer my tools devoid of these slippery slopes that make discipline a necessity [2].
I use Minimal to “plan my life” just like the characters in this story, except every time I open the app it feels like an empty slate, a blank canvas, so new projects can take new directions and new mindsets are less constrained by prior mindsets. As the designer and builder, my goal is to capture the best of a paper notebook and the best of software. I know I’m not executing perfectly, but this is a fun and exciting guiding principle.
[1] – Also the interface is just clean with features hidden away until they are needed.
[2] – Just like a well-architected structure makes the resident by default open-minded, comfortable, and joyous, our tools similarly have a “gravity” or default effect on the user. It’s very important to observe these patterns.
[Final aside] – Anyone who wants to can get a free membership and unlimited access tk premium features by joining the beta program - do it at minimal.app/#beta if you want to check Minimal out.
- ErikHuisman 3y agoSelf cleansing notes. That is a great idea.
- syntheticnature 3y agoDying notes are a fascinating thought, and relate to some of the cruft aspects I've seen with any sort of task-tracking. That said, in my usual note-taking app, I have things like recipes I might make once in a blue moon, and I'd be very annoyed if I lost my late grandma's lasagna recipe.
- bee_rider 3y agoBased on the site, it looks like it moves them to a “deleted notes” folder rather than actually completely destroying them. I’m not sure if it is locally hosted or a cloud thing. If it is a cloud thing, having noted eventually degrade might be a nice reminder that like any cloud thing it could just up and vanish at some point. That recipe is probably due for long term storage.
- courgette 3y agoI use the built in note from apple in my phone. The one on top are the most recently touched. It works for me. The bottom is stuff from years ago. It can be nice to revisit
- apozem 3y ago> notes die when you don’t engage with them That is an interesting idea, but not something I would ever want in a notes app. A note may be important but never opened. For example, I have a note in Craft with my bike serial number and a picture of me standing next to it. If my bike is ever stolen and recovered, this note is proof of ownership. I have not opened this note since creating it, because my bike has not been stolen, but I would obviously hate to lose it.
- ayewo 3y agoThat's an interesting use case. Why not just include a photo of the receipt as proof of ownership?
- TurkishPoptart 3y agoBecause it's hard to match a visual depiction of the bike and owner to a printed receipt.
- OJFord 3y agoWhy would you want to repeatedly 'interact' with that any more?
- dymk 3y agoWhy not just keep a searchable note of it in a notes app?
- dvzk 3y agoFor one thing, it's common for enthusiasts to replace stock components. A serial number stamped onto the frame isn't useful all the time, especially if the frame itself is secondhand. If someone takes your >$2,000 carbon wheelset then you're SOL, likely no matter what.
- bee_rider 3y agoLooking at the site, I guess the dead notes might just be hidden in a “delete” folder instead of actually gone forever, which seems like a reasonable compromise.
- electrondood 3y agoI just use Sublime and a notes folder containing text files groups in folders by topic. The search function is excellent, and I don't need anything more.
- codethief 3y agoWhich search function are you referring to? I can only search file names.
- electrondood 3y agoI keep my root notes folder open as a project window, and just use CMD+T to find by filename, or CMD+Shift+F to "superfind" across all of my files by word or Regex.
- waynesonfire 3y agosave your notes so you can train chatgpt on them.
- slaven 3y agoI love this! I'm starting to feel this is a solution to a lot of info-overload stress in our lives. I'm making an iOS app with the same slant: every day has its own list, so you start fresh every day, or you can add to your tomorrow's list at night so you start the day prepared. I also added a bullet-journal-like view for the month and it all adds up to a lot less stress than what I've been doing before (the testflight is at https://testflight.apple.com/join/t5ZpRV2l https://testflight.apple.com/join/t5ZpRV2l )
- fudged71 3y agoRather than a note dying, I wonder if notes could decay into smaller and smaller summaries.
- trenchgun 3y agoThat could be a really nice feature too
- arthurofbabylon 3y agoGenius
- mywacaday 3y agoI presume you were scratching your own itch but maybe you can answer a question for me, why are the majority of productivity apps on here only available on IOS?
- patatino 3y agoiOS user spend more money
- arthurofbabylon 3y agoI think it comes down to business mechanics. I think it’s often the case that Apple-ecosystem customers are more willing to pay for a product, allowing the company to have a direct relationship with stakeholders. It’s quite nice to charge a customer money, respond to their questions and feedback, grow together, succeed together. Advertising and other non-paying solutions do not have such powerful interest alignment, particularly for smaller and more artisanal brands. So business are choosing customers that support this more harmonious alignment by going platform-specific. (In my case, I simply don’t have enough resources to support Windows, Android, and web versions. For Minimal, Windows is the most requested second platform.)
- throwaway675309 3y agooof, I feel like this is replicating the worst parts of having a fallible human memory.