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How does it compare to other note taking apps like Obsidian, Notion, Joplin etc? I used Joplin for about a year and ended up taking a lot of notes. But after a

How does it compare to other note taking apps like Obsidian, Notion, Joplin etc? I used Joplin for about a year and ended up taking a lot of notes. But after a year it was so full of garbage that I found it increasingly difficult to keep things tagged, clearing my "inbox" of quickly taken notes. And it ended up looking like my work email inbox. The catalyst for giving it up was a subtle policy change at work that made me worry about using a personal note taking app with sync to my personal cloud service. I decided to fork my notes into work and personal. Midway through, I just stopped taking long lived notes entirely. I now have one less chore to do. The same thing happened with my RemMarkable 2. in fact I tired of the RM2 in a much shorter time because it was such a nightmare to sync, search handwritten text etc etc. Pity, because regular note taking apps suck at drawing and diagramming. Sure, I will forget stuff, but whatever. Most people forget stuff. Perhaps it's time to revive Joplin and use that Zen-thingemy that was on HN today, the AI tool that gulps your notes and browser history and provides a summariser / searcher? Perhaps that's the only way to take the pain out of note taking apps?

kkfx 3y ago
It's an org-mode limited editor, to have org-mode outside Emacs. Compared to MarkDown and "modern note apps" using it it's like a starship (org-mode) against a bike (MD and modern apps), but Orgzly is limited by the OS/input mode of so it's barely usable. If you want to take notes seriously you need a desktop.
- ParetoOptimal 3y ago
  > If you want to take notes seriously you need a desktop. Emacs on android and a keyboard also lets you take notes seriously.
  - kkfx 3y ago
    With a significant dose of masochism only... At least, IMVHO...
    - medstrom 3y ago
      Because of the small screen? You could use big text, so you can't see that much text onscreen, but it could ironically make it easier to write productively.
      - kkfx 3y ago
        Because of the touch input, it's limits (like no modifiers except on third party keyboards that do not offer swyping) and also the small screen, partially covered by the keyboard itself when you write. On a touch any human type a limited fraction of WPM than with a computer keyboard and the mental effort is much higher. They are just consumption devices, Emacs is meant more to produce than consume, like classic desktops vs modern ones. We are human, able to consume, but also to produce content, not to be driven by a remote platform but to drive ourselves with the computing to help, see the classic http://augmentingcognition.com/assets/Kay1977.pdf http://augmentingcognition.com/assets/Kay1977.pdf this is the model...
        medstrom 3y ago
        I agree with all of that, but she/he did mention a [Bluetooth] keyboard. That removes the problem completely. ...Ok, they didn't say Bluetooth, but why else would they mention a keyboard?
        kkfx 3y ago
        Where you use a physical keyboard on a mobile device? I doubt while standing on the road, waiting for a train and so on, a physical keyboard is used typically on a table, and in that regard a small laptop is far better since it partially contain "the table": you can type on is on the knees, the screen is "stable" no special support needed, the keyboard equally. Having a typically crappy keyboard, crappier that a craptop keyboard one, + a support to use a mobile device with it's limited an limiting OS, small screen etc is at best masochism. Mobile is pushed for a reason: it's the best platform for surveillance capitalism, the best solution to profile users and assure they only consume, not create anything significant. For users mobile stuff are just complement of real desktops, those who tried the capitalism narrated model "go mobile, it's the future" never do well except maybe for a short honeymoon timeframe. Desktop side unfortunately 90% of the substantial development was stopped decades ago, but we still have something and we need it, similarly the "homeserver" model never really took off, but we have something and we desperately need it. The cloud+mobile path is the common Clod Cam you can see on insecam and on the logs of a DDOS attack together with many commercial domestic NAS devices and other "smart" stuff, is the path where "your photos, music, ebooks, ..." exists as long as the third party service managing them exists "for life", of the service, not yours, at the condition the service decide to offer until it change the offer and the price or simply change APIs and your nice app crash and you have to rush to implement something and keep it going IF is still possible, take a look at some Chrome extensions upon Chrome API changes... Notes might be just the digital equivalent of a scrap paper note to remember the milk, but might also be your college and professional notes for a lifetime, so they potentially hold a BIG value, no wise person can endanger such value rooting it on mobile/cloud land. Oh, and that value is not just the mere text, but also the tools that enable a certain workflow, so the ability to download some MD files does not suffice, at all.
crossroadsguy 3y ago
After trying so many kinds of note taking apps. I finally keep coming back one that at max supports Markdown (actually I don't need it, but I can tolerate it) and handles plain text files and give me direct access to those plain text files. > clearing my "inbox" of quickly taken notes I always have a note pinned on top called "Clipboard". Sometimes I name it "Snippets". Earlier I used to call it "Jottings".
lukewiwa 3y ago
After trying all the digital options I’m on to a pocket notebook. I carry it instead of a wallet. Great for jotting down that half thought or random todo. Long running tasks that get rewritten enough times get put in the calendar or a reminder. Anything else that seems important goes in the personal wiki of choice but honestly a lot of the notes are just ephemeral and don’t survive when I switch to a new notebook. And that’s perfectly fine!
- raffraffraff 3y ago
  I tried that too, but the RM2 was just a larger, more expensive version of that. The problem is that you can't index, search, share, back up etc. I have up after about 10 pages. That said, my wife bought a hardback diary/planner that has a really nice layout for days/weeks and she uses it every evening.
cicko 3y ago
It's not "that" kind of note-taking app. It uses OrgMode, vs Markdown, if that helps. Seems to be more oriented to tasks and GTD, in particular. The limitations, as noted by others, is mostly in the software stack. Without Emacs it's not a full OrgMode client but a mobile helper. Depends on how you use it. I could barely survive without it nowadays. The reminders and the outlining for projects has become essential.

kkfx 3y ago

It's an org-mode limited editor, to have org-mode outside Emacs. Compared to MarkDown and "modern note apps" using it it's like a starship (org-mode) against a bike (MD and modern apps), but Orgzly is limited by the OS/input mode of so it's barely usable. If you want to take notes seriously you need a desktop.

ParetoOptimal 3y ago
> If you want to take notes seriously you need a desktop. Emacs on android and a keyboard also lets you take notes seriously.
- kkfx 3y ago
  With a significant dose of masochism only... At least, IMVHO...
  - medstrom 3y ago
    Because of the small screen? You could use big text, so you can't see that much text onscreen, but it could ironically make it easier to write productively.
    - kkfx 3y ago
      Because of the touch input, it's limits (like no modifiers except on third party keyboards that do not offer swyping) and also the small screen, partially covered by the keyboard itself when you write. On a touch any human type a limited fraction of WPM than with a computer keyboard and the mental effort is much higher. They are just consumption devices, Emacs is meant more to produce than consume, like classic desktops vs modern ones. We are human, able to consume, but also to produce content, not to be driven by a remote platform but to drive ourselves with the computing to help, see the classic http://augmentingcognition.com/assets/Kay1977.pdf http://augmentingcognition.com/assets/Kay1977.pdf this is the model...
      - medstrom 3y ago
        I agree with all of that, but she/he did mention a [Bluetooth] keyboard. That removes the problem completely. ...Ok, they didn't say Bluetooth, but why else would they mention a keyboard?
        kkfx 3y ago
        Where you use a physical keyboard on a mobile device? I doubt while standing on the road, waiting for a train and so on, a physical keyboard is used typically on a table, and in that regard a small laptop is far better since it partially contain "the table": you can type on is on the knees, the screen is "stable" no special support needed, the keyboard equally. Having a typically crappy keyboard, crappier that a craptop keyboard one, + a support to use a mobile device with it's limited an limiting OS, small screen etc is at best masochism. Mobile is pushed for a reason: it's the best platform for surveillance capitalism, the best solution to profile users and assure they only consume, not create anything significant. For users mobile stuff are just complement of real desktops, those who tried the capitalism narrated model "go mobile, it's the future" never do well except maybe for a short honeymoon timeframe. Desktop side unfortunately 90% of the substantial development was stopped decades ago, but we still have something and we need it, similarly the "homeserver" model never really took off, but we have something and we desperately need it. The cloud+mobile path is the common Clod Cam you can see on insecam and on the logs of a DDOS attack together with many commercial domestic NAS devices and other "smart" stuff, is the path where "your photos, music, ebooks, ..." exists as long as the third party service managing them exists "for life", of the service, not yours, at the condition the service decide to offer until it change the offer and the price or simply change APIs and your nice app crash and you have to rush to implement something and keep it going IF is still possible, take a look at some Chrome extensions upon Chrome API changes... Notes might be just the digital equivalent of a scrap paper note to remember the milk, but might also be your college and professional notes for a lifetime, so they potentially hold a BIG value, no wise person can endanger such value rooting it on mobile/cloud land. Oh, and that value is not just the mere text, but also the tools that enable a certain workflow, so the ability to download some MD files does not suffice, at all.

crossroadsguy 3y ago

After trying so many kinds of note taking apps. I finally keep coming back one that at max supports Markdown (actually I don't need it, but I can tolerate it) and handles plain text files and give me direct access to those plain text files. > clearing my "inbox" of quickly taken notes I always have a note pinned on top called "Clipboard". Sometimes I name it "Snippets". Earlier I used to call it "Jottings".

lukewiwa 3y ago

After trying all the digital options I’m on to a pocket notebook. I carry it instead of a wallet. Great for jotting down that half thought or random todo. Long running tasks that get rewritten enough times get put in the calendar or a reminder. Anything else that seems important goes in the personal wiki of choice but honestly a lot of the notes are just ephemeral and don’t survive when I switch to a new notebook. And that’s perfectly fine!

raffraffraff 3y ago
I tried that too, but the RM2 was just a larger, more expensive version of that. The problem is that you can't index, search, share, back up etc. I have up after about 10 pages. That said, my wife bought a hardback diary/planner that has a really nice layout for days/weeks and she uses it every evening.

cicko 3y ago

It's not "that" kind of note-taking app. It uses OrgMode, vs Markdown, if that helps. Seems to be more oriented to tasks and GTD, in particular. The limitations, as noted by others, is mostly in the software stack. Without Emacs it's not a full OrgMode client but a mobile helper. Depends on how you use it. I could barely survive without it nowadays. The reminders and the outlining for projects has become essential.