3 ms·

Fair that "just use a notebook" is unnecessarily flippant. This sort of device is something that clearly some folks like.

by taeric 2y ago

kstrauser 2y ago
I mention in another comment here that I have a Freewrite Alpha. It has a couple of issues that keep it from being my perfect device, but it's darn close. I genuinely love taking it out and cranking line after line of rough draft with it. Its deliberately pared-down UI removes the temptation to even try bothering to edit the words. That comes in a later step after it's synced to my laptop or its cloud service. But for raw capturing of my messy, unorganized ideas as fast as I can type them, it's brilliant. I can sit down and comfortably type out several pages of content with it. If I tried writing that much by hand, I'd be nearly in tears of hand-cramping pain by the end. So the Alpha, and this device, and the BYOK device I mention aren't for everyone, and I wouldn't use them for everything, but they surely have their niche.
- taeric 2y ago
  Sounds like it is a great tool for you in generating prose/poetry? Do you not need to be more graphical for some of the notes? I'm assuming you just don't use this for the math or notes use case? I'm also having to assume that this is largely consumed on another device for editing and such?
  - kstrauser 2y ago
    I love it - at least the Platonic idea of it - for writing lots of scattered ideas quickly. The recommended workflow for the Alpha is to Just Write: sit down, hit the buttons to open a new, empty doc, then follow whenever your mind leads. You deliberately don't want to edit at this stage, unless it's a typo you can fix with a couple of backspaces. You're in writing mode, not editing or proofreading mode. Then you can pull the raw text into a full-featured editor on your computer and do all the editing you want later. And yeah, it's not even remotely decent at math or taking (or organizing) notes. It barely handles Markdown. If I were in the middle of writing and got sidetracked, I'd probably insert something like ...were roasting hot dogs on the fire when the UFO came TK NOTE Just remembered I should buy a suitcase and sucked the alligator up out of the lake. and then later I'd stumble across that when I was editing it. But also note that these aren't limitations in what the hardware+software could to. It's more about what the software should do, and for the Alpha, that's get out of the way so you can write.
- throwanem 2y ago
  > I can sit down and comfortably type out several pages of content with it. If I tried writing that much by hand, I'd be nearly in tears of hand-cramping pain by the end. If I had problems like this, I'd likewise assume mere contrarianism on the part of someone claiming a notebook can serve as well as a keyboard. That was why I refused to use pens or write longhand in school, except under duress. I had not then discovered that good pens solve this problem; writing a dozen pages with one, effectively without pause, can certainly be meditative but need not be at all painful.
  - kstrauser 2y ago
    That makes a world of difference, sure. I have some excellent fountain pens that I love jotting notes with. They’re so much more pleasant and comfortable than any other handwriting tools I’ve very used. They’re great. And for me, they’re still in a different category from keyboards. For me. I get that they’re perfect for other people, but I’m not one. For me, the main alternative to a keyboard is… not writing.
Apocryphon 2y ago
Okay, then get a used Chromebook for $20 that's too old to run anything distracting.

Fair that "just use a notebook" is unnecessarily flippant. This sort of device is something that clearly some folks like.

by taeric 2y ago

Fair that "just use a notebook" is unnecessarily flippant. This sort of device is something that clearly some folks like.

kstrauser 2y ago

I mention in another comment here that I have a Freewrite Alpha. It has a couple of issues that keep it from being my perfect device, but it's darn close. I genuinely love taking it out and cranking line after line of rough draft with it. Its deliberately pared-down UI removes the temptation to even try bothering to edit the words. That comes in a later step after it's synced to my laptop or its cloud service. But for raw capturing of my messy, unorganized ideas as fast as I can type them, it's brilliant. I can sit down and comfortably type out several pages of content with it. If I tried writing that much by hand, I'd be nearly in tears of hand-cramping pain by the end. So the Alpha, and this device, and the BYOK device I mention aren't for everyone, and I wouldn't use them for everything, but they surely have their niche.

taeric 2y ago
Sounds like it is a great tool for you in generating prose/poetry? Do you not need to be more graphical for some of the notes? I'm assuming you just don't use this for the math or notes use case? I'm also having to assume that this is largely consumed on another device for editing and such?
- kstrauser 2y ago
  I love it - at least the Platonic idea of it - for writing lots of scattered ideas quickly. The recommended workflow for the Alpha is to Just Write: sit down, hit the buttons to open a new, empty doc, then follow whenever your mind leads. You deliberately don't want to edit at this stage, unless it's a typo you can fix with a couple of backspaces. You're in writing mode, not editing or proofreading mode. Then you can pull the raw text into a full-featured editor on your computer and do all the editing you want later. And yeah, it's not even remotely decent at math or taking (or organizing) notes. It barely handles Markdown. If I were in the middle of writing and got sidetracked, I'd probably insert something like ...were roasting hot dogs on the fire when the UFO came TK NOTE Just remembered I should buy a suitcase and sucked the alligator up out of the lake. and then later I'd stumble across that when I was editing it. But also note that these aren't limitations in what the hardware+software could to. It's more about what the software should do, and for the Alpha, that's get out of the way so you can write.
throwanem 2y ago
> I can sit down and comfortably type out several pages of content with it. If I tried writing that much by hand, I'd be nearly in tears of hand-cramping pain by the end. If I had problems like this, I'd likewise assume mere contrarianism on the part of someone claiming a notebook can serve as well as a keyboard. That was why I refused to use pens or write longhand in school, except under duress. I had not then discovered that good pens solve this problem; writing a dozen pages with one, effectively without pause, can certainly be meditative but need not be at all painful.
- kstrauser 2y ago
  That makes a world of difference, sure. I have some excellent fountain pens that I love jotting notes with. They’re so much more pleasant and comfortable than any other handwriting tools I’ve very used. They’re great. And for me, they’re still in a different category from keyboards. For me. I get that they’re perfect for other people, but I’m not one. For me, the main alternative to a keyboard is… not writing.

Apocryphon 2y ago

Okay, then get a used Chromebook for $20 that's too old to run anything distracting.