Note-taking software

I went through law school (20+ years ago) doing all my note taking in Emacs running on a laptop running FreeBSD without an X server. As ridiculous as this is, it was fast, easy, searchable, and eliminated things like Snood that was distracting all of my classmates at the time.

 

It certainly made your hair grow.



I went from a manual typewriter to vi. Like my shorthand notebooks, though, no system.

 

On my iPad I use Notability like mad, mostly with the Apple Pencil. I’m not sure if it’s subscription now or not but I think it may be. I have used it for so long I got grandfathered in and didn’t have to pay whatever. It is so useful for my needs.

 

Have you tried FreeForm? It's a newish Apple app and I don't use it much but I like what it has so far

 

These two Verge articles came up while browsing

Why note-taking apps don’t make us smarter

Google’s AI-powered note-taking app is the messy beginning of something great

 

this isn't really "note taking" software, but it's in the realm.. it's more for writers who are working on longer-form pieces, manuscripts and books, however, and for that--and provided you're using macOS--it can't be beat.

it's called scrivener, put out by Literature & Latte, and it's $60 for a license (no BS subscription-model software fees).

it's a hell of a platform. I can't even begin to touch on all that it does, but if you're a writer who's using Evernote to pound out a novella, sequentialized erotica, or just the ol' great american novel, you def owe it to yourself to check it out at least.

link above goes straight to the site, which does do a good job of showing off its impressive capabilities, but i'd ofc read several 3rd-party reviews before entering in your cc digits.

 

Has anyone tried out Anytype? It's giving me a lot of obsidian/notion vibes, but it's got a bit more simplicity. It's got a bit more focus on privacy; they don't have your email address, your data is stored locally, locally encrypted, and you synced p2p style directly from one computer to another without a server-side copy (if you don't use their backup service).

Here I go, once again trying to break away from google keep :/

 

Thanks to your tip i have been trying and actually enjoying it. Still very preliminary but satisfied until now.

 

Anytype didn't stick the landing for me, its sync was blocked on my office wifi. Sticking with the open source theme, I'm giving Logseq a spin instead.

 

This brings me to paper notebooks.

All the features of digital notebooks are supposed to enhance productivity in some way, but in practice are you really more productive? Computers are amazing general purpose machines that can do anything, which is a problem. When you bring a laptop you are also taking a music player, video game console, messenger, newspaper, etc.; all easily within reach. While you can resist the marshmallow for awhile, it would be easier if you weren’t staring at them all the time¹.

When you require deep focus on a single task, it makes sense to design your environment to do just that. Great writers know this and have often gone to extreme lengths to make sure their computers only write and nothing more

• George RR Martin wrote Game of Thrones on a DOS program. Which is a single application OS
• Jonathon Franzen uses an old Dell where he removed the WiFi card and superglued shut the ethernet ports that were on his motherboard
• Eric Roth wrote the screenplay to Dune on a DOS based screenplay program with a 40 page limit

Are these people just dinosaurs that found something that works and don't want to change? I doubt it. I think they are driven to be as productive as possible and have recognized that general purpose machines can be detrimental to that. As someone diagnosed very late with ADHD, I have often found myself doing similar things to get anything done. While I was working in a lab I recognized that internet use was more of a distraction and I unplugged my ethernet cord and put it in a drawer. When I needed to pass an exam, I entrusted my Nintendo Wii to a friend of mine as well as locking up my laptop and desktop somewhere too until after the exam. Giving me only access to textbooks which was really the only way I learned anything. If I needed access to email I would go to the computer lab on campus.

This is to say that you might not need more, but less. While you can use a downgraded computer as I have mentioned, this is usually a second computer as you probably still want a typical desktop with all the features. Much cheaper than a 2nd computer is rolling back time even more and using paper & pen.

Notebook pro's:

• Single-task focused arrangement - Whenever I open a notebook I know I am doing one thing and one thing alone. There are no notifications or other purposes for the notebook that I would want to do with it. Sure I could doodle as other people do in their bullet journals, but I have no real artistic talent so this is not an issue
• Archiving - File formats change all the time. I can read a recipe my grandmother wrote down 40 years ago but are my grandkids going to know what to do with an Office document? Computers are quickly becoming mystery boxes to the newest generation and it's likely all your information will be lost.
  
• Sharing - Letting someone read my notebook is not that big of an issue most of the time, especially if I'm carrying it with me. Something I have saved on Evernote or Notion means I need to configure whatever note for sharing and sending an email.
  
• Always works - You do not have to worry about batteries running out on a notebook.
  
• Low chance of theft - Notebooks are cheap and used ones have near zero demand. Leaving my info in the front cover has an good chance of being returned
  
• Spend more time on important items - While there is no doubt that computers are efficient, if you want to commit something to memory you need to spend more time on it, not less. There's quite a few claims that handwritten notes are better than typed because the fine-motor control of writing requires you to be more engaged. This is somewhat controversial but what I do want to emphasize is that handwriting is a slower process which means you spend more time on the topic than if it was typed. or worse copy/pasted.²
• Mathematical and scientific formulas - There is absolutely nothing that feels natural about working out math problems on a computer. At most I have a 60 wpm typing speed and if I'm doing any sort of coding that drops down substantially. While there's a few mega-geniuses that can type fluently in LaTeX, I am not one of them. Any sort math typesetting has me looking at palettes of symbols trying to find what I'm looking for and interrupts any sort of flow I need for problem solving. There's a reason why the vast majority of research mathematicians still use chalkboards. This has changed a bit with iPads and the Apple Pencil, but I haven't tried that yet so I can't comment on it.
  
• Diagrams - Similar to formulas, diagrams also feel unnatural to me with software. You also need to browse palettes to find a particular shape you wanted to draw as well as labels, rulers and line styles. If I just want to draw something quickly to get an idea, I'd rather do it by hand.

Notebook con's:

• No reminders - I can set a long term or location based reminder with digital notebooks and calendars. Paper notebooks require a daily routine to check to see if I wrote down "remember the Dr appointment in a week"
  
• lack of automation - If I have a recurring event I can just enter that once and it will fill-in the rest.
  
• Publishing - Paper notes are good for working out ideas and figuring something out, they are not really fit for a bigger audience. Besides you obviously having only one copy, the lack of formatting can be hard for other people to follow and my own drawing abilities are completely lacking. Digital tools clean this up
  
• Editing - A major downside of handwriting is it conflicts with my perfectionism. I can't just insert a word or erase something when I notice an error, it needs to be crossed out and written on the side. Page space is limited as well which means don't have the room for significant revisions. This can be argued to be a good thing since it encourages you to be more careful the first time. But for me it leads to a tendency to procrastinate instead of just starting
  
• Chronological organization mostly - The paper notebook format highly encourages a diary style form of entry. Whatever project you are working on will read more like a story with information scattered a bit everywhere. This of course can be different if you use ring binders that allow you to arrange pages around and organize by subject.
  
• information retrieval - Every digital notebook as a search bar to allow you to find anything. If you take non-linear notes (as I do) than it might be a gigantic hassle to find anything you might have written down

This has been a bit of a longer general purpose rant than I intended so I'll stop here. I'll follow up with specific notebooks I use at some point

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1) We tend to think of people with strong willpower as people who are able to fight this battle effectively. Actually, the people who are really good at self-control never have these battles in the first place. (https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2016/11/3/13486940/self-control-psychology-myth)

2) This goes into a bit of a larger point that if you value something you should spend more time on it, which often means doing it the slow way. Why do coffee geeks have a 9-step process for espresso? Surely it tastes better but I also argue the extra time spent is directly related to how much they love coffee. Same thing with vinyl records

 

Also got an email recently that Evernote was going up to $134/yr for my paid plan. Officially dumped it and exported all my notes to Obsidian. Not that I have settled on Obsidian, but I at least have somewhere to keep them for now