PTPL 117 · Oh, You Like Making Notes! Why Not Use… ?

I wouldn’t dream of telling you what to do (actually, yes I would)

This week: The plain text format is the best for preserving the words you want to remember, but not everyone is ready for it and that’s okay. Keep your enthusiasm for open formats running hot anyway and you could change a life.

All words, ideas, and faults 100% human made. While paid subscribers are enormously encouraging and help me to keep writing, non-subscribers are always welcome to read for free.

Why not just use (fill in your favourite method)?

When smart, logical-thinking people choose a different note making app or system to yourself, it can mean only one thing:

—their priorities, experiences, and working style are different to yours.

Rather than recommending your specific favourites to others, Scott Nesbitt’s Why Not Just Use… article invites you to —

consider who you’re saying that to. Take a moment to think about how their use cases … might differ from yours. You might discover that there’s a good reason someone opts for tools and applications other than your go-to solution.

He’s talking about Emacs and org-mode enthusiasts evangelising to plain texters who aren’t ready for or interested in that kind of power, but it also applies more broadly. Here I am telling you (in my 117th weekly article on the topic) how and why to choose plain text, but I accept that some people don’t care enough about digital longevity to change their processes.

People whose digital notes are fleeting and optimists who are happy to trust the continuation of proprietary app formats that are online only or make it hard to export data into an open format you can actually do something with, I wish you well!

Share, but don’t info-dump

So, yeah. Organise your stuff however you like using whatever apps and methods suit you best, but don’t expect your solutions to suit everyone.

I couldn’t be more convinced that open formats like plain text are the best foundation for the typed words you care about, but I accept that not everyone cares enough to see that far into the future. People like that won’t want to read articles like this, and definitely won’t appreciate a verbal info-dump on the subject from an enthusiast!

But don’t let that stop you from throwing out intriguing one-liners from time to time. I latched onto one of those back in 2016 and am very grateful for those who spoke up.

Keep up the good work, my fellow digital longevity enthusiasts!

This week’s adventures in plain text

• I’ve read through Bob Doto’s A System For Writing, and have been successfully creating main notes for my Zettelkasten that are, for the first time ever, not overworked or undercooked. The book is teaching me how to relax into the process, see into the heart of an idea, and not worry about ‘getting things right’.
• Johnny Decimal’s CLI lessons have given me just enough know-how to finally get along with Espanso, the open source text expander. I installed it via Homebrew, and found the correct config file to add my own snippets. It’s as good an excuse as any to clean up years worth of messy shortcuts in Keyboard Maestro, only bringing across those I’m still using.
• Consolidated task lists in Workflowy, inspired by Carl Pullein’s advice to focus on time rather than task management.

Follow my RSS feed, or sign up to receive posts in your inbox  

My posts cost you nothing to read, but a goodly amount of effort on my part to put together. If you’ve found value here I invite you to share this post with someone you think will appreciate it, or to make a contribution to my support jar.