What is the end game of CRIMPing? (Warning: Meta Thread)

Posted by Foolness
Aug 18, 2017 at 06:30 PM

Alternative Title: What is the final form of software that you want?

I’ve been thinking about this a lot recently but it seems the direction where software is going does not coincide with what many CRIMPers are seeking.

...or is it that CRIMPers are a small subset of a general audience?

A couple of things I’ve heard as end game design are:

1) Paperless office - Evernote

2) Attachment home base - TheBrain

3) To-do list Buster - DelayTask app (sorry I couldn’t think of a more popular app)

4) Sensemaking - Compendium

5) Super Wiki - ConnectedText

6) Ultimate Digital Notebook with Image Capture Capability - OneNote

7) Ultimate Digital Index Card - Scrivener

8) Private Database - Turtl (?)

9) Ultimate Text Sandbox - Tinderbox

10) Simplified Spreadsheet - Airtable/Treesheet

11) Ultimate Search Engine - Evernote

12) Advanced Tagging Engine - Lots of software but I will pick TheBrain because it has two types of tagging

13) Ultimate Mobile Notetaker - Bear

14) Simple but not so Simple Colorful Notetaker - Google Keep

These are the things off the top of my head and looking at this (while the apps mentioned are more complex than the description) the pattern seems to be that the ultimate design for a software sought by a CRIMPer cannot be defined at all “until a software exist”.

If this is true, is CRIMPing a lost cause?

Are we always a slave to what developers develop first and then we join the bandwagon?

One would think that based on the number of software we have used that we can be sought after as consultants for software features but really are we not just the equivalent of adhd software seekers who aren’t satisfied with sticking to one software?

-Why make this a question to begin with-

I was bored.

...

Just kidding.

I recently read this topic:

http://www.outlinersoftware.com/topics/viewt/7405/

...and I was reminded by a comment David Allen said where he was planning an ultimate GTD software with someone and he just gave up after realizing that everyone worth their salt was already using a mainstream software like Evernote and had all their data on it.

So meta-wise it made me wonder: Are we in a software black hole where the number of well thought out software design might be shrinking not because of a lack of creative software designers but a lack of audience who already “settled in” their data unto a majority of mainstream software?

God I hope not but are CRIMPers the last few users who want more out of their software? If so, what is the ultimate CRIMPer design we are seeking?

It doesn’t have to be ONE ultimate design but simply a meta question of “What is it exactly that we are looking for?”

Me personally I find HyperPlan to be one of the more original design at a time when I thought Index Card design has run its’ course. Mindscope and Corkulous are up there with my picks too as far as specific ui I don’t see anywhere else. Dynalist and Favro are up there as far as software that kept evolving from what was thought as “good enough” design by the original meme makers. ForaDay changed my perception of what I want out of a calendar app.

Still… a part of me feels like I am missing something in my journey.

I don’t know if it’s because I have never been receptive to either the search engine theory or the advanced tagging theory of organizing or is it because I haven’t been aware of the glory days of outliners and I don’t know what I am missing but I thought this was a topic worth opening up.