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Friction vs. Features
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Posted by Alexander Deliyannis
Mar 24, 2023 at 05:00 PM
Thanks for the encouragement. I didn’t realise that I could go ahead through the web app alone. I have just registered.
I need offline access for my mission-critical information but I will indeed try Reflect for other uses. From a first look, it appears well thought out.
Stephen Zeoli wrote:
>Alexander,
>
>I use Reflect’s browser version on my Windows machine at work and it is
>fine.
Posted by Stephen Zeoli
Mar 24, 2023 at 07:21 PM
Reflect is supposed to work offline and then sync when you’re reconnected. I don’t know how it does this and whether or not it is truly reliable. And it may be that this only works in the native Mac app and not through the browser.
The app does also boast end-to-end encryption, if that matters to you.
Alexander Deliyannis wrote:
Thanks for the encouragement. I didn’t realise that I could go ahead
>through the web app alone. I have just registered.
>
>I need offline access for my mission-critical information but I will
>indeed try Reflect for other uses. From a first look, it appears well
>thought out.
>
>Stephen Zeoli wrote:
>>Alexander,
>>
>>I use Reflect’s browser version on my Windows machine at work and it is
>>fine.
Posted by Paul Korm
Mar 27, 2023 at 06:46 PM
Depends on how one “thinks”. I mull over in my head complicated or confusing concepts or themes I am supposed to be writing about, often for weeks or months, trying to get a feeling for their geometry and texture, without words, sometimes with dreams, before writing. In fact, putting down words can prematurely stop the process and make continuing with thinking through a problem more difficult. Writing itself is friction and can force the brain to halt and abandon serendipity and the other pleasures of thinking.
Stephen Zeoli wrote:
Here is how the developer of Reflect describes a frictionless
>“Writing is not the outcome of thinking, it’s the place where thinking
>takes place. Only once your thoughts are out of your head can you begin
>to make sense of them. Any kind of friction disrupts this process.
Posted by MadaboutDana
Mar 29, 2023 at 09:02 AM
It’s difficult, isn’t it. I jot bits and pieces of writing ideas down in a plethora of apps, then try to reunite them in Ulysses. But this doesn’t always work, and isn’t always helpful.
I’ve started to experiment with a very interesting writing app, Lattics (https://lattics.zineapi.com), which uses a kind of “cards alongside articles” approach, but with extra goodies like a mindmap-alike view. It’s this mix of rapid note jotting and long-form article writing that appeals to me – you can, of course, do such things in any number of other apps, but Lattics has what it describes as a “workbench” approach that’s particularly appealing. As is the auto-templated layout and handling of references (a very convenient way to produce academic papers, if one feels so inclined). Lattics also does the Ulysses thing of combining multiple notes in a single scrolling view.
Having said which, I still tend to jot down quick ideas etc. in Obsidian, which is multi-platform, or UpNote (ditto).
Posted by Franz Grieser
Mar 29, 2023 at 10:47 AM
Paul Korm wrote:
>Depends on how one “thinks”. I mull over in my head complicated or
>confusing concepts or themes I am supposed to be writing about, often
>for weeks or months, trying to get a feeling for their geometry and
>texture, without words, sometimes with dreams, before writing. In
>fact, putting down words can prematurely stop the process and make
>continuing with thinking through a problem more difficult. Writing
>itself is friction and can force the brain to halt and abandon
>serendipity and the other pleasures of thinking.
Interesting thought.
A famous German writer, Heinrich Kleist (18th century), wrote an essay called “Über die allmähliche Verfertigung der Gedanken beim Reden“ (= “on the gradual fabrication of thoughts while talking”). For me, in fact, it’s the fabrication of thoughts while _writing_. I guess that is how many of us here “think” and consolidate thoughts.
However, Paul’s statement “putting down words can prematurely stop the process and make continuing with thinking through a problem more difficult” gets me thinking (sorry for the pun). Maybe, my habit of writing down thoughts as a means of getting them clearer, keeps me from coming up with ideas that go beyond my current horizon.
Thanks for the food for thought.