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.

I'm sure it's not intended, but slipping phrases such as "lost cause" and "slave" into a post can be construed as offensive for some, especially for those awake in the current climate in the U.S. Sorry for pointing that out.

---

Anyway, the end point of CRIMPing is the heat death of the universe. IMO, a true CRIMPer cannot be satisfied, by definition.

There's probably a corollary to Moore's Law -- the possibility of feature-complete software decreases inversely with computational power.

I don't think CRIMPing is a cause. It is a life style for adult children.
WE are all adults with child mentality. We go out and test every new release, not because it will solve our problem for good; but, just out of curiosity.

Exactly. We like to push buttons to see what happens.

Dellu wrote:

I don't think CRIMPing is a cause. It is a life style for adult
children.
WE are all adults with child mentality. We go out and test every new
release, not because it will solve our problem for good; but, just out
of curiosity.

While that's true (the lifestyle for adult children thing), it appears that CRIMPing is also a very broad category. I use various tools discovered in the process of CRIMPing to do various different things. I suppose it would be wonderful if I could do everything (task management, note taking, research, authoring, quick reminders, collaboration and so on) in a single piece of software. But then a BIG question becomes: just how massive and unwieldy would such a thing be? There are some comprehensive solutions already available in the form of online services. But I don't want to use online services all (or even any) of the time, and I certainly don't want to build something on which, let's face it, my life would ultimately depend on such an online service.

I would prefer to tinker around with various slim, efficient, elegant CRIMPing solutions, putting together workflows that are easy to remember, fast to use, and aesthetically enjoyable (yes, I do think the UX is a significant factor in one's enjoyment of specific solutions. I may be a bit weird - okay, so I probably am a bit weird - but I get a lovely warm glow when I use a particularly well-thought-out program feature.)

But a part of me - a pure, idealistic part that remembers back to certain super-fast solutions I used long before GUIs became the norm - still longs for the ultimate all-in-one solution. Perhaps the next version of Notebooks, once Alfons has finished programming it?

See? A CRIMPer's work is never done... (and yes, I do mean that ironically!)

Cheers,
Bill

Sorry I didn't mean to offend. I've been out of the loop as to what's considered offensive nowadays.

It seems what we all hold dear in common about CRIMPing is that the journey is very...pardon me if I get this wrong...curiosity driven and that the journey never ends.

That leads me to wondering... how do we as CRIMPers avoid being software nomads then? When is it right to show our loyalty to a developer and settle down? or for a developer, is it part of his goal to make us want to push the buttons so that he can retain the CRIMPers or is it a natural evolution of software design that good software = simply more loyalty.

Outlining software UX aimed at being as addictive as a slot machine (i.e. in terms of pushing buttons) sounds like a difficult concept but also seems like that's what we are seeking. (broadly speaking)

It seems like it is a never ending journey of suffering for every software that changed its pricing model, that dies away, for every recommended software guide that gets outdated as soon as someone or something new in the industry becomes the new fad.

I don't mean to make it sound so negative but to me the conversation has steered into sort of a Buddhist like question. (I admit it may not be going there if not for this reply stating it but I just felt like this is how the direction of the conversation is leading to.)

So to narrow down what MadAboutDana mentioned, there's three qualities but these broad qualities bring a certain set of questions along with them:

-Easy to remember

By far the most difficult quality. Playing around with lots of software, we're bound to establish a "suite" of our needs but how come there's no CRIMPer Office with its CRIMPer Word, CRIMPer Excel, CRIMPer OneNote. Is it that no one has ever tried to share one like that or is it a red herring to the end goal of a CRIMPer?

-Fast to use

Difficult to quantify. The less bulky a software the faster it is but the simpler it is.

Then there's purpose. Something like Evernote is certainly not faster than Google Keep but in terms of overall ease, Evernote is among the more mature of software out there.

I propose this analogy because I want to introduce a question asking what does it mean to be fast to use in an age where the average PC or Mac or Tablet or Smartphone is powerful enough to run 3d games and yet here we are talking about software whose memory consumption shouldn't consume and slow down an entire workload.

It goes side by side with the question, what is the ideal end set up for a CRIMPer? Machine Learning software like Skedpal? or going to more old school yet less learning curve variant of org mode?

What would satisfy the unsatisfied desire of a true CRIMPer and is it a worthwhile cause?

-Aesthetically enjoyable

By far the most diversified. I remember the talk alone of the Ribbon in the past going back and forth. Then there's always the Mac app ui considered more "premium" or "sleek" than the Windows version like with Scrivener.

What kind of aesthetic can be achieved by a CRIMPer who uses multiple software often versus a user who simply wants to use it?

For example, using browsers as an analogy, before Chrome came nobody jump shipped to its ui but there were murmurs of a Firefox Lite, an Opera lite, a slimmed down IE shell browser and all of a sudden everyone just jump shipped to Chromium builds.

I look at it and I wonder what's the potential equivalent of this for CRIMPing? Web clipping and web highlighting certainly brought more Evernote and OneNote users but neither are a unified UX that people are clamoring for and stating "Ok this is THE one UI where I won't CRIMP anymore."

For me, a better analogy is that of home and adventure.

- you are adventurer doesn't mean that you don't have home.
- there are softwares which I consider the foundation of my workflow: they are my home. I try; come back to them...or, I evaluate others on how they play the core foundations.

1) Devonthink
2) Tinderbox
3) Foxtrot
4) Latex
5) Texstudio
6) Bookends

These are my family. They cannot be replaced. They are just the foundations.I am totally loyal to them. I then try others just out of curiosity: or, just for the sheer exictement with the new app, new perspective. I finally evaluate the new comer how it would play with these core applications.

Yes, I would agree with Dellu here; I have a number of apps I'm very unlikely to ditch (although the proportion of time I spend using them does vary quite a lot), and then I experiment with others, just occasionally coming across something that makes me question my entire workflow. This I regard as intellectually refreshing and, really, the entire point of CRIMPing.

I agree with Bill - I find the intellectual exercise in CRIMPing very rewarding. It's a 20/80 thing, or maybe 5/95 - the 5% good, is worth the 95% not-so-good?

It's unlikely I would have found gems like Scrivener and Treesheets and Hyperplan ... and InfoQube... if not for this forum, and especially the regular posters (thank you all), and CRIMPing in general.