Comment by niam
1 day ago
The closest I've come is in using an "outliner". I don't have it in me to impose structure on notes.
I like how logseq works, where you don't need to name your files. You just write into the "today" log about whatever. Then if you someday want to create a page on a particular topic, the system combs through your past daylogs for incidences of that phrase and throws a reference to it into the doc for you.
There's no necessary starting structure besides the incidental chronology of when you elect to write. But it's useful to me in the same ways I think structure/organization is meant to afford.
Obsidian works similarly, but its unit of information is a document, vs logseq which uses bullet points. I tend to prefer the latter since even prose is too structured for me when I need to quickly jot things.
Seconding Logseq, though I think the move to database structure is going to ruin it for me. I'm one of those people for whom Notion is counterintuitive to the point of being completely unusable, and all I can suss out about this switch is that it's going to make Logseq more like Notion.
Every time the Johnny.Decimal system resurfaces on HN, though, I'll admit to spending a couple weeks revisiting the task of finally systematizing the decades of old files stored on my hard drive, until I remember that I haven't looked for any of them in many years, never mind opened them, so it's probably not worth any effort after all.
> I'm one of those people for whom Notion is counterintuitive to the point of being completely unusable
Most of the existing workflows remain the same and the DB version opens up many more workflows. Would recommend trying it out if you haven't already with https://test.logseq.com/ and https://github.com/logseq/docs/blob/feat/db/db-version.md. If you have tried it out, please give us feedback :)
I've played with it enough to know I don't intend to move forward with it. It takes so many of the things that were intuitive and functional for me, adds a ton of stuff I don't want and wouldn't use, and ruins what made me love the product so much.
For example, I like just popping "TODO" on the front of a line, but the database version adds a bunch of stuff I don't want. I don't want to have a drop-down list pop up with distracting icons that don't even have a cohesive color scheme. I don't want to have to move my cursor down a list. I just want to click where it says TODO and have it change to DOING and then change back when I click it again, and then change to DONE when I click the box. I don't want tags on the ends of my lines. I like having the status right at the front, not singled out as just one more property, but just there, where I would put them if I were writing things down without software. I don't want to have to set properties, and I don't even use tags as a separate thing to be attached to my blocks, certainly not right-aligned.
What made Logseq elegant in its simplicity is absolutely ruined for me with the database version. It is the most concerted effort I've ever seen to destroy the best parts of the product to make it into something entirely different.
And it's fine that you're going to do it anyway. I'm just disappointed I'll be stuck sitting on a version that never moves forward, because there was SO much room for improvement, especially on mobile, which now won't ever happen to the product I actually love.
I've not been terribly worried about them running SQLite in the background as long as their sync with the filesystem is seamless, which they've highlighted is the goal.
Unless there's another set of reasons you're worried about it?
Instead of being the one product I've ever found in this niche that actually is intuitive to the way my mind approaches storing information, tasks, etc., now I have to try to fit my brain around whatever structure they build into their database. It's a completely different experience, interacting with something where I have to change to fit it, rather than its already fitting me.
If my brain worked like a database, I'd already be using one of the dozens of products that depended on a database structure. I don't doubt that this will be more mainstream because of the decision, but it will ruin what made the product useful for me.