[HN Gopher] Today I Deleted Notion
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       Today I Deleted Notion
        
       Author : Tomte
       Score  : 27 points
       Date   : 2022-07-09 07:04 UTC (1 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (twitter.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (twitter.com)
        
       | dilan-dio4 wrote:
        
       | bikingbismuth wrote:
       | Last year I got bit by the productivity bug pretty hard. I tried
       | all sorts of different tools/solutions to try and be as
       | productive as possible in my personal and professional life.
       | 
       | I am ok with using multiple systems and ended up deciding on on
       | three pieces of software that worked for me.
       | 
       | - OmniFocus for tracking todos/project steps (e.g. buy a desk as
       | part of my home office remodel)
       | 
       | - Notion for documenting my reasoning and researching project
       | items (e.g. desks that I am thinking about getting for my home
       | office remodel)
       | 
       | - Obsidian for taking random notes/copying and pasting
       | interesting stuff I come across (different styles of office desk)
       | I haven't quite gotten a ZK-like workflow down for this yet
       | 
       | The part that made this work for me was setting aside specific
       | times to check OmniFocus and linking into Notion from OmniFocus.
       | Just using the apps and building muscle memory to reach for the
       | appropriate app helped a lot.
       | 
       | I am sure I could simplify this using org-mode or something, but
       | I'm tired of reading/learning new productivity systems.
        
       | more_corn wrote:
       | I just use notion as a non infuriating editor. I still keep local
       | notes in plaintext. Google docs is probably fine too if all you
       | need is shared docs. Just don't say the confluence word if you
       | want to keep talking to me.
        
       | lofatdairy wrote:
       | I will say that at least Notion is a decent enough Markdown
       | editor. I recall I had some small gripes with how they use
       | forward-slash for commands, and probably some other stuff I've
       | forgotten by now but it's certainly functional.
       | 
       | It looks like it was designed to target the Google docs crowd of
       | non-technical people in PM or other leadership roles where its
       | minimalism combined with directory organization and file
       | flexibility are desirable. In this sense I'm not _too_ surprised
       | to see my technical friends ignore it, since there are so many
       | tools in this niche already (Github wikis come to mind as an
       | alternative for documenting various decisions, challenges,
       | implementations, etc). I guess the real flaw with these sorts of
       | products is that they're tools that are treated as solutions.
       | There's no real need to add another tool to a org stack if what's
       | working already isn't broken, and doing so obviously won't
       | guarantee a massive increase in "productivity". You can document
       | the shit out of blockers but at the end of the day someone with
       | knowledge is still going to have to step in and help. This moreso
       | goes for clickup and monday.com, though, which advertised the
       | shit out of the Boston and NYC subways (clickup did a terrible
       | job, I never really found out what they were until I googled it
       | some months later and found it was yet another PM suite and I
       | don't even recall what they're UI looks like).
       | 
       | Also, it's kinda absurd to me that notion feels the need to have
       | both a certification program as well as a list of "certified
       | consultants" who are "productivity experts and solutions
       | architects". David Graeber would probably feel
       | vindicated/depressed.
        
         | Spivak wrote:
         | > It looks like it was designed to target the Google docs crowd
         | of non-technical people.
         | 
         | This doesn't mirror my experience at all. I'm super technical
         | and after evaluating all the options I landed on Notion because
         | it's by far the most "get out of the way and just write."
         | 
         | Notion: Go to documentation, see an area where you have
         | something to add, click, type, done.
         | 
         | "Pages": Go to documentation, see an area where you have
         | something to add, context switch to your terminal, maybe clone
         | it, create a new branch, go to the pages repo, go to the file,
         | add your change, commit, push, open a PR, post a message to
         | slack for someone to click approve, merge.
        
       | danpalmer wrote:
       | I'm not sure this is particularly damning criticism of Notion,
       | but rather of the cult of productivity that has taken hold of a
       | corner of the internet over the last few years. Roam, Superhuman,
       | Obsidian, et al, are all in this too.
       | 
       | I actually found Notion pretty good as a company wiki at a
       | previous role. It has its issues, and the engineers liked it less
       | than people in non-technical roles, but as an accessible wiki
       | with lightweight structuring of data, it's pretty good.
        
         | radu_floricica wrote:
         | Superhuman is Really useful. And almost completely devoid of
         | friction.
        
           | gbourne wrote:
           | I'm giving Superhuman a second go. So far it is O.K. - I keep
           | going back to Gmail, perhaps because I'm so use to its
           | workflow.
        
           | SaulJLH wrote:
           | Site's a bit of a turn off in several ways:
           | https://superhuman.com/ Still, guess I might give it shot...
        
             | SaulJLH wrote:
             | LOL what... Won't even let me dload/test anything. Wants me
             | to pay 30/mth via cc 1st. Yeah, no...
        
       | desindol wrote:
        
       | endre wrote:
       | Yeah I switched to i3 years ago.
        
         | johnchristopher wrote:
         | It's Notion the block based knowledge base thingy, not the
         | tiling manager (which got renamed from ion3 to notion I read).
        
       | systemvoltage wrote:
       | If we use the analogy of physical stationery and forms, each one
       | serves a specific, tailor made purpose. A tax form, daily journal
       | form, double entry accounting form, an invoice, etc. are
       | specifically designed for that purpose. You could technically use
       | a blank page as a starting point to make any kind of form you
       | need, but straight up blank pages are not very efficient outside
       | of personal home use.
       | 
       | Notion and its brethen, AirTable, etc. are just pain in the ass
       | to set up. They're infinitely customizeable and that's a bug, not
       | a feature IMO.
       | 
       | I'll take a proper CRM or a Wiki tool over a blank slate.
        
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       (page generated 2022-07-10 23:01 UTC)