[HN Gopher] Reflect - App for recording and connecting notes, id...
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Reflect - App for recording and connecting notes, ideas and
contacts
Author : gardenfelder
Score : 130 points
Date : 2023-03-25 15:33 UTC (1 days ago)
(HTM) web link (reflect.app)
(TXT) w3m dump (reflect.app)
| MagicMoonlight wrote:
| Having GPT integration is a very good idea
| glass3 wrote:
| Does it allow me to collaborate on notes with others?
| jdthedisciple wrote:
| How does this compare to Joplin (joplinapp.org)?
| jbverschoor wrote:
| Seems very similar to noteplan.co, which doesn't require logging
| in. (uses local or cloud storage)
| sacl4350 wrote:
| Been using Reflect since last year, definitely has one of the
| easiest interfaces to use.
| karl_gluck wrote:
| For years I've been pouring through all the apps/platforms like
| this, but after being burned too many times I am (incredibly)
| reluctant to tie my second brain to a box that will lock itself
| unless I pay. Even if it's just an interface, it's too disruptive
| when my whole workflow is upended by a service getting
| bought/shutting down/"upgrading" to break old features/increases
| fees.
|
| I see a "free trial". That plus the landing page not mentioning
| open source, a permanent license, or common/interchangeable
| formats bounced me immediately, despite what I'm sure are some
| great capabilities that folks put a lot of time and work into.
| Maybe I'm missing something? Is that kind of app not sustainable
| so we don't see them, or do I just not know where to look?
| j45 wrote:
| Logseq seems like the way to go at the moment for not putting
| your eggs in someone else's basket.
|
| Reflect looks pretty nice, the convenience of a turnkey
| solution is attractive, and so is clearing a security audit,
| however, a licensed self-host solution might be appealing if
| open-sourcing isn't on the horizon.
| maccaw wrote:
| I totally agree. In fact, that's the entire reason we didn't
| raise venture capital, because that would have forced an 'exit'
| (which typically means an acquihire/getting shut down). I'm
| sick of seeing otherwise good businesses ruined because they
| raised VC without a good reason to.
|
| Our goals are modest, we're just trying to create a sustainable
| business. We're currently half-way towards profitability, and
| are on track to be profitable by the end of the year.
|
| Regarding export formats, you can always export your notes into
| markdown or HTML so you shouldn't feel too locked in.
| Xeoncross wrote:
| That's great to hear, but if someone offers you a substantial
| chunk of change I'd hate to get proficient at software that
| will stop working in 60 days.
|
| On-boarding to new tools has a cost.
| davidg109 wrote:
| Agreed. And tired of them being hacked into, deciding to change
| their pricing model, retiring the product, etc. no replacement
| for good old note taking and using your noggin'.
| r2b2 wrote:
| I also felt this way (jumping from tool to tool) until I found
| Obsidian, which is just sugar on top of markdown files and
| normal folders: https://obsidian.md
| yellow_postit wrote:
| I've really enjoyed Logseq and found the structure to better
| match how I think and structure notes.
|
| That it has a less rabid community and plug-ins than Obsidian
| is also a plus imo.
|
| Has been great seeing so much iteration in this space.
|
| https://logseq.com/
| stoicjumbotron wrote:
| The only missing feature imo is the availability of plugins
| on the mobile app
| moritz wrote:
| Or native Apps without 200 GB chrome browser bloat.
| plagiarist wrote:
| That's the tool I am trying out now. Have you found
| anything neat that you really like about it? I chose it for
| the backlinks and because it is not trying to lock me in to
| a vendor.
| crowbahr wrote:
| Another vote for Obsidian. I pay for the app even though I
| don't have to.
|
| Great piece of tech. I really like using it.
| grantc wrote:
| Same. Although paying for Sync makes mobile workable. But
| the combo of the base too, available plugins, and a large,
| active community combine to be among the best of the
| various capture tools out there.
| sroussey wrote:
| And what if I put all your data in a SQLite file the app uses,
| which you could theoretically, just use yourself?
| ninopiamonte wrote:
| I found Twos to be a great tool for capturing and remembering
| things. It's fast, free, and available on most platforms. I
| love that they listen and prioritize user feedbacks (!!). Also,
| the development is very much active. If you wanna know more,
| it's https://www.TwosApp.com?code=nino/
|
| Happy Twosday! :)
| wetpaws wrote:
| More competition to Roam is always welcome
| imwithstoopid wrote:
| [flagged]
| devmunchies wrote:
| I walk around outside and jot down thoughts in Apple notes. If
| you don't write things down, many ideas are forgotten.
| marban wrote:
| People who are obsessed with second-brain tools often accomplish
| the least because they are preoccupied with optimizing the
| perfect setup. Notes.app FTW
| jyriand wrote:
| And they never stick to one app long enough to get the
| benefits. Constantly switching, looking for better and faster.
| I switched to index cards, and honestly, I don't miss digital
| FOMO.
| rchaud wrote:
| Apple notes cannot even link to a different note. There's a lot
| of middle ground between linked Markdown notes and the dogmatic
| "build a second brain" stuff.
| voltaireodactyl wrote:
| For what it's worth, Apple Notes can link between notes.
| Share, copy link, paste into another note.
|
| It could definitely be a bit more fluid though. I imagine
| shortcuts could help achieve that.
| pps wrote:
| Hookmark app, which gives a shortcut to copy the formatted
| link, is all you need to link between notes in AN. They
| should release the mobile version soon, it's been in the
| works for some time.
| altryne1 wrote:
| I've been a reflect user since the beta, paid and then stopped.
|
| Switched to mem (never paid them) and really liked the quickness
| with which I can just "dump" my brain into mem. But their are not
| customer focused, and seeing that they kept piling on VC money,
| felt wrong to me.
|
| Then a friend suggested that I try Reflect again, I think after
| they added tasks, and I resubscribed and couldn't be happier. But
| I was, when they added whisper voice notes, and then implemented
| AI features, and then upgraded to GPT-4!
|
| The customer attention is top notch, the interface was recently
| re-designed by the designer of tailwind UI, James.
|
| It's a joy to use, super fast, stupid simple.
| moritz wrote:
| "Super fast"... it's Electron
| pps wrote:
| The same is true for Obsidian, an application that is
| constantly praised by its users for the speed with which it
| works, even with thousands of notes and files in it.
| jatins wrote:
| I used Reflect when this was in Beta and free and liked the
| experience.
|
| However most of what you get from this, you can get from Obsidian
| as well. Despite that Obsidian never stuck for me while Reflect
| kinda did.
|
| These days I am back to Bear since it's free, native, fast and
| editing experience is top notch and I never found much use of
| bidirectional links.
|
| It really has to be some kind of behavioural trait that makes
| some of us try every notes app out there.
| sgarman wrote:
| I've been using Roam but seems like development is stalled. I'm
| mostly happy with it as is but I see a lot more people talking
| about Obsidian, wonder what I'm missing.
| jatins wrote:
| Roam was slow as hell when I tried it. And there have been
| reports of terrible behaviour from their founder that I don't
| want to condone, so don't use it in principle.
| fsociety wrote:
| People are wow'd by the features of Obsidian however it comes
| at a significant cost of usability. I love using Bear too and
| btw they are supporting backlinks with 2.0 which just hit
| public beta.
|
| Also Obsidian weirds me out that they will not have a third-
| party security audit + give full access to plugins. Bear had
| Cossack Labs help implement their E2EE which is great for peace
| of mind.
|
| Props to Reflect for their security audit too. I will be
| keeping an eye on how they progress.
| hilltopeagle wrote:
| Obsidian: https://obsidian.md has been the best free (for
| personal use) 'second brain' app I've used so far.
|
| What's better about reflect?
| ngrilly wrote:
| I use and really like Obsidian, but there is something about
| the UX that is often making me come back to Apple Notes: it
| feels easier/faster to create new notes, retrieve them and
| search in Apple Notes.
| cyanf wrote:
| There's too many considerations: "What should I name this
| note?" "What should I link this note to?" "What folder should
| this be under?"
| grantc wrote:
| W/ my obsidian setup, the note's name equalst its headline
| and I don't do a ton of linking for the sake of linking. I
| like to pick folders of broad realms or topics. But the act
| of creating a new note is no different than most tools,
| except maybe for Notes or Keep where you just hit plus and
| throw them pretty much in the same stack.
| JamestUSA wrote:
| I've tried many second-brain note apps, including Obsidian.
| What drew me to Reflect (away from Obsidian) was full
| functionality out of the box without the need for plugins. Some
| may like plugins, but for me, I got tired of having to update
| one or more plugins almost every time I opened the app. I
| shouldn't have to have plugins for what I consider core
| features. Reflect is fully functional without any plugins to
| update (or get compromised or stop getting updated). Plus, the
| design team is super thoughtful about what they incorporate. In
| my mind, they are just opinionated enough to make good calls
| and not bloat the program.
| ithkuil wrote:
| It seems very interesting.
|
| I'm just trying it out on mobile Android and the experience is
| horrible.
|
| All I can do is to edit the text but I can't navigate anywhere
| else unless I activate desktop mode on chrome, at which point the
| sidebars open but all text is so tiny ai have to zoom all the
| time and despite that I can't add new graphs and import my stuff
| from workflowy because the select box renders outside the
| viewport and I can't choose the import file format.
|
| I'll give it another try once they get out of the "everybody has
| iPhones" bubble
| [deleted]
| maccaw wrote:
| Woah, cool to see Reflect on HN.
|
| I started Reflect a few years ago. We're building it as a
| lifestyle company. There's only four of us. We bootstrapped for a
| while, and then did a $1m crowdfund. Now our goal is to get to
| profitability, and we're half-way there.
|
| Product wise, our goal is to make something beautiful, fast,
| secure - that just works out the box. We're end-to-encrypted,
| which I think this crowd will appreciate.
|
| Happy to answer any questions.
| phaer wrote:
| > We're end-to-encrypted, which I think this crowd will
| appreciate.
|
| Yes, we do! Just curios why this doesn't currently include
| files and images? Some of the most sensitive info in my notes
| is inside PDF, e.g. contracts.
|
| > "We do not end-to-end encrypt things like files or images you
| upload" https://reflect.academy/security-and-encryption
| beefman wrote:
| What happens if you go out of business?
| jbverschoor wrote:
| NotePlan is severless
| maccaw wrote:
| Then you can export your notes to HTML or Markdown.
| joshspankit wrote:
| With all metadata? In a machine-parseable format? How easy
| is it to export notes right now?
| maccaw wrote:
| We have all of the above. Export anytime. It's part of
| our company values.
|
| https://reflect.academy/492a5b05bc2b4538ac6d1c08c971070d
| joshspankit wrote:
| Excellent excellent. It's now officially on my radar.
| beefman wrote:
| That's good of course. I'd also like to suggest you promise
| to release the code under an open source license should you
| cease operations.
| arjvik wrote:
| This looks very similar to mem.ai -- how are you
| differentiating yourself?
| altryne1 wrote:
| Previous user of both, but have opted to pay for Reflect,
| after Mem added AI features before adding a dark mode.
|
| Any notes app that doesn't give a dark mode to their
| customers as high priority, no matter how cool, is not
| listening to their customers.
|
| Alex has been obsessed with customer feedback, answering
| support emails, and on discord, and it shows. Reflect is
| beautiful, fast and super secure.
|
| Mem has the twitter bot, which is really cool!
| slickdork wrote:
| Your product claims to be end to end encrypted. Since it is
| closed source, do you plan on providing any proof via a third-
| party security audit?
| ngneer wrote:
| We only ask because we have been burned in the past. For the
| existence of encryption to comfort a security savvy crowd, we
| often need to see that it was implemented correctly, as there
| are far too many ways of getting it wrong than there are of
| getting it right. I would not worry about it too much,
| though. Once the product is successful you can go back and
| rethink, like Zoom did. Sad, but true.
| maccaw wrote:
| Yup, audit details are here:
| https://reflect.academy/security-and-encryption
| olliepop wrote:
| I'm a long-time Reflect user, the progress in the last 12 months
| alone has been enormous.
|
| - The web app is super snappy, works well offline on long-haul
| flights, and notes are end-to-end encrypted.
|
| - I backup my notes weekly on Monday mornings by downloading the
| raw JSON file and storing it in safe cloud storage.
|
| - The UX is a pleasure to use, and each new feature is added
| thoughtfully and seems an obvious addition once implemented.
| gbro3n wrote:
| I've been really happy with Logseq. It has a similar interface to
| Reflect by the looks of it, but it saves to the local file system
| in plain text (markdown-ish) format. They have sync now, but roll
| your own sync via git is also very feasible. Obsidian is similar
| but I like the 'outliner' 'Roam like' apps that can infer
| relationships via blocks and indentation.
| grantc wrote:
| Logseq is well done. I ended up using it for about a month but
| then went to Obsidian -- I ended up realizing I like to use
| outliner mode for certain types of notes, but found Obsidian to
| be better for straight writing. There's an outliner plugin for
| Obsidian that gets you close-ish to Logseq and other outlners,
| but I ended up detuning its settings to just make bulleted
| lists better. Totally recommend checking out Logseq though,
| it's good software.
| gbro3n wrote:
| Yeah agree Obsidian is better for long form. You can change
| the enter key behaviour so on it's own it doesn't create a
| new block, but small blocks works better for my note taking
| style.
| dmix wrote:
| I use https://ticktick.com/ for this and I'm 100% happy after
| years of jumping between GTD style apps (OmniFocus combined with
| Obsidian being a close 2nd). Todo lists, markdown notes, and a
| calendar. 3 critical organization apps combined in the same
| interface, all I need.
|
| $10/m seems steep for this sort of thing. Premium on TickTick is
| $27/yr and optional.
| Shank wrote:
| Assuming we trust TickTick and Reflect equally and both
| implementations are perfect, Reflect is E2EE, whereas TickTick:
|
| > All the databases and servers are hosted by Amazon Web
| Services (AWS) in the United States. We make extensive use of
| their built-in firewalls to protect your data against
| unauthorized remote access and to support continuous monitoring
| for potential vulnerabilities. User data, including task
| details, account information and payment details, are all
| stored and encrypted at rest.
|
| > TickTick reserves the right to hold onto the data and not
| turn it over to any third parties. We will never share your
| data with third parties without your prior permission. Although
| we own the databases and all rights to the application, you
| retain all rights to your data.
|
| Strictly speaking, the price difference includes a substantial
| security upgrade (among other things).
| return_to_monke wrote:
| Tick tick has a free version. Reflect does not.
| dmix wrote:
| Meh I'm not storing sensitive information in my todo lists
| and notes (and my calendar is entirely uninteresting) where
| that threat model concerns me much.
|
| I would certainly prefer such a feature but that's not worth
| paying 4.5x as much money every month. I'd rather keep
| sensitive notes stored on my local machine or in Bitwarden if
| I need remote access.
| Bishonen88 wrote:
| So is this like obsidian but without a free version? What's the
| difference from obsidian?
| artursapek wrote:
| what inspires people to build software like this? there are so
| many good solutions already and the problem with "getting
| organized" is usually a lack of motivation, not a lack of
| available tools.
| stathibus wrote:
| It usually starts with "I want to build some software" instead
| of "I want to solve a problem."
| riffic wrote:
| how do I get something like this but in VSC or Obsidian? or to
| come at a slightly different angle, is anyone working on a
| version of this sort of product that can be self-hosted?
| emptysongglass wrote:
| In VSC there's Dendron and Foam available
| grantc wrote:
| I'd recommend exploring Obsidian. It's inherently self-hosted :
| it's just local markdown files (but you can sync via git or
| their for-pay sync service). The plugin community is large and
| it has some of the best extensibility going.
|
| My suggested starting point (others' may be superior): switch
| to Minimal theme plus watch a few videos (search for 'my
| obsidian setup' and you'll find a broad range of fairly
| different takes on how to use and configure Obsidian, and
| you'll likely get a hint of the plugins available -- 'top
| obsidian plugins' is also a decent quick tour of what kinds of
| things are already available).
|
| On balance, it took a couple of tries w/ Logseq and Obsidian
| and then a month of iterating and adding to Obsidian, and I had
| something better than what I liked about Bear, Ulysses, Craft,
| Spaces, Roam, Logseq, Evernote, Simplenote... I feel like I've
| tried them all.
|
| You won't end up with the 100% polished experience of some of
| the well crafted paid apps above, but it's pretty close and the
| depth of features w/ extensibility is worth the delta.
| Obviously, this is very much based upon which features and
| workflows matter most, but it's been a delightful piece of
| software that no single other product seems to best right now.
| riffic wrote:
| nice, thank you. I've had Obsidian installed since its
| release and have been using it off and on but something about
| my own workflow has always kept it at quite an "almost there
| level" but never approaching something I'm 100% invested in.
|
| The only reason I ask about self-hosted options would be to
| roll this kind of software out within a group environment.
| gardenfelder wrote:
| Discovered on twitter
| adr1an wrote:
| https://alternativeto.net/software/reflect-notes/?license=op...
| SkyPuncher wrote:
| Question for anyone who uses this or similar knowledge management
| tools. Besides a fancy interface and visualizations, what do you
| get?
|
| I really want to like this tools, but I've found they all suffer
| from some major problems: It requires a lot of detail to capture
| thoughts accurately. I've always ended up in a situation where:
|
| * I can capture the "complete picture" of my thoughts, but the
| notes/visualizations are basically useless. The details are
| missing.
|
| * I cycle into the details, then loose track of the bigger
| picture.
|
| Combine this with the fact that all of these things are basically
| fancy notebooks, I find they don't offer enough opinion to be
| useful.
| Hamuko wrote:
| Let me guess: Electron?
| meindnoch wrote:
| Bingo!
| gabipurcaru wrote:
| Nice. I'd be super interested in deeper AI integrations for note
| taking apps, to help you reach certain goals, e.g.:
|
| - calorie counting or diets: just write down what you ate, and it
| should be good enough to compute calories, macros etc.
|
| - gym logging: write down when you went to the gym and what you
| did, and it should give you tips, help you maintain your routine
| and other helpful things
| rchaud wrote:
| There are apps that already do this, and don't need any AI.
| MyFitnessPal for example does calorie counts by scanning a
| product's bar code and looking at the user-specified intake
| amount.
| maccaw wrote:
| I love this! You should be able to do both of these today - we
| let you save custom prompt templates.
| waboremo wrote:
| I'd be more interested in the ability to implement such in a
| way that respects privacy and customizing per folder/note/line.
| A difficult task given how many are just relying on OpenAI as-
| is.
| imwithstoopid wrote:
| [flagged]
| goosinmouse wrote:
| You're pretty wrong on all of those points. Take bodybuilders
| for example. Most bodybuilders track number of reps daily
| because if they're not progressively overloading, they're not
| making progress. It also tells them when to take a deload
| week.
|
| Track your meals for a week or two and you'll see the actual
| calories and macros are pretty far from what you might think
| in your mind. When you're doing a lean bulk and shooting for
| a +250 calorie surplus, how in the world are you supposed to
| actually know you're around a +250 calorie surplus without
| tracking? It would be almost impossible to know your actually
| TDEE without counting calories for a few weeks or months.
| Buttons840 wrote:
| Nothing is "fattening", because you can lose fat while eating
| any one thing. You can lose weight while only eating lasagna,
| thus, it is not necessarily fattening. But in general I
| agree, saying "I ate lasagna" could be 400 calories, or it
| could be 2400 calories.
|
| However, a calorie estimating AI could be useful if it
| indicates a level of uncertainty. You list "lasagna", and the
| AI estimates it's 1200 calories, plus or minus 1000, or
| something like that. Maybe this level of accuracy is good
| enough for some people, and it makes tracking and losing
| weight easy. Or maybe you're not losing weight, and so you
| realize you have to be more specific, listing the food
| weights and individual ingredients, etc.
| goosinmouse wrote:
| in my opinion that is adding AI for the sake of AI. If
| you're making homemade lasagna it takes a minute to add the
| ingredients you used to get a very accurate calorie count.
| There's really no way AI can do it better and more
| accurate.
| Buttons840 wrote:
| Truth is though, I often skip logging calories because
| it's a PITA to do it. I have to scan the package, but I
| already threw the package away or it's dirty or covered
| in blood. I have to weigh things, but the food scale is
| in the other room, and I already mixed the ingredients.
| It's just a lot of extra steps to log calories using the
| currently available apps; I don't think I've ever logged
| a meal with less than 20 clicks. Removing small
| annoyances like this is what good apps are made of.
| ggsp wrote:
| I agree with you, logging calories manually sucks,
| especially if you're preparing whole foods. But how does
| adding AI into the mix solve the issue? E.g. it seems
| unlikely to me that we'll ever get to the point of
| snapping a picture of a home cooked meal and getting
| accurate calories, maybe that's where I'm being
| shortsighted?
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(page generated 2023-03-26 23:02 UTC)