I just wrote “Thought-Terminating Clichés” on a stickie note with a big ol’ sharpie and slapped it on my my iMac’s chin.
(I’m probably the only person on the planet who will miss the chin. Where oh where will I deploy my little post-it kanban when it’s gone …)
A special shout-out to @ismh for instituting a moratorium on discussing Obsidian! 
Thank you!
I may owe him at least two 
I wouldn’t be surprised if some company like Rain design was working on some beautifully designed aluminum wings that will attach to a new iMac or Studio monitor so people can still use sticky notes. My guess is they will cost around $59.
Or $399 if you want the ones that adjust vertically. 
Excellent episode all! @ryanjamurphy, I like the term softerware and it felt really applicable to the dashboard I’ve created and continue to refine in Craft. I took a note on it for an eventual blog post about the value I’ve found in creating a dashboard type system for my knowledge management system.
I really enjoyed this episode. I am curious to know if Ryan and/or the hosts have looked at Wardley Mapping? A technique developed by Simon Wardley for understanding situational awareness and developing strategies. More information about this technique is available on the web and on YouTube. I even think Simon is a Mac user… Anyway, I’d be curious to hear your thoughts on Wardley mapping.
Thanks, Will
Thank you for mentioning UpNote. I had never heard of it, but I did something I don’t think I’ve ever done before: bought it within hours of first learning about it.
It’s a beautiful app, a pleasure to use, and it seems to do a great job of importing Evernote notebooks, even preserving the original creation and updated dates (but not the tags). I have used Evernote since 2009 and I’ve occasionally cheated on it, but this time I may actually divorce Evernote!
I have heard of Wardley maps but haven’t used them. Seems like a neat way of evaluating strategic options in a planning process, though, based on a cursory read of the wikipedia article.
Strangely enough I have done Wardley mapping; I’ve also read the original book on Medium by Simon Wardley. I’ve also purchased an ebook from LeanPub. I’ve used it map out the changing landscape in the world of Agile training and education. From my perspective it was useful in getting a conversation started with some peers about our guesses in the evolving world. Originally I thought it would earth shattering, in fact its just a good tool.
BY good backups I presume you mean at least 3 different media in at least 2 different locatinons going back a significant amount of time.
FWIW I had that and the backup string went back a year but I still got hit by and had lost hundreds of files.
You can buy clear plastic boards on Amazon that stick to your monitor and allow you to display post-it’s. Search “computer memo board”. They’re not really designed with the aesthetics of a Mac in mind though…
Please can you share the links to the follow-up research if it’s not too much trouble? I am interested in this.
In my experience (I realise 1 data point is not science!), things I process off-screen stick far better in my head than on screen. I’ve even noticed a difference between reading a book on Kindle and reading a paper book, though of course my actual reading actions (highlighting, notes, etc.) remain the same. I decided to chalk this up (unscientifically and with no relevant scientific background) to spatial awareness. Writing and interacting with a book both require hand use in a way that reading on screen does not and “something” makes the memories more useful or perhaps “richer”.
It’s PDF which seems to have found at Research Gate: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/330856100_How_Much_Mightier_Is_the_Pen_than_the_Keyboard_for_Note-Taking_A_Replication_and_Extension_of_Mueller_and_Oppenheimer_2014?enrichId=rgreq-68a3dfab53f9524a5bd2a3d525b61cf8-XXX&enrichSource=Y292ZXJQYWdlOzMzMDg1NjEwMDtBUzo3MjM3NDg0MDM1NTIyNTZAMTU0OTU2NjQ3NDA5MQ%3D%3D&el=1_x_2&_esc=publicationCoverPdf
The gist of the matter is its a replication failure.
–
If it helps sometimes people tell me they have a Learning Style (Myth). They may have personal preference but appealing the preference doesn’t improve learning. Myers Briggs is another example, some people tell they learned alot from the test. Cool. That doesn’t mean the test is valid.
I’m so glad you asked this question. I came here to make broadly the same enquiry.
I would love an automation that automatically pulls out the highlights in a pdf and drops that text into a Markdown file with a specific group in DEVONthink.
I got very excited when that topic came up in the pod but I was driving whilst listening and it was a lIttle difficult to follow. I need to go back and listen again. I’m sure @ryanjamurphy mentioned a beta but I was unclear what that was a beta of. Completely understandable that he was playing his cards close to his chest.
All in all, a great episode.
Welcome to the MPU forum!
@mlevison @DIYerUK @Aroddick and anyone else interested in the “stream annotations” workflow… I’ve finally cleaned up the script for public consumption and published the blog post on it:
I’ve also created a thread on the DEVONthink forum about it, in case discussion/questions and answers over there are useful to folks over here.
@Clarke_Ching you’re very welcome! I am a very very happy customer and want to spread the message so this app continues to grow with more features. Dev says end to end encryption is on the roadmap but not a high priority.
I think Obsidian gets a lot of press but for most users it’s overkill in my opinion and not user friendly. UpNote really ticks most of the major boxes.
Also be aware @Clarke_Ching @krocnyc @grs the native windows version has now entered beta! Email the dev if you want beta link: https://mobile.twitter.com/upnote_app/status/1519506016261787648
Another thing to note about UpNote is if you buy Lifetime license, YOUR ENTIRE FAMILY via family sharing gets premium access and they can create their own accounts as well. I have not seen any other app that offers this and further highlights the value.
I completely agree with you and understand why this would be a dealbreaker. I do love Obsidian’s philosophy of keeping everything compartmentalized where the user wants to keep it.
I disagree about DayOne. I use the free version of the iOS app as I still find it to be the best app for its purpose and also end to end encrypted unlike local icloud sync’ed notes in Obsidian.
@krocnyc
I don’t understand what you mean by this. When the file is attached, it’s stored in UpNote. the 20MB limit is a bummer I agree but it’s done this way per the dev for performance reasons.
Here’s an honest and comprehensive pros & cons of UpNote:
UpNote Pros:
One of the, if not THE most gorgeous notebooks apps I have used (and I’ve used them all the major ones I think). The design, theme, everything is so elegant. Obsidian devs - take note. This is how you design a beautiful app.
Interface on cross-platform matches one another at the subatomic level. Even the iOS app make it very intuitive to use between one another!
Insanely fast. This app reminds me of 1Password 8 (also an electron app) in its buttery smooth interface & speed.
Fast release cycle
Excellent support from dev
True Cross-platform! (Windows store, windows app, Mac, iOS, Android, Linux)
Layout is easy to use, easy to setup and nearly perfect. Perfect blend of settings that user really wants.
Wicked fast development cycle.
Handles attachment links like a champion.
Probably the most inexpensive Notebook solution out there. $1 a month or $20 for lifetime. You’ll want to donate to the dev once you use this app!
iOS Family sharing allows all your family members to have access to premium features.
Offline mode available
Can use local only (without sync) if that’s your preference.
UpNote Cons:
If I store a PDF in the same folder where I’ve stored my Obsidian or Notebooks notes, I can easily open that PDF directly from another app—PDF expert or Devonthink, say—without opening Obsidian or Notebooks. Being able to do this is critical to my workflow. If I’ve attached a document to an UpNote note, will I be able to locate it and work with it without going through the UpNote app itself?
The PDF is still local on the drive but it’ll be renamed to some crazy long barcode like name structure. If you look for the specific name of the file (Mac: use Houdahspot, PC use Everything) then yes. But it does add that extra layer of complexity in the naming.
Thank you for these additional comments on UpNote. Although you recommend it as an alternative to Obsidian (which I’ve looked at but never used), I think it also works very well as an alternative to Evernote.