I don’t know what the rules are about responding to old threads. Maybe someone could enlighten me on the proper thread etiquette so I don’t make an ass out of myself, or at least do so less often.
I have given this topic a lot of thought. As much as I love to explore new apps and find new ways solve problems. I also enjoy streamlining things. When I work in too many applications, I easily forget where I saved the thing I was working on and then I have to waste about 30 minutes looking for the damn thing.
Maybe a helpful way of looking at the CRIMP (compulsive reactive information management purchasing) problem is to try to create a habit of trying to get the most out of the apps we use and really dig deep into them to solve as many problems as possible with them. Don’t get me wrong, sometimes the need to fix a particular problem is so great and the app to fix it is just so particularly suited to that problem that it just makes sense to add the app to your toolbox. But I say if you can tweak the tool and maybe get 75% of the way there and if 75% of the way is enough to satisfy you, then maybe when you look at the time saved in not having to remember if you did the work in this app or that app, it is worth it to not have the perfect app for the job.
Let me give a concrete example, I have been very interested in this thread on roam research. And in looking at it and the information from it, it definitely looks like an interesting app, but I am heavily invested in Devonthink at this point in time (I have almost everything in it). So I created a wiki-link/markdown note type database in Devonthink and am toying around with using that as a general information/notes warehouse. Now I just started doing this, so who knows if it will get the desired result, but at least if I ultimately end up going to Roam or some other app for this purpose, maybe I can use Devonthink’s shortcomings to give me a better idea of the features I need in the app I end up going with to scratch the itch.
Of course, sometimes an app comes around that is totally unique and innovative or different from anything I may already have in my toolbox. But it seems like that with a lot of these apps that involve note taking, document management, etc., there are apps I may already have access to in Setapp or otherwise to at least try to replicate a similar process in one of the apps I am already using.
I don’t know, I am just tired of watching tutorial videos of all the cool ways other people use apps, then getting the application and figuring out I either don’t have the will or knowledge to use the app in that way, or maybe it just doesn’t fit with how I do my work.