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Well this weekend I tried Todoist, enticed by the new calendar integration thingy, but decided -again- it is not for me. Not sure why, it is as good as ever, natural language input is amazing, but the combo Calendar + Reminders is enough for what my needs. Everything else is cognitive overload.
How did it go for you?
Hello from India 
Longtime reader and finally decided to register and join the MPU community
On the topic of favourite no longer used apps - my vote would be for 2Do App (www.2doapp.com)
Excellent app in terms of flexibility but has lacked any sort of “real” development in last 3/4 years
The developer had blogged back in 2021 that new version was very close, but looks like it never materialised
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Just went back to Todoist 
The Microsoft task manager (To Do) is fine. I’d even say it looks nicer than Todoist. But it introduces a few issues I can’t get around.
- It forces me to split my tasks into different apps. To Do is not fun to use on mobile or Mac, and not all features are in all versions of the app. That makes it tough for daily personal use. For example, the limited natural language parsing in Windows was not an option on iOS or Mac – though they may have fixed this. I also don’t like putting personal tasks into a work-managed app.
- I can’t 100% trust the natural language processing. After years of using Todoist I’m used to typing something like “Call Braveheart, Monday at 9am” and then not thinking of it again. In To Do, I’d be working along during the day and see a task called “Call Braveheart Monday at 9am” as a task with no due date or time. The natural language “didn’t take” – which happened when moving too fast. And it would often incorporate some of the natural language processing into the task name even though I had the setting to remove pertinent details from the task name. e.g. Call Braveheart Monday at 9am would sometimes resolve to “Call Braveheart Monday at” as the task name. Just weird junk like that.
- The Todoist apps are faster, smoother, more consistent across the board.
- Not sure this is a feature or time sink, but being able to slice and dice the tasks into filters, priorities, kanban boards etc – works well. I’m not a task on my calendar/linked to calendar guy at all – things get too busy. But Todoist’s extra bells and whistles are pretty slick.
I knew I’d be back. 
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I used this app for years. Loved it, then it went subscription and kept using it. Eventually I went back to the iOS calendar. And stopped using this one cause I didn’t want to pay for it anymore.
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Here comes my - probably incomplete - list:
- 1Password (replaced with self-hosted Bitwarden/Vaultwarden)
- Affinity suite (I am not a huge image editor, the Pixelmator apps can do everything I need)
- Alfred (replaced with Raycast)
- BusyCal (replaced with Fantastical)
- Carrot Weather (replaced with Apple Weather)
- Deliveries (replaced with Parcel)
- MarsEdit (I write my drafts in Drafts and the rest directly in WordPress)
- NetNewsWire (replaced with Readwise Reader)
- Safari (replaced with Arc)
- TextExpander (replaced with Keyboard Maestro)
Currently, I am playing a lot with the Capacities app and there are many things I like. Perhaps (but only perhaps for now) Obsidian is the next candidate for this list.
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Loved Talking Moose.
Funny, how back in the day, we had so few resources, and yet so many little fun apps. Remember Ram Doubler, and Conflict Catcher, Burning Toast… We now have all the power we could (ever) want, and yet, all the whimsy has gone. No more Talking Moose. No more Startup Sounds, or making the trash say something when you emptied it… No more hidden splash screens to find - easter egg hunting was always so much fun.
I miss all the little stuff that made computing fun. I know, lots of bugs, and many would cause the Mac to crash… but still. It was fun to find the cat in Photoshop, and then click his nose to hear him burp.
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Oh my… having flashbacks to MEMMAKER…
As a teenager, I had found a pirated version of an app that put mini strippers on the Windows task bar lol. That replaced the sheep on my desktop!
Keyboard Maestro, Mela (from Reeder)
Try doing it differently. Follow people you like, perhaps using Twitter Lists if you know how to use them. Turn off showing retweets of people you follow if you find them too prolific. Never read comments of strangers unless you know what you are getting yourself in for. Twitter is still great.
I have a different suggestion. Read Digital Minimalism by Newport. And then reconsider the use of social media. People will make different decisions, but years ago, I abandoned social media with the exception of this forum and occasionally posting on LinkedIn. I’m not suggesting this is what you should do. What I am suggesting is if you have not done so already, read Newport’s book and then reassess the place of social media in your life. Is the time you’re devoting to social media the best use of time and of one’s life? Does scrolling social media make you a better person? Does scrolling social media make you a better contributor to family, community, country? What profitable activity could you be engaged in if you were not scrolling social media?
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I am reading this right now.
I’m not sure how I feel about the book itself at the 25% complete mark, but he makes some good points. Coincidentally, I stopped reading the news with regularity about two weeks ago and I feel so much better.
Everything is so click-baity, us vs them, here’s what you need to know. I’m so tired of people and companies starving for my attention and increasing my stress and anxiety in the process.
Define “profitable”?
If one finds pleasure in such activities is that not profitable?
The vilification of social media reminds me of that of video games, dungeons and dragons, rock and roll, and such going all the way to back to Socrates decrying writing.
This too shall pass.
I haven’t stopped reading the news, though I have cut back, but I have stopped watching it except for the local weather. I want to be informed, which is why I read the news, but most of the news is designed to gin people up and stimulate advertising dollars. The proportion of a newscast that is “news” has shrunk while the proportion of commercials (lame ones at that) has gone up. It just isn’t worth the time or emotional toll.
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Not necessarily. I can think of many pleasurable things that are highly destructive to oneself, others, and society. Pleasure is not the measure of profitability. I define profitable (overly simplified for sure) as cultivating good character, sharpening one’s skills, adding understanding and wisdom (which are not the same thing as being merely informed), and preparing one to serve others better. Social media lacks on all counts by most measures. And exceptions do not nullify the rule. As they say in the law, “hard cases make bad law.”
I’ll also add that there is a growing body of reputable research showing that social media has a negative overall personal and social impact.
In short, social media can easily be replaced with more “profitable” activities in the broader sense of the term. 
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Perhaps a bit of nostalgia, but growing up the news was provided in two half hour segments, local and national. Then the local became an hour. and then two hours. And the content went from news to human interest and then to entertainment.
It was cheaper to have ‘news’ content then scripted shows (this is true also of so called reality TV, programming I have never watched). Then came cable TV, the proliferations of channels, and the need for content. And as there are only so much advertising dollars, euros, pounds, insert favorite currency here the content needed to be ‘sticky’. It is mainly for this reason I no longer watch ESPN. It has gone from intelligent sports coverage to clickbait quick takes. As these folks need to have a new opinion every day, there is no time for reasoned commentary.
I’m sure most can provide similar tales of other channels.
Then we will disagree. Fun for the sake of fun is perfectly fine.
There were studies showing how video games were bad for one’s mental health. And now there are studies studies showing the opposite.
We’ve seen these things play out over and over, the new thing being vilified, becoming accepted, and becoming normal. Lather, rinse, repeat.
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