I agree with that; the MPU podcast (I started sometime in the 300s I think) taught me a lot about using a Mac more productively/effectively. As I now know more than I did when I first started listening, it’s always going to be harder for each episode to have the impact it did at the start.
Also I particularly enjoyed and benefitted from some of the more technical “how to do x” discussions - and those now tend to be found on Automators rather than MPU, so MPU has changed a little.
This is my most controversial and toxic MPU opinion. It is so controversial that it is radioactive. Please put on your protective gear before reading the next paragraph.
I have been using Windows for work since I got a new job two months ago. It’s my first time using Windows in 15 years. And it’s fine. Given the choice between Windows and macOS, I do not see one as inherently superior to the other.
Zettlekasten
Zettlekasten is interesting historically as an example of the power of links. It is not a system we should all emulate - especially in a digital world - except for its big picture concept of why links are helpful.
I see so many posts from people about “What note-taking system should I use?” You should use whatever works for you. Look at many systems. Pick from those the best that work for your mission/goals/brain. Add your own tweaks.
It does not ask you to setup an account… you sure you have right app?
I think Microsoft Clippy was kinda cool.
You are both correct. My memory failed me on this one. No account required (except being signed into the App Store with my Apple ID.) I checked my notes and from more than a year ago I wrote “Expected and hoped for a simple app. Deleted it because it was a simple idea that has became a complicated expensive app.”
This was in response to downloading it from the App Store onto my iPhone and being greeted by a full screen upgrade offer to the Pro version. And then when I got past that, to a mostly empty screen with a half dozen widgets each at the top and the bottom of the screen and no idea what to do next. My expectation did not match the reality. So I bailed.
I don’t see why that would be controversial. Each OS has its advantages and disadvantages. While I prefer Apple’s OS and hardware, I’d get along just fine with Windows–I did for 20 years. 
I would not go quite that far but in general, I agree with your perspective. After playing around with markdown, I’ve concluded it is useful for web publishing, workable for other purposes, but that RT and WYSIWYG is, once you master keyboard shortcuts, more efficient in my estimation. Much less fiddling required. Hence, except for my research files in Obsidian where I benefit from backlinking, I’m using Pages and Scrivener for short and long form writing and presentations and Apple Notes for, well, notes.
Then you’ll love the Dynamic Island…
Me too! Fortunately one can use the very same keyboard shortcuts and Obisidian’s live preview mode (which seem to be the defaults for newcomers) to mitigate the hassle of writing and reading in pure markdown and have a nearly WYSIWYG experience in Obsidian.
Certainly, but tables, images, citations, callouts, and more require more effort in markdown than RT. Again, there are workable solutions in markdown but I find using RT to be faster overall and I have enough export options in Pages to meet my needs. Apple Notes, on the other hand, has limited export options–which is a frustration but, for my needs, the feature set of Notes, ease of using it, and deep integration with the OS make the tradeoff worth it. Everyone mileage will vary of course.
I agree with what I think is your underlying point, that many of us are trying to get to a point where we can do the things we need/want to do in a smooth, even enjoyable, way. However, I don’t think that can be described as “arriving/staying.”
Over time, what we need/want to do changes. Sometimes our needs grow, sometimes they become less complex (after I quit the old day job I was able to simplify my task management, for instance). The terrain on which we try to meet those needs also changes. Apps go away, change development direction, adopt new licensing models, or become unsuitable for all sorts of reasons. New apps come on the scene, old apps gain new capabilities, new hardware changes the playing field, etc.
Many people would be better served by not jumping ship every time the hot new thing comes along, but you don’t want to be left standing on the deck of the Titanic after it hits the iceberg. “Arriving/staying” is not a long term solution in tech.
Repetition, mostly. I only assign keyboard shortcuts to things I do over and over and over again, so I kind of naturally learn them as they tend to be for tasks I hit several times a day. Also addresses the point on Alfred (I use Raycast), I usually just get used to the keyboard shortcuts for “launchers”, where I can search for commands from there instead of memorizing all the shortcuts.
Same here. I think I just don’t usually have tasks that benefit enough from automation to get involved in it? Every once in a while I might have a repetitive task that I write a little script for but this is pretty rare. Maybe my life just isn’t that interesting 
I definitely agree. I feel like, though, that a lot of discourse around the internet is about ideas built on top of Zettelkasten that kind of imply things beyond what the core method is actually about, which creates confusion. This is a good article that says what I mean in a more clear way:
Similarly to your point on Zettelkasten, I think it goes back to what works for you, and I think a lot of ideas and arguments have been built on Markdown that go beyond the core utility of the tool. For me, Markdown is the digital equivalent of paper - it’s a good environment for writing and thinking, and when I want to create a polished final product I convert into a Google Doc. I also feel like there’s a lot of good tooling surrounding it (i.e. Obsidian, git) that doesn’t exist for rich text, although the same can be said in reverse (e.g. Scrivener).
These arguments fundamentally make zero sense for a lot of people and we should stop pushing as if they are universal, but I think there are some of us for which they ring true. I agree with the point about long-term usability though, feel like that’s been fairly overhyped.
If you’re interested (guessing not; totally fine) and you don’t have a head for them you have to do it the hard way with muscle memory. Trying shortcuts when you’re not sure of the right answer helps you learn faster (feels scary, because you could damage what you’re working on.)
And stick to learning keyboard shortcuts that are platform conventions, at least at first. You can discern a lot of these by using shortcuts in Notes, Pages, TextEdit, Finder etc. It won’t take long before you can look at a third party app and have a good idea which shortcuts are following conventions.
How I learn them: reading the help menus, occasionally printing cheat sheets (usually for games) and Google. I try new shortcuts several times in a row to lock them in, like how I memorize music and poetry.
The fact that there is a “preview mode” at all - and thus both “raw” and “rendered” versions of text - is a notable cognitive distraction.
I agree 100%.
When I was saying “arriving/staying”, I was thinking more of “for a few years”, not “for a few decades”. This would be contrasted with people that will literally spend the effort to migrate all of their data and go “all-in” on a new app just because it’s new.
Much of the software I use has been my software of choice for at least a few years, some much longer. And even for the stuff that hasn’t been, my goal is to get it ironed out so that it will be.
That drives a number of my decisions as well. On the adoption curve, I’m usually in the “late majority”. The “new shiny” can be cool for new versions of existing stuff, but I’m far less likely to jump on board with a startup’s software - especially a startup where I can’t see a business model - unless it does something I almost can’t do any other way.
I’ve been working seriously with computers for about 30 years, so I’ve been through a ton of software/hardware transitions, but as I get older it’s less about “let’s try this new thing” and “let’s figure out a longer-term, stable way to get work done”.
This. My Obsidian setup is NOT primarily a Zettelkasten, although it does contain a number of interlinked notes.
I think the power of software like Obsidian is that it allows you to collect, organize, and surface data in a structured-but-nearly-infinitely-customizable way. Most of the non-Zettelkasten stuff in Obsidian - kanban boards, task plugins, etc. - is heavily-interlinked information, and we can absolutely benefit from being able to link our kanban boards, our task lists, etc. directly into our collections of notes and such.
And The process of doing so requires us to consider how these things relate in our worlds, which (to me) seems to be a Zettelkasten-like thinking process.
Personally, I’m convinced that the average person doesn’t need anything like a Zettelkasten. But spending time figuring out how your data interrelates and can be surfaced in a more optimal way? I think that yields benefits for almost anybody working in a knowledge work sort of field.
Agree (except s/Google Doc/Pages/g). My big thing with Markdown is that, for data I don’t need to produce in a super-fancy final format, I’m of the opinion that it will move toward the future most reliably in plain text. So I try to create in Markdown/plain text first most of the time.
I really don’t care whether or not somebody else doesn’t agree, or wants something different. I do frequently present the argument though, in case people haven’t heard it.
It’s more about “making an informed decision” IMHO. Listen to both sides, and make whatever choice works best for you. 
Honestly, I think tools like Notion are better at this kind of thing. IMO plain text enforces arbitrary limits on things like kanban boards and todo lists, and relying on plugins to glue things together seems to be not ideal. I think these kinds of setups benefit from rich displays provided by more database-like features.
My Obsidian setup is probably something like the exact opposite of yours, in that I’m working on a very Zettelkasten-esque system. That being said, I find your usage interesting
It’s entirely possible that Notion would work better. I started playing with Obsidian from the Zettelkasten side of things, and eventually realized that it might be a useful set of tools to organize other things. I agree that plugin-based glue isn’t ideal, but the alternative seems to be a much more proprietary database format. I try to stick to the more popular, well-supported plugins.
Just as a further example, I have a few clients where I have dozens of “future features”. Basically, clients with their own “someday/maybe” lists, except they’re more “eventually” rather than “someday/maybe”. If you’re thinking scrum, think of a “stuff for future sprints” sort of list. And each of those items may contain a bunch of notes related to it.
In Omnifocus, I was finding myself making a bunch of notes for each feature and running into challenges interrelating the data. I realize this isn’t the job of Omnifocus, and the ideal tool would be a task manager and a feature list document somewhere else.
But with Obsidian, when I realize I have three tasks related to the login page (maybe one future, two current), I can do something like a single note called “login page”. That note can contain the past considerations from all the stuff I’ve already done, and have tasks interspersed with the data. And maybe while I’m working on the first one, I discover that two more lines of code will give me the second or third one as well - so I can just knock it out since it’s right there.
As for tracking them, if I tag those tasks as #{customerName}, I can surface all of those tasks at the bottom of my “main” note for that customer. Anything without a #future tag can go above, and anything with a #future tag can go below. Plus if I click the link with the tag, I land on the page with the info about how to do whatever it is. And of course if any of them have due dates, they can automatically surface at the bottom of my daily note.
I realize this might not be The Way To Get Healthy, but it works relatively well for me.
This thread has been one of my favorites. I’m glad that it’s be revived.
While I don’t think Drafts does anything unique, I’ve found a use for it. Instead of creating temporary text files, I use Drafts to compose longer form messages that I have to send via the browser – for example, this form, the help desk ticketing system at work, or the Learning Management System. I’ve received a lot of calls over the years from people who’ve composed long posts in a web browser only to lose thing.
I also experience less overhead using Markdown instead of RT in these situations. I can compose in Drafts using Markdown, copy it, paste it in the browser, and use the Markdown Here browser extension to convert it. Or, in cases like this forum, paste in the Markdown directly.
As far as Craft, I didn’t renew my subscription last month and switched to Apple Notes. About three-weeks later, I discovered there were a couple things I missed about it and it became available through Setapp. So I’m back.
I missed the ability to group blocks together and being able to link to a block. I also missed the ability to add additional annotations to an image or document without having to make a copy. That said, as someone said earlier, the way Craft handles blocks is awkward. I also wish it was better at hand-written notes using the Apple Pencil. As an example, when you tap on a note in Apple Notes with the Pencil, it lets you start writing. In Craft, you have to add the block first.
Obsidian doesn’t do it for me.
As far as the MPU podcast, it needs a female cohost.
