Micro Journal: Distraction-Free Writing Device
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But I've also written a pretty good bit (not just code documentation and emails but fiction, short stories), and it's also hard as hell, and like a lot of people who want to write things I've dabbled with all sorts of instruments that I'm convinced will finally be the trick to make the words come out good.
I've used legal pads, and composition books, and spiral notebooks, and grid paper notepads.
I've written with pencils, and ballpoints, and fountain pens, and dip pens with a whole variety of nibs and inks (admittedly that was mostly just for fun).
I've written in Acme on Plan 9, in Emacs and Vi on Linux, in Google Docs on a cheap Chromebook, and in BBEdit on a Mac SE/30. I've also used a mechanical typewriter, a Selectric electric typewriter, and an AlphaSmart Neo 2.
So I say the following from experience:
1. Writing is difficult to do well, regardless of how you're getting the words down.
2. It's easy to distract yourself, regardless of how you're getting the words down.
3. One of the easiest ways to accomplish #2 is by dreaming about the next perfect writing tool that will really make your writing sing just as soon as you muster up the courage to click "Buy".
4. Once you get your latest writing toy^H^H^Htool, it's easier to write blog posts about it than to write the things you actually want to write but are deep down too timid to try.
In summary, I applaud Unkyu for making these, and I don't think they're likely to help you write better.
edit: Anybody in the San Francisco area who has been dreaming about an AlphaSmart Neo 2 as the perfect writing machine that will finally take their writing to the next level, dig up my email address and you can have mine for free, I don't use it any more.
As always, it’s not the tool, it’s how you use it… and as always, being creative is always hard, and the challenge is (usually) within yourself and not your tools (setting aside accessibility concerns in which tooling obviously becomes more important; and at least a little small dose of mise-en-scene).
* I have a model without a backlight, and the screen's all but invisible unless you're under a light. Wake up and think of something you want to write? Either turn on the lights, or hope it actually turned on when you hit the power button and that you're not typing on a powered-off device.
* Why, oh why, can it only remember 1 single Wi-Fi password? I write most of the time from home, but sometimes I like to go to a nearby coffee shop. If I connect it to the coffee shop's Wi-Fi, I have to manually re-enter my home password when I get back. I don't need it to remember thousands of networks, but maybe just the 3 or more most recent ones would cover the above cases, plus tethering to my phone.
I joined the BYOK[0] Kickstarter last year. I hope it turns into the device I hoped the Alpha would be.
[0] https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/byok/byok-the-ultimate-...
It has other problems (Like security, if you're connecting other devices), but it makes it simple enough
Edit: Maybe make it the same SSID as a guest network, that way you avoid your other devices thinking it's a trusted network
It is so easy to use, and reliable as heck.
Not your thoughts, certainly. But for matters of any depth, not only code, I find the limit on speed tends rarely to be set by speed of transcription.
Yes, you can use short hand to learn to write words faster, such that you may be surprised at how fast people can actually write. Certainly, you'd be surprised at how slow some people type. Especially when thinking.
More pertinent for notebooks, though, is how unstructured it can be. Learning to use the space of a page is a big thing that I could never really replicate with text on a computer.
Easy places this is relevant. Math when trying to work out something. Anything pictorial that I don't know how to type out. Graphical spots where I want large parts of it "scratched out" such that it is not relevant for the note I am taking now.
I've tried for decades to write long-form things without it causing my hand to cramp up painfully. I know what's wrong, and I also accept that at this point there's not much I can do about it. If I could use an $8 notebook instead of a keyboard, I'd be doing it already.
I can sit down and comfortably type out several pages of content with it. If I tried writing that much by hand, I'd be nearly in tears of hand-cramping pain by the end. So the Alpha, and this device, and the BYOK device I mention aren't for everyone, and I wouldn't use them for everything, but they surely have their niche.
If I were in the middle of writing and got sidetracked, I'd probably insert something like
...were roasting hot dogs on the fire when the UFO came
TK NOTE Just remembered I should buy a suitcase
and sucked the alligator up out of the lake.
If I had problems like this, I'd likewise assume mere contrarianism on the part of someone claiming a notebook can serve as well as a keyboard. That was why I refused to use pens or write longhand in school, except under duress. I had not then discovered that good pens solve this problem; writing a dozen pages with one, effectively without pause, can certainly be meditative but need not be at all painful.
And for me, they’re still in a different category from keyboards. For me. I get that they’re perfect for other people, but I’m not one. For me, the main alternative to a keyboard is… not writing.
Of course, some of the greatest works of literature were written long-hand, i.e. as manuscripts!
What I really like about it though, is that there's no spell check or grammar. I suck at both, and the red and green lines of word and others is distracting.
I mean margret attwod says get a pencil and a notepad.. I'll trust her.
What I like in this Micro Journal is the real keyboard though. The Pomera keyboard was very cheap (for portability.)
Agreed. I own one of the early AlphaSmart devices (I own and collect some old-school software and devices) and I plan on keeping it for a long time.
I got one for my kid a few weeks ago. She uses google docs offline and sync's up when she comes back online.
Way easier to get going.
https://github.com/unkyulee/micro-journal/tree/main/micro-jo...