Comment by wenc | Hacker News Reader

Comment by wenc | Hacker News Reader

There are a bunch of distraction-free writing devices, from the BYOK to the Freewrite. They range for $100 - $500.

List here: https://kadavy.net/distraction-free-writing-devices/

To me, YAGNI.

Let me suggest two cheaper alternatives (battletested by me):

1. Fountain pen and a nice notebook with nice paper (Mnemosyne, or Rhodia)

2. A foldable Bluetooth butterfly keyboard ($43 on Amazon) paired to an old tablet (I have an old iPad Air 2) with Wifi turned off and no apps except a writing app. Google Docs works in offline mode! (this is what I use in cafes when I’m traveling). I recommend a Samsers keyboard. This is what I have:

https://a.co/d/3kIJZsv

I love good typography and I just can’t with these distraction free devices. The iPad Air 2 has a retina screen that displays beautiful typography.

Forget e-ink devices — they might sound like a good idea at first, but their refresh rate is slow enough to be annoying.

If you don’t need portability, an old DOS PC running Wordstar or WordPerfect is also distraction free. I used to write long articles for my school newsletter using nothing but Wordstar.

100% agreed. Save your money. That's also my opinion after spending several thousand on a couple of these devices over the years, only to find that they don't solve my problems.

E-ink is slow and is hard to read because of the low contrast. And contrary to all the marketing it actually increased eyestrain for me because it's so dark.

Not to mention the software on all the tablets I had was severely lacking, slow and buggy, and the subscriptions tacked on top felt outright offensive to me.

1. I'd go one further and say the nice paper notebooks and pens haven't worked for me either. Instead I just use a free A5 paper notepad and pen I have laying around.

2. Agreed with iPad + keyboard as an actual alternative. The retina 120Hz screens of the Pro models really help. Reading PDFs is a joy, even when compared to a large A4 e-ink device I had. It's just so much faster on the iPad.

Although I use it with Wifi on, I don't have many apps installed on it and basically all notifications disabled. I'm in the iOS ecosystem so everything just syncs, which means less work and mental overhead organizing my notes and reminders.

I'd recommend the iPad Pro Magic Keyboard though, it's expensive but snaps in place and feels great.

I find a clipboard is nicer than a notebook. Pen and a folded A5 works nice. I learned Gregg (or partly learned it). I do use my iphone and bluetooth headset to isolate. Phone stays in the pocket.

1. Fountain pen and a nice notebook with nice paper (Mnemosyne, or Rhodia)

Spending money is overrated. The pen at the back of your junk drawer from a hotel you don’t remember staying at will do just fine. There’s a notebook in there too that’s as good as new if you just rip out the first page.

> The pen at the back of your junk drawer from a hotel you don’t remember staying at will do just fine.

Vehemently disagree! Few things hurt on my nerves more than a pen that leaves ink spots behind, or works intermittently, or needs excessive pressure on the paper...

Agreed, but sometimes a nice pen, and a paper makes the task more fun.

You can get any old thinkpad, remove the WiFi module and then you have the full choice of any writing app you want to use.

> an old DOS PC running Wordstar or WordPerfect

Like George R. R. Martin? (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7744952)

Reply on news.ycombinator.com