this post was submitted on 16 Aug 2024
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I've thought about a similar idea before in the more minor context of stuff like note-taking apps -- when you're taking notes in a paper notebook, you can take notes in whatever format you want, you can add little pictures or diagrams or whatever, arranged however you want. Heck, you can write sheet music notation. When you're taking notes in an app, you can basically just write paragraphs of text, or bullet points, and maybe add pictures in some limited predefined locations if you're lucky.
Obviously you get some advantages in exchange for the restrictive format (you can sync/back up things to the internet! you can search through your notes! etc) but it's by no means a strict upgrade, it's more of a tradeoff with advantages and disadvantages. I think we tend to frame technological solutions like this as though they were strict upgrades, and often we aren't so willing to look at what is being lost in the tradeoff.
Not to detract from your point but people have been trying to create and market free-form note taking apps for ages... I believe the latest super-expensive iPads can do it wih the pen.
yeah, I was more thinking of like my phone's notes app lol. Also, freeform computer note-taking requires weird hardware and can't search the text of my notes, so, still a tradeoff...
I believe there are apps that can translate handwriting to normal text (doubt they would be able to deal wth mine...) but the time between them arriving around now and the demise of normal people taking notes on paper is too long. An entire generation has aged out of the habit.
(you do see people extol the virtues of specific German notebooks and Japanese fountain pen, but when I do, I cross the street to get away from them)
That was exactly what Evernote promised to be, and it was to a point. Then it became about the money.
But yes, the book works everywhere (almost) doesn't require a power source and in 150 years it's components will not have degraded and it's contents still readable. Unlike your iPad.