@jarango unless you do a little tending on the go rather than doom scrolling.
Since the vast majority of humans on the planet only have a phone as their one and only computing device, I think it’s very important to make great experiences for knowledge work on mobile.
@austingovella @boris the issue is that tending a knowledge garden consists mostly of text editing, and phone form factors constrain what you can do here.
Most people aren't going to manage one of these things anyway. Those that do will use a device with a full-sized keyboard. There's too much friction otherwise.
@jarango @austingovella I think that’s a very constrained view. Everyone tends their gardens differently.
There’s a whole wave of spatial canvas interfaces arising, which are great on touch screens.
And there’s a number of people that use Twitter (and now Mastodon) to link and re-use threads over years.
@boris @austingovella I was talking about *phones*, not touch screens. I do a lot of work on my iPad, which has a touch screen. (And a keyboard.)
I've used spatial canvases as well, and find them really interesting. But I don't think you can effectively manage these things on a six-inch screen.
@jarango @austingovella I do! And lots of others do as well!
Look at how many words we’ve already typed back and forth.
And people who have grown up with phones are even faster!
Most of humanity only has a mobile device. Our tools should probably optimize for them even more.
@austingovella @jarango I do all of the things you describe on my phone.
Readwise, Instapaper, and Pocket all have great phone apps.
I use Quine for #TiddlyWiki and the #LogSeq mobile app as the two main #ToolsForThought I use.
I also do the majority of my reading — both web articles and ebooks — on my phone.
I’m pretty sure everyone has vastly different workflows. It’s the challenge & opportunity of this space.
@boris @austingovella I’m not suggesting these *can’t* be done on the phone. I also use Obsidian, Matter, DEVONthink, and a whole host of other apps on the phone. I’m saying the form factor is suboptimal for these tasks.
BTW, most of the examples you cite — Readwise, Instapaper, Pocket, etc. — are all in the part of the process I consider *capture*: highlighting and annotating the stuff you read, etc. As I mentioned in the first toot of the thread, phones are good at this.
@austingovella @boris to be clear, what I mean by “tend” are activities like refactoring tags, managing citations, cleaning up front matter (something for which I often use regular expressions), re-categorizing sets of notes, etc. I find these things much easier to do on a computer with a large display and a keyboard than on a phone.
(I appreciate your pushback so far; it’s making me think about how to communicate these ideas more clearly. 🙏)
@austingovella @jarango I understand your focus and view and also appreciate the discussion.
The “I” in your phrasing is crucial: everyone finds different interfaces and activities more or less useful.
The professional desktop operating system as we know it is waning & will also morph.
@jarango @austingovella it’s super optimal _for me_ and many others that I can see.
Including those that only have a mobile computing device.
We differ in focus, which is fine. I’m advocating that to matter, this space should support more people who are phone only.
Jorge Arango
Boris Mann
Austin Govella
juno