I can load my favorite text editor ( TextEdit, super simple) and be typing in two seconds. I love programs like Evernote, Yojimbo, even the simple Notational Velocity - but the truth is, text files are just as good.
I’m moving more and more toward text files, after having been a fan of more complex formats and programs for a few years. Data in simple formats - such as text - is mobile, can be ported to any program, is not locked into a proprietary program or database. Worse yet, our data is often tied up in proprietary formats, in databases that can get corrupt, in formats that don’t speak to other programs. The result is a richer visual presentation, which is wonderful, but at the same time pages are slower to load, applications become bloated and freeze up, and information that could be presented simply and quickly is now presented via video, making us wait minutes just to get one or two key pieces of information.Ĭomplexity is bloated, slow, burdensome. We tend to take advantage of our increasingly powerful computing power by always increasing the complexity of our tasks and data - no longer is everything text-based (as the web used to be, way back when), but now everything is graphical and increasingly uses video. When it comes to technology, I strongly believe that simpler is better.