[HN Gopher] Can "Distraction-Free" Devices Change the Way We Write? ___________________________________________________________________ Can "Distraction-Free" Devices Change the Way We Write? Author : pseudolus Score : 23 points Date : 2021-12-16 20:13 UTC (2 hours ago) (HTM) web link (www.newyorker.com) (TXT) w3m dump (www.newyorker.com) | [deleted] | egypturnash wrote: | I sure do get a lot more art done when I am sitting at a cafe or | in a park with all my computer's radios turned off to save power. | I just gotta make sure I have the references I need so I don't | have to turn on the internet again to dig something up and risk | getting lost in the finely-tuned attention sinks of modern social | media sites. | hagbard_c wrote: | I don't think so, not really. Any computer can be a "distraction- | free" device if you want it to be by turning down all | distraction-causing services. If you're running an OS which | doesn't allow this you can (temporarily or permanently) change to | one which does not get in the way. A blank screen with a blinking | cursor, ready to accept whatever you care to write. This is | possibly in the here and now without having to buy any overpriced | single-purpose device, all it takes is... discipline. Don't | switch or reboot into the normal blinkenlights-environment, just | write. | | Given that his has been possible forever I see no reason for | single-function writing devices to change how people write. If | you want one, get one but realise that the multi-function | device(s) you already own can be made to function similarly and | you're adding yet another device to your "environmental | footprint". | digitallyfree wrote: | Does anyone else feel that this is more of a human problem as | opposed to be one solvable by equipment? | | Someone who is easily distracted when writing on their computer | by browsing the internet, looking at social media, etc. will | likely have the same problem when using a dedicated hardware | device. Instead, they'll just grab their phone, stare out the | window, or daydream instead of focusing on their work. As long as | you turn off your email and chat apps (so you aren't bombarded | with messages while you write), there's nothing on a computer | that will distract you unless you willingly choose to open it. | | I actually do a lot of my writing on a eink device, but that's | more for eyestrain as opposed to reducing distractions. | ghaff wrote: | I suppose it depends in part on the sort of writing you do. | | One of the reasons I basically never write stuff on a plane is | that I find, absent Internet (and yes you can often get crappy | Internet on a plane but it's also a good time to read books), I | find I often need to pepper whatever I write with comments about | checking this fact or that fact. | | Of course, there was a time in my life when I managed to deal | with not having access to the Internet. I also made more factual | mistakes and just included less supporting information than I | would today. | | Even if I do a pile of research in advance, I just find there's a | lot of overhead to not being able to verify facts, spellings, | etc. on the spot. | dsizzle wrote: | https://archive.md/0XWsG | pseingatl wrote: | This article fails to mention Writeroom, the original | distraction-free writing program. | diego wrote: | This question is backwards. We used to write differently with | typewriters and notebooks. This is like asking if no longer using | a car and instead walking would change the way we move around. | The answer is "of course, why would you even ask. Just remember | how it used to be." | [deleted] | rp1 wrote: | I don't think this is a good analogy. Cars can get you long | distances quickly. Having this ability means you can have | suburbs outside of city centers, travel between cities in a day | thus necessitating highways, etc. Cars make possible all sorts | of huge, life-altering changes because of how they impact | travel. | | In terms of long-form writing, word processors make spelling | and grammar easier to fix. They also make editing easier, and | the internet can be used to reference facts while writing. This | comes with a few trade offs, like easily being distracted. Does | this impact really seem equivalent to the impact of a car to | you? | johnchristopher wrote: | Most likely, yes. | | In a previous century: | https://thesocietypages.org/cyborgology/2012/07/26/nietzsche... | Nietzsche's Transformative Typewriter and | http://stunlaw.blogspot.com/2012/12/the-author-signal-nietzs... | The Author Signal: Nietzsche's Typewriter and Medium Theory. | | But then: | | > The case of Henry James's move from handwriting (typewriting) | to dictation in the middle of What Maisie Knew has been studied | by Hoover (2009). Yet, according to the NYU professor, the author | of The Ambassadors took this sudden change in his stride and, | despite the fact that we know exactly where the switch occurred, | stylometry has been helpless in this case; or, rather, can show | no sudden shift in James's stylistic evolution that continues | throughout his career (Hoover 2009). | voidhorse wrote: | I have a freewrite traveler, I don't like it and never use it, | here's why: | | It uses an eink screen, which has significant latency in | comparison with lcd and other screens that render pixels. Won't | be an issue if latency doesn't bother you too much, but if you | are used to super fast response times in text editors, it will | prove annoying. It also has no backlight. Its easy on the eyes | during the day but forget about using it in dim conditions. | | Their source is closed and not easily extensible. They version | your documents using their own propriety cloud backup, which you | can then export to various services. | | The file manager is clunky and the UI in general, either because | of eink limitations or stuff on the software side, is pretty | clunky. | | The firmware update process is mysterious and does not really | give any information to the user. | | The outer casing feels cheap. | | Try as I might, I cannot find any information on the internal | storage limits of the freewrite. | | Overall I personally feel the unit is way overpriced at 500 | dollars. | | Even though I dislike the traveller, I still loved the concept, | and through further research discovered that KingJim, a Japanese | company, makes a similar device, the Pomera DM200, only it has | pretty much none of the downsides I mentioned (it uses lcd, not | eink so its super responsive, to get files off the device you can | use a qr code, email, or sd card) plus other features that are | handy (split view, calendar that doubles as a journal, outline | mode, and others). Like the freewrite, the outer casing is a bit | cheap feeling but it feels sturdier and looks sleeker too. | | The only major downside to the pomera is that its ui is only | available in Japanese (there are older models that support | english but that are no longer in no production and are more | expensive to acquire second hand), but even this is easy to get | used to. The overall experience and software is imo leagues ahead | of freewrite and it only costs around 300 instead of 500. | naravara wrote: | I've heard there are some community projects out there to | enable bluetooth keyboard support on those Remarkable tablets. | That seems like the best of both worlds to me, especially since | you can also move the tablet off and read it like a manuscript | and mark it up with a pen. | | Although the new iOS version's text-reader is pretty amazing. I | wonder if I can just use a real typewriter and digitize the | notes from there. | brandur wrote: | Thanks for the detailed notes! Since it was announced, I was | always very enticed by the Freewriter Traveler, but never | pulled the trigger because despite a couple very positive | reviews, I had a haunting suspicion that it wasn't quite up to | the standard of quality that I would've liked to see, and | moving content in and out just seemed way too painful. | | The Pomera DM200 looks really interesting -- pretty sure I | recognize this from a guy on my that had one (or something very | close to it). | | A solution I've been playing around with a lot is the a | foldable keyboard (I got this one [1]) plus an iPhone. An | iPhone with an external keyboard doesn't give you Cmd + Tab, | which makes multi-tasking difficult by default. In addition, it | has the additional advantages of: | | * Leveraging a device I always have on me and which I charge | every night. | | * If you get the right keyboard, it's full size, keeping typing | non-painful. | | --- | | [1] https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B018K5EJCQ/ | satysin wrote: | I have used a few of these devices and I am always disappointed | as they lack features I had on my Psion 5mx more than twenty | years ago. | | The Psion had a better screen, excellent battery life from two | AA batteries, very good physical keyboard, excellent size, | basically the only thing it lacks in comparison to these modern | "solutions" is wifi. Although some even advertise _lack_ of | wifi as a _benefit_ as it means even less distraction! I mean | come on you 're taking the piss there imho. | | Things like the Freewrite Traveler are _shockingly_ over priced | and while they may be distraction free they are certainly not | frustration free. | johnla wrote: | This might sound dumb and too obvious but why not just turn off | wifi and go fullscreen on your editor? | scotuswroteus wrote: | Is Any Establishment Media Article About Tech Going To Act Like | 2011 Was a Decade Ago? | nahuel0x wrote: | Forget distraction-free devices, GPT-3 (and his sucessors) | assisted co-writing are going to be the most revolutionary change | in the way we write. ___________________________________________________________________ (page generated 2021-12-16 23:00 UTC)