[Tehchops]

As already echoed in some other comments in this thread:

What is your experience with Notion? How does it compare to org-mode, specifically your system?

I had a run at org-mode, specifically with interest in literate and pkm, and it was too painful/buggy, with the obvious rabbit hole of config. So far, Notion appears to be "good-enough", but it's slow and there is some export friction I feel could be smoothed over with org.

[jethroksy]

> What is your experience with Notion?

Never used it, so I can't comment here.

> How does it compare to org-mode, specifically your system?

I think Notion targets users who just want to take notes, and not spend time messing around with config. Notion has what I will term "sane defaults", but if something doesn't feel right, there's no way to change it. My system also has sane defaults, and the code powering it is simple and easy to tweak as you please.

Another difference is that Notion is online-first. I'm of the opinion that PKMs should be offline-first, and that the data should be entirely in your control.

Org-mode is just plain text, which is incredibly important for the longevity of the system. It's a system that will be around in a few decades. Can you say the same about Notion?

Org-mode also has an amazing ecosystem of packages, with first-class support for math, tables, images, citations and code. You also have the editing power of Emacs, rather than some web-based IDE.

> it was too painful/buggy, with the obvious rabbit hole of config

I feel like the defaults of Org-mode are pretty good. At least you get to make the decision of trading off your time configuring Org, and using it as it is.

My Emacs configuration hasn't changed in some time. This project started out as 27 lines of Emacs Lisp in my config, but since there was some interest in making it more widely usable, I took some time to polish and release it. To the end user, it should be just plug and play.

[Tehchops]

Thanks for the comprehensive reply!

I think you definitely highlighted the other side of the coin with Notion: once you're out on the edges of what it can do, there's no way to extend/change/modify.

The performance also comes to mind. Emacs will always be faster vs. an Electron app.

I think I just need to bite the bullet and take some time to really learn Emacs/org, I think after the initial learning curve the flexibility and power will really pay off.

One other question: Sometimes I'll be listening to a podcast, or reading, or will just generally have a thought or idea, and Emacs isn't easily reachable. What's the best way(IYO) to get that in to your system?

Thanks again and I'm hopeful you'll keep up the writing, it's done quite well.

[jethroksy]

I do this kind of stream-of-consciousness recording by just sending messages to myself on Telegram, sort of like a mobile fleeting note. Some people like doing it through voice, but typing is fine with me.

After that I just refine the saved messages and transfer them into my system.

> Emacs will always be faster vs. an Electron app.

No, but it should certainly take up less memory. Emacs lisp is slow, I think the basic operations would be faster if it were an Electron app.