[deckard1]

No alternative... to a note taking app? Am I missing something or is everyone crazy here?

I use Joplin (with Syncthing) which fits the bill. But I could literally use vim and a folder on my drive. I'm baffled by the productivity "maximizers" on HN. Is this never-ending search for the right tool just an elaborate excuse for procrastination?

[chrisfosterelli]

IMO notion is not a short-form note taking app, and I think it's not ever going to the right app for that use case (though I know lots use it that way anyway).

I personally use Keep for most "notes" and notion for "documents". Some of the documents are notes but they're long-form research / project documents.

[deckard1]

again, you can do both of these in vim/Joplin/Obsidian/Google Docs or probably a hundred other tools.

[chrisfosterelli]

Sorry, I should have clarified what I meant by "documents". Notion has a really rich concept of a "document" with deep functionality that other tools typically don't have.

For example notion pages can include full markdown in addition to subdocuments, databases, templates, relationships, reminders, galleries, kanban boards, formulas, lists, calendars, timelines, images, videos, web embeds, code snippets, files, maps, tweets, figma views, etc.

Where other apps do have some overlap, they typically don't have similar sharing functionality. Notion pages can be private, shared, team-visible, or public on the internet.

To more directly compare to your examples:

* Vim - No rich document features, no mobile access, no markdown rendering, no sharing. * Joplin - I haven't used this myself but a quick look seems like it has no sharing or team features. * Obsidian - No sharing features. * Google docs - No rich document features.

Keep is just a notes app. No argument that alternatives exist there. I like Keep because it works well on android and the web and keeps it simple, but there's definitely other options.

FWIW I agree there is alternatives to Notion, in the strictest sense of "alternative". Quip is really close for example. For some use cases (like the article here) you could call Confluence an alternative. But they're just not as flexible or full featured as notion for such a massive variety of use cases across a team. We use notion as a client CRM, project management tool, internal documentation tool, public user guide, discussion space, note app, research log, etc. and there's not really one tool that covers all of those use cases competitively.

[krono]

Sometimes you just don't really know what you need until you're knee-deep in it, and that is exactly where Notion shines.

Whenever you find the data that you're entering is more relational than you originally imagined it'd be, just change it into a Table. Easy.

Got more random thoughts to add to a table item? No problemo, just open the item and you have a full-blown page to work with (which you can even nest another table inside of).

Some random item that you should really follow-up on next Tuesday? Just add a reminder.

Somehow that just resonates with the way my non-typical (adhd) brain works, and it's what's keeping me with Notion for my personal stuff despite its frustrating slowness and many other flaws.