[louisvgchi]

I liked the part where they talked about the blocks with the blocks and the block blocks and how they all block together.

I thought the reference to field pioneers was a bit much, I wouldn’t have the blocks to do that with a straight face. I wish these app makers (see also Figma, AirTable) would refrain from making their self-aggrandizing “we’re bringing computing to the masses”; what a load of blocks. What you’re doing is creating a product (another silo in waiting) serving a market that presently is interested. This block model is also not unique (see WordPress and Drupal): Notion may be refining some of that in a more seamless experience, but this is a different kind of statement. Perhaps “we added collaboration to blocks” would be a possible claim for uniqueness.

Aside from this, I found the technical decisions interesting and worth a read.

[colinplamondon]

I think it really is that unique - Notion blending read/write is pretty revolutionary for an app like this. Wiki's are obsessed with toggles between read/write mode.

Those apps you mention - Drupal, Wordpress, etc - have write modes that exist in backends with alien experiences to the read modes.

By unifying read/write into a single continuous UI, with built-in relational databases usable by non-technical users, Notion really does let people create damned powerful custom apps.

If you squint, you can see how Notion looks a lot like the next version of the Internet. By hyper-focusing on company intranets they miss out on the power of connected workspaces ("domains"), but the thinking is there.

I'll be seriously surprised if Notion isn't looked back on as a breakthrough paradigm shift.

[smoldesu]

> I'll be seriously surprised if Notion isn't looked back on as a breakthrough paradigm shift.

To that end, I'd be surprised if they're even remembered much at all. I cancelled my subscription after being seriously disappointed in the feature-set.

[colinplamondon]

If you want to set the line, I’ll take the over on “Notion succeeds”

[yen223]

They will be remembered, if only because a surprising number of tools have copied Notion's UI

[wpietri]

I hadn't heard of Notion before this recent HN discussion, in which many, many people make the argument that it's slow, often unusably so: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27144566

So it's a bit of a surprise to see them bragging about their technology today.