Tana: Great Potential

February 9, 2024
3 min read

Recently, I’ve been on a maddening quest to find a new notes app. I will share more about that later, but one in particular piqued my interest – Tana.

The idea and the promise are that you write and add supertags (yes, Tana comes with a huge amount of vocabulary specific to it) and the app just links everything and organises content for you. There are multiple options for the type of content you can add: plain text, to-do items, images, videos and much more.

In Notion and Craft the smallest unit is a block, in Tana it’s a node, which is basically a bullet. I was actually reading “The Bullet Journal Method”, and my mind immediately started thinking about parallels in both approaches. What makes it so powerful, is you can create anything with those supertags. The easiest way to describe is – think about databases in Notion, but they are created dynamically based on the nodes scattered all over the space.

I first installed Tana a couple of weeks ago, went through the tutorial, tried to make some notes, and uninstalled it, thinking it was one of the worst software products in the PKM space. But I’ve kept seeing people using it and even being fans, so I’ve decided to give it another try. This time, something clicked. I started small and for about a week, I just kept writing in the daily note. I’ve added supertags to all the nodes to add some structure. It became a bit clearer, but this steep learning curve, I think, will discourage most people from using it.

The other huge issue is the lack of mobile apps. There is Tana Capture, but it is just that — a tool for capturing notes on the go (it is good at that, but still extremely limited). Since Tana wants to be almost everything, including your to-do app, it is unimaginable to have it only on a PC.

Lastly, it is still in invite-only beta, so they still have to prove themselves to the public at large. If they don’t change the whole vocabulary and maybe streamline the number of features a bit, I think it will be difficult to break out. I’m confident they’ll have a vocal minority of super fans, but not a big audience.

You also can’t export your notes. And looking at the structure, I don’t think it would be an easy problem to solve for the developers, or you might not be able to import this data somewhere else.

For now, I’ve decided to go with some different tools as my PKM, but I’ll be closely following the progress of the company and checking the app from time to time.

Sunday Endorsement – 31.05.2020

May 31, 2020
5 min read

📱 Tot Pocket

I was very skeptical at first. I mean, who wouldn’t be – €21.99 for a very limited note taking app. But after much consideration and keeping in mind the possibility to refund (yay Europe) I decided to give it a try. I’ve been trying to find an easy to use note app for a long time and nothing could come close to what I wanted. Notes.app was where I kept all my notes and didn’t feel like simple jotting app, I’ve tried Bear for a year, but it just replaced Notes and I never was a Markdown fan, I wanted something with rich text support. Drafts came close, but I always felt overwhelmed by it and after a week there would be tens of notes which I couldn’t remember what they were about.

Tot is light, colorful (it even changes the color of keyboard to match the dot and what surprised me most – even 3rd party keyboards get colored). I didn’t like icon at first, but recently they’ve added Mobius, which is now my favorite. I use all but one dots for something already and love it.

One disclaimer I have to add – I’ve had a data loss with the app. Just yesterday I was walking around town, listening to the audiobook and adding some notes, including citations I’ve transcribed myself. When I came home and opened an app – there was nothing. Just one word I’ve put as a placeholder when I created the note. And now I can’t shake the feeling of distrust. I hope it was a one time thing, but I’m not sure when I will be able to trust the application fully again.

I can’t recommend an app costing €21.99 to everyone, but if you look at screenshots and read the description you will know if the app is right for you. It is for me.

📺 Drive To Survive – Season 2

“Netflix are a bunch of cunts, aren’t they? I would love for them to play that.”

At the beginning of the season two they immediately let you know – this time it’s bigger, we have Mercedes and Ferrari now, but that somehow ruins it a bit. It became more pristine. The most controversial things were mostly when drivers and principals mentioned the documentary or Netflix.

But I still would recommend watching it. And I feel like it is much more interesting to those who have never watched F1, because otherwise you would already know what happened.

One additional note – I was the victim of advertising. After watching the show I went for a walk and had such a strong desire for a Red Bull I went to the store and bought one. Marketing works.

📜 Stratechery – The Google Squeeze

Half a year old article, but still very interesting. I never though how much advertising there is on Google. The screenshot which shows the results, where you have to scroll 3 pages in order to get to the organic results is worth the read alone.

I’ve compared the article with my own usage and it is the same in some instances and completely different in others. I hate the hotel module of Google. It always feels like some shitty websites want to give you a very bad deal. When I’m looking for a hotel I always go to booking.com. Always. And, as it turns out, that’s what they’ve tried to do – incentivize people to go straight to them. I guess it works.

⌚️ Pride California Watch Face

With the most recent update of the Apple Watch there are a couple of new Pride watch faces. One of them is California with Pride colors. It is my favorite watch face right now. I’ve been meaning to write about watch faces and how they all are bad for some reason or other. There are customizations, but it always feels like there could be more. But in terms of look – this one is just amazing.

One note – the process was a bit cumbersome. I had newest update on my Apple Watch, but new colors weren’t there. I updated my iPhone to iOS 13.5 and could choose a new California color, but it wouldn’t show up on my Watch. Only after restarting the watch did it work.

📚 Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of Nike by Phil Knight

I’ve laughed a couple of times while listening to the book. It is probably the best memoir by a businessman I have ever read. It is more about motivation and drive and less about the decisions themselves. I’m sure that in order to build such a monumental company there have to be more controversial stories, but this book is not the place for them.

Ending is just beautiful. The book itself is very personal, but ending takes it to the new level. I didn’t want for it to end. One of the strongest recommendations I can give. Everyone should read it.