New tech that’s actually interesting

For now AI is overhyped FOMO. Apple is the new Microsoft, which means it’s good enough and kind of works but not antthing to get excited about.

But that doesn’t mean there aren’t interesting things going on in the tech world.

Obsidian and the community, with plugins galore and its vast range of uses from academic work, writing, knowledge management, and role-playing games is fascinating. I started using it for note taking with the academic books I’ve been reading, and it does not disappoint. Connecting notes, visualizing those connections, harnessing the power of search, and then being able to quickly get references has been a huge benefit for me. I never could get into DEVONthink, but this works for me and has the same purported benefits.

The layers of integrations can get pretty wild. You can use a service like Readwise to get your Kindle notes and highlights into Obsidian without much hassle. Doing this manually is only a bit more work.

Pretty much everything I do for studies or writing touches Obsidian at some point. It’s actually what the promise of early PCs yielded: a powerful tool to help you work.

For hardware, I’m really curious about the new wave of eInk Android tablets coming out. They seem like the right balance of reading, note taking, productivity with none of the downsides of phones. You’re not going to get addicted to Obsidian, academic PDFs and eInk. This is what I wanted my iPad to be, but it just never materialized. And I don’t regret selling it.

The downsides are that they are made in China by Chinese companies, and the not-paid-for reviews seem iffy on quality.

I find it telling that these sorts of innovations and productivity tools aren’t coming from bigger companies anymore. They’ve gone all in on “engagement” and ads, which are the exact opposite innovative tech.