What years of app testing actually taught me:
• Novelty feels like productivity but isn't
• Features you don't need become friction
• Integration beats raw power every time
• Simple systems survive long term
• The best app is the one you actually open
Stop chasing the perfect app. Build the simplest system that works.
What Years of App Testing Taught Me
I've tested more notes apps than I can count.
Notion. Obsidian. Craft. Bear. Logseq. Capacities. The list is genuinely embarrassing.
Here's what I've learned after all of it:
I still use iA Writer for newsletters, and that's actually the whole lesson.
The goal isn't finding one app for everything. It's finding the right app for each job and keeping the list brutally short.
Apple Notes for everything. iA Writer for focused writing. That's it.
It's Thursday.
My newsletter for the weekend is almost done(sharing 3 Apple Shortcuts to use with Apple Notes)
I have 3 videos in the pipeline(Budget, Normal and My versions of the Apple Ecosystem)
It has felt like the most productive and the most un-productive week all at the same time.
1. It’s clear you don’t save your way to $700k in cash. (Apparently I need to earn more, like a lot more.)
2. Why, if you have $700k in cash, you are choosing to live in Connecticut?
That is beyond me
In today’s episode of the fucked up state of the American housing market:
Getting outbid by a $700k+ cash offer on a house.
Two things stick out to me about this…