Micro Journal: Distraction-Free Writing Device
46 comments
·February 24, 2025floren
szvsw
In the modular synth/music world, this is sometimes referred to as GAS… gear acquisition syndrome.
As always, it’s not the tool, it’s how you use it… and as always, being creative is always hard, and the challenge is (usually) within yourself and not your tools (setting aside accessibility concerns in which tooling obviously becomes more important; and at least a little small dose of mise-en-scene).
kstrauser
I bought a Freewrite Alpha last summer and which I'd gotten something like this instead. The Alpha's great in many ways, but has just enough aggravation that it makes me resent the thing a little:
* I have a model without a backlight, and the screen's all but invisible unless you're under a light. Wake up and think of something you want to write? Either turn on the lights, or hope it actually turned on when you hit the power button and that you're not typing on a powered-off device.
* Why, oh why, can it only remember 1 single Wi-Fi password? I write most of the time from home, but sometimes I like to go to a nearby coffee shop. If I connect it to the coffee shop's Wi-Fi, I have to manually re-enter my home password when I get back. I don't need it to remember thousands of networks, but maybe just the 3 or more most recent ones would cover the above cases, plus tethering to my phone.
I joined the BYOK[0] Kickstarter last year. I hope it turns into the device I hoped the Alpha would be.
[0] https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/byok/byok-the-ultimate-...
fuzzythinker
There's one with a keyboard on igg now: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/pomera-full-suite-typewri...
kstrauser
That looks beautiful but it’s a bit spendy. Not overpriced, but spendy. If the software is nice, though, that’d be almost exactly what I’d want.
john_the_writer
Got an AlphaSmart 2000 off ebay. It cost < 200.. It's 100% offline, and the setup involves getting a pack of AA batteries at the local gas station.
It is so easy to use, and reliable as heck.
joseda-hg
Not really a fix, but I encounter this regularly (Usually with my e reader), I just named my Phone's hotspot the same as my home network (Same password too) and connect the phone to the public WiFi
It has other problems (Like security, if you're connecting other devices), but it makes it simple enough
Edit: Maybe make it the same SSID as a guest network, that way you avoid your other devices thinking it's a trusted network
kstrauser
That's an option, for sure. I've thought about doing exactly that, but stopped because of the security issues. And that doesn't help with the coffee shop / hotel / office issues, unless I want to use tethering 100% of the time I'm outside the house, which I don't.
throwanem
I have a distraction-free writing device. It's called a notebook and it cost eight dollars.
kstrauser
Lovely! I envy your ability to handwrite my thoughts as quickly as I can type them.
taeric
I'm assuming this is a bit facetious, that said, I think it is worth exploring.
Yes, you can use short hand to learn to write words faster, such that you may be surprised at how fast people can actually write. Certainly, you'd be surprised at how slow some people type. Especially when thinking.
More pertinent for notebooks, though, is how unstructured it can be. Learning to use the space of a page is a big thing that I could never really replicate with text on a computer.
Easy places this is relevant. Math when trying to work out something. Anything pictorial that I don't know how to type out. Graphical spots where I want large parts of it "scratched out" such that it is not relevant for the note I am taking now.
kstrauser
I take plenty of paper notes, especially for math, diagrams, and other things. But we're here talking about an article about typewriting devices, and in the context of the kinds of things you'd write long-form on a typewriter, "just use a notebook!" is insultingly unhelpful.
I've tried for decades to write long-form things without it causing my hand to cramp up painfully. I know what's wrong, and I also accept that at this point there's not much I can do about it. If I could use an $8 notebook instead of a keyboard, I'd be doing it already.
john_the_writer
Yeah.. I learned gregg short hand. Took years, but I love it.. I can write rather fast now, and for the most part I'm the only one who can read it. I do slip into standard writing.. It's a blend really.
What I really like about it though, is that there's no spell check or grammar. I suck at both, and the red and green lines of word and others is distracting.
I mean margret attwod says get a pencil and a notepad.. I'll trust her.
throwanem
> I envy your ability to handwrite my thoughts as quickly as I can type them.
Not your thoughts, certainly. But for matters of any depth, not only code, I find the limit on speed tends rarely to be set by speed of transcription.
kstrauser
The limit on your speed, as you pointed out. There are times I stare at a screen for an hour and then add a comma to fix a bug. There are other times I'm writing long walls of text as fast as I can get them out of my brain. That's the sort of thing the device in this article we're discussing is meant for. And for me, I cannot possibly put pen to paper as quickly as I can put chars on a screen (or ribbon ink onto typing paper, for that matter).
egypturnash
john_the_writer
Gregg is easiest to learn. You can integrate it slowly..
kali_00
[dead]
flakiness
This reminded me of "Pomera" from Kingjim: https://getpomera.com/ I tried it a long time ago but it didn't stick. Still glad to see a similar concept coming back here. It's just cool.
What I like in this Micro Journal is the real keyboard though. The Pomera keyboard was very cheap (for portability.)
smartmic
Check out the Zerowriter Ink. Similar features/hardware but a slightly different form factor. Seems like a pretty attractive niche for startups.
lenova
Reminds me of the Alphasmart, it was such a great device: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AlphaSmart
jay-barronville
> Reminds me of the Alphasmart, it was such a great device: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AlphaSmart
Agreed. I own one of the early AlphaSmart devices (I own and collect some old-school software and devices) and I plan on keeping it for a long time.
john_the_writer
Was? You can easily buy one now. There are a lot of them for sale. I got one a few years back. They're great.. and that it uses AA batteries is a huge plus.
yardshop
I love the idea of it, but I would get bothered working with such a tiny screen. I understand that bigger screens lead to more things going on and greater distractions, but I want to see my writing with some structure, paragraphs, margins, indentation. Some of those tiny screens with their tiny text, it looks comparable to typing through a keyhole! But I would still love to try one.
smarx007
Pen and paper, thank me later.
xpe
Available for purchase on Battlestar Galactica.
szvsw
One of the most brilliant pieces of production design (in my opinion) is the choice to make paper octagonal via trimmed corners in the BSG universe. Such a wonderful way of communicating that the world is other, or ours but through some strange looking glass, or to borrow from Gibson, a mirror world, where things are just so barely surreal in their subtle differences. Those paper corners suggest some contingent, divergent history in the development of printing technology that implies some larger world of divergences. The impression of depth! Always loved that.
wdbm
My take on this was to get a boxy old ThinkPad that no longer functioned and fit it with Raspberry Pi, e-ink and LCD. https://github.com/wdbm/cyberDeck_2022
john_the_writer
New chrome book would do.. No setup required, they work offline out of the box, and are really cheap.
I got one for my kid a few weeks ago. She uses google docs offline and sync's up when she comes back online.
Way easier to get going.
ElijahLynn
This looks really great! I am glad you are also selling them, I might give it a go. Love that you can send to Google drive too!
walterbell
Another option is an iPad and keyboard in Assistive (single-app) mode, give the password to someone else or write on paper.
carelyair
What software is used for this?
zokier
depends on the edition
https://github.com/unkyulee/micro-journal/tree/main/micro-jo...
The various iterations all look quite attractive, and the final one especially looks kind of like if an Apple IIc and a computer from Brazil had a baby -- in a good way! I congratulate the creator on producing so much real hardware and not just renders; I've designed and made hardware and it's hard as hell!
But I've also written a pretty good bit (not just code documentation and emails but fiction, short stories), and it's also hard as hell, and like a lot of people who want to write things I've dabbled with all sorts of instruments that I'm convinced will finally be the trick to make the words come out good.
I've used legal pads, and composition books, and spiral notebooks, and grid paper notepads.
I've written with pencils, and ballpoints, and fountain pens, and dip pens with a whole variety of nibs and inks (admittedly that was mostly just for fun).
I've written in Acme on Plan 9, in Emacs and Vi on Linux, in Google Docs on a cheap Chromebook, and in BBEdit on a Mac SE/30. I've also used a mechanical typewriter, a Selectric electric typewriter, and an AlphaSmart Neo 2.
So I say the following from experience:
1. Writing is difficult to do well, regardless of how you're getting the words down.
2. It's easy to distract yourself, regardless of how you're getting the words down.
3. One of the easiest ways to accomplish #2 is by dreaming about the next perfect writing tool that will really make your writing sing just as soon as you muster up the courage to click "Buy".
4. Once you get your latest writing toy^H^H^Htool, it's easier to write blog posts about it than to write the things you actually want to write but are deep down too timid to try.
In summary, I applaud Unkyu for making these, and I don't think they're likely to help you write better.
edit: Anybody in the San Francisco area who has been dreaming about an AlphaSmart Neo 2 as the perfect writing machine that will finally take their writing to the next level, dig up my email address and you can have mine for free, I don't use it any more.