Can “Distraction-Free” Devices Change the Way We Write?

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/12/20/can-distraction-free-devices-change-the-way-we-write

by pseudolus • 5 years ago

49 47 5 years ago

Most likely, yes.

In a previous century: https://thesocietypages.org/cyborgology/2012/07/26/nietzsche... Nietzsche’s Transformative Typewriter and http://stunlaw.blogspot.com/2012/12/the-author-signal-nietzs... The Author Signal: Nietzsche’s Typewriter and Medium Theory.

But then:

The case of Henry James’s move from handwriting (typewriting) to dictation in the middle of What Maisie Knew has been studied by Hoover (2009). Yet, according to the NYU professor, the author of The Ambassadors took this sudden change in his stride and, despite the fact that we know exactly where the switch occurred, stylometry has been helpless in this case; or, rather, can show no sudden shift in James’s stylistic evolution that continues throughout his career (Hoover 2009).

scotuswroteus• 5 years ago

Is Any Establishment Media Article About Tech Going To Act Like 2011 Was a Decade Ago?

dsizzle• 5 years ago

https://archive.md/0XWsG

pseingatl• 5 years ago

This article fails to mention Writeroom, the original distraction-free writing program.

voidhorse• 5 years ago

I have a freewrite traveler, I don’t like it and never use it, here’s why:

It uses an eink screen, which has significant latency in comparison with lcd and other screens that render pixels. Won’t be an issue if latency doesn’t bother you too much, but if you are used to super fast response times in text editors, it will prove annoying. It also has no backlight. Its easy on the eyes during the day but forget about using it in dim conditions.

Their source is closed and not easily extensible. They version your documents using their own propriety cloud backup, which you can then export to various services.

The file manager is clunky and the UI in general, either because of eink limitations or stuff on the software side, is pretty clunky.

The firmware update process is mysterious and does not really give any information to the user.

The outer casing feels cheap.

Try as I might, I cannot find any information on the internal storage limits of the freewrite.

Overall I personally feel the unit is way overpriced at 500 dollars.

Even though I dislike the traveller, I still loved the concept, and through further research discovered that KingJim, a Japanese company, makes a similar device, the Pomera DM200, only it has pretty much none of the downsides I mentioned (it uses lcd, not eink so its super responsive, to get files off the device you can use a qr code, email, or sd card) plus other features that are handy (split view, calendar that doubles as a journal, outline mode, and others). Like the freewrite, the outer casing is a bit cheap feeling but it feels sturdier and looks sleeker too.

The only major downside to the pomera is that its ui is only available in Japanese (there are older models that support english but that are no longer in no production and are more expensive to acquire second hand), but even this is easy to get used to. The overall experience and software is imo leagues ahead of freewrite and it only costs around 300 instead of 500.

brandur2• 5 years ago

Thanks for the detailed notes! Since it was announced, I was always very enticed by the Freewriter Traveler, but never pulled the trigger because despite a couple very positive reviews, I had a haunting suspicion that it wasn't quite up to the standard of quality that I would've liked to see, and moving content in and out just seemed way too painful.

The Pomera DM200 looks really interesting — pretty sure I recognize this from a guy on my that had one (or something very close to it).

A solution I've been playing around with a lot is the a foldable keyboard (I got this one [1]) plus an iPhone. An iPhone with an external keyboard doesn't give you Cmd + Tab, which makes multi-tasking difficult by default. In addition, it has the additional advantages of:

* Leveraging a device I always have on me and which I charge every night.

* If you get the right keyboard, it's full size, keeping typing non-painful.

---

[1] https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B018K5EJCQ/

blondin• 5 years ago

well, the pomera disappointed me.

kingjim, the maker, never said they were portable e-ink typewriters. they say they are digital memos. like palm back in the days. people point to them as cheaper alternatives to the freewriter traveler. but that's honestly a mistake.

my biggest complaint was the keyboard.

imagine writing your essays or your book on that mini-keyboard! i had so much trouble pressing on individual keys on that keyboard. i also had issues with reading the e-ink screen at night. but the keyboard alone was enough reason for giving up and selling mine.

jfim• 5 years ago

In case you're considering the Pomera devices, be aware that they use the Japanese keyboard layout, which is just different enough to be really annoying.

The backspace key is smaller and there's an additional key to the left of it that doesn't exist on the US keyboard. The punctuation is at different locations for things like apostrophes and colons. The spacebar is smaller due to the IME keys.

Since they're digital memos, you can't really write really long texts on them, so no long novels or anything like that (IIRC it's something like 10k characters max).

But besides those drawbacks, they're nice no distraction devices. I have the DM30, it's a chonky little bugger that runs on AA batteries. There are instructions on how to switch the menus to English as well.

naravara• 5 years ago

I've heard there are some community projects out there to enable bluetooth keyboard support on those Remarkable tablets. That seems like the best of both worlds to me, especially since you can also move the tablet off and read it like a manuscript and mark it up with a pen.

Although the new iOS version's text-reader is pretty amazing. I wonder if I can just use a real typewriter and digitize the notes from there.

satysin• 5 years ago

I have used a few of these devices and I am always disappointed as they feel so sluggish and lack features I had on my Psion 5mx more than twenty years ago!

The Psion had a better[1] screen, excellent battery life from two AA batteries, very good physical keyboard, excellent size, basically the only thing it lacks in comparison to these modern "solutions" is wifi. Although some even advertise lack of wifi as a benefit as it means even less distraction! I mean come on you're taking the piss there imho.

Things like the Freewrite Traveler are shockingly over priced and while they may be distraction free they are certainly not frustration free.

[1] better in that it was a monochrome LCD not eink. Yes it wasn’t amazing but it was still more responsive than eink

totetsu• 5 years ago

I coveted the KingJim display every time I visited Yodobasi-camera for a while. But then I thought I'd want to install emacs on it to use org mode.. and at that point why not just by a little pocket PC..

chrismorgan• 5 years ago

I would note that such latency is not intrinsic to e-ink panels: I suppose Freewrite just haven’t optimised it to do proper partial updates.

This can be seen in paper tablets with styli: reMarkable 1 has about 43ms of latency from stylus to screen with a fairly slow processor (no idea what Freewrite uses, it could be slower but is probably similar), which includes, and I can attest that even when you’re looking for it the gap is small, and when you’re not looking for it you’re unlikely to notice it; and reMarkable 2 cuts that down to around 24ms with a faster processor and I think newer generation of e-ink panel. (Source: https://old.reddit.com/r/RemarkableTablet/comments/r3ev13/fy....) As regards CPU usage, implemented sensibly, rendering text at a known size and font with primed glyph caches is vastly lighter than rendering textured strokes, so I’d imagine you could get your typing latency down even further than reMarkable’s stylus latency with a sensible pipeline.

sdze• 5 years ago

The remarkable for instance has an exceptional low latency for an eInk device. I enjoy using it.

ghaff• 5 years ago

I suppose it depends in part on the sort of writing you do.

One of the reasons I basically never write stuff on a plane is that I find, absent Internet (and yes you can often get crappy Internet on a plane but it's also a good time to read books), I find I often need to pepper whatever I write with comments about checking this fact or that fact.

Of course, there was a time in my life when I managed to deal with not having access to the Internet. I also made more factual mistakes and just included less supporting information than I would today.

Even if I do a pile of research in advance, I just find there's a lot of overhead to not being able to verify facts, spellings, etc. on the spot.

egypturnash• 5 years ago

I sure do get a lot more art done when I am sitting at a cafe or in a park with all my computer's radios turned off to save power. I just gotta make sure I have the references I need so I don't have to turn on the internet again to dig something up and risk getting lost in the finely-tuned attention sinks of modern social media sites.

diego• 5 years ago

This question is backwards. We used to write differently with typewriters and notebooks. This is like asking if no longer using a car and instead walking would change the way we move around. The answer is "of course, why would you even ask. Just remember how it used to be."

rp12• 5 years ago

I don’t think this is a good analogy. Cars can get you long distances quickly. Having this ability means you can have suburbs outside of city centers, travel between cities in a day thus necessitating highways, etc. Cars make possible all sorts of huge, life-altering changes because of how they impact travel.

In terms of long-form writing, word processors make spelling and grammar easier to fix. They also make editing easier, and the internet can be used to reference facts while writing. This comes with a few trade offs, like easily being distracted. Does this impact really seem equivalent to the impact of a car to you?

romwell3• 5 years ago

TL;DR: do you really think I'd have written the wall of text below with a pen? :)

=============================

Yes and no.

As a musician, I can tell you that interfaces definitely matter. Everything, from color to tactile feel and weight affect the way you use any tool. You can get a perfect software emulator of, say, a Yamaha DX-7, and yet you will be surprised to see how different you sound when you play the actual thing.

Same with typing. I don't write with a pen, period. I can; I take notes, I doodle, I do math with pen and paper. But I can't write large amounts of text with a pen. It comes out differently because the interface of moving a stylus is different from typing.

There's a reason writers used to be obsessed with their typewriters (and still are). There's a reason why George R. R. Martin writes his books on a DOS machine[1]. Those reasons have to do with why the OP has a point.

I think differently when I type; the brain-finger interface works differently than speech. Sometimes I look away from the screen, and see that my fingers typed things that I didn't intend to type. Apparently, I am typing at the level of words, not keystrokes, and when I look away from the screen, sometimes my brain cheats and misspells words. Not typos; the letters would be far apart. I couldn't possibly do the same thing with a pen, because I can't write legibly without looking at what I'm writing; and generally, it's not a thing that people are trained to do.

But with typing, you can do it.

The computer keyboard and the typewriter are not that much different in that respect; but the ability to undo and delete most certainly has an effect on the writing process. That's because you don't have to pause anymore before writing a sentence; you can type it as it forms in your brain, and you can backtrack easily. Yes, paper is cheap, and you can cross things out; but it adds friction, and it doesn't really feel nice (if I were writing this, half a page would be crossed out already - as even with the pauses, my mind jumps around enough).

You can also add text into previous passages without rewriting it. You can even restructure text on the fly. Of course you can do it with paper, too; and you can even plan in advance and leave enough spacing to be able to make corrections if needed, but it's not the default thing people do with paper, and defaults matter.

Film photography vs. digital photography vs. cellphone photography vs. instant photography would be a better comparison, I feel. All devices that can produce photographs have their strengths and weaknesses, but it's not about that. It's about what the device is optimal for when you pick it up and use without tweaking and putting much thoughts into it. Self-portraits existed since cameras were around, but selfies needed a cell phone to take off.

The car analogy has merit. Look back 100 years ago; literacy was a struggle. People didn't generally didn't have a need to write, and writing used to cost you, in terms of tools, paper, time, and effort required to do it.

Do you really believe writing like this very comment that you are reading was commonplace back then? Disputes, discussions, discourses all existed; but having a public discourse in written correspondence required a space on the newspaper page at the very least. Craigslist's "Missed Connections" and rants about absurd listings ("RE: Antique sofa, needs TLC, $1750" - "The HELL is wrong with someone who's listing this? You've been doing it for three months now, pal, nobody wants this crap") are reminiscent of what it used to be before mail/comment threads came around.

Speaking of written communication, look how SMS texting affected writing culture ("ok thx by cya l8r"), and how it all but disappeared after swipe-typing and autocomplete became the norm.

So you have to take it in context. A car analogy isn't perfect, but it's not that far off. The tools that we use for communicating affect the communication that flows through them.

Personally, I've been using "distraction-free" devices for a while now, but I just called it "taking a laptop to the park" (where there's no WiFi), or, God forbid, turning off WiFi or communication apps when I don't need them.

Coming back to music, even with a good DAW, field recorders, 4-tracks, and even straight up recording on a cell phone all have their use. The potato quality of a cell phone video vs. running line-in through the mixer + FX + DSP chain + DAW is a feature, not a bug. I just know that if I record through a DAW, I'll end up doing dozens (...hundreds) of takes to get it just right. A tool that is imperfect by default liberates one from that.

So while I am not someone to get too excited about the devices in the paper, I can understand the appeal.

As for me, I end up having the opposite problem: once I started typing, I end up hitting the character limit more often than I'd like to admit (it's 8000 characters on Facebook, in case you were wondering; I've hit it on all platforms). Even the cellphone's distractions aren't strong enough to pull me away from writing out a long thought, and the whole world can wait. The devices from the article enable what is already easy for me to do (and when I want to write, I still take to trusty notepad.exe, the best text editor I've ever had for that purpose).

For myself, I found that TikTok had a transformative effect with the way it limits comments. I've been forced to be brief for the first time in my life. And as they say, limitation breeds creativity. This limitation forces me to step back.

A Kickstarter idea for people like me: a digital typewriter that punishes verbosity. Sorry, you can only type 300 words a day, and it locks you out after that. Use your characters wisely.

Anyone down to make one?

[1]https://time.com/99432/george-rr-martin-game-of-thrones-comp...

hagbard_c2• 5 years ago

I don't think so, not really. Any computer can be a "distraction-free" device if you want it to be by turning down all distraction-causing services. If you're running an OS which doesn't allow this you can (temporarily or permanently) change to one which does not get in the way. A blank screen with a blinking cursor, ready to accept whatever you care to write. This is possibly in the here and now without having to buy any overpriced single-purpose device, all it takes is... discipline. Don't switch or reboot into the normal blinkenlights-environment, just write.

Given that his has been possible forever I see no reason for single-function writing devices to change how people write. If you want one, get one but realise that the multi-function device(s) you already own can be made to function similarly and you're adding yet another device to your "environmental footprint".

lawtalkinghuman• 5 years ago

all it takes is... discipline

Just don't buy any cigarettes. Easy. Cravings? Pfft.

Discipline is hard, and sometimes solutions can be built that help make things easier. Vaping as an off-ramp for smokers. Screen Time on iOS as a way for the social media addicted to reduce their addiction to the 'gram.

While studying, my solution to procrastination was a moderately nice notebook and avoiding my laptop as much as possible. Pen and paper was really good technology to help me think and study better.

hagbard_c2• 5 years ago

If your addiction to distraction is comparable to that to cigarettes all bets are off, buying some overpriced gizmo will not help here since you'll just sneak off with your phone or tablet or laptop to get your fix. The solution to this problem does not lie with technology, it lies with behavioral changes. Technology can help, sure, but buying yet another device just for this purpose does not - it runs against the same problem as you pointed out around cigarettes: "just don't touch your phone/laptop/tablet/desktop/fridge door/'smart' TV/in car entertainment system/whatever other device you have around which can be used to browse the web. If you really can not refrain from grabbing those things I'd suggest moving to the backwoods somewhere, even if only for a few months. Somewhere without network connections (i.e. leave that Starlink dish at home), preferably even without electricity. Live off the land, fish, hunt, do whatever it takes to get back to the essentials of existence. If this sounds absurd realise that plenty of people do this every year when they go out hiking, camping, canoeing/kayaking, sailing (although technology has made its inroads there) etc.

So, just install a nix and either add a single-function login which goes straight into a page-filling no-frills editor or use a tiling window manager without any window decorations or program launcher to get the same visuals. Add a restricted account if you need a bit more hand-holding to keep from checking your likes or twit-regurgitations or fill in the blanks. If you're hobbled by using Windows or MacOS you can achieve the same by creating a bootable USB-thing with a minimal nix configured to your liking. No need for new hardware (you're sure to have a suitable USB-fob around after all), no need for more consumption just to achieve less distraction.

digitallyfree• 5 years ago

Does anyone else feel that this is more of a human problem as opposed to be one solvable by equipment?

Someone who is easily distracted when writing on their computer by browsing the internet, looking at social media, etc. will likely have the same problem when using a dedicated hardware device. Instead, they'll just grab their phone, stare out the window, or daydream instead of focusing on their work. As long as you turn off your email and chat apps so you aren't bombarded with messages while you write, there's nothing on a computer that will distract you unless you willingly choose to open it.

I actually do a lot of my writing on a eink device, but that's more for eyestrain as opposed to reducing distractions.

dmitryminkovsky• 5 years ago

There's different kinds of distractions, though. For me, staring out the window is quite different from doom scrolling. The former is more akin to thinking in the shower, while the latter is just... doom scrolling.

CharlesW• 5 years ago

Does anyone else feel that this is more of a human problem as opposed to be one solvable by equipment?

I love this question because it gets closer to the real issue, and my answer is "absolutely". We live in a completely different world distraction-wise than when typewriters were a popular choice for writing.

paxys2• 5 years ago

It is a human problem, but human problems can be solved with technology. Why is the problem of focus and distractions any different? Doubly so when the problem was created by technology in the first place.

johnla• 5 years ago

This might sound dumb and too obvious but why not just turn off wifi and go fullscreen on your editor?

nahuel0x• 5 years ago

Forget distraction-free devices, GPT-3 (and his sucessors) assisted co-writing are going to be the most revolutionary change in the way we write.

contravariant• 5 years ago

God I hope it doesn't take long before it sparks a counterculture of densely informational creative prose.

Right now GPT3 mostly seems good at padding text with nothing of any informational or creative value (and indeed it can't do anything else, with the problem statement it's usually given).

fbelzile• 5 years ago

For anyone interested, I made a desktop app called Cold Turkey Writer that blocks everything on the computer until a certain number of words are typed (or a timer is reached). The free version has pretty much everything you need: https://getcoldturkey.com/writer/

mellosouls• 5 years ago

I haven't used that particular app, but the main Cold Turkey Blocker is great!

wolverine876• 5 years ago

I would think that, in the HN market, full-screen text editors would be the most popular distraction-free writing. They already have minimal distractions, many being based on terminal applications and using keyboard UIs, and why would I reduce my efficiency by adopting a barebones word processor?

divbzero• 5 years ago

When I was young my school provided students with these amazingly thin tablets that were close to perfectly white, sharper than any E Ink screen today, and dedicated to one purpose alone: as a blank slate for creative tasks like writing or drawing. You could not play games on them, read books or magazines, or even view email or IMs as they had no connection to the World Wide Web. The flip side was that they were truly distraction-free in a way that iA Writer, reMarkable, and other modern tools fail to achieve in full.

0_____0• 5 years ago

i remember these. they were ubiquitous in schools where i grew up as well. as i remember they were compatible with quite a range of styluses although some models of stylus had nonexistent or iffy 'undo' functions.

paxys2• 5 years ago

Are you describing a whiteboard?

phalangion• 5 years ago

Pretty sure it’s paper

tapoxi• 5 years ago

I have dysgraphia and during grade school I was given an AlphaSmart to help in taking notes. It's a wonderful machine. Only edits text, powered by AA batteries, and no syncing, it just spits out text over a PS/2 or USB port.

I'd love to have a slightly modernized version but it seems like they're dirt cheap ($60) on Amazon.

powersnail• 5 years ago

Both yes and no. It will certainly change the process, but to shut out distraction, what needs to be done is to treat it like a job, a difficult job, and organize life and work around it. A device with an e-ink display doesn't change anything about it.

I'm not saying writing tools don't matter to writing at all, but it seems to me that they don't solve the problem of distraction. It's not that hard to turn off the WIFI, or leave your phone in a different room. The Microsoft Office toolbars, however ugly, isn't stopping you from churning out words. Books don't write themselves simply because an e-ink screen replaces a LED monitor.

The most productive writer I personally know, writes on his work laptop running MS word. The machine has as much bloats and distractions as you can imagine, but he writes two chapters of light novels a day on average, before and after going to work. There is no special equipment, no internet-proof basement, no mental gymnastics. For him, writing is work, so he allocates some dedicated time to do it.

Writing (well) is such a difficult task, that simply, not everybody is going to be a productive writer. Just like not everyone is going to be a good mathematician, regardless of how little distraction surrounds them.

---

If one has a real addiction to social media or video games, that's all together a different problem. Using a distraction-free typewriter to combat digital addiction is like quitting smoking with a tobacco-free basketball.

TranquilMarmot• 5 years ago

I did NaNoWriMo last month (https://nanowrimo.org/) and, to my surprise, I actually ended up getting to the 50,000 word goal and writing a "novel" (I have yet to re-read or edit it so I have no idea if it is actually good or not...)

I did it on a fancy laptop (brand new Framework) with plenty of distractions (web browser, games, etc.) The solution to get it done really was to schedule time to write and a goal of a certain number of words (or chapters or plot points) to get done EVERY DAY. You'd really be surprised how much you can get done in 10-20 minutes of set aside focus time every day!

Animats• 5 years ago

Yes, it changes the process. The trouble is, with a lack of outside input, you tend to get writing about me, Me, ME. Unless you're already a good pro writer.

rcarmo• 5 years ago

I happen to use iA Writer a _lot_ on my iPad Mini, together with a $20 foldable Bluetooth keyboard—-it’s the best writing environment I’ve used in years.

Fearful of interruptions? Toggle Do Not Disturb or Airplane Mode. Don’t want to risk opening other apps? Use Guided Access to keep yourself inside one app (or just use willpower).

I do like the idea of dedicated writing devices, but if you’ve got nothing on hand I would really suggest grabbing a cheap tablet and not install anything on it other than a plaintext editor (and on Android you can use termux with vimwiki, etc.)

bArray• 5 years ago

Honestly the most distraction free writing device for me is portable, has Vim and is purposely not able to handle very much (i.e. limited RAM). That way I am forced to address one thing at a time.

Speaking of which, I am currently working towards building a modern PDA device so that I can mostly do away with my phone. The idea is that it too will be purposely limited in capability and will only be capable of specialised tasks.

Can “Distraction-Free” Devices Change the Way We Write?

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