I appreciate the drive for a peaceful place to work, not to mention the price and weight of a MacBook.

But I want to point out a key feature of both raw macOS TextEdit and Pages.

Simply, it’s the Macs document model of “never” having to save an file and backed by a versioned file model.

Barring some disaster, you just type. If you close the computer, it picks back up where you left off (because of the battery backup keeping the memory intact). If you reboot the computer (and you have it restore your open apps), it comes right back where you left off. Finally, if you simply quit the program, it just quits and reopens, again, where you left off. No dialog boxes. No “Are you sure?”. None of that.

The key point to all this is you don’t have to manage the backing file. Your next Great American Novel can have the working name of “Untitled-1”.

At least for me, this is a great QoL feature. One less thing I have to deal with.

And it’s always there, it’s pervasive, and it’s backed up (I assume) to Time Machine (another mostly incredible set it and forget it system). I admit the relationship between this system and Time Machine is fuzzy to me because these files are system managed and not really visible outside of the application. I don’t know how to recover “Untitled-23” from Time Machine. But since it’s versioned, there’s less need for that.

Google Docs kind of has to work like this, and I don’t know how many other Mac apps adopt and leverage this subsystem. But, notably, Office, et al, don’t.

And, if I can just Shut. Up., it’s, to quote Forrest Gump, “That’s good! One less thing”.

I've tried many such devices. I bought and sold AlphaSmart devices for a while during my search. I also have a Psion Series 5, Sharp Brain, etc. I also have ADHD.

The problem for me is always the keyboard layout. Having used the same keyboard for 16 years (wired Apple aluminium with numeric pad; still going strong!) I find different keyboard layouts more distracting than any notification, browser, app, or game could ever be.

I suppose I could carry my own keyboard, or the smaller Bluetooth version, but at that point I'd rather just carry my M1 MacBook Pro and be more strict with myself about what I'm working on.

I stumbled upon the Pomera DM250 and the concept of “writer decks” by accident while going down a YouTube rabbit hole. There seems to be a huge community of "productivity YouTubers," where the implication is often that if you buy certain devices and adopt the task management process du jour, you’ll somehow become more productive.

While these devices do look cool, I find “unitasker” devices are overrated and overpriced.

And my biggest gripe with these devices including ones recommended in the comments is ergonomics. Neck and eye strain…

https://www.crowdsupply.com/zerowriter/zerowriter-ink

There is an open source dedicated writer that just went on sale. It looks quite compelling and hackable.

Same size ish as the Sony Vaio P, a 2009 wide subnotebook with 1600x768 8" LCD. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony_Vaio_P_series

What are the other tools needed for the focus economy? And why don't we use these tools?

Free write traveller is nice.

Seems overpriced for what it is but I went thru two alphasmarts first and that wasn't worth the headache.

Dedicated devices are underrated.

I have a Pomera and I like it. Just wish I made more time to write.

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