I know a lot of people who like to think out loud. They work through their problems by talking through them and having people "soundboard" ideas for things.
The same concept goes for rubber duck debugging: if you've got a bug that you just can't work through, explain the problem in detail to a rubber duck. This forces you to comb through the code which you might otherwise have glossed over1.
I love the idea of these. But for me the issue is twofold: I can't see the ideas (I retain written information much easier than spoken) and I don't like talking2.
What I do like is writing. I like sending out messages and little todos to myself as notes to self. The format lends itself to bitsy messages and reply chains which end up becoming full trains of thought.
I've seen some web apps34 which support this kind of thinking. The common thing among these is not being able to see your previous thoughts by default (flow lets you un-blur your thoughts). But with this one I want you to actively see your thoughts and generate trains of thought from them.
My proof of concept was made with HTML, CSS and vanilla javascript (no jquery!) and I loved it! I loved making it and I loved using it. One of the most important parts of this was being able to navigate the entirety of the app without a mouse. I only went so far as using the arrow keys to navigate the previous messages but with the next iteration, I want to use vim-like commands (e.g. 5k to navigate 5 messages up, or gg to go to the first message and G to go to the bottom) after navigating into the messages.
- initial interface
- local storage
- replying to messages
- tag management/search
- refactor for tidiness
- improve persistence (allow download/clearing)
- add hover pls