Text File Fatigue
I originaly wrote the following in 2015 (on a blog I seem to have misplaced).
Text File Fatigue
I’ve spent years using Vim, and more recently Emacs/Spacemacs. When I go plain text, I go all text. This makes me feel great for a while. It’s portable! It’s future-proof! It’s flexible!
Then I realize a few other things about my text-only workflow: it’s ugly, it’s not as useful, and it doesn’t need to be that future-proof. Everything looks the same, and fatigue sets in. I start wishing things could be a little more fancy. Nicer. First thing I usually do is try a different theme in my editor. That helps for a little while, yet I still long for pretty, not just “not ugly”.
I’ve gone round and round about this over the years, but for the most part I seem to always end up in plain text. But, I also understand that not everything needs the plain-text-future-proof treatment. So, I sometimes use Tinderbox or TiddlyWiki or Curio or TheBrain or whatever makes the most sense for the purpose of the text. Context matters more than a blanket “everything must be plain text!” rule.
I’m typing this in Emacs.