> There are two kinds of [software]: the ones people complain about, and the ones nobody uses.
But Org Mode seems to break that, and I want to know why, I want to know its magic, especially since I never really felt a need to organize my life that way.
If you are the exception, please also say why you don't like Org Mode.
One of the things I like most about it is that it doesn't enforce any particular work-flow on you. That lack of structure means that I can arrange and organize things as I see fit.
I keep two journals/diaries using org-mode:
* One for work, where I write down "everything" I did that day, often with commands and output as I do various tasks.
* One for my personal life, dates with people, notes on when I bought things, and regular recurring tasks for the house (e.g. "change toothbrush" every two months.)
On top of that I'm a landlord, and I use a single file per property. Records of tenants, monthly income/expenses.
I wrote some simple lisp to create tables of income per-tenant, profit/loss over distinct years, etc.
Every time I enter a suitable row for a month the whole document updates:
* Income/Expenses for the current year.
* Global income/expenses since I got the property.
* The tenant-table gets updated to say "Victoria total income: €1234, tenant for 14 months".
I wouldn't have setup such a system in a google sheet, or similar, but having down this now I just copy and paste a bunch of tables and change 2022 -> 2023 and I'm all set for the current year.
- Cross-device syncing isn't as easy to setup compared to easily accessible competitors.
- It's more/less coupled to using Emacs.
I guess if someone's willing to accept those things, it's unusual that they'd then go on to use it & complain about other aspects?
So, since it's software you choose for yourself, I think it's less likely to fit into that cliche "two kinds of [software]".
In terms of what makes org mode special? It's a plaintext format where the org-mode functionality has a long tail of features that are useful for organising things. -- e.g. to compare with markdown:
- both org and markdown have tables; but org tables can have spreadsheet functionality;
- both have code snippets, but org allows for executing those snippets;
- both have headings/subheadings, but org-mode also supports tags/task management. etc.
The folding outline and flexibility were the greatest attractors to Org Mode but it of course did not end there. I originally read, took notes, and taught from my outlines. That was all for home and personal life, but it quickly invaded note-taking at work. Next, I started using it to store data snippets and run code which could present results in the same file. This solved a long-standing annoyance in my statistical keeping workflow. I created shopping lists for home and synced them with my phone. I have contacts stored using properties. On and on.
Now, the magic comes from the amazing flexibility. Start simple and easy. Keep learning.
** It's simple.
** If you can drive Emacs and tables it's easy to understand.
*** It's really easy to use with just basic Emacs commands.
** There are _lots_ of translators (pandoc) to make printable output. Or convert to/from markdown
** It's possible (easy even) to edit org mode in another editor "raw" (I do this in vi all the time for various reasons)
* It's not perfect.
** It has some confusing behaviours
** you have to work a bit to make it eg represent nested structures more prettily
* what do I do with it?
** time tracking
*** (but not using its clock)
** annual tax reconciliation
** note taking for meetings
* what have I done with it?
** tried doing task management TODO/done style
** gave up and use org mode tables to mark stuff as a daily diary and forward planner
It's my notebook, structured text, an outliner with programmable extensions, can accommodate snippets in any programming language (via #+BEGIN_SRC foo ... #+END_SRC tags), searchable with text-based tools like grep.
It's local data, but easily shared with all of my systems (synchronized).
It's available on my Linux machines, my Macs, my Android devices (e.g. via the Termux app)
Last but not least: It's working in my favorite editor. ;-)
Then it was keeping my todos on projects at work, getting a list, etc. Then I could add source blocks and execute them.
Now it’s a literate and repl driven engine that is nearly a daily driver. I love the workflow because I build up the code and tests as I’m playing and tweaking it. The feedback loop is very strong. Plenty of maintenance cost though.
I find Org very hard to learn, mostly because I'm a "non-user" in the sense explained in the page below. Note that that page is about a video, and that it is possible to read the subtitles of the video without watching it by following the second link...
http://angg.twu.net/2021-org-for-non-users.html
http://angg.twu.net/SUBTITLES/2021-org-for-non-users.lua.htm...
I don't like that Org mode takes 30+ seconds to load on a windows laptop. After the library is loaded everything is fast for the rest of the Emacs session. There's thought in the Emacs world that loading time doesn't matter because you rarely restart Emacs. Org abuses this philosophy to the extreme.
This slow loading has made me shy away from using org mode as a documentation format for projects. I noticed some projects switched to org instead of markdown. Until load performance improves it's simply not an option.
I write all documentation and similar using Org Mode. I get all the power of Emacs text editing with easy tables, footnotes, hyperlinks, etc., and I can then export directly to PDF, HTML and so on.