by al_borland | 2025-12-06 15:43:15+00:00
My issue with all-in-one apps if they have a weak spot, the whole model breaks down. Outlook is an app that bundles email, calendar, contacts, notes, and to dos. The notes are trash and I never could cobble together a to do workflow in Outlook that made sense to me. So I have to go find separate apps for those functions, and then use Outlook for email and calendar while ignoring those other parts. This means I also need to actively ignore features to make sure I don’t do something that will start filling up the to do section that I’m never looking at. The end result is an app that feels bloated and trying to push features on me I don’t want.

With separate applications it is trivial to swap out one part of it. I use Apple Mail, Calendar, Contacts, Notes, and Reminders… but sometimes I want to use Obsidian instead of Apple Notes, or OmniFocus instead of Reminders. This is no big deal. The workflow doesn’t breakdown because of a single app being swapped.

The other benefit of separate apps is being able to work in multiple windows. Many all-in-one apps make it difficult to see different sections at one time. If it’s not an officially supported use-case, you’re out of luck. With separate apps, I can have whatever I want up and visible in any view I want.

> Have you built or used something that people love after trying it, but struggle to understand before trying it?

I think two things help here.

1. Even if there are advanced features, the application should be simple to pickup and use for someone who doesn’t know anything about those features, for basic functionality. Apple Notes is a good example of this. At its core, you can open it and jot things down and make new notes if you want. As you need more features they are there… better organization, formatting, note linking, various import methods, voice transcription, tables, etc. Some of this may be discovered organically and some of it may be learned by actively going to look for it. Obsidian also does this decently well.

2. Good documentation. When people do want to know more and step up their workflow, they need good resources. Text and video is good here. Not only a feature list and how to use said features, but also real-world examples to give people ideas of how the features can be used to make their life better/easier. At launch, you need to do this all yourself. Over time, if it’s popular, some creators might help with making content to show various use cases, features, etc. However, I’m still of the opinion that the people behind the app should have the best and most complete source of this stuff. I’m always frustrated when the vendor documentation is really bad or non-existent and I have to hope that some random person figured out what I need and shared it somewhere. There are a lot of popular apps like this, and I’m not sure how they ever got off the ground.

In a non-tech area, Ryder Carroll does a good job of this with the Bullet Journal. When you look at stuff random “influencers” make, it’s insane, more arts and crafts than productivity tool. When you go to the source of the guy who created it, he makes a ton of content and it’s all very pragmatic and down to earth. I think this is invaluable for making sure the influencers don’t turn people off by only showing over-complicated abominations. People making videos about Obsidian do this a lot as zettelkasten purists.