why i built calmd

the starting point

Writing is an important part of our learning process. This is why I chose to start by addressing this in my experiment, Overhawl.

I acknowledge that people are different. Personally, I find it counterproductive to write down everything I hear or read when learning or consuming information. I would rather take in what the person is saying or writing, then frame my understanding in my own words. It is a good habit I managed to form, and it improved my listening skills a lot.

My rule of thumb is simple. If I am certain I will need to revisit what I have written later, I type it on my computer and take advantage of the computer's ability to retrieve information. If it is just a passing thought, or I simply want to get something out of my head, I prefer writing it down on paper.

the diagnosis

While building Calmd, I had to revisit all the issues I faced with various writing tools, including Notion, Obsidian, Logseq, Capacities, Word, Google Docs, and Apple Notes. Trust me, I have tried most of them, if not all.

With regard to my needs, each of them got one thing right. Some of them more than one. What I did was look at each of them, identify what they were good at, and see what I could borrow.

Across the board, one issue I had was that when you open an app for the first time, writing feels exciting. You are greeted by a blank page with nothing standing between you and your thoughts. I believe most people can relate to that feeling, when a new app or notebook seems like it will solve all your problems.

The second time you open it is usually different. Instead of an empty page, you are faced with a long note. Before you can continue writing, you first have to remember where you left off, reread what you wrote, and decide the next sentence. The note slowly becomes harder to approach.

atomic notes

I then came across the idea of atomic notes. The idea behind them made sense to me. Breaking concepts into separate notes made them easier to write, revisit, and refine. My notes were usually broken down, but they were not always atomic in the strictest sense. Large notes no longer felt intimidating.

But after using this approach for a while, I realised I had simply exchanged one problem for another. Instead of worrying about the size of my notes, I started worrying about the number of them. How should I organise them? Which folder should they live in? Should I create another tag, another property, or another link?

I found myself spending more time thinking about where information belonged than engaging with the information itself.

search first

That became the goal behind Calmd.

I wanted a writing tool that I could trust to show me what I needed, when I needed it, without asking me to constantly organise it first. If I remembered two or three words from something I had written months ago, that should have been enough to find it again.

That is why search became the centre of the application rather than just another feature. Instead of navigating databases, folders, graphs, or long lists of notes, I wanted typing a few words to be the primary way of interacting with everything I had written.

It feels intimidating at first. You cannot really see where your files are, and there is a fear that an important thought will disappear. I felt the same way. But after relying on search for long enough, I realised I was not thinking about where I had stored something anymore. I was simply remembering a few words, an idea, or a phrase, and it was there.

I could not go back after that. We rarely remember where we put an idea. We remember something about it, and our minds do the rest. I wanted my writing tool to work pretty much the same way.

links for discovery

The other idea that inspired me a lot was Obsidian's approach to bi-directional linking. A note can point to another note, and that connection exists in both directions. It mirrors our natural learning process. Our thoughts are associative. One idea reminds us of another, even if we did not see the connection at first.

Over time, those connections become increasingly valuable. You begin to relate ideas from completely different fields and occasionally discover relationships you never expected. To me, that is where creativity lives. Being able to bring seemingly unrelated fields or ideas together to create something novel.

So while search became the primary way of finding information, linking was non-negotiable. Search helps you rediscover what you already know. Links help you discover what you did not know was connected.