Anytype looks like a local first, privacy-focused alternative to Notion. I have used Notion in the past and generally liked it, though not for its web-based philosophy and price structure. Anytype avoids those Notion disadvantages by being secure, local and free - though with paid options if needed. There are many similarities between Anytype and Notion, so from a superficial perspective, the comparison with Notion is fair.
I first tried Anytype shortly after it was released as a beta product in 2021. Then, it was too early in its development to be a serious prospect, and I put it to one side. Now, four years later, that has changed, and Anytype, though still in beta (v0.47.5), is maturing and getting fairly feature-packed. Perhaps I could use it to build a PKM (Personal Knowledge Management) system that is better suited to my specific needs than Obsidian?
Managing expectations: - Anytype isn't really an application; it's a tool to build an application. It's only an "everything app" because, like putty, you can shape it into whatever you can imagine. So, when you can't find an app that does exactly what you want, then you may be able to create it in Anytype
First impressions
First impressions are not very good. Not because Anytype is bad per se, but because it is not easy to learn.
- There is currently a lack of well-made tutorials on YouTube. Those that do exist tend to be of the 'do this, click here, do that' variety, lacking in any explanation of 'why'.
- There are examples available (in the gallery), but again, they lack any explanation for the design choices made. They may get you started, but they are not good learning tools.
- There is application documentation on the web, but it is low-level technical and lacking in any high-level "if you want to do this sort of thing, you might approach it in this way" style of information.
To my mind, learning Anytype is summed up best by analogy: Imagine signing up for driving lessons and when you turn up on the first day, you are shown a garage full of car parts and told, "Just assemble these and then we can go for a drive". Anytype is a bit like that, and after the first three days, I still felt as though I was learning what the parts were and how they best fit together to achieve my objective of a PKM system.
I guess that many potential Anytype users might give up during this 'assembly' process and that Anytype need to address this problem before adding many more 'parts' to the garage.
Second impressions
I'm a persistent old sod and won't be easily deterred, so I pressed on and continued building. By the end of the first week, I had learned what object types possessed what properties, that what I had assumed could be "collections" (thank you template) worked better as "queries", and so many other detailed things. The car still isn't built yet, but it is beginning to look more like a car, and each time I add a new part, there is a sense of achievement.
The issue is that I am conflicted about continuing. I really shouldn't be investing this amount of time in building a customised PKM system that exactly suits my needs. But, at the same time, it is an intellectual challenge that produces a certain sense of satisfaction when a new part of the puzzle comes together.
Perhaps that's the thing, To use another analogy, Anytype is like a bottomless box of Lego bricks, you can make almost anything you like. There are no plans, so there's going to be a lot of trial and error, lots of searching for a brick that's just the right shape (if it exists). The payoff at the end is that you could have something you'll be proud of creating. If that's your thing, then Anytype may be for you. But I suspect that most people should move on - nothing to see here, folks.
As for now, and to keep the analogy train rolling, I'm continuing to build the plane while flying it. I wrote this article in Anytype; it belongs to my "Writing & Blog" area, which is part of a modified PARA* template provided by Anytype. Maybe learning while doing is not the best approach, but for now, the plane's tank still has loads of fun-juice, so let's keep on flying and hope the fun-tank doesn't run dry before I land this thing.
In the future?
I've been looking (with a certain amount of amusement) at one of the latest approaches to software development - A.I. vibe-coding. You tell an AI what you want to achieve (the vibe), and the AI goes away and writes the code to make an application to do just that (sort of).
It seems to me that Anytype could well benefit from such an AI front end. It would allow users to describe the application they wanted, and an AI could simply use Anytype's objects to create that application "automagically", as my developer friends used to say. I don't know what an AI-built Anytype app would be like, but it wouldn't take a week to build.
You can find Anytype at: https://anytype.io
*PARA - Projects, Areas, Resources, Archive. An approach to knowledge management by Tiago Forte.
