I have tried many times to migrate to Obsidian and DataView from OrgMode, but I just can't get there.
Obsidian is appealing because it's available on iOS, but the whole approach ended up (for me) being more fiddly and less effective (again for me) than orgmode.
OTOH & to be fair, I've been using Org for a really long time.
That's Tom Noonan (who recently passed away) and Ben Bailey; one of the kids in the other booth we see briefly is played by Gbenga Akinnagbe in his first film role, who rose to greater prominence as Chris Partlow on The Wire.
I too prefer POP. I don't read email on my phone, I alternate between a desktop and notebook computer for that (and most everything else), and simply copy my Thunderbird profile back and forth (using robocopy) when I switch. I have four primary mail identities, and use the Thunderbird unified folders to easily manage it all.
lol, kind of expected someone would notice... it's my personal mail and I don't get much. In my experience, it's better for low volume. I just connect, download, delete it from the server and have it in an easily readable format. I keep my archives from the 90's with no issues.
Also people probably have more of a problem with MS accounts because they don’t really have an ecosystem that provides clear value.
An Apple account together with an iPhone and MacBook let’s you share clipboard, passwords, notes etc., a no brainer.
Windows laptop and iPhone? I guess an Apple account still is more useful here too, actually. So the average user does not really need an MS account, hence the annoyance.
If you own more than one computer, the microsoft account syncs your desktop contents and other parts of the environment.. desktop background is one I've noticed. That can be nice
You certainly can log into a Windows machine without a microsoft account. It's actually still quite common in businesses that you log in with an account managed by your organization, although this is changing as more and more businesses migrate to MS Entra ID. This still isn't exactly a "microsoft account" but its similar.
You can also still log in with a completely local account as well. It takes a few extra minutes to set up but once configured it works fine.
The system is full of dark patterns and roadblocks that steer users towards an MS account, but you don't have to use one.
Yeah, the sheer joy I've gotten from being part of a few collaborative teams in my career was amazing. It was like we all got smarter by working together.
That kind of full-bore magic has only happened for me once. But it was fun while it lasted!
This seems like a good time to point out something an early mentor shared with me: you can rate all jobs on 3 scales.
1. Do you enjoy the actual work?
2. Do you enjoy the people you're working with?
3. How's the pay?
If you get all 3 of those metrics over a "C", you're incredibly far ahead of most people. My golden-team job was a AAA job. My current job (where I get a taste of great teamwork, though since I'm leadership now it's different) is an B, and A, and a C+/B-. I've been here 18 years as a result.
I have both a fancy smartwatch (first-gen Ultra, which is still a great piece of kit) and a severalness of old-school mechanicals from both fancy makers (Rolex, Omega) and decidedly more approachable makers (most recently Traska).
Having a watch on that's just a watch is a lovely thing. Having a watch that tells time with springs and gears is super fucking cool to me. And in 2026, it's nice to have zero notifications if that's what you want. But they all have their place.
Working at home, at my desk all day? I'm almost certainly wearing an old-school watch.
Riding my motorcycle, I'm 100% wearing the Ultra for a host of reasons (easier phone unlocking, fall detection, etc).
Clutch those pearls!
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