Comment by yitosda | Hacker News Reader

Comment by yitosda | Hacker News Reader

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A common response.

As a reluctant user of tree style tabs (holding out for the restoration of tab groups), I disagree.

I usually have different sets of tabs open:

  - A set for each of the 2-3 projects I have active this month
  - Casual browsing
  - Read later
  - Do later

This adds up easily to one or two hundred tabs -- and these aren't bookmarks. Bookmarks aren't gone when you close the tab, which is the desired behavior for all the above cases.

Pocket or similar (ignoring my refusal to use a 3rdParty service for my own data) would only be useful for do-later and read-later.

With tab groups I had a perfect setup which supported /all/ my use cases in one go. With TST I can roughly approximate this with a top-level tab for each (it's not great).

Bookmarks need to be replaced with something that covers a wider range of use-cases without having to cobble together a bunch of different workflows.

People know about bookmarks and pocket. Most people who are actively searching out extensions are not avoiding learning a different workflow (obvious if you think about it). I've gone through many different workflows, and I'll keep testing out more. Tab groups was the best thing yet for me.

I know it seems like all of those things are important to you, but they really aren't.

They're mostly just passing momentary fascinations, so either act on them or let them go. If something actually is important, you'll come across it again, or simply remember it.

I struggled for years with tons and tons of unread tabs, forgotten bookmarks, endless unstarted projects, hundreds of unwatched movies, unlistened albums. Learning to just let them go was the best thing that ever happened to me. The important stuff tends to stick around in memory, all by itself.

As a small part of that, I've instituted a "24 hour minimum" rule. If I see something I like, I add it to the shopping basket or save it in some other way that's not immediately visible when I'm on my PC or phone. Then I wait at least 24 hours. If I still desire that item after the waiting period has passed, I'll consider buying it. It has saved me so much money, and helped me avoid a ton of junk that would otherwise just be taking up space in my home.

Keeping too much stuff "active" is stressful as hell, and it's wonderful to be able to just not care about it.

I see your point, and it looks like I replied to the wrong person. Your points likely apply to my read-later and do-later groups. (I might argue, but should probably take it to heart first).

My point about bookmarks and pocket not filling my use-case (even if I dropped read/do later) stands -- I really do want multiple switchable tab contexts.

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