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Field NotesOther

Who uses, recommends or left Field Notes, in their own words: each a verbatim quote with a link to where it was said.

2 people

Writer of MacSparky and author of the MacSparky Field Guides on Apple productivity software; a former lawyer, he co-hosts the Mac Power Users podcast.
uses

I’m using my collection of Field Notes more aggressively than ever. I carry them in my pocket.

His annual post locking in the tools he will use for the coming year, app by app, with the reasoning for each choice.

2026-01-31·macsparky.com ↗

Co-founder of Instagram; background in human-computer interaction.
uses

Non-digital notes go straight into a Field Notes notebook.

The Setup (usesthis.com) interview, given while he was scaling Instagram.

2011-11-04·usesthis.com ↗

Every entry is a verbatim quote and a link to the public post it came from. Nothing is paraphrased. If it is not on record somewhere public, it is not here.

The verdict is what they actually said: loved and liked are explicit; recommended means they told others to get it; uses means they only say they use it; read is a book on their public shelf with no verdict; mixed and disliked are kept too.

A dashed affiliate link, sponsored or their own label means the post disclosed a relationship. It is shown, never hidden.

The shading behind a date shows how dated a recommendation is for its kind of thing.

The shading behind a date shows how dated a recommendation is, for its kind of thing. Fully green is recent. It drains a quarter at a time as the post gets older, and is empty once it reads as dated.

What counts as old depends on the thing. A laptop praised four years ago has been replaced twice; a book loved twenty years ago is probably still loved. The shading is gone after about:

Stripes mean the post carries no date and the date shown is an estimate. No date at all, no shading.