I read the first few screens and still had no idea what we were talking about. I came to the conclusion that maybe it was a paperwhite display of some sort.
Apparently it’s an app. I suppose that blog post is only for people who already know what the app is?
Very nice, I've been wanting to build something like this myself but haven't gotten to it. The coffee shop mode is great! My biggest feature request would be changing the font and cursor. The blinking cursor is both distracting and unnecessary as you should assume that you are at the end anyway (since you shouldn't edit)!
I really want a fixed-width font. I know most people dislike writing prose with monospace fonts. But I'm a developer, and proportional fonts always feel wrong.
I'm VERY conservative with adding new UI elements, especially those introducing new possible sources of distractions, so I might hide it behind a bunch of menus. That said, I've spent ages yak shaving / working on those problems already :)
I've always felt that the best part of writing on a computer is the ability to edit while you write, however, I also understand that doesn't work at all for a lot of people, so I think this app is neat even though I personally wouldn't use it.
Sometimes forcing yourself "not to edit" allows you to bring out things which are hard to catch and hide in the nooks and crannies of your mind.
Brain dumping also works the same way. You write whatever you have in your mind, without even correcting spelling errors. It really brings out things you don't know they are there and bothering you or taking space.
You should at least try once. Takes an hour or so.
I also use a similar method for drafting my blog posts if I have the idea, but can't bring out the rest of the text.
Although, I don't think that Enso as a whole will work for me (I have a very different approach to writting); I love the idea of the coffee shop mode. Want to implement something like this for Obsidian now.
When I’m at home, I do most of my writing now with voice input. Would somebody please invent a sound cancellation device that will enable me to talk to my devices in coffee shops and on public transportation without being heard by others?
Oh man, I saw this once but forgot the name. Tried Googling, asked some LLMs—but alas, couldn’t find it again. Even an HN search didn’t turn up anything useful.
I think it's funny that it's very similar to ensō in many ways, but also the complete opposite: ensō is calm, mindful, soothing. MDWa is hectic, terrifying, sadistic. Funny how a tiny difference produces products that look almost the same, and feel completely different.
huge props to rafal for creating ensō, personally really love it
These seem likely different concepts to me. Apostrophe is a nice looking markdown editor. Ensō is a minimalist writing tool (I hesitate to call it an 'editor') designed to facilitate a certain kind of writing by hiding text that has already been written and preventing the user from editing it. The focus here seems to be getting the writer to just get the words out and then use a (presumably) different tool to format and edit later.
Apostrophe does the same thing, it’s just not really shown on the store page. It provides both distraction free and Hemingway modes. Hemingway mode doesn’t let you use backspace!
Fantastic work. This is great example of how good execution is what really matters - not just good ideas. I’m sure I’m not the only one who had an idea similar to this at some point - mine was called “nanowriter” and was meant for NanoWriMo (RIP)[0] but I lacked the coding ability and executive function to actually make it.l at the time. Enso is gorgeous and… exists, and therefore is infinitely better.
This has its uses. However, I tend to use writing for reasoning about stuff, where you can’t keep everything relevant in your head simultaneously, and then it’s pretty crucial to be able to read what you wrote, even if you have no need to edit it.
Longtime Ensō user here. Your update to query interest in a Linux version has given me hope. The last thing someone actively trying to avoid distraction needs is an open browser window!
Interesting tool. I do something similar when I think it's important to focus on just getting the words out: I close my eyes, or look away from the screen.
Based on the GitHub repo at github.com/rpastuszak/enso, it appears to be proprietary with some open components - the web version uses MIT-licensed libraries but the core app itself isn't fully open sourced.
I appreciate the artistic and programming skills of the developer but not the "cleverness" and "quirkiness" of their announcement post. It took me too long to figure out that this is some sort of distraction-less writing app only for iOS and so of no value to me. Less snappy memes, more empathy for me as a visitor, please.
imo it's more of a thinking constraint journaling tbh.. friction like edit lock, coffee noise, fullscreen etc just makes me stop editing while thinking lol not letting me kill the raw draft midway.. more tools shud do this subtractive ux
I made something similar inspired by this few times in the past.
I think this is already quite perfect, ambient music I can provide myself.
While I did thought of new features, they are really not needed. I especially like coffee shop mode. I often feel self conscious about things I am writing, so hiding text is fantastic.
It's great if you want to "think aloud but with your mouth shut". I wrote 7k words with it just thinking through a problem. The exact word count is meaningless of course -- my main point is that it was really easy to just sit and think with it, without editing myself. I used the Coffeeshop mode for a large chunk of that (plus some Aphex Twin)
I dont know what Enso is. This page doesn't tell it in first few paragraphs. I wasn't to homepage of this website. That also mentions Enso but without a link. There is a link to roadmap but that doesn't answer this question either. Please describe what Enso is in few lines in a easily discoverable place.
On one hand it’s hard to disagree with the statement “it should be clear what your product does in a single glance”. In fact there’s a whole meta that’s been developed around this, with well established common wisdom on how to structure your landing page to quickly frame value to prospective users, call them to action, etc.
On the other hand it’s kind of fun to stumble upon something and feel like you missed the beginning of the conversation, and to figure things out piece by piece based on context.
I was also confused when loading this website but it led me to trying the app and it was kind of fun.
Sometimes the most optimized, clearest path isn’t necessarily the preferable one.
> Sometimes the most optimized, clearest path isn’t necessarily the preferable one.
Untested is my playground/a place where I "work with the garage door up", so generally I allow myself for more flexibility, especially since this post is more of a devlog entry than a one-glance product page (that would be https://enso.sonnet.io). That said, I had a break from writing, so ended up putting too much content in one place, which made it harder to edit.
What's going to happen in the next few months is this: I'll post more dev/design-log style posts on untested.sonnet.io, then extract some of this information into the product page.
Same. I even came to comments to see if anyone has actually written what this is. And, unfortunately, still little. Most people just comment "great stuff". After a few minutes I'm still to learn what this thing is and why does anyone care that it's in beta public.
But yet I lurked longer than many of other product pages I land on to think about what might be going on thanks to the nature of graphics and the non-standard non-bootstrap template approach.
Sometimes providing TLDR means you are providing a way for people to instantly ignore you without further thought. Maybe there is a desire to engage people who think.
Now if only someone would invent a tool to do the opposite. I have too easy a time of forgetting what I wrote, and penning new lines in obliviousness. It's a habit from many years of stream-of-consciousness writing a la The Artist's Way and https://750words.com.
The hard thing, I find, is structuring text so that each paragraph has a purpose in relation to the others. I was once taught this in school, but I haven't kept up with my practice.
So, maybe a tool that takes previous paragraphs and--contrariwise to letting them recede into obscurity--shoves them repeatedly in my face?
Anyway, very elegant and pleasant. Like a foggy quayside cafe.
Haha, I'm actually working on that too! Currently experimenting with a graph based editor.
Also, you might like The Fieldstone Method (Weinberg).
PS. Andy Matuschak's notes: http://notes.andymatuschak.org have some good tips on a similar subject. (My "digital garden" is more of a choose your own adventure book, I'm not married to a single methodology, but I appreciate much of their work)
I've collected a lot of high quality feedback over the years*, plus have defined user personas/problem areas (examples: writers, developers, neurospicy folk, people working on their mental health through journalling/expressive writing, YouTubers, video essay creators, ...).
Over the next few weeks/months I will continue writing/thinking about those on untested.sonnet.io (working with the garage door up, so to speak).
Then, once I come up with more terse/clear ways of expressing this -- I'll put it on the product page (https://enso.sonnet.io)
* thanks to relying on an email link over analytics in the app
Yeah, to be frank, this was intended to be more of a devlog entry for the people who already know my work/follow me on untested and I didn't expect any responses on HN. Still, that's a big lesson for me, I shouldn't have made that assumption posting here. People have been really kind and responsive in my experience.
Apparently it’s an app. I suppose that blog post is only for people who already know what the app is?
[0]: https://rsms.me/inter/
I'm VERY conservative with adding new UI elements, especially those introducing new possible sources of distractions, so I might hide it behind a bunch of menus. That said, I've spent ages yak shaving / working on those problems already :)
Brain dumping also works the same way. You write whatever you have in your mind, without even correcting spelling errors. It really brings out things you don't know they are there and bothering you or taking space.
You should at least try once. Takes an hour or so.
I also use a similar method for drafting my blog posts if I have the idea, but can't bring out the rest of the text.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/obfuscator/
When I’m at home, I do most of my writing now with voice input. Would somebody please invent a sound cancellation device that will enable me to talk to my devices in coffee shops and on public transportation without being heard by others?
https://metadox.pro/ https://gethushme.com/
So glad to come across it again!
At least my https://meat-gpt.sonnet.io gets indexed well, including 100s of AI websites who webscraped it and hallucinated product descriptions.
I think it's funny that it's very similar to ensō in many ways, but also the complete opposite: ensō is calm, mindful, soothing. MDWa is hectic, terrifying, sadistic. Funny how a tiny difference produces products that look almost the same, and feel completely different.
huge props to rafal for creating ensō, personally really love it
https://flathub.org/apps/org.gnome.gitlab.somas.Apostrophe
0: https://storyempire.com/2025/04/28/nanowrimo-closing-what-we...
Nevertheless looking forward to following this project!
I made something similar inspired by this few times in the past.
I think this is already quite perfect, ambient music I can provide myself.
While I did thought of new features, they are really not needed. I especially like coffee shop mode. I often feel self conscious about things I am writing, so hiding text is fantastic.
Thanks for the feedback, most of my usual readers know about Ensō and it seems I forgot to leave my little bubble when writing this post!
If you want it changed further, you're welcome to email us at hn@ycombinator.com.
On one hand it’s hard to disagree with the statement “it should be clear what your product does in a single glance”. In fact there’s a whole meta that’s been developed around this, with well established common wisdom on how to structure your landing page to quickly frame value to prospective users, call them to action, etc.
On the other hand it’s kind of fun to stumble upon something and feel like you missed the beginning of the conversation, and to figure things out piece by piece based on context.
I was also confused when loading this website but it led me to trying the app and it was kind of fun.
Sometimes the most optimized, clearest path isn’t necessarily the preferable one.
Untested is my playground/a place where I "work with the garage door up", so generally I allow myself for more flexibility, especially since this post is more of a devlog entry than a one-glance product page (that would be https://enso.sonnet.io). That said, I had a break from writing, so ended up putting too much content in one place, which made it harder to edit.
What's going to happen in the next few months is this: I'll post more dev/design-log style posts on untested.sonnet.io, then extract some of this information into the product page.
I'm glad that you had some fun with the app!
Sometimes providing TLDR means you are providing a way for people to instantly ignore you without further thought. Maybe there is a desire to engage people who think.
Not to be confused with Ensso, maker of fountain pens <https://www.ensso.com/>.
[0] https://sonnet.gumroad.com/l/dbiyvs
What? Damn.
The hard thing, I find, is structuring text so that each paragraph has a purpose in relation to the others. I was once taught this in school, but I haven't kept up with my practice.
So, maybe a tool that takes previous paragraphs and--contrariwise to letting them recede into obscurity--shoves them repeatedly in my face?
Anyway, very elegant and pleasant. Like a foggy quayside cafe.
Also, you might like The Fieldstone Method (Weinberg).
PS. Andy Matuschak's notes: http://notes.andymatuschak.org have some good tips on a similar subject. (My "digital garden" is more of a choose your own adventure book, I'm not married to a single methodology, but I appreciate much of their work)
If so, I recommend looking at Barbara Minto's Pyramid Principle.
https://www.amazon.com/Pyramid-Principle-Logic-Writing-Think...
We don't know what it is based on the description, so even the simplest "Try xyz" or even some goal would help us discover what it is.
I've collected a lot of high quality feedback over the years*, plus have defined user personas/problem areas (examples: writers, developers, neurospicy folk, people working on their mental health through journalling/expressive writing, YouTubers, video essay creators, ...).
Over the next few weeks/months I will continue writing/thinking about those on untested.sonnet.io (working with the garage door up, so to speak).
Then, once I come up with more terse/clear ways of expressing this -- I'll put it on the product page (https://enso.sonnet.io)
* thanks to relying on an email link over analytics in the app
I think this is also a problem of framing.
[1] https://enso.henkaku.xyz/
Enso it pretty overloaded as name for tech things.
https://signalvnoise.com/posts/228-humanized-enso
Good to know.
But when I clicked around I found what the app was and I liked it. Here the cuteness was charming. Great work!