• I want to be able to search them. All of them at once. Semantic search is probably useful. Linked notes should be searchable
• I want to be able to query them using structured metadata.
• I want them to be independent of the software they’re written with. They should be compatible with any device and any OS. I want them to last as long as I last. I don’t want to deal with (non-trivial) migrations. Files-should-outlive-the-application they are created with.
• I want to be able to link notes. As thoughts are connected, notes should be too.
• I want to have information about the resulting graph easily accessible, especially backlinks.
• I want writing to be easy and frictionless. I want to open any device, open up a new note and start writing with 0 pain.
• I get decision fatigue very easily. I shouldn’t need to make any decision before I’m able to start writing. Friction-reduces-the-likelihood-of-a-behavior-persisting.
• I want to use as few UI buttons (clicks) as possible. All formatting should be accessible from the keyboard.
• I want to be able to embed images, audio etc. which should be part of the relationship graph.
• I want to be able to combine typed and handwritten text which should be OCR’ed and searchable.

See also: Requirements for a linked note taking system.