Most of the day, other people’s thoughts come at you.
When did you last finish one of your own?
You don’t know what you think until you write it down.
Mull is a quiet place to write down a thought, and come back to it.
Writing is the one place where you hear your own.
It gets clearer.
Put a thought into words and you find out whether you believe it. Half-formed feels finished until you try to write it.
It stops circling.
A thought on the page stays where you left it. You can stop carrying it, and the next one has room.
It becomes yours.
Not what you were told, and not what you scrolled past. What you think, in your own voice.
People who write have been saying this for a long time.
I write entirely to find out what I’m thinking, what I’m looking at, what I see and what it means.
If you’re thinking without writing, you only think you’re thinking.
…a world divided into writes and write-nots is more dangerous than it sounds. It will be a world of thinks and think-nots.
I don’t know so well what I think until I see what I say; then I have to say it over again.
Mull is built for saying it over again.
Most writing apps are built for the day you write something. Then it sinks down a list, and you never see it again.
Mull is built for the day you come back. You read what you thought, push it further, change your mind, and say it better. That going back and forth is where the thinking happens. It is also how you find your voice.
One thought, four sittings.
This is what going back looks like. The same thought, a little further along each time.
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Wednesday 28 October
Just write.
Start typing. Mull saves as you go. No title needed, no folder to pick, no decision about what the thought will become.
It doesn’t have to be good. It has to be down. While you type, everything but the writing fades away.
Capture, 21:14 -
Friday 30 October
Keep thinking.
Another day, carry the thought on ⌘D. The second time you write about something is where the thinking happens. And the third, and the fourth.
Your first words stay safe underneath: once you’ve moved on, they can be read and marked, never changed. You can always see where you began.
Select a line and mark it ⌘M, like a highlighter. Marked lines gather beside the writing, so the best of your earlier thinking stays in view.
Saw someone I used to work with get featured for something I helped build. Felt a sting I didn’t expect. I want someone to see that it was good, and that it was mine. Is that pride?
“Work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men.” I always read that as don’t care who sees. But it doesn’t say no one sees. It says someone does.
So maybe the wish to be seen isn’t the problem. It’s whose eyes I’m waiting for
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Any day after
Come back to it.
Some thoughts need attention tomorrow. Others become meaningful months later. Some are complete after one sitting and never need another.
Mull makes it easy to find your way back and remember where you left off. It never makes returning a duty.
Note to Future Me, 30 Oct Does it still hold for people I’ve never met?
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Monday 2 November, if and when you’re ready
Where you stand.
When you want to say it to someone, write it up as a draft ⇧⌘D: the same thought, now shaped for a reader. And if you reach a version you stand by, conclude ⌘↩. It waits at the top of the piece.
If your thinking changes, conclude again and the old one becomes an earlier view. Or withdraw it. The latest writing is not necessarily the conclusion.
Where you stand, since 2 Nov Wanting to be seen isn’t the problem. Needing the right people to see it is.
It wasn’t the credit I wanted. I wanted someone to see that the work was good, and that it was mine. The work was seen by the people it actually helped…
Earlier views: 1
None of these steps is required, and there’s no fixed order. A piece can stay a single capture forever.
- Worth revisiting
- Your library offers one piece you might return to. Never a number, never a list.
- Recall ⌘K
- Search everything you’ve written by what you remember of it, and open straight to the line.
- Note to Future Me
- A short note on the piece, for the next time you open it.
- History, quietly
- Mull keeps earlier versions of each entry without being asked. You never have to manage them.
Your writing stays yours.
Plain Markdown files in a folder you choose, iCloud Drive › Mull by default. No account, no Mull server. Readable in any text editor, with or without Mull.
Nothing is counted.
No word counts, no streaks, no timers, no tracking. Mull is not a system for measuring what you write.
Every word is your own.
No AI. Nothing writes for you, and nothing rewrites what you wrote. Mull is complete without it.
Start with one sentence.
It doesn’t have to be good. It only has to be yours.
Nothing you type here is saved or sent. It’s only a page.That’s a capture. Every piece in Mull begins this way.