The preview reflects the actual content of the page
They could’ve slapped “Lorem ipsum” there, or some generic filler like “Title” and “Content”, but they didn’t. It’s in their culture: these are the people who once tested 30 shades of warm white paint for their office wall.

This detail (among many others) also serves practical purposes: it delights the users. And since there are tons of note apps, plus features can be cloned overnight [1], what differentiate a product are taste and polish [2].


[1] I’m aware that there are hard-to-copy stuff (but not too hard), such as treating pages as block graphs, linking blocks across pages,… But for many, those are nice-to-haves.

[2] Examples:

  • Arc Browser is so polished and delightful that when the team stopped supporting it, users rioted.
  • People (myself included) gladly pay $50 or more for Things 3, a todo app, despite countless free alternatives.