Periodically the author experiences what they call “Emacs Fatigue”—a weariness from using Emacs for everything that prompts experiments with other tools. This time the fatigue led to trying Bear, a notes app praised for its solid, beautiful, simple interface, flawless free sync across macOS and iOS, and inexpensive reliance on an SQLite database.
Despite Bear’s strengths, the author grew uneasy about the feeling that notes were “in there,” trapped within an app that required opening that specific program to access or modify them, echoing the earlier frustration with Emacs and Org mode; additionally, Bear’s macOS/iOS only status left a lingering low‑grade hum about Linux compatibility.
The solution was to return to Emacs by adopting Denote, which handles Markdown files natively, requiring only one Emacs configuration change. The author exported their Bear notes and used a Claude Code‑assisted conversion script to adapt filenames, links, and attachments, acknowledging the familiar pattern of quitting Emacs only to come back later.