Slab Blog

For those looking for a Notion alternative: at my previous company, the excessive customizability of Notion convinced me to switch everyone from Notion to a more lightweight and opinionated tool called Slab. We made the switch in early 2019, and far as I know, everyone still loves using it! This also replaced some other documentation tools we were using, like Google Docs (partially), GitHub repos of Markdown docs, and Guru. https://slab.com/ (I'm not affiliated with Slab other than as stated above.)

We recently went down this rabbit hole. We extensively tested each of the following: - http://notion.so/ - https://slab.com/ - https://getoutline.com/ - https://gitbook.com/ Each has its strengths and weaknesses. Notion is the most flexible and fun to use. Outline and Gitbook are open source, which is nice. Slab is probably the furthest along in development and in terms of being purpose-built for knowledge management. Unfortunately, Google Sites seems to be super low priority at Google.

We are trying to use https://slab.com/ to share those kind of stuff, it's been a great addition.

Slab | Software Engineer | San Francisco, CA or Remote | Full-time | REMOTE At Slab (https://slab.com), we are on a mission to make the workplace a source of learning and purpose. Our product is a knowledge base, reimagined to be powerful enough for engineers and remain intuitive enough for the entire company. The founding team has previously started and sold a productivity company to Salesforce and we are backed by top-tier investors, including Matrix Partners, CRV, and NEA. With our core values (https://slab.com/about) in "Stay Lean" and "The Best Prevails", we achieved seven figures in revenue with a small team, while attracting brands like Asana, Benchling, Fivetran, Glossier, and Vox Media as customers. Our team has been globally remote from the start, so we have the infrastructure to enable flexible work arrangements. Technologies we use: * TypeScript + React * GraphQL + Apollo + Absinthe * Phoenix + Elixir [1] * Postgres * Docker + Kubernetes * Google Compute Platform You can find our job descriptions and apply at https://slab.com/jobs?ref=hn. [1]: Our Elixir story is featured on elixir-lang: https://elixir-lang.org/blog/2020/11/17/real-time-collaboration-with-e…

Slab is another one (we use it, but have no connection to it) https://slab.com/ Would be happy to switch to a self-hosted FOSS alternative though.

Release notes: https://github.com/quilljs/quill/releases/tag/v2.0.0 Announcement post: https://slab.com/blog/announcing-quill-2-0/ I've used quill quite a bit. It's easy to integrate, the json delta format works decently well, and is pretty straightforward, but one thing I find myself doing whenever I use it is asking myself, "Should I just be using prosemirror?". I find Quill to be a great stopgap solution for when I need editing and I need it quick, but in the back of my mind I'm always mentally adding that I'll need a migration plan should that specific feature ever grow in requirements.

I’ve been pretty happy with Slab. Straightforward shared wiki with a good editor, governance, and integrations. https://slab.com/ I tried using README files in the repo but there’s far too much friction to get most folks to bother. Google Docs tend to disappear content due to a lack of structure.

> Slab I'm guessing, it is https://slab.com/ ("The knowledge base that democratizes knowledge"), which I discovered by searching for "Slab for Slack".

Normally I would not promote my own company to the HN community without contributing something of value, but from the looks of the UI decisions in the "juicy screenshots" I would venture to say we have already done so: https://share.slab.com/v1uy96K8 So if Confluence and internal knowledge sharing is problem for your team but you want to try out a ready and available product, please give https://slab.com a look.

I literally spent the last 2 weeks looking into this. Used Confluence and a few wiki solutions before. Both in context of a tech team in a large investment banking institution, startups and community organizations. In the end it was a close call between Confluence and a new product called Slab, for my small startup but we decided to go with Slab (http://slab.com). What I liked about Slab is the way better performance over the Confluence, quick integrations from their team (took them about 2 days to add draw.io integration on request). I liked how clean it was and easy for non-devs in my team to understand the structure.

Slab | Engineering | Remote (Worldwide) | Full-time At Slab (https://slab.com), we believe that knowledge is the foundation of any organization's success. When a team's collective knowledge is more accessible, that team's potential is limitless. Our product helps teams easily create, organize, and discover knowledge across the entire company, from non-technical to tech-savvy. Each day, thousands of customers rely on Slab across their entire workforces, including Asana, Benchling, and Fivetran. You'd be joining a team of thoughtful and experienced engineers, distributed worldwide across North America, Europe, and Asia. Stack: React, GraphQL, Elixir, Phoenix, Kubernetes Take a look at our open roles: - Sr. Frontend Engineer - https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/slab/d3dff44e-e8f7-4407-8eae-1b491f7fc1b8?utm… A couple of technical posts: - Why we use Elixir: https://elixir-lang.org/blog/2020/11/17/real-time-collaboration-with-e… - Quill 2.0: https://slab.com/blog/announcing-quill-2-0/

Slab | Software Engineer | REMOTE (Worldwide) | Full-time At Slab (https://slab.com), we believe that knowledge is the foundation of any organization's success. When a team's collective knowledge is more accessible, that team's potential is limitless. Our product helps teams easily create, organize, and discover knowledge across the entire company, from non-technical to tech-savvy. Each day, thousands of customers rely on Slab across their entire workforces, including Asana, Benchling, and Fivetran. You'd be joining a team of thoughtful and experienced engineers, distributed worldwide across North America, Europe, and Asia. Stack: React, GraphQL, Elixir [1], Phoenix, Kubernetes Apply here for Software Engineer role: https://jobs.lever.co/slab/1c6fae7c-980e-4875-be9f-76ae1ebfad96 [1]: Why we use Elixir: https://elixir-lang.org/blog/2020/11/17/real-time-collaboration-with-e…

Firstly, I work at Slab.com — a knowledge hub for teams. So, obviously I'm slanted in my perspective. But I'm not going to pitch the specifics of Slab here for you. Rather, I'm going to share a post we recently published designed to help teams document/write overcome knowledge hoarding (regardless of what tool/system they use): https://slab.com/blog/knowledge-hoarding/ It's not a direct pitch to use Slab. In it we talk about the three reasons we discovered most folks hoard knowledge: 1. Leverage: If an employee hoards their knowledge, they may feel like they are irreplaceable. 2. Fear: Putting yourself out there can be intimidating. What if colleagues or supervisors respond with negative feedback? 3. Competition: If your workplace rewards personal triumphs over shared victories, employees are less likely to want to share their "secrets." Also, no matter what documentation tool you use, it's worth reading this first: https://slab.com/blog/documentation-tools/ Many teams initially gravitate toward more generic document editors (Google Docs) as their first team wiki, for logical reasons: - These editors are familiar to most people, meaning they can be easier to adopt across an organization - Most companies already use (and pay for) at least one of these tools - Teams realize the need for documentation, but aren't thinking of how their documentation tool will scale alongside their business But there are some issues with these document editors that teams discover as they…

Maybe try Slab: https://slab.com/

In a past life I helped optimize >$1b of online transactions as a CRO professional and learning to objectively "write well" could be quantified in two ways: 1) Message Density - there's a great quote attributed to Mark Twain that nails this "If I'd had more time I would have written you a shorter letter". In practice Jeff Bezo's push to making executives build "4 page memos" for meetings outlines this idea clearly: "the reason writing a good 4 page memo is harder than "writing" a 20 page powerpoint is because the narrative structure of a good memo forces better thought and better understanding of what's more important than what, and how things are related"(1) 2) Message Accessibility - Making your message broadly accessible is a good forcing function to writing clearly. An easy "hack" in this department is to utilize the "gunning fog index"(2) which is a structured way to estimate "the years of formal education a person needs to understand the text on the first reading" and there are many tools online that can spit out a score. (1) https://slab.com/blog/jeff-bezos-writing-management-strategy/ (2) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gunning_fog_index

I wish we could change the submission to [1], since it really is about the new version. On the hand I sometimes wonder why we can have standardise rich text editor. [1] https://slab.com/blog/announcing-quill-2-0/

At first I couldn't figure out why Quill was being posted again, but now I see that a long awaited version 2.0 was released 3 days ago (see https://slab.com/blog/announcing-quill-2-0/ ). Thank you for the heads-up!

I disagree with one project at a time. It's usually impractical even if you don't have to work and you are being supported by a stipend or family wealth. In most of our situations it's necessary to keep several balls in the air or you will end up in trouble, professionally or personally. So the question is not only prioritization I like https://slab.com/blog/eisenhower-matrix/#:~:text=The%20Eisenhower%20Ma… You also need to allocate time slices of your attention and energy. A strategy that works is https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pomodoro_Technique

There's not much out there on the specifics of Amazon's approach to writing, but there are bits and pieces around. Jeff Bezos's 2017 shareholder letter highlights some of his thinking around 6-page narratives: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1018724/000119312518121161/d45… This Slab article by Ben Bashaw is pretty good on the topic: https://slab.com/blog/jeff-bezos-writing-management-strategy/ Scott does a good job of some of the major points of Amazon writing based on his time there (this was written based on a previous HN discussion on Amazon writing): https://blog.usejournal.com/writing-docs-at-amazon-e025808616bd

Yes, in particular, Amazon is notable for using written documents instead of slides: https://slab.com/blog/jeff-bezos-writing-management-strategy/ And for their funny habit of reading the document in the meeting (Bezos calls it “study hall”): https://jasoncrawford.org/the-silent-reading-technique But of course there's lots of spoken communication as well.

Slab | Engineering | Remote (Worldwide) | Full-time At Slab (https://slab.com), we believe that knowledge is the foundation of any organization's success. When a team's collective knowledge is more accessible, that team's potential is limitless. Our product helps teams easily create, organize, and discover knowledge across the entire company, from non-technical to tech-savvy. Each day, thousands of customers rely on Slab across their entire workforces, including Asana, Benchling, and Fivetran. You'd be joining a team of thoughtful and experienced engineers, distributed worldwide across North America, Europe, and Asia. Stack: React, GraphQL, Elixir, Phoenix, Kubernetes Take a look at our open roles: - Frontend Engineer - [https://jobs.lever.co/slab/287fe35f-9e9d-4d5a-a2d5-d1d7fc67c347?lever-… - Backend Engineer - [https://jobs.lever.co/slab/e97d694f-2ef9-47e7-8599-c6e624e4d084?lever-… A couple of technical posts from our engineering: - Upcoming CSS Features to Look Forward to: [https://slab.com/blog/upcoming-css-features-to-look-forward-to/](https… - Why we…

Maybe try this? https://slab.com/about