I think we could get a long way toward Scott's "working memory" ask by just making a smarter Clipboard Manager.
Many people don't use a clipboard manager at all, and even what exists today would be a huge upgrade for anyone accustomed to only a single clipboard "slot" that's instantly overwritten the next time you copy anything. Windows has one built in (though turned off by default), KDE Plasma ships with one, MacOS has third-party ones IIUC (not a Mac myself).
But imagine a clipboard manager that wherever you hit Ctrl+C also simply grabs the title of the active window and a deep link/URI that points to the cursor's current location (if a browser then it would be a URL, if a local program then some kind of local file:// URI). If you want to be really fancy, snap a screenshot too (maybe make this opt-in both for privacy and screenshot storage size concerns).
Then, whenever you pull up your clipboard history, a) it reminds you where you grabbed whatever text or image or document etc. that is, and b) with one click you can navigate back there.
I think we might get something like half of what Scott is talking about with "working memory" by adding this one affordance to existing clipboard history paradigms.
I have done that to force the clipboard to be plain text only and prevent "smart" applications from messing up the formatting of whatever I'm pasting to.
FYI, macOS 26 Tahoe introduced a first-party clipboard manager too. Official docs are at <a href="https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/search-your-clipboard-history-mchl40d5b86b/27/mac/27" rel="nofollow">https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/search-your-clipboa... and a more detailed guide is at <a href="https://www.cultofmac.com/how-to/mac-clipboard-history#enable" rel="nofollow">https://www.cultofmac.com/how-to/mac-clipboard-history#enabl....
cfiggers · · focus · HN ↗
Many people don't use a clipboard manager at all, and even what exists today would be a huge upgrade for anyone accustomed to only a single clipboard "slot" that's instantly overwritten the next time you copy anything. Windows has one built in (though turned off by default), KDE Plasma ships with one, MacOS has third-party ones IIUC (not a Mac myself).
But imagine a clipboard manager that wherever you hit Ctrl+C also simply grabs the title of the active window and a deep link/URI that points to the cursor's current location (if a browser then it would be a URL, if a local program then some kind of local file:// URI). If you want to be really fancy, snap a screenshot too (maybe make this opt-in both for privacy and screenshot storage size concerns).
Then, whenever you pull up your clipboard history, a) it reminds you where you grabbed whatever text or image or document etc. that is, and b) with one click you can navigate back there.
I think we might get something like half of what Scott is talking about with "working memory" by adding this one affordance to existing clipboard history paradigms.
anonreplier · · focus · HN ↗
account42 · · focus · HN ↗
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roryokane · · focus · HN ↗