If you’ve ever tried making a Notion page do more than just hold text, embeds, or basic databases — like building a public form, a mini dashboard, or something where parts of the page act like real apps — you’ve probably run into friction.
Maybe you felt stuck with weird hacks, duplications, or components that barely talk to each other.
The big deal isn’t that Notion can’t do stuff; the deal is what you have to do to get there. And that’s where the trade-offs start to show.
I didn't expect the direction of this article. I found notion limiting because it was (I'm not sure if this is still the case) online-only and slow. (I switched to Obsidian and have been very happy.) But I was using Notion as a personal note database. In fact your point here:
>A quick look at Notion’s architecture makes it obvious:
It’s human-first, not AI-first. That’s great for writing.
sounds like praise for Notion as a note taking tool, which is exactly what it is.
I guess what I'd like to say is that your title is misleading, and maybe a better one would be "Notion is awesome until you wannt AI."
If you’ve ever tried making a Notion page do more than just hold text, embeds, or basic databases — like building a public form, a mini dashboard, or something where parts of the page act like real apps — you’ve probably run into friction. Maybe you felt stuck with weird hacks, duplications, or components that barely talk to each other. The big deal isn’t that Notion can’t do stuff; the deal is what you have to do to get there. And that’s where the trade-offs start to show.
I didn't expect the direction of this article. I found notion limiting because it was (I'm not sure if this is still the case) online-only and slow. (I switched to Obsidian and have been very happy.) But I was using Notion as a personal note database. In fact your point here:
>A quick look at Notion’s architecture makes it obvious: It’s human-first, not AI-first. That’s great for writing.
sounds like praise for Notion as a note taking tool, which is exactly what it is.
I guess what I'd like to say is that your title is misleading, and maybe a better one would be "Notion is awesome until you wannt AI."