July 4, 2026
Call me Ishmael... and load the app
Moby Dick Workout
Turns out the internet has strong feelings about using giant novels to expose weak apps
TLDR: A writer suggested using the full text of Moby-Dick as a simple way to see if note-taking apps can handle real-world heavy use. The comments instantly stole the spotlight, turning it into a joke-filled showdown featuring War and Peace, push-up gags, and a toilet-flush rule for spotting bad design fast.
A delightfully niche idea — using Moby-Dick as a stress test for to-do list and writing apps — somehow turned into a mini talent show for the comments section. The original post is simple: if an app can open, scroll, edit, and survive a giant book without choking, it’ll probably handle your everyday notes just fine. Fair! Sensible! But the community immediately did what communities do best: made it weirder, funnier, and a little competitive.
The strongest opinion? Big text should not scare modern software. One commenter basically waved a giant Russian novel in the air and declared, “I use War and Peace for this,” instantly escalating the literary arms race. Another took the whole thing in a comedy direction, admitting they expected “Moby Dick Workout” to mean doing push-ups every time the book uses a word you don’t know — which, honestly, sounds like a punishment invented by an English teacher. And then there was the glorious side quest into old-school software nostalgia, with one fan praising Winamp for loading massive music folders so fast that newer apps look downright embarrassing.
But the funniest hot take may be the most relatable: one user compared this app test to checking a rental flat by immediately flushing the toilet. If the basics fail, run. That’s the mood here: forget polished promises — people want one brutally simple test that reveals whether a thing is secretly a mess.
Key Points
- •The article proposes using *Moby-Dick* as a practical stress test for productivity apps.
- •It argues that productivity apps should handle the amount of content a user can personally create.
- •The suggested test checks loading speed, scrolling, window resizing, bulk edit operations, undo/redo, and mid-document editing responsiveness.
- •The article recommends verifying memory usage with macOS Activity Monitor after repeated test actions.
- •Two test files are provided: an OPML file for outliner apps and a Markdown file for markdown apps.