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How I use Obsidian (2023)
11–20 of 100 posts
Re: How I use Obsidian (2023)
#12I really want to like obsidian but it’s just unusable (for me) So I built my own thats a bit more lightweight. Think nvalt meets markdown. thats native, iOS and Mac with I cloud sync, and open source. Check it out if it sounds interesting! iOS app is still in review ;( https://hashy.ink/
> a bit more lightweight I don't want to be overly negative, but no plugins are mandatory, there's no "47 step setup guide" unless you want to heavily customize. And as far as I can tell you mostly replaced some of the weight with AI? AI "Search Notes", "Organize Notes", "List and filter, tags", "Clean up notes" I guess I just see this as weight in a different area? You've pushed a lot of the weight and plugins to cl…
It’s a BYOK so the ai is optional. (And if you really don’t want it it’s a package in the open source app that can easily be pulled out) Since it’s markdown and on filesystem you can just edit your notes with Claude code if you want similar to obsidian.
By lightweight I mean it’s not a super heavy and bloated electron app on desktop and a slow and janky capacitor app on mobile that takes 10 seconds to launch and that the project can be greppable in a day to build on
Re: How I use Obsidian (2023)
#13Just for context, Steph Ango is the CEO of Obsidian. His approach to notetaking in his own app made the rounds in the PKM (personal knowledge management) community for how _counterintuitive_ it was.
He eschews a lot of the common wisdom pushed by influencers in this space who tout "the one true way™" to stay organized. File splattered in the root? Sure. Unresolved links to notes that don't exist and probably never will? Why not! Blank daily notes that aren't carefully manicured journal tomes? Heck yeah.
His point is "perfect is the enemy of good." You could carefully curate and perfect your pkm...or you could have a life.
Re: How I use Obsidian (2023)
#14I tried Obsidian to build a “second brain”. But eventually just reverted back to notes on my iPad (handwritten) and Vim (markdown) for typed notes. I actually think Obsidian is a great tool, but I just need something as low friction as possible to quickly jolt something down. Vim and Goodnotes does the trick for me.
Obsidian is amazing on my desktop environments but I shared the same sentiment with you, on mobile I use Apple Notes and transpose to Obsidian if its worth doing so...
Similar to mine. I use Apple Notes for quick, ephemeral notes and for Shared Family Notes. If they are the ones that are more important, they go into the plain-text notes in the Obsidian folder.
The Notes folder(s) is sync with a Cloud Service. So, I use iA Writer[1] (a brilliant Notes App) to have a pleasant writing experience on other mobile devices. They are just Markdown, so I can open them in any Notes App that supports Markdown. I paid for iA Writer once, like 10+ years ago.
Re: How I use Obsidian (2023)
#15How I use Obsidian
Re: How I use Obsidian (2023)
#16I tried Obsidian to build a “second brain”. But eventually just reverted back to notes on my iPad (handwritten) and Vim (markdown) for typed notes. I actually think Obsidian is a great tool, but I just need something as low friction as possible to quickly jolt something down. Vim and Goodnotes does the trick for me.
This is a project that's always on my mind that I never take the time to flesh out. I can't put my finger on the scope. I don't know if I want a full, Johnny Decimaled PKM platform for my entire life, or topical, dense information about things that interest me.
Re: How I use Obsidian (2023)
#17I tried Obsidian to build a “second brain”. But eventually just reverted back to notes on my iPad (handwritten) and Vim (markdown) for typed notes. I actually think Obsidian is a great tool, but I just need something as low friction as possible to quickly jolt something down. Vim and Goodnotes does the trick for me.
I tried it several times and the one thing that got it to stick for me was having a structure to the markdown. I have an AST parser for markdown body grammar and validate the frontmatter. The structure helps me keep things sane and organized because my brain is all over the place. Beyond that, unlike OP I attach these schemas to folders in my vault per schema.
Re: How I use Obsidian (2023)
#18Don’t over complicate this everyone. This is the best file-explorer GUI ever made hands down. All your files map 1-to-1 with the OS filesystem. No double clicking files over and over again. No getting lost in endless unsorted directories. Launch any file extension type straight from the same explorer GUI. I use this app less as a second brain and more as a personal document vault. (Markdown is ugly sorry about it) I…
> This is the best file-explorer GUI ever made hands down.
besides norton commander and its clones
Re: How I use Obsidian (2023)
#19ever since I first heard about Obsidian, the vibe I get is that it's a solution in search of a problem. Every use case I get pitched, there's a better solution, or it's a "problem" that doesn't need to be solved.
If you aren't a researcher in a field, why do you need personal knowledge management? Even when I learn a subject, I find just...taking a flat note file to be way better than all these Zettelkasten stuffs. It all feels very pomodoro to me. It is useful for some people, but influencers have hyped it up into the Grand Unified Solution.
Same with mind mapping. I don't see the benefit. Maybe being AuDHD has something to do with it? Like...if it's an area I want more expertise, I'm already hyperfocused on it and remember everything. If I don't want expertise, I don't need PKM. I keep trying to use them, but it feels superfluous. Like I never have to refer back to it.
Re: How I use Obsidian (2023)
#20How does it compare to notion