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Why I Like Obsidian
271–280 of 376 posts
Re: Why I Like Obsidian
#272I'm a happy Obsidian user too, it's probably the application I use the most.
The amount of plugins available is incredible (my favs: Excalidraw and Calendar, Obsidian Git)
I also wrote an article about why I switched from Notion to Obsidian a few years ago.
https://domenicoluciani.com/2021/12/17/why-did-i-switch-from...
Re: Why I Like Obsidian
#273Whenever there's an Obsidian fanfare going on here on HN (and it happens quite often :P) I wonder around among the comments looking for a simple, minimal, and clean knife (or maybe a light bow and arrow) while people are discussing their AWPs, customised Dragunovs, and bespoke Abrams. Good fun :)
I have a bludgeon. A permanently open markdown file with my life stuff in it (chores, ideas, projects, backburner, vacation plans). I think the closest is probably this: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38733968
I like easyorg for development and project tasks. Makes it easy to prioritize tasks etc but still in a text file.
https://easyorgmode.com
Re: Why I Like Obsidian
#274Earlier quoted context omitted.
"I'm 99% convinced that no one actually _understands_ zettelkasten" Fixed that for you ;) For real, anyone interested should go read the original book (How to Take Smart Notes[1]) and you learn that it's not about creating backlinks between your notes (that's just a wiki or personal knowledge base). It's about capturing ideas inspired by your reading, etc. and linking them other ideas. Yes, building your own personal…
That was one of the worst books I’ve ever read. I went into it expecting practical advice and found mostly vague hyperbolic promises of the magical benefits. If the hypothesis was that this note taking method produces lower effort, higher quality output, then the author either didn’t use the system or the book is evidence against its effectiveness
Thank you. Those are my thoughts exactly. The title was wrong: it should've been "Why to Take Smart Notes". I'd already decided I was interested before I ever bought the book and I wish it hadn't wasted 3/4 of pages trying to further convince me. I finished it and still had no idea how to practically implement the magical system it described.
I've also never read a book so packed with redundancy.
Re: Why I Like Obsidian
#275While not my personal knowledge base yet, my personal use case for Obsidian is probably what gives me the most joy for it: as a Dungeon Master’s Worldbuilding Notes / Interactive DM Screen
Where I have used pen and paper in the past to track everything, Obsidian has supercharged my ability to sit down and flesh out my homebrew world in a way that was hard to do for myself prior. On top of the ease of writing and linking together notes, it also allows me to simultaneously tie in my pre-written lore with the session notes I take, so I don’t forget stuff that happens or that my players are supposed to pick up on.
I’ve also encouraged my players to use it, so that if they are taking notes on the right things, they can piece together stuff or make their own assumptions to inform how they choose to play.
It works for us, I get it’s not for everyone. But versus my old DM Binder in OneNote, it works perfectly for my needs!
On a similar, yet separate note, I’ve found the folder/note structure to be conducive to learning new TTRPG rules and essentially having my personal SRDs for different games (currently chunking my way through the Shadowrun 6e SRD and making my own notes or expansions on it to make it make more sense).
Re: Why I Like Obsidian
#276https://github.com/SublimeText-Markdown/MarkdownEditing is still a way to go for me.
Re: Why I Like Obsidian
#277Earlier quoted context omitted.
Agreed on the power-user stuff and the courses. I use Obsidian in a simple way, but it's nice that the extensibility and the community is there. Unlike VS Code, Obsidian is (for me) an actual example of an Electron app that feels fast. The quick open/command palette features are more responsive than similar features in native Mac apps I've tried. As mentioned elsewhere, users frequently ask for Obsidian to be open so…
> Unlike VS Code, Obsidian is (for me) an actual example of an Electron app that feels fast. The quick open/command palette features are more responsive than similar features in native Mac apps I've tried. Dude, VSCode is a freaking IDE, running all sorts of processes in the background (at least one terminal, language servers, type checkers, linters and formatters, possibly extensions, etc.) whereas Obsidian is just…
Not arguing with that. In discussions about Electron, there are often comments along the lines of "Electron apps can be fast if done right, just look at VS Code" and that just doesn't hold true for me.
Re: Why I Like Obsidian
#278Earlier quoted context omitted.
iCloud removes files from local storage randomly and downloading them again is very slow and gets stuck often. I think that is the main reason why obsidian hangs at the start on the iPhone. I have not yet figured out, how to keep iCloud files reliably on local storage on iOS. It seems independent of free storage and file size and is driving me mad. Very sad that Apple does not succeed in syncing files. The same issue…
People using Obsidian Sync said it solves these issues (I guess by using a database rather than directly via file I/Os.) There are other solutions via plugins too. E.g. Dropbox, Google Drive, or GitHub. There was a post earlier in HN which is a reimplementation of Obsidian Sync, but it seems their reversed engineering uncovered something not secure there and Obsidian soon made a patch breaking that. There might be wo…
At one moment, WorkingCopy (on iOS) was considered a valid option for syncing Obsidian vaults.
Re: Why I Like Obsidian
#279I like Obsidian, too, having recently switched over from 9 years of OneNote (the fact that there's a tool to import my OneNote notes helped a lot). The most important tip for getting started with Obsidian, in my mind, is to absolutely ignore all of the Obsidian "power users." I'm 99% convinced that no one actually uses zettelkasten seriously, but even if so, it's overkill for when you're just checking out the app. An…
As a OneNote person for two years now, how do you deal with the added friction of linear notes in Obsidian (or any other plaintext based tool)? In OneNote I can just dump down anything literally anywhere (because each page is an infinite canvas). It feels as easy as having a pen and random free papers. But with my notes increasing, I do want to have some way to manage this data which OneNote fails at. I can do basic…
I ultimately just didn't end up missing it as much as enjoying what I gained. I do miss how in OneNote I could keep a list of study questions next to the notes, but it's okay that I don't have it in the end, because I'm taking better notes in Obsidian.
Re: Why I Like Obsidian
#280While Obsidian is good, I prefer SiYuan Note, which is open source, and has more features. It's like a mix of Notion and Obsidian.