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Why I Like Obsidian

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Re: Why I Like Obsidian

#281

Post by jazzyjackson »

pantulis wrote: post #77
lawgimenez wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Speaking of boring, my entire life runs on Apple Notes. Everything to-dos, from family, kids, work, car, etc. I am just not sure how to migrate all of my 2,000 plus notes on to a new system. Plus with limited mobile data signal, I’m not sure if apps like Obsidian will work.

People have reported success using Exporter, which is reasonably priced. http://falcon.star-lord.me/exporter

This might have been necessary at some point but if you sync your notes with icloud then they can be exported by logging into privacy.apple.com and clicking "request a copy of your data"

You can also get your icloud drive and photos this way.

Re: Why I Like Obsidian

#282

Post by akkad33 »

behnamoh wrote: post #122
dustincoates wrote: post #41

I 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…

I tried it a few times but had to stop because: 1. Obsidian imposes its own take on Markdown. For instance, why can't we disable "indent using the tab key"? It's so annoying to accidentally indent/quote text while pressing tab to do something like "accept autocomplete suggestion". Obsidian's response to users' complaints about this was not reassuring: https://forum.obsidian.md/t/option-to-disable-tab-to-indent/... 2.…

What note taking system do you recommend ?

Re: Why I Like Obsidian

#283

Post by Zambyte »

rubymamis wrote: post #241
Zambyte wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Car manufacturers don't release their source code either, yet people trust something as important as their life to it daily. I personally find it extremely disturbing. Two bads don't make a good.

What's so disturbing? The incentives are aligned -> If a specific car model won't be safe, people won't buy it. Also, there is regulation in place. I think we need exactly the right combo in software too. Obsidian is not open source, but you can gauge what they track in their privacy policy. You can try to confirm it using apps like Little Snitch. Also, all their notes are just plaintext so your data is portable.

> If a specific car model won't be safe, people won't buy it.

The world is not this black and white. This assumes the customer actually knows all of the pros and cons of available options and is able to take the time to make a decision that best aligns with their values. In practice (at least in the US) we have and infrastructure that makes it practically impossible for many people to live their lives without a car, and purchasing decisions are based almost exclusively on marketing materials and social forces.

> Obsidian is not open source, but you can gauge what they track in their privacy policy

A privacy policy is a pinkie promise. Why depend on something so fragile for such an important function in your life, when there are much more trustworthy options? Logseq, Org Roam, and Joplin immediately come to mind.

Re: Why I Like Obsidian

#284

Post by trinsic2 »

firecall wrote: post #86
hoherd wrote: post #69

I was unaware of this until a few weeks ago, so I'd like to raise awareness for anybody who it affects: Obsidian is not FOSS, and purchasing a license is required for any work that generates revenue at a for-profit company of 2 or more people. https://obsidian.md/license Obsidian looks awesome to me, and for a long time I've been thinking about adopting it, but this licensing issue caused me to back away and look for…

And also no Synching with a subscription! When I already have access to the iCloud ecosystem, and Notes is excellent across iOS and macOS, I have never really seen much point in trying to use Obsidian. But then maybe I'm missing the point of Obsidian?

Mainly I prefer to be able to move my data around. I'm pretty sure those formats are really hard to you data out of. I know it doesn't seem like an issue now, but it might be if you ever decide to leave Apple's Ecosystem. On principle, I will not support systems that design their products to lock you into platforms.

Re: Why I Like Obsidian

#285

Post by mtriassi »

I've really fallen for Obsidian myself. I became somewhat of an evangelist for it in my office. Much like the author i tend to use it as a "backstage for my life". In the interest of sharing my system with my colleagues i even turned my work vault into a template of sorts [^1].

Though that's also the most interesting part about Obsidian. What works for one person doesn't necessarily work for another. When i presented my template to my colleagues i definitely got some comments like: "oh man, my brain doesn't work that way" or "this feels overly complex". It's interesting how a simple markdown editor has become this analogue for some of our brains.

[^1]: https://github.com/m-triassi/obsidian-workvault-template - This is still a work in progress, but if anyone has suggestions or things they'd like to share i'd be open to feedback or even PRs!

Re: Why I Like Obsidian

#286

Post by senjin »

hiq wrote: post #151

A few weeks ago I started splitting knowledge between that which is worthy enough (for me) to remember via flashcards and spaced repetition, and that which I don't need to even write down anywhere. Meaning, in practice, that I don't feel the need to have a proper note-taking system. I just need proper flashcards, which I already have in Anki. I just started this split so maybe I'll come back to it, realizing limitati…

This is basically what I tried to do using the spaced repetition plugin for Obsidian but it's just not very good yet. I just checked and the author asked for a co-maintainer yesterday. I really hope they can find someone to put a bit of time in because it's a great idea and a great foundation.

https://github.com/st3v3nmw/obsidian-spaced-repetition/

Re: Why I Like Obsidian

#287

Post by aaarrm »

CrypticShift wrote: post #165

So the author is keeping notes in a flat hierarchy and then using the graph. He stated that the goal is "greater understanding," and then he just (in all honesty) states that the nice graphical topology represents my learning journey and keeps me motivated. That is exactly the problem: motivation and a history of learning do not always lead to "greater understanding." On the contrary, I find that our 'notes' are ofte…

I often hear of people using Obsidian or other feature-ful not taking and task organization apps creating PKMS (personal knowledge management systems) in then. They often state that linking things together, categorizing and organizing them well, and using appropriate tools to help view these associations that it results in... "realizations", or "understandings"? But I've yet to see anyone mention a concrete example of what they mean by this.

I can use my imagination to come up with some potential examples, but I'm curious these conclusions actually often occur or if people are just chasing some idea, when in reality they just get enjoyment from the organization process.

Either way, I use Obsidian lightly and am trying to refine how I use it, but I'm definitely not "there" yet. I mostly enjoy having a personal wiki basically of any information that I've researched or need to keep on hand somewhere. Main downside I've run into is that I'm not a huge fan of the layout / UI (maybe there's plugins for that) and tables are horrendous in it (I know they just added an update for them recently but I've already offloaded my table-style data elsewhere and I don't plan on bringing it back).

Re: Why I Like Obsidian

#289

Post by sgt »

kstrauser wrote: post #217
sgt wrote: post #64

Apple just needs to add Markdown to Notes and it would be the perfect app. Right now I am making do with creating little sections where I put monospaced fonts, but it's not ideal. I just need to plop down code between my notes once in a while, and Markdown's ``` makes that very easy.

I agree. I’ve considered trying to use Keyboard Maestro to implement an ersatz Markdown mode, like “replace '## ' with ‘trigger the Set Heading Format menu’” or “replace ``` with ‘trigger the Monostyled format menu’”. Huh. Having actually written that out, that should be easy. I know what I’m doing this morning.

Please do share the outcome. I believe there is interest in this. Apple Notes is always there and convenient, which pulls me back.

Re: Why I Like Obsidian

#290

Post by kstrauser »

sgt wrote: post #289
kstrauser wrote: post #217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree. I’ve considered trying to use Keyboard Maestro to implement an ersatz Markdown mode, like “replace '## ' with ‘trigger the Set Heading Format menu’” or “replace ``` with ‘trigger the Monostyled format menu’”. Huh. Having actually written that out, that should be easy. I know what I’m doing this morning.

Please do share the outcome. I believe there is interest in this. Apple Notes is always there and convenient, which pulls me back.

Welp, I did it. I can share the macro if needed, but it ended up exactly as I described it. I also made macros for #, ##, ###, and --- while I was at it.
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