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Writing down what I do in Obsidian
- ThePhantom 4y agoI can see Obsidian being popular because it makes notetaking fun and customizable and may motivate people to do it more. But as far as actual productivity goes I can't see any benefit it adds.
- scottbruin 4y agoThat’s kind of like saying an IDE has no clear productivity benefit when authoring software. It’s an IDE for note-taking.
- ThePhantom 4y agoWhen I think of productivity in this context, I am referring to the rate at which one can generate value. Software itself has value (eg, a client-facing web service). Therefore an IDE, which may require an investment to get past the learning curve, can have a productivity benefit as it can make generating software (and thus value) more efficient. Do notes themselves have value? I would argue not really. For the most part things like "life planners" / "task managers" I've noticed are highly intricate but require considerable upkeep to maintain. Time that can be used to actually generate value.
- beaker52 4y agoDoes the software itself have value? Isn’t it what people do with the software that really has value? The software sat on a floppy disk has pretty low value. I’d then argue that software has as much value as notes do. It’s about what you do with it/them, what it/they enable - that counts. But both software and notes are therefore extremely valuable to the activity of doing. My notes are my software, heck I even call my note system “LifeOS”, which makes that even more apparent.
- timrichard 4y agoIncredibly valuable for me. When exploring something new, I journal as I go. If a side task has to be parked, I can pick up again months later because I use it as a knowledgebase. Also, a quick scan for #gotcha in my notes reminds me of subtle bugs and workarounds in tools and processes that are easily forgotten. I also create quick reference charts for tools I want to become familiar. I hashtag every new note as if I'm making a Twitter post, so things are linked in a useful way. I usually have Obsidian open near the IDE.
- Cthulhu_ 4y agoYou've kinda addressed your own concern about productivity though - it's more fun.
- nitinshivaraman 4y agoAfter trying Obsidian, notes,Evernote and OneNote, I finally found Logseq and absolutely love it. Anyone else prefer Logseq?
- emptyparadise 4y agoPersonally my Obsidian notes are a reflection of the chaos in my head. The neurons (notes) of my second brain all interconnect without rhyme or reason or folders or tagging...
- oxff 4y agoThis is imo how most people should start and use it. All these "structure first" approaches are like using someone else's preferred way of learning and memorizing, if it works its an happy accident. You'll get your structure out of your mind once you learn to know it.
- manbash 4y agoI am constantly finding myself deliberating whether I should or shouldn't use folders in my Obsidian vault. Most of the times folders feel artificial. I prefer tags nowadays as the single source. The times I separate to a folder is for very-specific Dataview data-only pages, and for storing assets such as images.
- oxff 4y agoI legitimately forgot to even consider folders once I had taken "enough" notes / diary entries. Just forgot they exist at all. I see everything relevant in the linked / unlinked mentions that I use to refresh the context. Tags I barely use, except for things I can't put into "atomic notes". Like when someone mentions a book and 1-3 sentence review, I add it to today's diary entry and use #book tag on it.
- vbezhenar 4y agoI don't understand the concept of using tags or even avoiding them. Everything in my brain is highly categorized and those categories are hierarchical. Computer / Kubernetes / Helm / Something.md Computer / Java / JVM / Garbage Collection Tuning.md Construction / Foundation / Shallow Strip Foundation.md Hobby / 3D Printing / On Shape.md And so on. I don't even think that I need links. May be some. What I need is the ability to show multiple files at once. For example show all files in Computer / Kubernetes / Helm directory, separated with horizontal lines with the ability to edit this in one editor window. I hate when I need to constantly switch around in traditional editors.
- jatins 4y agono shade, but just reading this I was sure this was written by someone who works in BigTech. Because this was very reminiscent of ceremony required for BigTech performance reviews.
- googlryas 4y agoYes, I thought it sounded like snippets for my OKRs. Could also be derived from quantified self lineage.
- wingerlang 4y agoI think it is more the latter. Seems more like a passion (or obsession) than something they have to do for OKRs, especially with the super detailed logging and using dedicated apps, and super optimizing them on top of that.
- taubek 4y agoI keep similar list so that when I we have quarterly/yearly reviews I can recall what was I doing few months ago.
- _glass 4y agoI am blushing, because I have org mode open with my OKRs nicely tree-structured, and open tasks underneath. And, and, I giant mess of real-world task on top, that I don't know how to structure, but are somehow part of my job.
- JonChesterfield 4y agoIn fairness this is probably an answer to "how to pass promotion" in such an environment. I don't have the patience so will stay with git log immediately before the deadline but have some envy for people who enjoy this sort of logging.
- chriskrycho 4y agoIt happens to be the case that I do (I am at LinkedIn) but I actually started this years ago when I was working as an independent contractor/consultant. It was the only way I could keep track of having many, many different things in flight: I was working on a masters' degree, working ~full time, had two little kids, and also had several side projects going. It actually started out as just a way to help build the necessary personal disciplines to get things done, and the logging grew out of it when I realized it was really helpful for two things: my own understanding of what I had done over a given period of time, and then eventually for using at the startup I joined in 2016, and now at BigTech.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- tfsh 4y agoThere's a useful plugin called "Daily Notes" which automatically creates a note each day with your desired template, along with the calendar plugin I have a daily chronology of everything I've done which I deem noteworthy. If anyones interested in Obsidian and daily journalling keep the initial ceremony low. Some people have sections for challenges, achievements, mood, emails, to-dos, etc. That'll be far too much cognitive load for anyone - keep it simple and very quickly you'll know whether you want to add or remove any of the daily ceremony. I have a "Key tasks" where I include a mostly succinct breakdown of anything worth noting. I did this on Google Docs for 3 years before very recently moving to Obsidian and I wouldn't turn back. Tags and back links definitely help me jump between related thoughts and actions much more than grepping in a 50k+ words Google doc :)
- aliqot 4y agoI use this every day :)
- nagarjun 4y agoI use an iOS Shortcut to create a daily note in Bear. It's simple but, works surprisingly well!
- crucialfelix 4y agoI also use Memos which is a plugin for quick capture, short status updates. It inserts them in your Daily Notes page. Also can view and search all memos collected across all day pages.
- fatfox 4y agoIf anyone is looking for the “Daily Notes” plugin in Obsidian: You can enable it under “Core plugins”.
- stefandesu 4y agoThere's also the "Periodic Notes" plugin which additionally allows for weekly, monthly, quarterly, and yearly notes.
- 4y ago
- throwaway180118 4y agoI've seen a lot of recent posts about Obsidian in the past week. If it's a marketing tactic then it might be working on me. I hope it's a decent product and not just some PR stunt.
- mpawelski 4y agoIt recently got 1.0 version. But before that it was already really popular, there are tons of YouTube videos with people describing how they use it, houdreds of opensource plugins, people even sell paid courses about it. It's amazing to me how popular it got is such a short time. So I was actually quite surprised how little before v1.0 it appeared on HN, especially when most of plugins are on github and have many stars, so clearly developers were using it. For me this is the first "notes" app that I enjoy using. I can totally recommend it. Before it was just a text file or OneNote (for which i found some migration tool to Obsidian) . To me Obsidian still has many annoying isuues but much more advantages, and I see it's only improving with each version.
- puchatek 4y agoGotta admit i also checked out obsidian and the top review for the app on the play store gave me pause. Seems the app cannot sync with your local server so you'd need the sync subscription if you wanted to use app and desktop together to maintain one set of notes. Can someone confirm this?
- emptysands 4y agoI use the sync feature, but its not required. There are several tutorials for using got with a community plugin or an alternative like syncthing. Its just text after all. Which is the point of using Obsidian. Paying for sync is like paying to support the software development. Which is worth doing for Obsidian. Plus I find it useful. I am on the older lower rate.
- Sprocklem 4y agoI use Syncthing to sync between my android phone and my computer without a subscription, and everything has been working perfectly.
- sn41 4y agoI'm an ardent Emacs user for the past 20+ years. But I am considering writing a book, and the "throw things in anyhow, get things back" facility of Obsidian is quite useful for catching disparate thoughts to later incorporate into a flow in the final text.. Of course there is a mode in Emacs supporting obsidian-like facility, but does not feel as convenient - autocomplete never quite works as smooth as it does in Obsidian. For now, I am very impressed with the simplicity of Obsidian's usage.
- Siira 4y agoObsidian is good, but emacs UX and power are on a whole other level if you invest in it. I recently integrated and extended a presentation mode for my org files. It allowed me to reuse all my emacs goodies when creating slides, and all the content is easily searchable and linkable. It is even a great UX when presenting; I could very easily jump between slides to show the relevant slides when questions came up. It’s exportable to beautiful HTML, too.
- osener 4y agoI went with Logseq because it can be configured to use org-mode syntax in place of Markdown, and I’m really happy with it.
- ajvs 4y agoSame, and the plugin ecosystem is quite big too.
- Cthulhu_ 4y agoAs a wildly alternative workflow for writing a book, have a look at Scrivener.
- _glass 4y agoI am writing right now my PhD thesis with Scrivener, and it's perfect, except (!) reference management is not working. My workaround is to have everything in Zotero, and manually put in the references, hoping I can convert later, in a big dirty manual step.
- for_i_in_range 4y agoAlternatively, there's the pen and paper version of Obsidian: https://www.antinet.org/ https://www.antinet.org/
- agileAlligator 4y agoInteresting! Now I wonder if this system can be digitized.... (I am way too lazy to take pen and paper notes lol)
- wyclif 4y agoDid he mean to link to his Obsidian config? It looks like there's supposed to be a link there but there isn't.
- avjinder 4y agoYes, seems like the config could not be found.
- chriskrycho 4y agoYeah, I intended to link it when I started drafting this months ago but then forgot to add the link and my config is out of date now that Obsidian 1.0 is out, so I removed it when someone else pointed out the same typo. Sorry about that!
- Abishek_Muthian 4y agoSince this post will attract Obisidan veterans, I asking for some validation of two potential need-gaps in Obisidian I'm tracking for a while - 1. Live recommendation for Obsidian[1] Say I'm typing a note and write a sentence about echo location then I get recommended a previous note with a comment from a HN user about how moths escape bats by deafening it in a side panel. It's not a keyword based recommendation, But a sentence classification (I understand the compute overhead drawback). 2. Automatic tag generator for Obsidian[2] This is simpler, Generate tags for the notes automatically based on previous tags and if none is available then generate new tags. [1] https://needgap.com/problems/409-live-recommendation-for-obsidian-knowledgebase-recommendation https://needgap.com/problems/409-live-recommendation-for-obs... (Disclosure: It's my problem validation forum) [2] https://needgap.com/problems/408-automatic-tag-generator-for-obsidian-knowledgebase-tags https://needgap.com/problems/408-automatic-tag-generator-for...
- throwaway675309 4y agoThe only notetaking tool I found that had support for live recommendations was Evernote which did something called context notes, it was quite useful.
- Abishek_Muthian 4y agoThanks, I will check it out. Btw, Others in Obsidian forums have mentioned DEVONthink as well.
- brimwats 4y agotry either the Influx or Strange New World plugins for #1, depending on how you have your vault set up (either mostly daily notes or not respectively)
- Abishek_Muthian 4y agoThanks, Influx does provide recommendations but it seems to require prior snippet in the notes; I'm thinking about live recommendation without prior action from the user apart from just writing notes.
- revskill 4y agoMy note taking system is simple: I'm using MacOS Notes application, in that basically have two important notes: Reading and Writing. My professional life is mostly about reading and writing. Other minor notes include: Awesome materials. I never have a separate Todo/Outcomes,.. notes.
- ynab4 4y agoNo. You're not going to charge me for taking notes.
- raesene9 4y agoObsidian is free though. Even for syncing it's totally possible to do that wit just git (which is what I do)
- callahad 4y agoOnly for personal use. If you're using it at work, you're supposed to purchase a license. https://obsidian.md/eula https://obsidian.md/eula > You need to pay for Obsidian if and only if you use it to contribute, directly or indirectly, to revenue-generating, work-related activities in a company that has two or more people.
- raesene9 4y agoThat's not exactly how I'd read that EULA. To me it's asking for payment if you use it for work not at work. so someone recording personal notes on a work system wouldn't fall into that category, but someone using it for product development at their company would...
- callahad 4y agoHm. Yeah, I guess it's not as clear-cut. The Commercial License docs are maybe a bit more explicit? https://help.obsidian.md/Licenses+%26+Payment/Commercial+license https://help.obsidian.md/Licenses+%26+Payment/Commercial+lic... > If your notes contain content directly related to work projects or processes for a greater-than-one-person company, then you require a commercial license. (This is from Q13 on that page, "I use Obsidian to store all of my knowledge, both personal and professional, because it's difficult to separate them. Do I need a commercial license?")
- raesene9 4y ago
- laputan_machine 4y agoDoes anyone have any experience with Joplin[0] as an alternative? I'm looking into using SyncThing + Joplin to create a sort of 'networked personal brain'. I was originally looking at Obsidian, but the arguments on why they chose not to go FOSS are pretty weak[2] imo, so I'm looking at using Joplin instead. [0] https://github.com/laurent22/joplin/ https://github.com/laurent22/joplin/ [1] https://syncthing.net/ https://syncthing.net/ [2] https://obsidian.rocks/why-isnt-obsidian-open-source/ https://obsidian.rocks/why-isnt-obsidian-open-source/
- zeruch 4y agoI used Joplin for about a year, then switched to Obsidian. Joplin is/was good (and on mobile was nice and responsive) but Obsidian just (so far) has been a better overall fit.
- master-12 4y agoDoesn't Joplin store all notes in a SQLite DB? I'd recommend looking into Logseq[0], it's free and open source and stores all notes on disk as Markdown. I version my notes with Git, but Syncthing will also work. [0] https://logseq.com/ https://logseq.com/
- wartijn_ 4y agoIt does, but if you use the build in synchronization, your notes will by synchronized as (optionally encrypted) files. I think using syncthing would be possible if you make Joplin synchronize to a local directory, and use syncthing to sync that directory.
- hookey 4y agoI used to use Logseq with Syncthing, but I ran into a bunch of sync conflicts that were annoying to deal with and sometimes it would just stop syncing for no reason. Luckily, they've just made Logseq Sync available to all backers on OpenCollective and it works quite well. I'm very happy with the setup now. I think they're making Sync available as a paid monthly service soon.
- alexktz 4y ago
- terminal_d 4y agoThis is called transclusion.
- tunnuz 4y agoThis was like a window in an alternate dimension for me: I had no idea documenting what you do was a thing and the way the author describes it makes it sound like a well-known activity that everybody does. Have I been living under a rock?
- Cthulhu_ 4y agoNah, counter-non-scientific-anecdote, very few people do it. Most of what I do is forgettable and not important. Code is in git and tasks are in jira, websites I want to remember are in my bookmarks; I never think "I wish I took minutes of my day from such-and-such date three years ago". But to each their own; if this is your jam, by all means. It KINDA feels like justifying your day and activities though. Some people work in teams or environments where they have to justify their time or report what they did the previous day in a daily stand-up, for who it may be relevant.
- mundietalk 4y agoI just installed Obsidian. Tried it. The vibe of the contents that I put into Obsidian has a funny 'Obsidious' tone. I think a neutral vibe is what is required for a generic content editing software. Uninstalled.
- gala8y 4y ago> The vibe of the contents that I put into Obsidian has a funny 'Obsidious' tone. What do you mean? In my opinion UI is absolutely minimal. Not a single place with any kind of branding left - no logo, no 'Obsidian' text repeated all over. Ok, there is 'Choose Obsidian's default color scheme' in settings (totally warranted). Clean as it can be. It is actually unique in that matter of retracting logo/name from any view. There is branding on vault opener/switcher, which is tasteful and just in place - it's good to know what piece of software you're using, after all.
- mundietalk 4y agoI'm talking about the [feeling]. It just imbues everything.
- gala8y 4y agoWell, I'm really curious, if you could try to describe it. It is just interesting you get this. I am not here to defend Obsidian in any way, rather interested in understanding what it is all about.
- mundietalk 4y ago[dead]
- maksimur 4y agoIt's weird how you phrased your comment, but I suppose it gives you a cult vibe as opposed to say Typora or Marktext, maybe because it's too distinct and kind of opinionated and used/promoted by people who could be seen as cult leaders?
- beermonster 4y agoI'll probably try out both Obsidian and LogSeq at some point. Do their use-cases overlap or are there different goals of each project?
- ajvs 4y agoDepends the style of notetaking you prefer - document or outliner. I prefer outliner because it allows me to slap everything all nicely organised into one massive file. Another big difference is open-source - Logseq is, Obsidian isn't.
- d33d33 4y agoi found my love in Trilium what has everything i need and if needed, i can still change the code by myself (AGPL) + files are stored as markdown documents (so i am still able to get into my notes, even if the repo would disappear). see https://github.com/zadam/trilium https://github.com/zadam/trilium TLDR; - future proof file format (markdown) - possible as local standalone + sync to simple cloud storage (like gdrive/dropbox/...) - gantt charting - uml diagramming - task management - available on github - active development in the last months and years - editable
- The_Colonel 4y agoSome corrections: > - future proof file format (markdown) Trilium has Markdown-like editing experience, but it stores the notes in HTML. Which is IMHO more future-proof than Markdown. > - possible as local standalone + sync to simple cloud storage (like gdrive/dropbox/...) Trilium stores data in an SQLite database, and sync tools like gdrive/dropbox don't know how to sync it and usually corrupt the database. To sync correctly, you need to have a server with trilium installed.
- alwillis 4y ago…but it stores the notes in HTML. Which is IMHO more future-proof than Markdown. No—Markdown is just plaintext, which by definition is the most future-proof format that exists. HTML is a structured markup language that has multiple versions and tags that come and go. And it’s dependent on a user agent (such as a browser or voice assistant) to render it into something a human can view or listen to. And while Markdown can be rendered, it’s not required to be human readable.
- The_Colonel 4y ago> No—Markdown is just plaintext, which by definition is the most future-proof format that exists. HTML is human-readable as well. I'm not sure if it's really a dealbreaker if you have to read <em>text</em> instead of em. Markdown's big problem is standardization. It does have a standard, but it doesn't seem widely implemented, and it's notably poor - not even basic features such as tables are standardized. That's kind of a big deal for being future-proof. Worse, Markdown documents do not even record the Markdown flavor they are using. You might say that it doesn't matter as it's still sort of readable even if you can't understand exact formatting detail. But again, so is HTML. In my view, the future-proofness which actually matters is the tool support - and you have a much higher chance that in 30 years tools will correctly support HTML than Markdown.
- _ewbb 4y agoMy note taking system is a single "donelist.txt" that sits in a GDrive/onedrive/xdrive on my machine. Entries are: 9.11.22 scrum working on stry1234 meeting X - do a thing lunch created PR for stry1234 meeting Y 8.11.22 scrum working on def4321 lunch created PR def4321 meeting Z meeting A ... This is good enough for me although I'm still figuring out how to plan ahead better. Maybe I should write down how I expect the week to go, goals and schedule, on Monday and update from there.
- flakeoil 4y agoThat's more or less what I did as well. But it got a bit messy at the end so I started to use EasyOrg [0] which gives some more structure so it is easier to search on and you also get a useful Agenda/Calendar view where you can plan future tasks and see old completed tasks. [0] https://easyorgmode.com https://easyorgmode.com
- deliriumchn 4y agoI honestly tried to love obsidian because of how easy it is to set up and how user friendly the UI is (plus there are tutorials and tons of articles), but I just can't get over it being offline and only means to sync are looking for a plugin that will use git/dropbox etc plus there are no mobile app anyways. Right now I found that notion is perfect for me. It does not have a mind mapping functionality but its very good, super easy to use (to the point it being intuitive) in all other areas AND I have perfect sync, mobile app and web app so I can use it on my work laptop, phone and personal PC without any problems But if you don't need that, obsidian is amazing
- zinfour 4y agoI don't know when you tried obsidian but it does have a mobile app and a (paid) sync/backup service.
- jsty 4y agoI'm slightly confused - Obsidian has mobile apps [0] and sync functionality is built in [1] [0] https://obsidian.md/mobile https://obsidian.md/mobile [1] https://obsidian.md/sync https://obsidian.md/sync
- crimsoneer 4y agoHonestly, it's worth paying for Obsidian sync. Sure, you can try and do some git/dropbox style combo, but Obsidian Sync is proper magical along with the mobile app.
- raesene9 4y agoFWIW I use Obsidian, and just a private GitHub account and git for syncing, it works well no costs, I just need to remember to use git :)
- pwillia7 4y agowebhook?
- 4y ago
- mnw21cam 4y agoAnd there I was all excited, expecting long-term preservation of writing by 3D-printing molten rock. I'm a strong believer that names of software packages should be chosen to be something that doesn't yet return any results from a Google search.
- mavci 4y agoI am very impressed in the detail that the picture in the article is also a screenshot in dark mode when I switch to dark mode. Well done.
- pasquinelli 4y agoand it's a very nice looking blog.
- JonChesterfield 4y agoBuried in this is a reference to https://help.obsidian.md/How+to/Link+to+blocks https://help.obsidian.md/How+to/Link+to+blocks Turns out a (carefully written) link in one document will render as the contents of some part of another document. Possibly more useful in this context is https://help.obsidian.md/How+to/Embed+files https://help.obsidian.md/How+to/Embed+files I've been trying literate programming in obsidian and that looks like a very direct solution to having source code in separate files, which all the tooling definitely prefers, which still renders inline from the main document. Does broadly work - the ```C ``` style block disables the embedding, so the markdown syntax to pretty print the code needs to be in the source file, not in the file that embeds it. Also the ^block_name syntax can't be on the same line as the closing ```.
- drakonka 4y agoI tried Obsidian on Windows early this year and found it to be quite slow and clunky, but it seems like everyone else loves it. Is it that the software has improved since earlier this year, or was it just a local issue all along?
- brimwats 4y agoI've never heard it described as slow, except in cases of purposefully stress teasing (vaults with 100,000+ notes). I've got nearly 10k and it works great on a 10yo laptop.
- Sakos 4y agoI think people are just tolerant. I've used it on an M1 MacBook and a Ryzen 2600 and I've been using it on and off for years. It always feels a bit slow and sluggish, and I still open sublimetext first out of habit because of how much more performant and fluid it feels.
- scambier 4y agoThey recently released 1.0 (with an announcement on HN too), which changed the interface to something more tabs-centric. It's not faster - it's still an electron app - but it definitely feels less clunky.
- ygouzerh 4y agoThat's a very good idea to write down what you did during the day, it saved me from a bad burnout. I was working on multiple projects in parallel, and got the feeling that I was doing nothing productive on my day, but was always stressed and tired. Writing down what you did during the day allows to see that you actually did a lot of things. I put even meeting and technical discussions with others, because it's still takes work time.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- happy2code 4y agoI’m using `vimwiki` for years and love it. I also tried Obsidian but I need it also mobile and I cannot define a storage path for my files. I just like the freedom, minimalism and flexibility of vimwiki.
- codethief 4y ago> I cannot define a storage path for my files I agree that this is very annoying but couldn't you still configure e.g. Syncthing (or FolderSync) to sync things correctly?
- sva_ 4y agoThere's a community plugin called "Remotely Save"[0], which allows you to sync your data on s3-like services. I use this with Backlaze's 10gb free plan. It took a minute to set up but runs without any issues for me. [0] https://github.com/remotely-save/remotely-save https://github.com/remotely-save/remotely-save
- JonChesterfield 4y agoAndroid's client lets you specify the location of the vault, in which all files/folders are placed.
- petepete 4y agoI tried vimwiki for a while but I found I used a tiny subset of its functionality and couldn't get it to respect my choice of syntax highlighting for markdown. It set me off in the right direction though. The fact that it's _just_ a directory full of markdown files allowed me to easily migrate to my own home-grown setup that reimplements the three keybindings I actually used. https://github.com/peteryates/dotfiles/blob/master/nvim/.config/nvim/lua/wiki.lua https://github.com/peteryates/dotfiles/blob/master/nvim/.con...
- hoseja 4y agoThis would be interesting if it was about chiseling a volcanic glass, not another note-taking app.
- stavros 4y agoI had the same problem, but needed something quicker, so I made a small CLI utility: https://pypi.org/project/dia/ https://pypi.org/project/dia/
- fefe23 4y agoOh it's just an ad for some app. Here I thought he was actually writing things in actual Obsidian. That would have been actually interesting.
- whoibrar 4y agoThis is just someone sharing their workflow. What makes you think this is an actual ad ?
- fefe23 4y agoSeriously? Where do I even start! | Assumed Audience: People who are interested in working effectively Do you have this problem? Cue late-night "infomercial" video of women having back pain and unable to reach can of tuna high in the cupboard. Then you need our miracle cure! | Then I had a flash of inspiration: now that I’m using Obsidian, I never have to do this again. Oh look, it solves all the problems! But wait there's more! Not only does it solve the problems, it completely changes the calculus! | Obsidian’s block embeds change that calculus entirely. That's incredible, Bob! I will call the phone number next to my country's flag immediately!!
- JonChesterfield 4y agoDoesn't make them wrong though.
- fefe23 4y agoI didn't say it was wrong. I said I wasn't interested.
- UI_at_80x24 4y agoGeneral question for the Obsidian gurus in the audience. Is there anyway to use tab-key mid-line? I do not want to indent the start of my line, and I'd be happy to have tab-character auto-convert to spaces, but I cannot use this tool unless I have a way to tab. I seem to use tab to make columns of lists, usually two or three columns worth. A decent analogy would be like the hosts file, or CRON. 2+ vertically aligned columns of lists. I understand that <TAB> doesn't exist in markdown, but vim is able to convert tab-characters to spaces, is there any kind of plugin that allows this functionality?
- axelf4 4y agoThat just sounds like a table but with extra steps?
- UI_at_80x24 4y agoAre you saying that there is functionality called a `table` that I could use to give me similar results? I don't need/want a fancy grid, I just make multi-columned lists a lot. Another similar use-case: recipes! 1cup flour extra fine/sifted 1tsp vanilla extract is fine 1/4cup something else more cooking words It's not a lot steps, but if there's a table function I could look into without creating a grid, I could probably use that.
- Macha 4y agoThere are plugins like improved tables ( https://github.com/tgrosinger/advanced-tables-obsidian https://github.com/tgrosinger/advanced-tables-obsidian ) which make markdown tables quicker to write up.
- JackMorgan 4y agoI use a table plugin for both phone and desktop. It's a little finicky on the phone, but doable.
- beezlewax 4y agoHow do you guys handle images in Obsidian? I can't zoom or see detail on large screen shots for example. Pretty new to the application so maybe I'm missing something
- Mandelmus 4y agoI have yet to find a way to use Obsidian with images (sketches, diagrams) as easily as I would like. If there was a way to combine Obsidian's keyboard-based note-taking features (including LaTeX equations) with graphics and diagrams drawn in an app like GoodNotes 5 for iPad, that would be fantastic.
- wilsongoode 4y agoHave you tried the Excalidraw plugin?
- krimpenrik 4y agoLike mentioned, the excalidraw plugin is a game changer
- gilrain 4y agoMedia management is entirely manual and very bare bones, unfortunately.
- BlameKaneda 4y agoYou can do: ![[Pasted image 20221028163039.png|500]] If you want to adjust the width and height, then you can do this: ![[Pasted image 20221028163039.png|500x700]]
- belmat 4y agoI use a plugin called Image Toolkit [0]. When you click on an image it opens an overlay that lets you zoom and do some light editing. I started including images in my notes inline, scaled down to about 50px (so they are still roughly recognizable), and clicking on them when I want to see them in detail. [0] obsidian://show-plugin?id=obsidian-image-toolkit
- tuan3w 4y agoI published my Obsidian vault template in Github more than 1 year ago [1]. It has some templates and tips that I use regularly now. It may help others. [1] https://github.com/tuan3w/obsidian-template https://github.com/tuan3w/obsidian-template
- examplary_cable 4y agoIf anyone is interested in. I'm working on a "emacs-like" system that you can also use to take notes in, but it's more line a Outliner(like Roam Research) + Brownser. It's still in development. https://github.com/ilse-langnar/notebook https://github.com/ilse-langnar/notebook
- srcreigh 4y agoNice. I see there's a little piano on there, is that part of the app? One of my projects is always itching to become its own livecoding platform too.. Are there any specific use cases you're working on right now? BTW, I'm seeing blank page when I run the demo linked from the README. Chrome on Windows.
- prithsr 4y agoI know this thread seems to be Obsidian specific, but wanted to share: I've been writing down every detail of my day since January 2021 on Diarly. I pay $15 a year to have it sync across iCloud devices. I have two "journals" - one for personal, and one for work. From thoughts, to encounters during the day, to what food I ate, I write everything. It has dramatically improved my day-to-day. I've had trouble remembering my whole life, and now I can just look back and find the exact date where I did something (the search feature is pretty spot on). It's even improved my retention skills - e.g. "i don't remember what day this happened, but I am positive xyz happened because I remember writing about it". Strongly strongly recommend it to all.
- kar5pt 4y agoAre you concerned with the privacy implications of uploading every detail of your life to a cloud server?
- buzzy_hacker 4y agoDo you do this at the end of the day or throughout the day?
- tarentel 4y agoNot the op but I keep a record of my work day. I try to do it as it happens but 50% of the time things come up so I'll usually spend some time before signing off to try to capture everything.
- pkoird 4y agoThe major thing that people overlook in note-taking is "habit". Doesn't matter if you use Notepad, Obsidian or just plain pen&paper, the single most thing that matters is that you do it consistently. And like you said, consistent note-taking is a great cognitive exercise and has long term benefits.
- runevault 4y agoI'd say it depends a lot on why. Tools like Obsidian/Notion/etc making it easier to crosslink things has value depending on how you use it. But a taken note is still better than no note even if just for the mental exercise I agree.
- agentwiggles 4y agoI have just started using Obsidian this last week or two in the hopes of eventually migrating away from Notion. There are some things I miss though, like to-do lists. I've also found that code blocks are a little unreliable about whether they render pretty or just stay markdown. I like the idea of getting all my stuff local, but there are going to be a few things about Notion that keep me there for a while. Also, (and this is slightly tangential since this doesn't exist for Notion) - I would _love_ a nice way to be able to write guitar tablature in my notes. If some kind of plugin exists for that it would be awesome.
- chriskrycho 4y agoTo-do lists work a bit differently; they're just Markdown tasks: - [ ] do something - [x] did something However, there are a number of neat plugins which can integrate those into anything from simple views of all open to-do items to full-up Kanban boards. Additionally, the Minimal theme lets you do Bullet Journal-style variations on that: - [/] partially did something - [<] scheduled something - [>] punted something to the next day/etc.
- xerox13ster 4y agoStart and end your code blocks with the ticks on their own line.
- craneoscopia 4y agoI finally settled into: - text files (edited with vim using vimwiki format ie. adding ``` %% vim: set ft=vimwiki ``` to the file - syncthing (@ mobile, desktop and server) - Markor (@ mobile)
- Aperocky 4y agoFor the unix fundamentalist out here: https://github.com/Aperocky/diaryman/blob/master/diaryman.sh https://github.com/Aperocky/diaryman/blob/master/diaryman.sh I had this little script aliased from shell, whenever I type `diary` it creates/open the current days' note file in vim.
- _bramses 4y ago> Update the link to the weekly note. (I can definitely use a templating plugin to make this happen automatically, but haven’t spent the time on that yet.) Here ya go! (Requires Templater plug-in) ``` Week: [[<% tp.date.now('yyyy') %>-W<% tp.date.now('ww') %>]] ```
- chriskrycho 4y agoHEYO the internet did my work for me! Thanks!
- tarr11 4y agoI’d really like to understand how people managers who work on teams / corporate environments use Obsidian. I find that most of my work meetings are shared docs. It often feels like double work to put some things in Obsidian and move them around. I also don’t use Obsidian as a task list - I use Todoist which is totally fine for that.
- ytechie 4y agoI haven't updated it recently, but this should give you a starting point: https://github.com/ytechie/obsidian-sample https://github.com/ytechie/obsidian-sample There are some challenges with duplication, and I either keep my own version (focused on what I need to know about it), or I just have a link to the other system.
- brightball 4y agoI hadn't seen the block embeds feature. I'm going to have to add this to my workflow. I typically keep a daily note and then if any one section gets large, move it to it's own note and link it in my daily. The blocks would be a great addition though.
- eddof13 4y agoI use obsidian because apple notes lost all my notes amazingly when syncing between two computers and my phone- and my hope is that the markdown file method that obsidian uses in iCloud will be more resilient. That said I'd rather have something that versions my notes files
- darreld 4y agoI'd love to try something like this but my problem is that I routinely use 3 different computers throughout the day(Windows, Mac and Linux. Could this be used with git to keep things sync'd?
- mikhailt 4y agoSame here, I need something that's encrypted and cross-platform. Plus a decent price for cloud sync with storage a separate fee if possible.
- NickBusey 4y agoMuch of what the author does manually can be automated even further. For example, the whole "Working with Embeds" section could be replaced with a DataView query. I use DataView extensively to great effect. For example, every "Project" note uses the same template, which includes a #Project tag and a Status:: value containing a red, yellow, or green square emoji. Then a simple query like: ```dataview TABLE Status FROM #Projects SORT file.mtime ASC ``` Gives you a very nice looking, automatically sorted and up to date Project status table.