5 ms·
This 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 memorizi
by oxff 4y ago
This 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.
- leogout 4y agoThat is very true to me as well, in my head things are organized in a hierarchy of concepts. The nice thing about tags is that it allows you to store a note below multiple tags like in my case a note about something I did with Python at work, tagged with #work, #work/project_name but also with #python. I use a plugin called Tag Wrangler to show my tags as a tree like folders (it interprets the "/" as a parent directory). This allows me to keep a note below multiple tags which I think is useful, at least for my own usecase.
- oxff 4y agoWhere / how do you save a HN shitpost that is definitely not worthy to be part of the atomic note of `Kubernetes.md`, but is still relevant / insightful and related to it? I would add it to either quotes.md or the daily note with #kubernetes tag.
- edelans 4y agosame here. I've been using obsidian for more than a year now, and my notes are highly categorized in a structured hierarchy. But I regularly feel this is not optimal (sometime a note could fall into 2 different branches of my hierarchy), and I can feel the friction it creates when I want to add a note but I first have to think where to put it. So for people not leveraging folders, do you just create all the notes in the same folder ? (resulting on a folder with thousands of notes ? and then what's your process to add a new note ? do a search, see if there currently is a relevant note to ammend, if not create a new one ?
- oxff 4y agoAll of mine are in same folder, and I use search or linked / unlinked panels for finding / creating links. Thousands of notes in same folder doesnt really matter if you use the Obs. provided tools to navigate it.
- edelans 4y agointeresting. Thanks for sharing. I should probably give it a try and "let go" some control over the structure.
- oxff 4y agoThe structure is there, it's just not in the file / folder layout, but in the wikilinks and whatever else Obsidian can uncover (ie. unlinked mentions, orphaned file output). I guess I learned how my own learning and memorizing works, and managed to match it better with how Obsidian works, and now I don't have to think about silly file / folder structure anymore. Your experience maybe different.
- edelans 4y agoI'm very curious about this way of using obsidian (which sounds like the original "second brain" promise). I would love to connect in private to konw more. I don't see your address in your profile but you reach me at my hn user name with Gmail.
- mellavora 4y agoI prefer folders. Memory, on a biological level, is tied very strongly to place or paths. Not just in humans, not just in mammals. My folder hierarchy gives me a path that lets me find things. I remember where I put them, I remember where to find them. If I need to search, fd and rg at a high level of the folder tree is a godsend. Tags mean it is just floating in some cloud somewhere, locationless. There can be friction if something could go into multiple categories, and one will always need a wildcard category, but these can be managed. The Johnny Decimal system https://johnnydecimal.com/ https://johnnydecimal.com/ can be a nice structured approach. Creator is here on HN somewhere; that's where I learned about it.
- emptyparadise 4y agoMy problem with folders is that I always find having just one path annoying. Don't have this problem with hyperlinks.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- Sakos 4y agoArticles like this are useful to see what's possible. You don't have to copy his workflow 1:1, you can take ideas from many places and design a workflow that works for you. Guaranteed the author didn't start "structure first". It's something that developed into its current form over a long time of experimenting and refinement.