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I 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

I 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 ago
I 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 ago
I 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 ago
  That 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 ago
  Where / 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 ago
same 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 ago
  All 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 ago
    interesting. Thanks for sharing. I should probably give it a try and "let go" some control over the structure.
    - oxff 4y ago
      The 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 ago
        I'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 ago
I 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 ago
  My problem with folders is that I always find having just one path annoying. Don't have this problem with hyperlinks.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]

oxff 4y ago

I 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 ago

I 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 ago
That 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 ago
Where / 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 ago

same 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 ago
All 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 ago
  interesting. Thanks for sharing. I should probably give it a try and "let go" some control over the structure.
  - oxff 4y ago
    The 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 ago
      I'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 ago

I 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 ago
My problem with folders is that I always find having just one path annoying. Don't have this problem with hyperlinks.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]