4 ms·

Not a dig at Obsidian or Karpathy here, but I have a controversial opinion about productivity apps (particularly pickiness over note taking apps/systems). The

Not a dig at Obsidian or Karpathy here, but I have a controversial opinion about productivity apps (particularly pickiness over note taking apps/systems). The worst, least effective guys I've ever worked for were the loudest "productivity method / app / system" hardos I've worked with/for in 20 years. I don't know which direction the causation goes 1) guys who know they are ineffective search out an app that will magically solve it or 2) obsession with method/app causes some amount of the ineffectiveness? Obsidian had the misfortune of coming highly recommended by most of these guys. I assume there are far more effective people quietly using the app who represent 90% of the user base. All this is to say, don't go too far down the rabbit hole with any of this stuff.

testfrequency 3y ago
I felt this one. The #productivity and #obsidian channels on company work slacks have always been the same people who other people joke (behind their back of course) about as nobody understands how the hell they have so much free time to talk about productivity all day. It’s always this group of bunch of vocal, combative, and narcissistic chatters who seem to round the bunch up. Personally? I just want to get work done and not really talk about getting work done while at work. I’ll save my mindnode tree for deciding how I want to build my backyard shed.
- steveBK123 3y ago
  A prior shop had a CTO like this. That shop is soon to outsource their entire tech org after years of poor delivery. Not saying there's causation. But not saying there's not..
j45 3y ago
Conversely, writing a basic intro to the many is something the author seems to do regularly. In this case, obsidian/logseq/etc can increase working capacity or just be another series of rabbit holes. Tools don’t make anything happen without use, those who improve their use of tooling as they produce often unlock advantages that elude others. If the people quietly using it well explained what worked for them, maybe it would provide balance to the noise. Comments like this don’t tend to constructively move anything forward. And that might work for some as a different form of noise instead of sharing what works for you.
Ezhik 3y ago
I jumped into Obsidian without looking at all those fancy systems people do and it's been great so far. I just focus on writing and linking notes and only ever customize and install plugins if there's something I really need but can't do out of the box. I greatly admire fancy note taking systems, but I just can't seem to stick to them, so I just try to write my silly little notes without thinking too much about organizing them.
- steveBK123 3y ago
  Yes, I think any tool that works for an individual is the right tool. I find the people that get the most obsessed with complex note taking systems are the same that will spend half of sprint meetings arguing about the nuance of hierarchical organization in Jira of initiative/milestone/epic/story/task rather than the actual details of the features/software we are delivering to users.
flir 3y ago
Could be ADHD traits, to be honest. (Just a suggestion. I know I'm always looking for a silver productivity bullet).
- steveBK123 3y ago
  This is a pretty good description from my observation. High overlap with Inbox Zero fans.
wduquette 3y ago
I went down the GTD/Zettelkasten rathole some years ago, and discovered Obsidian during that time. I subsequently determined that GTD and Zettelkasten are solutions to problems I don’t have…but I’m still using Obsidian, and for all sorts of things. It isn’t a magic bullet, but it’s become essential to many, many things I do: Study notes I’ll want to return to. Development notes for a current application. Background notes for a work of fiction I’ve been writing. Etc., etc., etc. The key to it is that (A) the files are mine; (B) I can easily link them together in ways that make sense to me; and (C) they are readable. Obsidian ties it all together and makes working with my notes a breeze; and when Obsidian fades away my files are still there. Been a programmer since the 80’s. I’ve seen a lot of applications come and go, leaving unreadable files behind. Not going to do that any more.

testfrequency 3y ago

I felt this one. The #productivity and #obsidian channels on company work slacks have always been the same people who other people joke (behind their back of course) about as nobody understands how the hell they have so much free time to talk about productivity all day. It’s always this group of bunch of vocal, combative, and narcissistic chatters who seem to round the bunch up. Personally? I just want to get work done and not really talk about getting work done while at work. I’ll save my mindnode tree for deciding how I want to build my backyard shed.

steveBK123 3y ago
A prior shop had a CTO like this. That shop is soon to outsource their entire tech org after years of poor delivery. Not saying there's causation. But not saying there's not..

j45 3y ago

Conversely, writing a basic intro to the many is something the author seems to do regularly. In this case, obsidian/logseq/etc can increase working capacity or just be another series of rabbit holes. Tools don’t make anything happen without use, those who improve their use of tooling as they produce often unlock advantages that elude others. If the people quietly using it well explained what worked for them, maybe it would provide balance to the noise. Comments like this don’t tend to constructively move anything forward. And that might work for some as a different form of noise instead of sharing what works for you.

Ezhik 3y ago

I jumped into Obsidian without looking at all those fancy systems people do and it's been great so far. I just focus on writing and linking notes and only ever customize and install plugins if there's something I really need but can't do out of the box. I greatly admire fancy note taking systems, but I just can't seem to stick to them, so I just try to write my silly little notes without thinking too much about organizing them.

steveBK123 3y ago
Yes, I think any tool that works for an individual is the right tool. I find the people that get the most obsessed with complex note taking systems are the same that will spend half of sprint meetings arguing about the nuance of hierarchical organization in Jira of initiative/milestone/epic/story/task rather than the actual details of the features/software we are delivering to users.

flir 3y ago

Could be ADHD traits, to be honest. (Just a suggestion. I know I'm always looking for a silver productivity bullet).

steveBK123 3y ago
This is a pretty good description from my observation. High overlap with Inbox Zero fans.

wduquette 3y ago

I went down the GTD/Zettelkasten rathole some years ago, and discovered Obsidian during that time. I subsequently determined that GTD and Zettelkasten are solutions to problems I don’t have…but I’m still using Obsidian, and for all sorts of things. It isn’t a magic bullet, but it’s become essential to many, many things I do: Study notes I’ll want to return to. Development notes for a current application. Background notes for a work of fiction I’ve been writing. Etc., etc., etc. The key to it is that (A) the files are mine; (B) I can easily link them together in ways that make sense to me; and (C) they are readable. Obsidian ties it all together and makes working with my notes a breeze; and when Obsidian fades away my files are still there. Been a programmer since the 80’s. I’ve seen a lot of applications come and go, leaving unreadable files behind. Not going to do that any more.