The aura of complexity/difficulty around Obsidian seriously baffles me, because to me Obsidian from the go felt like the most intuitive thing in the world: Create a note. Write some lines of text. Organize some of those lines into - bulletpoints, # Headings, or ## Subheadings. Turn an some idea into a [[note of its own]]. Add a #tag for better organization. Check out your notes in the list of your notes or directly in the vault folder. And people sell courses for this??? Like I know you can add plugins, tweak css to your liking, and basically turn obsidian into an all-encompassing monstrosity to match your particular software kink, but the 80/20 of it all is really pretty basic to anybody who has ever used a personal computer.
torben-friis 33 minutes ago [-]
There is a subset of people that spend time developing complex setups as a hobby. It's the adult equivalent of the student who had school notes in perfect handwriting with 7 different colors and underlines.
Nothing against it, you just need the warning early on to avoid the timesink if you want things done and follow the wrong guide.
jdgoesmarching 4 minutes ago [-]
It really baffles me that a forum full of people who casually deep dive into all corners of tech regardless of its “usefulness” can’t understand people might want to do the same with their personal notetaking or organization.
jonahx 23 minutes ago [-]
> There is a subset of people that spend time developing complex setups as a hobby. It's the adult equivalent of the student who had school notes in perfect handwriting with 7 different colors and underlines.
This is a perfect analogy.
phil-martin 51 minutes ago [-]
It’s interesting eh, it’s a wonderfully straightforward tool to use, but it’s scary.
My theory is that those courses aren’t selling you on how to use obsidian, but are instead selling “how do I organise knowledge and information. Oh btw we’re using obsidian”
They aren’t marketed like that, but I think that is what they’re really doing
It’s like taking a course of office organisation. I mean filing cabinets are easy right, it’s just putting labels on folders and putting them places.
Except I would absolutely be terrible at that job and would pay nearly anything to be good at it.
forrestthewoods 16 minutes ago [-]
> Add a #tag for better organization.
Honestly, you kind of lose me here. I want to spend exactly zero time organizing things like tags. Literally zero.
well_ackshually 8 minutes ago [-]
Then don't. Obsidian's search is plenty good enough to find that note after.
Obsidian is the simplest thing in the world. Write text.
hgoel 4 minutes ago [-]
I recently setup Obsidian thinking of it as an easy note taking system with self-hosted sync that Claude can read from.
I'm still building the habit for using it instead of scattering notes in text documents or self-DMs on various platforms, but during setup, the complexity was concerning, since I associate complexity in this kind of system with fragility. For now I am still in the exploring phase, so not ruling it out yet.
It does most of what Obsidian does but has a free sync version where you just use your cloud drive as the storage.
The main thing missing, from what I've found, is that it does do the "notes mind map". But I never really found that useful.
Onawa 6 minutes ago [-]
Isn't it also missing nested folders? I tried Joplin, but no nested folders was a huge disappointment for me.
nout 54 minutes ago [-]
My suggestions to new users are: Start small, just create notes for whatever you want to (actually) remember and create impromptu TODO lists. Ignore the whole Knowledge Database / second brain thing. Learn the obsidian keyboard shortcuts really well. You can build a structure in your notes later when you actually see what's good and what needs automation.
lschueller 2 minutes ago [-]
I first struggled with it, gave it another try couple of years later and now using it on a daily basis as a key work tool to organize my knowledge, like code snippets, documentation, roadmaps...
For me, the 2 most powerful aspects are:
- as mentioned in the article, there is no pricing plan, no limits, no enshittification or feature creep... Fully usable from now to eternity
- md format! So damn easy to export it to a proper pdf file, to copy it into a html page converter etc.
skeeter2020 12 minutes ago [-]
I've used Flatnotes for about a year or so and if all you want is to write notes in markdown and search them it doesn't get much simpler. It has tags and decent search, but other than that nothing. Easy to sync or backup though with a single folder of text files.
I've tried obsidian so many times and want to love it but the sync situation - either the expensive official one, the approved options for mixed iOS/Windows clients (icloud) and third party tools like obsidain-livesync - were all way too issue-prone for me to ever trust it. I hope they figure this out
tylerrobinson 53 minutes ago [-]
At $4 per month, I don’t consider it expensive at all to have this whole category of problem solved for me. Mobile app, desktop, laptop synced flawlessly and quickly.
simlevesque 40 minutes ago [-]
I recommend using syncthing. It's very easy to self host but I actually use a SaaS for it: syncding.com. It gets me 100gb to 1tb of disk in which I can create folders and keep them synced with my 2 laptops, my phone, my server etc... I have an Obsidian vault with Meld Encrypt to encrypt some files, a keepassxc file I share across my devices and my todo.txt
It's simple to setup and will work forever instead of paying for different providers that might shut down or increase their prices.
torben-friis 36 minutes ago [-]
I know it's probably no help on iOS, but for people on android or no mobile requirement, just push and pull to a git repo. You can probably even set up a cron or something to sync regularly.
tombert 58 minutes ago [-]
I mostly use Obsidian for my blog nowadays (using Quartz and Cloudflare Pages). For that it's actually pretty great. It's super easy to write links to your own posts that automatically update, it's easy ensure that your attachments are handled correctly, it's easy to have whatever layout you want.
I liked the notes stuff, but I found I was spending more time with the bureaucracy of it instead of actually doing work, so I've kind of stopped using it.
chaosprint 37 minutes ago [-]
I really like Obsidian, but its features are still too much for me. Are there any aesthetically pleasing, faster alternatives that simply render Markdown and LaTeX? It would be even better if it also supported mixed inputs like Obsidian.
fer 18 minutes ago [-]
Logseq, it's geared to daily notes and visualizing everything in a graph, and support KaTeX. It also supports org-mode. If it fits your workflow I'd recommend it. Personally I feel like Obsidian does too many things and none too well.
dbvn 1 hours ago [-]
Daily Notes feature is a lifesaver. Just throw things in there throughout the day. Never lose anything
operatingthetan 1 hours ago [-]
The only thing I use openclaw for is managing my obsidian vault. The flow is a series of crons that prompt me to fill out daily files and update projects as they progress. I also use it for calorie tracking and basic daily journaling. This is simple, secure, and very cheap 'life coaching.'
kelvinjps10 1 hours ago [-]
for my obsidian is just my mobile markdown editor I just haven't been able find a better one, for desktop I use neovim and telekasten
NicuCalcea 1 hours ago [-]
It's the opposite for me, I use Obsidian on desktop but hate it on mobile, so I use Markor there.
tech_ken 2 hours ago [-]
> Don’t fall for FOMO marketing or feel anxious. Keep it simple. Obsidian should help you work on other things.
Great advice, I tried to get into Obsidian a few weeks ago and could immediately feel myself getting pulled into the "Workflow Optimization Spiral". I love nothing more than fruitlessly tooling with workflow stuff, in place of actually, you know, working. I kind of just decided to set it aside, rather than parse through exactly which parts would be actually helpful for stuff I needed that day. Really appreciate this blog post to help me revisit the app from a more practical starting place.
kccqzy 1 hours ago [-]
The first time I got into Emacs and vim I also spent way too much time on the editor customization spiral. Then in 2015 I just picked and settled on Spacemacs while strictly limiting how much time I spend on customizing my editor. I’ve had three jobs since then and I brought basically the same editor config to all three jobs.
__rito__ 38 minutes ago [-]
I have been using Obsidian for 3-4 years, and I will keep using it. I really love it.
I have 0 community plugins. I use it for writing articles that becomes .qmd file for my quarto blog, I make lists, I track progress, and I have a standing file called scrip.md where I write tables, LaTeX equations, and screenshot and share them.
I have some folders, and I link some files. That's it. It has first class Linux desktop and Android experience, and that's all I want. No web browser, no internet dependence, no black box data processing, and complete freedom. If it is ever bought by potential enshittifiers, I just stop using it!
I don't use many Obsidian-only features to not be dependent on the benevolence of the creators.
echelon 1 hours ago [-]
Three asks for Obsidian to make it my #1 tool (and I mean #1 tool):
- First-class multi-vault support. It's difficult to keep personal / business / team separate. I want to keep shared notes for my team, but it's really hard.
- First-class git support. The git plugin is dangerous and will overwrite changes from other devices. The mobile git plugin (which requires hacks to even use) is deadly bad with blowing away your entire git history. Do not use. Obsidian sync is cool and good and all, but I want git. And the existing git isn't just bad, it's deleterious.
- Spreadsheets. Literally just free-form tabular data would work too. Their "bases" thing isn't it. I just need to be able to sort data and keep it versioned. Google Sheets is a huge daily use product - if I had the same function in Obsidian, Gsuite would be dead to me.
greymalik 1 hours ago [-]
> It's difficult to keep personal / business / team separate
I have one vault for personal, one for work. I open each one in a different window. They are both separate and easy to switch between.
raincole 1 hours ago [-]
For me, it's a Wolfram Engine plugin. My notes now scatter between Obsidian vault and Wolfram notebooks. It would be nice if I can unify them.
But I understand that my use case is niche and I certainly don't want the Obsidian officially bloats itself into such feature creating.
datadrivenangel 54 minutes ago [-]
What stops you from running git at the root level and doing a "git commit --all "notes" & git push" command?
ubermonkey 1 hours ago [-]
I have tried many times to migrate to Obsidian and DataView from OrgMode, but I just can't get there.
Obsidian is appealing because it's available on iOS, but the whole approach ended up (for me) being more fiddly and less effective (again for me) than orgmode.
OTOH & to be fair, I've been using Org for a really long time.
on_the_train 2 hours ago [-]
I'm just so bummed that multiple vaults are pretty much unusable. I can't sync my sensitive work notes. But I want to sync general programming notes between work and other PCs. But multiple vaults hardly work. The just open in a new window.
Other than that, I love so many things about the program. Just linking and graphs are weird and strangely overrated. Search and tags still rules over everything imo
joemi 1 hours ago [-]
I think separate vaults being in different window is probably intentional behavior to clearly show that they're separate vaults, not something that needs to be fixed.
If you want to sync only some of the things from a single vault and not other things, can't you just use different top-level folders? Have a "to-sync" folder and a "do-not-sync" folder, and only sync the to-sync one. I'm not sure if that's possible using Obsidian's paid sync, but it should be possible with other sync options.
kepano 1 hours ago [-]
What do you mean by "multiple vaults hardly work"?
If it helps Obsidian has a newish command called "Change vault..." that switches vaults without opening a new window.
fnordlord 1 hours ago [-]
The Raycast Obsidian plugin makes vaults pretty easy for me. Cmd+Space > "Open Vault" and then pick which one you want.
You'll still have a window per vault but it makes it really fast to get to where you want.
Rendered at 22:02:53 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time) with Vercel.
Nothing against it, you just need the warning early on to avoid the timesink if you want things done and follow the wrong guide.
This is a perfect analogy.
My theory is that those courses aren’t selling you on how to use obsidian, but are instead selling “how do I organise knowledge and information. Oh btw we’re using obsidian”
They aren’t marketed like that, but I think that is what they’re really doing
It’s like taking a course of office organisation. I mean filing cabinets are easy right, it’s just putting labels on folders and putting them places.
Except I would absolutely be terrible at that job and would pay nearly anything to be good at it.
Honestly, you kind of lose me here. I want to spend exactly zero time organizing things like tags. Literally zero.
Obsidian is the simplest thing in the world. Write text.
I'm still building the habit for using it instead of scattering notes in text documents or self-DMs on various platforms, but during setup, the complexity was concerning, since I associate complexity in this kind of system with fragility. For now I am still in the exploring phase, so not ruling it out yet.
It does most of what Obsidian does but has a free sync version where you just use your cloud drive as the storage.
The main thing missing, from what I've found, is that it does do the "notes mind map". But I never really found that useful.
For me, the 2 most powerful aspects are: - as mentioned in the article, there is no pricing plan, no limits, no enshittification or feature creep... Fully usable from now to eternity
- md format! So damn easy to export it to a proper pdf file, to copy it into a html page converter etc.
https://github.com/Dullage/flatnotes
It's simple to setup and will work forever instead of paying for different providers that might shut down or increase their prices.
I liked the notes stuff, but I found I was spending more time with the bureaucracy of it instead of actually doing work, so I've kind of stopped using it.
Great advice, I tried to get into Obsidian a few weeks ago and could immediately feel myself getting pulled into the "Workflow Optimization Spiral". I love nothing more than fruitlessly tooling with workflow stuff, in place of actually, you know, working. I kind of just decided to set it aside, rather than parse through exactly which parts would be actually helpful for stuff I needed that day. Really appreciate this blog post to help me revisit the app from a more practical starting place.
I have 0 community plugins. I use it for writing articles that becomes .qmd file for my quarto blog, I make lists, I track progress, and I have a standing file called scrip.md where I write tables, LaTeX equations, and screenshot and share them.
I have some folders, and I link some files. That's it. It has first class Linux desktop and Android experience, and that's all I want. No web browser, no internet dependence, no black box data processing, and complete freedom. If it is ever bought by potential enshittifiers, I just stop using it!
I don't use many Obsidian-only features to not be dependent on the benevolence of the creators.
- First-class multi-vault support. It's difficult to keep personal / business / team separate. I want to keep shared notes for my team, but it's really hard.
- First-class git support. The git plugin is dangerous and will overwrite changes from other devices. The mobile git plugin (which requires hacks to even use) is deadly bad with blowing away your entire git history. Do not use. Obsidian sync is cool and good and all, but I want git. And the existing git isn't just bad, it's deleterious.
- Spreadsheets. Literally just free-form tabular data would work too. Their "bases" thing isn't it. I just need to be able to sort data and keep it versioned. Google Sheets is a huge daily use product - if I had the same function in Obsidian, Gsuite would be dead to me.
I have one vault for personal, one for work. I open each one in a different window. They are both separate and easy to switch between.
But I understand that my use case is niche and I certainly don't want the Obsidian officially bloats itself into such feature creating.
Obsidian is appealing because it's available on iOS, but the whole approach ended up (for me) being more fiddly and less effective (again for me) than orgmode.
OTOH & to be fair, I've been using Org for a really long time.
Other than that, I love so many things about the program. Just linking and graphs are weird and strangely overrated. Search and tags still rules over everything imo
If you want to sync only some of the things from a single vault and not other things, can't you just use different top-level folders? Have a "to-sync" folder and a "do-not-sync" folder, and only sync the to-sync one. I'm not sure if that's possible using Obsidian's paid sync, but it should be possible with other sync options.
If it helps Obsidian has a newish command called "Change vault..." that switches vaults without opening a new window.