
Using Obsidian to manage goals, tasks, notes, and software dev knowledge base - sharjeelsayed
https://joshwin.imprint.to/post/how-i-use-obsidian-to-manage-my-goals-tasks-notes-and-software-development-knowledge-base
======
gorgoiler
After having used Bear, Notable, and Atom + plugins, I’m realizing I don’t
really want an app to manage my notes. I just want the notes, plus a tool to
traverse them that’s got a bit more beef to it than Finder.app.

I’d like to use a more powerful app like the one promoted here, but I feel
desperately uncomfortable tying my notes [in] to a piece of _proprietary
software_. I feel like that was a mistake I made already, and don’t want to
repeat.

It’s almost like Obsidian et al are highly featureful filesystem browsers, but
where the only files one can have are markdown files.

What about if I want to style a real PDF in Asciidoc? It’s really common for a
note to evolve into a document. An idea becomes a lesson plan for a class,
which morphs into a handout with tables, admonitions etc.

What about if I want to represent some idea with a quick spreadsheet? Or a
sketchup? It would be fantastic if those were somehow all represented as first
class documents in the filesystem, as markdown is inside the current wave of
proprietary markdown editors.

~~~
travbrack
I'm using VS code and the markdown preview plugin, with a private repo on
github. Works pretty good and would support other filetypes besides MD.

~~~
cstuder
I am doing the same thing, additionally I have a cron job running which auto-
commits every 5 minutes.

For mobile viewing I use the app GitJournal.

[https://gitjournal.io/](https://gitjournal.io/)

~~~
MiroF
> GitJournal

Thanks for this

\--a fellow git + markdown + cron note-taker

~~~
vhanda
Hi. I'm the author, please feel free to contact me if you have any issues
and/or feature requests.

------
wittyreference
I was initially skeptical of Obsidian, but...

(1) It’s not proprietary - it’s a browser +/\- IDE for markdown files. I point
it at the folder in my Dropbox directory where I already keep all my md files.
It’s a new front-end, but doesn’t lock me into anything.

(2) As an extension of 1, I can continue using NotePlan as my calendar/todo on
my phone (which builds everything into md files), and Kiwi to access all of
the above on my phone as a personal wiki.

(2) was already my workflow and knowledge base; Obsidian just made for a nicer
editing/browsing tool on PC.

The key is that, as what is essentially a wiki, both the files/notes _and
their interrelationships_ are conserved/non-proprietary, regardless of what
happens to the chosen software in the future. No lock-in for any part of my
calendar, workflow, or knowledge base, and all three can point to one another
because it’s all just md in the same folder.

~~~
MiroF
> (1) It’s not proprietary

I would call requiring a paid commercial license if you plan on doing
commercial use "proprietary." That was the deal breaker for me, as I'm more
than happy to continue using Foam until a free Obsidian-like client comes
along.

~~~
wittyreference
I meant to convey it's not a proprietary format - no lock-in of my data.

------
slifin
I think what most people don't see coming is that Wilker Lúcio was hired by
Roam Research he is the author of Pathom and gave this talk recently:

\-
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IS3i3DTUnAI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IS3i3DTUnAI)

It's about connecting many graphs together, the killer app in this space is to
figure out how to connect these graphs together such that teams and
communities can grow connections on a massive scale

There will be many challenges in doing that particularly around selection, per
edge permissions likely leveraging Clojure's namespaced keywords to get global
attributes

This will mean a major re architecture of Roam Research, I predict most Roam
clones are going to get absolutely blindsided by this

Roam today is ~just~ a datascript database on the client being kept up to date
with firebase

For now if you want open source Roam keep an eye on
[https://github.com/athensresearch/athens](https://github.com/athensresearch/athens)

------
cel1ne
One question for all users of knowledge-bases like this:

How often do you write something down and look it the next day and realize
it's not relevant anymore because of reasons like:

• you memorized it

• it's not as important as it seemed yesterday

• it's a todo and having it there actually nags you and prevents you from
completing it

• it creates some other kind of mental load: while skipping over it, it grabs
your attention, which then prevents you from attending to other tasks on the
list.

I have a theory that GTD helps only few, for most people it just makes them
feel better because they are now spending time creating lists instead of doing
what's on them.

~~~
kavir
> it creates some other kind of mental load

Agree with raytracer, that it works contrary to this. Writing things down in a
system that you can reliably go back and check, tells your brain to calm down
about this thought. If required, you can always reference it later.

You will need to classify points as either tasks or general information you
want to store for later.

The cool part of tools like Roam, Obsidian, is that you can create bi-
directional links. So if you are intentional about this and if you're
referencing something related later, you will come across this point and it
may be useful then.

------
dmytton
I moved my notes out of Apple Notes and into Markdown inside text files last
year due to the bugs I encountered. This means I can sync them with whatever
product I like (currently OneDrive) and open them on any system (currently
macOS) with any app that can parse Markdown (currently iA Writer). It also
means whenever any new app comes along, I can play around.

Usually what I want is something that loads very quickly and has a minimal UI
that allows me to focus on writing, but also allows me to search all files
quickly. iA Writer ticks all those boxes, and also has support for simple
#hashtags so I can organise the notes.

Where things become more difficult is if the app adds a lot of custom
functionality that is either specific to that app or adds lots of custom
metadata to the files. Then you start to lose some of the above benefits,
particularly cross-platform.

I looked at Obsidian but found the UI to be heavy and slow, and lots of extra
functionality I wasn't interested in. I've tried a lot of apps[1] but always
come back to iA Writer.

[1] [https://davidmytton.blog/the-best-note-taking-apps-for-
mac-m...](https://davidmytton.blog/the-best-note-taking-apps-for-mac-markdown-
open-format-cross-platform/)

------
msamwald
I tried using Obsidian, but I could not resolve the uncertainty of what should
be a separate note file vs several items inside a note file.

I then tried various 'outliner' applications (Dynalist, Roam, Workflowy). With
these kinds of apps, there is hardly any friction between document and content
granularity levels; everything can be just one big tree / directed graph.

I finally settled with Dynalist [1] -- it recently introduced backlinks and is
the far more mature, sleek and feature-rich option compared to Roam.

[1] [https://dynalist.io/](https://dynalist.io/)

~~~
O_H_E
Btw, obsidian is from the same makers of dynalist.

------
marvion
This was crossposted to the todoist subreddit and and I already said this
there:

The overhead that these systems need is my worst nightmare.

I tried obsidian, because I saw how people use notion, roam and obsidian ro
manage tasks and as knowledge base... but I just can't imagine me doing this.

I programmed a Bot for todoist and at one point I developed a github > Todoist
sync, to manage my work on the Bot... at on point it almost was comical how
many additional tasks I ended up with, just to make it happen.

I tried obsidian and quickly tried to use Typoda for markdown, because even
writing markdown comes with an overhead... additionally I always need to
install 3rd party apps to even access my knowledge..

I'm still looking for the perfect system, but always to back to Todoist for
tasks and a simple static file generator for my knowledge base(docsify).. I
can edit and access it from everywhere and dont have much overhead.

What I also dont get is the lack of API of theses systems. Afaik notion still
don't have one, and even roam doesn't.

For journaling and brainstorming, I build a Todoist function that creates and
links a Dropbox Paper directly to the task in Todoist... this way I already
have a task and it's out of sight when I'm done... and it only requires a
browser.

I envy everyone who can use these apps though. It does seem to be a nice way
of offload stuff of the brain.

------
francis-io
For me, I'm unwilling to invest time in an app thats not open source. Other
key things for me would be a web gui, mobile gui, self hosted and easily
backed up. Trilium notes is the best thing I have found so far.

~~~
jabirali
I suppose “self hosted” and “easily backed up” works fine since Obsidian is
supposed to work on local MarkDown files which you can store and backup in any
way you want.

Not sure why you’d need a WebGUI since the app appears to be cross-platform;
personally, I tend to view web interfaces more as a last resort when there is
no native app available. I’m not sure a WebGUI makes sense either if you’re
storing your data in a local folder.

As far as I know, they don’t have a companion mobile app though, and that’s a
deal-breaker for me too.

------
myrandomcomment
Canceled Evernote a month ago. To many bugs. Using VIM at this point. Honestly
thinking of going back to a notebook. Only issue is I cannot read my own
handwriting sometimes ;)

~~~
dmortin
A knowledgebase is for storing thousands of notes and quickly retrieve them
when needed. Searching dozens of notebooks for the relevant info is not
scalable.

~~~
flo123456
With plain text formats such as Markdown search is just one grep away. Using
ripgrep it’s also quite fast.

~~~
randomchars
I think parent was referring to this:

> Honestly thinking of going back to a notebook

~~~
dmortin
Yes.

------
refresher
I tried Obsidian but prefer Foam[0], just because I enjoy using VSCode. Once
it gets materialized backlinks I suppose it will be similar enough.

[0] [https://foambubble.github.io/foam/](https://foambubble.github.io/foam/)

~~~
phre4k
Can't you already navigate with the tree view instead of materialised
backlinks? What's the benefit?

I prefer to link my sites organically inside of text in the page. E.g. on a
page about Linux I'd write

GNU/Linux is an [operating system](../os) based on the Linux
[Kernel](../kernel).

Tada, two backlinks without having to list them. If there's no link on the
page it's not important.

Do you see problems with that approach?

~~~
refresher
I actually do like the 'explore backlinks' pane for Foam so it would be of
some navigational use for me. They list reasons for adding it as:

> Make every link two-way navigable in published sites

> Make Foam notes more portable to different apps and long-term storage

(via [https://foambubble.github.io/foam/materialized-
backlinks](https://foambubble.github.io/foam/materialized-backlinks))

Though I may be getting confused between the backlink differences that Foam,
Obsidian, and Roam offer. A list of forward links per document would actually
be useful as well, which IIRC neither Foam or Obsidian offer at the moment.
Obsidian also shows the user 'unlinked mentions' along with explicit
backlinks, which is also a nice feature that Foam lacks.

------
Brajeshwar
My current working model (WIP).

1\. Write in Markdown. Stay as less markup as possible and tend towards plain
text.

2\. Organize/Categorized into folders; such as -- parenting, entrepreneurship,
startup, homelab, books, etc.

3\. Choose a really simple publisher (Jekyll for now). I sprinkle the least
front matter in the header of each file. So, I can publish the selected ones
online for me, friends, and family.

4\. Let Obsidian look over it (it drops just one folder .obsidian), write with
it sometimes. I don't want any tool taking over, chewing it and making smart
decisions for me.

My focus are those files inside the folders. I should be able to just replace
Jekyll or Obsidian in future without losing the integrity of my content.

~~~
rorykoehler
My favourite thing about obsidian is it made folders redundant. Now my notes
structure is more like my thinking structure. Scattered but organised via bi-
directional linking and tagging. It's a great way to discover new insights
from your own thoughts.

------
kevinslin
if you are looking for an open source version of obsidian, I would check out
[https://dendron.so](https://dendron.so) (disclaimer, I'm the author)

it supports all the same features and built on top of vscode. use it to manage
my personal knowledge base of 20k md files

------
immigrantsheep
My problem with apps like these it's that they are always working on almost
everything but not really. Lately I've been testing a few things and then I
got back to Org-mode. Works on my desktop, works on Android with Orgzly and
works on my iPad with Beorg.

------
fudged71
I've tried Obsidian, but the data structure is far inferior to Roam Research
and not worth wasting my time with it. With Roam I know that my notes are
building a rich forest of hierarchies and networks that will be more useful in
the future.

~~~
selykg
Did you read the linked article? Sounds like some people are having some
issues with stability of Roam. It's one of the things first talked about in
the article.

------
kderbyma
I just started using MindForger which is very similar. I will definitely give
Obsidian a look because I love these ideas - thibkjng notebooks.

check out MindForger - it is open source and quite simple to review as it's
mainly one maintainer.

~~~
kderbyma
GitHub repo is here:
[https://github.com/dvorka/mindforger](https://github.com/dvorka/mindforger)

------
ffpip
Seems to be down? WebArchive can't access it.

Google Cache -
[https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:https:...](https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:https://joshwin.imprint.to/post/how-
i-use-obsidian-to-manage-my-goals-tasks-notes-and-software-development-
knowledge-base+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=in)

Google Cache seems to be just a proxy thats loading resources from the main
site.

------
rorykoehler
I use obsidian and dropbox with markdown mobile apps (text editor on desktop)>
It's teh best setup. Way better than roam.

------
gregwebs
I am still using Simplenote because mobile works really fast and the sync
stays up to date. The approach here of syncing markdown files with icloud
seems like it might work well enough.

The lack of linking between notes is definitely the missing feature of
Simplenote.

I like the approach here of trying to sync markdown files with iCloud

------
yulaow
I think I almost dedicated the last ten years to try to solve my own problem
about taking notes for tasks/goals. In the end I come back defaulting to
paper-and-pen for day to day projects related notes, and cherrytree for
reorganizing them weekly in a digital format.

------
sali0
Obsidian is a fantastic app and completely free. You also store the data
yourself.

~~~
Jedd
"The SOFTWARE PRODUCT is licensed, not sold."

It looks to be non-free software, with a $-free licence tier for personal use.

~~~
skoskie
I personally use all my software.

------
digital_voodoo
I wish Obsidian (or an alternative of some sort) could pick up Devonthink's
"AI" and work through both my markdown and my PDF files.

No task management, planning, etc. Just plain reading, thinking and writing.

The quest continues...

------
MrDresden
Just installed Obsidian to give it a quick test, and I must say I am
impressed. I've been using Gollum for my personal wiki, but may just move over
to Obsidian.

Does anyone know if you can write your own plugins for it?

~~~
pps
Soon. [https://forum.obsidian.md/c/developers-
api/14](https://forum.obsidian.md/c/developers-api/14)

------
Maha-pudma
Never heard of this before. Sounds like Zim-wiki, which is what I use. Does
pretty much everything this can do plus is completely free.

------
capnorange
this is the setup I keep going back to(I've tried Roam, Obsidian, Tiddly) -
VimWiki + TaskWarrior + TaskWiki.

~~~
gorgoiler
Could you elaborate as to why?

~~~
capnorange
The reason is mostly I couldn't replace my current workflow using other tools.

1\. open-source. 2\. One command away from my editor(I only use desktop for
taking notes), also synced to my dropbox in case. 3\. Amazing extensibility
with plugins and custom scripts. Eg: bugwarrior + pomodoro(using Timewarrior,
I've used this a lot when freelancing, not so much now) + some custom scripts.
4\. Journaling - custom generated template of what I need to records/daily
tasks etc. 5\. Viewports in taskwiki are amazing, eg: for any project related
notes I can do write `# Task | project:Pro1 and +PENDING` to list pending
tasks in Pro1, you can also configure to use tags like development, bug
reports etc.

I couldn't find another tool that is as extensible. The downside is you need
to dedicate a weekend to understanding and setup!

~~~
tbabej
Happy to hear you find it useful!

~~~
capnorange
thank you for you work!

------
nickthemagicman
I just want a simple kanban board with dependency graph. Like Trello but with
dependencies.

~~~
tunesmith
I gather you mean an actual dependency graph, since that's what you said. :)
Most task software with dependencies don't support graph data structures.

I regularly use Flying Logic for this sort of thing - I make a huge dependency
graph, and then I create a collapsible group that encompasses the stuff that
is active. The part of the graph that is "below" that window is stuff that is
already done, and the stuff that is "above" that window is stuff that can't be
started until I do stuff in the active window.

("below" and "above" can be reoriented to "left" and "right" if you prefer)

------
brodo
Does anyone have a working org-mode setup with back-links?

~~~
leotaku
Not me, but this guy[1] seems to have a pretty interesting setup using
backlinks with Org. Other than that, org-roam[2] is becoming popular nowadays.

[1]: [https://karl-voit.at/2020/07/22/org-super-links](https://karl-
voit.at/2020/07/22/org-super-links) [2]:
[https://www.orgroam.com/](https://www.orgroam.com/)

------
Syzygies
I'm a mathematician who scripts everything I can. I've been thinking about
mind-mapping for decades.

My breaking point: I have DropBox folders for 1770 math papers, that I
periodically read on computers and tablets. The significance of most of these
papers is lost to me. I want to be able to browse this collection in a
"supermarket shelf" topology. Most of creatitivity is not planned; planning
tends to stifle creativity. Rather, a frenetic mind is fortunate enough, after
months of fruitless wanderings, to encounter the right set of ideas in close
enough proximity to notice. For example, a PCB protoboard has the correct 0.1"
spacing to guide a router jig for making a pasta guitar. Who knew?!

Ideally one traverses a private web site with links to every asset. The
associations need to be both manual and automated, logical and accidental. For
example, time of creation or visits is critical data for determining
proximity. Looking at each PDF in plain text to attempt to infer proximity
would be a great application of deep learning tools, leveraging existing
proximities as training data.

On a larger scale I have repeatedly urged the American Mathemetical Society to
open up its MathSciNet cash cow to be a premier playground for machine
learning. Unlike computer science, mathematics does have a detailed index of
all published research, through the efforts of many volunteer reviewers.
However, math is crippled by many archaic beliefs: That ideas are organized by
fields such as number theory, and there is a single global worldview
specifying this organization. That the value of MathSciNet is its hand-curated
organization. I believe that we're crippling a generation of mathematical
progress by not allowing mathematics to be at the forefront of mind mapping
efforts, with many competing voices/tools describing its organization and
facilitating idea browsing. Autocomplete is still at the "pager" stage of
development, with "smart phones" yet to come. We could all benefit from the
cloud autocompleting each of our mind-maps. Mathematics is a relatively small,
constrained domain where shared mind-mapping and autocomplete could first
flourish.

I've separately used a text file as scratch paper many days for the last
fifteen years, saving every file. I can retrieve much useful information
through full text search. I am reminded however of Don Knuth's adage
"Premature optimization is the root of all evil," and the smaller optimization
problem of how to best organize physical receipts. Excessive organization is
wasted effort and a form of neurosis. I scan lots of documents but not every
receipt; they all go in boxes dated by quarter, vacuum packed after a year.
When I really need a receipt I can find it, but the effort to file has been
properly balanced with the effort to retrieve. Same with text files; full text
search works. It would be a mistake for me to put more effort into the
structure of these files. Rather, through scripts and AI tools, I can evolve
an indexing exoskeleton around these existing unstructured raw materials.

I need mind-mapping to manage assets, not to create a private web site of my
thoughts. And there cannot be a user/programmer dichotomy; we each need to
script additional associations into our mind maps. That belongs in
exoskeleton, not cluttering up primary text.

------
senectus1
HN hug o death.

anyone got a link to what this "obsidian" is?

~~~
ffpip
Note taking app. It's good. Missing a couple of features.

[https://obsidian.md](https://obsidian.md)

~~~
senectus1
before i go trying it out... it looks a lot like a personal wiki?

RTF etc?

~~~
ffpip
Yes. Offline notes in markdown. So cross-platform.

Great UI, 'Mind-mapping' thing that everybody wants, backlinking to other
notes, markdown, offline (so private notes).

Other alternatives - roam research, notion, etc

~~~
jakeva
I've tried it, I liked it. But I can't help but feel like I'm one of the only
people who doesn't need an app for 'mind-mapping'. Am I missing something?
Asking honestly, this comes up at work a lot. I feel like I can access things
in my mind at will. Why should I need to transcribe it in some way?

~~~
raindropm
I think the problem with general notetaking is, you take note and you'll
almost forget about it completely in a couple of day.

This style of notetaking software help 'resurface' those information you even
forgot you jot down long time ago and make the process of 'discover' new idea
much easier, something like that.

Well, I mean it behave like our mind, just more tangible, in software form.
Also, people forgot much more nowadays because of information overload...maybe
that's why some people need to transcribe it into something and relieve their
brain's load.

