I still don’t know where to truly start with Obsidian. I’ve watched so many videos, tested it out, and I get overwhelmed. I’m easily disorganized so I’m trying to start using Obsidian in an organized way. Right now my notes/to dos/journals are in about 5 applications. I want to simplify. I love the software. I need to figure out how to jump in. Thanks for your content!
@@linkingyourthinking hey! thanks so much for taking the time to reply. I’m working through your Ideaverse now. I’d really love a video sometime if you’d be interested: Obsidian for ADHD folks, or those with dyslexia (all me). We’re intelligent people we just struggle in unique ways.
unfortunately I think some of us (definitely me) have no choice but to use multiple systems (depending on how much content we have and what our purposes are), due to the nature of the technologies we've chosen in the past and what we're currently trying to do. I take notes in Obsidian pretty much every day, but I still spend a lot of time exporting old content out of evernote (bc I have literally decades of content there) and I have started to use Joplin as a way to get my content out of EN and into markdown format...slow and steady is all one can do, sometimes...
I can so relate to your post. I tried Obsidian last years and put it down. I keep going back to to-do lists, and then back to a word document, then to flash cards for articles -- I feel like I have been going around around and aroundin a digital/material toilet and never being flushed. I type a note but hitting return does nothing in obsidian. I would love to see someone take a genuine idea and flesh it out. Every vid I have seen, people make up a silly note, then bracket something like that means an extension of something. The sad part is that I do not even know the right question to ask -- to me Obsidian feels more piecemeal, more desultory than any other application. Enough bellyaching. Apologies.
A poem for Obsidian In the realm where thoughts like rivers flow, Where ideas seed, and gardens grow, Stands Obsidian, a beacon bright, A haven for minds that seek the light. With links like vines, our thoughts entwine, Creating mazes that beautifully align. Each note a star in a vast, night sky, Guiding us gently, as time goes by. It whispers of knowledge, both old and new, Of tales untold, and insights true. In this digital sanctum, we freely roam, Crafting, curating-a mental home. The canvas blank, now teeming with life, A sanctuary amidst our strife. With every keystroke, we weave and sow, In Obsidian's grace, our ideas glow. A symphony of synapses, in harmony, A dance of neurons, wild and free. Here, in the silence, our thoughts resonate, In the garden of Obsidian, they germinate. So, here's to the journey, and to the quest, To the untold stories, and the secrets confessed. Obsidian, a companion, on this ride we embark, Illuminating our minds, when once they were dark. May this ode to Obsidian, in its humble verse, Capture the essence, our universe. For in its embrace, our ideas find wings, In Obsidian, the mind dances and sings.
I was notion for years gave obsidian a try but didnt stick around 2 years later after a huge notion data leak I came back to try it again, and now it's quickly becoming one of my favorites.
I am borderline Obsidian obsessed. I first found out about it, through a video of this very channel. I knew I had struck gold, jumped in, learned about setting up and customizing a vault for myself, and never looked back! Life changed - just like that.
I gave Obsidian a chance for months, but ultimately I went back to Apple Notes after they added links, tags, and upcoming dictation transcription, works well with handwritten notes from iPad, can use both handwritten and typed, searches for handwritten, and very importantly, the date of creation toggling with editing stamped on the note that I cannot change. The synching is perfect. It's a trillion dollar company backing the product, folders 5 levels deep, can use voice to find a note in the upcoming version, very nice thumbnails from URLs or TH-cam, lock notes with fingerprint ID. And I like the fact that it's free. I love their smart folders, so I can see all 126 poems that I wrote with one click.
Since I learned more about the md extension and git I got all my notes across some private repositories.. yet it was somewhat a struggle to view, link, write and retrieve the notes or even to create lists or charts. I heard about obsidian before, but some days ago I decided to give it a try, what an absolute joy to use it. All my notes, code samples, images, ideas and links just worked from the get go.
Excellent video. Thank you for addressing the "Files over app". That was what sealed the deal for me. Fun fact: the ASCII text file format was first created in 1961. That makes it the oldest file format that is still in existence. My PKMS is turning 48 years old this year. It started out on index cards and composition notebooks. But in 1978 was converted to a digital format. (ASCII text) Obsidian will allow it to continue on with even greater functionality.
The title is a bit of a clickbait... All your arguments mean that Obsidian is a really good note taking app. But to call it the best, there should be a comparison with the competition.
In a recent exhibition at Lume in Melbourne we got to read some of Leonardo Di Vinci's "note" and they are 600 years old. Your notes do indeed last for ever!
I have an ecosystem, a smart phone, tablet and a windows computer for work. Can I access the same note on 3 devices without file corruption when subcribing to Obsidian sync. Thank you and awaiting your reply Nick.
Obsidian is as great as you say. My problem with it is that it relies so much on plug-ins. Trying to match the plug-ins I use on Windows with those on MacOS and iOS is frustrating. I may give it a go again without relying on any third-party plug-ins and see how that works for me. Thanks for your great videos.
Do you think Obsidian will become paid ? like to start reducing service to make you pay ? because they are soo good idk how it is free. I started using it and I think to devote to it
No. They are very clear about their values in their manifesto. They are small and have no VC money to force them to paywall features. Because of their business practices, we can have even more confidence in their long-term survival compared to every other note app out there: obsidian.md/about
I think sometimes it is a good idea to donate something for free software, especially if you appreciate the work of the developers and you wish they enjoy their continuous work even more... 🙂
Well I love obsidian. What are your guesses... how long will it take to upload obsydian notes to our brain? Smells like Marix chair 😅 and great for people with memory loss problems. Just thinking. Propably they think about it... what do you think? Maybe I should contact them first with this idea 😅 today is 29.10.24 just for safety 😂 well after thinking I'm definetaly not first.❤
Besides the graph view (which is really cool, albeit probably not as useful as one would initially think), what other features does Obsidian have that makes it beat out OneNote for a Windows user? In my eyes, nothing here looks truly different from OneNote, and OneNote can be E2E encrypted as well with the press of a button. It also seems like the shortcut support is rather lacking. For instance, it seems Obsidian doesn't have a shortcut in place to navigate between most recent pages or cursor positions, even after using an external plug-in designed to do this (I was just reading in forums).
It feels weird to hear someone talk about a note taking app using the same voice and vocal gestures they'd talk on the phone with their girlfriend at wee hours of the morning 😀Sheldon would say "you're having coitus with Obsidian, aren't you"
Do you recommend having the vault saved on google drive folder? I'd love to do it on local but for back up I'm scared something may happen to notes. Thanks for the videos.
Hi Nick, I appreciate your videos. Can you give me a tip on how to give my tree menu on the left side of the screen some colors to have more contrast. I had this before but then there was a Obsidian update and ever since, my files in my tree have all the same color.
Yeah Obsidian Sync has a payment. I use it. It's headache free. That said, you can use tons of other options. There is ZERO lock-in. Want to pay Dropbox instead? Go for it! Want to spin up a self-hosted instance that is hosted on Github? No one's stopping you. As Captain Planet once said, "The power...is yours!"
@@linkingyourthinking yupp that's what I did yesterday. I set up a custom plugin in obsidian that backs up my vault in Google drive and backs up changes I made in my vault, just like how sync would work between two devices. it's pretty easy to set it up
@@linkingyourthinking I've tried a custom plugin for using sync feature through google drive in obsidian, it works just fine and doesn't need any 3rd party app or anything. The files, notes and changes are synced in real-time.
Not currently, but Obsidian has plugins that extend its functionality. While it doesn't have built-in AI like Notion AI, Obsidian has a plugin ecosystem that allows for a wide range of additional features and functionalities.
So if you're phone or computer broke, all your notes will not be unaccessible since it has no cloud storage unless you paid for it? How is that delightful?
I mean, please backup your notes. Please don't just keep them on a single device. That's a bad idea and no one would recommend that. It's a single point of failure like you point out. I use Obsidian Sync which is a cloud-based solution with end-to-end encryption, but there are an abundance of other options. What is delightful for you?
Linking notes wow. Something I've never wanted to do and never will. Amazing solution looking for a problem 😂 I don't need a website from 1997, I just want a notes app.
Obsidian is not a TOOL, it is a TASK. So you will spend a lot of your life just doing Obsidian instead of your projects etc. No offense... it has a gazillion of features and looks terrific! But... that is a problem :) I gave up and use simpler far more effective tools.
“Delightful” captures how Obsidian made me feel in life. Bravo.
Amazing that a piece of software can make us feel that way
I still don’t know where to truly start with Obsidian. I’ve watched so many videos, tested it out, and I get overwhelmed. I’m easily disorganized so I’m trying to start using Obsidian in an organized way. Right now my notes/to dos/journals are in about 5 applications.
I want to simplify. I love the software. I need to figure out how to jump in.
Thanks for your content!
Maybe try a starter kit or two just to see how others have put things together. You got this, even if it takes a few attempts
@@linkingyourthinking hey! thanks so much for taking the time to reply. I’m working through your Ideaverse now.
I’d really love a video sometime if you’d be interested: Obsidian for ADHD folks, or those with dyslexia (all me). We’re intelligent people we just struggle in unique ways.
It all depends on your goals (for what you want to use Obsidian)
unfortunately I think some of us (definitely me) have no choice but to use multiple systems (depending on how much content we have and what our purposes are), due to the nature of the technologies we've chosen in the past and what we're currently trying to do. I take notes in Obsidian pretty much every day, but I still spend a lot of time exporting old content out of evernote (bc I have literally decades of content there) and I have started to use Joplin as a way to get my content out of EN and into markdown format...slow and steady is all one can do, sometimes...
I can so relate to your post. I tried Obsidian last years and put it down. I keep going back to to-do lists, and then back to a word document, then to flash cards for articles -- I feel like I have been going around around and aroundin a digital/material toilet and never being flushed. I type a note but hitting return does nothing in obsidian. I would love to see someone take a genuine idea and flesh it out. Every vid I have seen, people make up a silly note, then bracket something like that means an extension of something. The sad part is that I do not even know the right question to ask -- to me Obsidian feels more piecemeal, more desultory than any other application. Enough bellyaching. Apologies.
A poem for Obsidian
In the realm where thoughts like rivers flow,
Where ideas seed, and gardens grow,
Stands Obsidian, a beacon bright,
A haven for minds that seek the light.
With links like vines, our thoughts entwine,
Creating mazes that beautifully align.
Each note a star in a vast, night sky,
Guiding us gently, as time goes by.
It whispers of knowledge, both old and new,
Of tales untold, and insights true.
In this digital sanctum, we freely roam,
Crafting, curating-a mental home.
The canvas blank, now teeming with life,
A sanctuary amidst our strife.
With every keystroke, we weave and sow,
In Obsidian's grace, our ideas glow.
A symphony of synapses, in harmony,
A dance of neurons, wild and free.
Here, in the silence, our thoughts resonate,
In the garden of Obsidian, they germinate.
So, here's to the journey, and to the quest,
To the untold stories, and the secrets confessed.
Obsidian, a companion, on this ride we embark,
Illuminating our minds, when once they were dark.
May this ode to Obsidian, in its humble verse,
Capture the essence, our universe.
For in its embrace, our ideas find wings,
In Obsidian, the mind dances and sings.
Love the poem, thanks for sharing!
This is great! 😂 🫶🏼
I was notion for years gave obsidian a try but didnt stick around 2 years later after a huge notion data leak I came back to try it again, and now it's quickly becoming one of my favorites.
That's a very common path, I'm glad you shared. Try initially, say "not for me," go to a cloud app, have it fail, come back, love it.
Please share your thoughts on logseq in one video. Would like to see your thoughts on it.
Logseq is a great app as well. I'm a fan
I am borderline Obsidian obsessed. I first found out about it, through a video of this very channel. I knew I had struck gold, jumped in, learned about setting up and customizing a vault for myself, and never looked back! Life changed - just like that.
I gave Obsidian a chance for months, but ultimately I went back to Apple Notes after they added links, tags, and upcoming dictation transcription, works well with handwritten notes from iPad, can use both handwritten and typed, searches for handwritten, and very importantly, the date of creation toggling with editing stamped on the note that I cannot change. The synching is perfect. It's a trillion dollar company backing the product, folders 5 levels deep, can use voice to find a note in the upcoming version, very nice thumbnails from URLs or TH-cam, lock notes with fingerprint ID. And I like the fact that it's free. I love their smart folders, so I can see all 126 poems that I wrote with one click.
I really enjoy your videos, and I particularly appreciate the enthusiasm you bring to your presentations. It always makes me smile!
Thank you.
Obsidian is really great, would not be able to keep up with the AI developments without it.
Happy to hear it's been helpful.
standard formats enhance durability of data
truth!
Since I learned more about the md extension and git I got all my notes across some private repositories.. yet it was somewhat a struggle to view, link, write and retrieve the notes or even to create lists or charts. I heard about obsidian before, but some days ago I decided to give it a try, what an absolute joy to use it. All my notes, code samples, images, ideas and links just worked from the get go.
Excellent video. Thank you for addressing the "Files over app". That was what sealed the deal for me. Fun fact: the ASCII text file format was first created in 1961. That makes it the oldest file format that is still in existence. My PKMS is turning 48 years old this year. It started out on index cards and composition notebooks. But in 1978 was converted to a digital format. (ASCII text) Obsidian will allow it to continue on with even greater functionality.
The title is a bit of a clickbait... All your arguments mean that Obsidian is a really good note taking app. But to call it the best, there should be a comparison with the competition.
In a recent exhibition at Lume in Melbourne we got to read some of Leonardo Di Vinci's "note" and they are 600 years old. Your notes do indeed last for ever!
I have an ecosystem, a smart phone, tablet and a windows computer for work. Can I access the same note on 3 devices without file corruption when subcribing to Obsidian sync. Thank you and awaiting your reply Nick.
Yes.
Yes, but not at the same time. Synchronization take some seconds (or more if there are many changes in your vault).
Also you can use iCloud for your sync and not subscribe to Obsidian sync at all. That’s what I do on my phone, tablet, and Windows PC.
@@Jeff8737 whats is the workaround in windows pc? I have a mac but the phone is android.
Obsidian is as great as you say. My problem with it is that it relies so much on plug-ins. Trying to match the plug-ins I use on Windows with those on MacOS and iOS is frustrating. I may give it a go again without relying on any third-party plug-ins and see how that works for me. Thanks for your great videos.
That's a fair point. One way to ease the pain is to use Obsidian Sync. That tends to keep plugins in sync across devices
@@linkingyourthinking I didn't know that the Sync sync'd the plugins. That's great to learn. Thank you.
Love it love it love it!!! ❤❤❤❤❤
Thank you! Glad you loved it.
I long for paper and typewriters. But this looks cool. As long as it works offline 100%
I do too
Do you think Obsidian will become paid ? like to start reducing service to make you pay ? because they are soo good idk how it is free. I started using it and I think to devote to it
Even if, it's still just markdown, you can use any text file editor to Access them, nothing to lose :)
No. They are very clear about their values in their manifesto. They are small and have no VC money to force them to paywall features. Because of their business practices, we can have even more confidence in their long-term survival compared to every other note app out there: obsidian.md/about
I think sometimes it is a good idea to donate something for free software, especially if you appreciate the work of the developers and you wish they enjoy their continuous work even more... 🙂
@@silmelumenn @linkingyourthinking also they make money from Obsidian Publish and the people who buy licenses
Agreed@@martinb3483 , and this extends to many of the community plugin developers
Hello Nick Milo. Thank you for his videos. Great teachings. Congratulations.
Hello, and thank you!
I'm an Evernote refugee as well. Hoping Obsidian can fill the void left where all my accrued research used to be.
Excellent! Thanks aplenty! Would be great to hear your way of linking your thoughts, step by step.
Thank you!
6:47 timestamp, why is their office cat Sandy not included🤨? great video tho:3
A significant omission and we apologize to cats everywhere
Well I love obsidian. What are your guesses... how long will it take to upload obsydian notes to our brain? Smells like Marix chair 😅 and great for people with memory loss problems. Just thinking. Propably they think about it... what do you think? Maybe I should contact them first with this idea 😅 today is 29.10.24 just for safety 😂 well after thinking I'm definetaly not first.❤
Besides the graph view (which is really cool, albeit probably not as useful as one would initially think), what other features does Obsidian have that makes it beat out OneNote for a Windows user? In my eyes, nothing here looks truly different from OneNote, and OneNote can be E2E encrypted as well with the press of a button.
It also seems like the shortcut support is rather lacking. For instance, it seems Obsidian doesn't have a shortcut in place to navigate between most recent pages or cursor positions, even after using an external plug-in designed to do this (I was just reading in forums).
And vim keys built in. I stay away from plugins since this year, they did not work well for me.
I hear ya
It feels weird to hear someone talk about a note taking app using the same voice and vocal gestures they'd talk on the phone with their girlfriend at wee hours of the morning 😀Sheldon would say "you're having coitus with Obsidian, aren't you"
Do you recommend having the vault saved on google drive folder? I'd love to do it on local but for back up I'm scared something may happen to notes. Thanks for the videos.
Go for it. I use onedrive synced on my local machine.
Hi Nick, I appreciate your videos. Can you give me a tip on how to give my tree menu on the left side of the screen some colors to have more contrast. I had this before but then there was a Obsidian update and ever since, my files in my tree have all the same color.
Look for themes with rainbow folders
I have looked at many others and really like Scrintal (for what I do today) but no...what's on my air gap ext disk is MINE
Obsidian is excellent and contents belong to me.
great to hear you're enjoying obsidian!
An OpenAI founder praising privacy? Now I've seen everything.
how about i tell you obsidian sync payment?
Yeah Obsidian Sync has a payment. I use it. It's headache free. That said, you can use tons of other options. There is ZERO lock-in. Want to pay Dropbox instead? Go for it! Want to spin up a self-hosted instance that is hosted on Github? No one's stopping you. As Captain Planet once said, "The power...is yours!"
@@linkingyourthinking yupp that's what I did yesterday. I set up a custom plugin in obsidian that backs up my vault in Google drive and backs up changes I made in my vault, just like how sync would work between two devices. it's pretty easy to set it up
@@linkingyourthinking I've tried a custom plugin for using sync feature through google drive in obsidian, it works just fine and doesn't need any 3rd party app or anything. The files, notes and changes are synced in real-time.
After this video I still don't know what Obsidian really ist.
Is there anything that resembles Notion AI in Obsidian ?
Not currently, but Obsidian has plugins that extend its functionality. While it doesn't have built-in AI like Notion AI, Obsidian has a plugin ecosystem that allows for a wide range of additional features and functionalities.
@@linkingyourthinking Thank you! Do you have a video that explains the AI plugins capabilities and set up?
In Europe / Asia you don't need a car. DMV is part of a category of problems you never even have to think about. Enjoy the commute 😂
So if you're phone or computer broke, all your notes will not be unaccessible since it has no cloud storage unless you paid for it? How is that delightful?
I mean, please backup your notes. Please don't just keep them on a single device. That's a bad idea and no one would recommend that. It's a single point of failure like you point out. I use Obsidian Sync which is a cloud-based solution with end-to-end encryption, but there are an abundance of other options. What is delightful for you?
Please, add the AI feature "ask my vault"!!!
Maybe a community plugin can do that?
WHATS WRONG WITH SAMSUNG NOTES?
🤣
I love Samsung notes. I wrote a book in notes.. "do not do this" but it was fun.
so obsidian is the best because Jack said so?! 😂
Linking notes wow. Something I've never wanted to do and never will. Amazing solution looking for a problem 😂
I don't need a website from 1997, I just want a notes app.
first?
Well played
So you think you’re public figure because you’re writing a book and have YT channel? Ok, I guess everybody and their dogs are public figures now 😂
Obsidian is not a TOOL, it is a TASK. So you will spend a lot of your life just doing Obsidian instead of your projects etc. No offense... it has a gazillion of features and looks terrific! But... that is a problem :) I gave up and use simpler far more effective tools.
To a hammer, everything is a nail.
This comment literally makes no sense. I use obsidian because it is extremely minimalist. It's only.complex if you make it be complex.
People can say the same thing about Notion or just having a second brain.