You're not stupid: How to learn difficult things with Obsidian
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- Опубликовано: 28 сен 2023
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In all these apps I feel like I'm gonna waste too much time organizing, connecting and beautifying notes, giving me a false sense of productivity, so I avoid them.
There's a danger of that, I agree, however, Obsidian is worth trying. I think you'll be impressed by the results.
One note all u need
@gilesmcmullen I found Obsidian about the same time I read Tiago Forte's "Build a second brain" they complement each other wonderfully. With it's add-ons Obsidian is enthrallingly powerful, but not intuitive to the unfamiliar.
Skip the community plugins, they are mostly bloat + distraction for new starters (unless you are certain you need them). Try to skip the complexity and not let perfection be the enemy of the perfectly adequate (coming to you as a database professional of 34 years). I say this because most regular RUclips material focuses on the plugin hype-train which really isn't helpful for those starting out.
@@jaxsharp have been waiting for One note to get good for a looooong time now - maybe thats all YOU need and perhaps its for others to decide what they need
When something is as flexible and adaptable as Obsidian, with every user having their own workflow and preferences and list of extensions they think is best(and hundreds of them making videos about it,) "just start using it" is a message worth saying in its own right.
As a long-time obsidian user, this is one of the best short videos on Obsidian. Great job.
completely agree
What advantages does Obsidian offer over MediaWiki? MediaWiki is the same software that powers Wikipedia.
Agreed, clearly explains how to get started for a beginner with minimal friction
Does it works on Android phone?
@@victorolvera6482 wiki software is designed first and foremost to be run on a server, and the people who make and use it are the kind of people stuck on a text interface from 1955. Obsidian and its competitors will always be more successful because you don't need expertise just to install and run them.
I discovered Obsidian too. While I am sold on the idea behind it, which this video demonstrates beautifully, learning new tools like this is overwhelming. Instead, this is what I am doing to at least get started on the process of building my web of knowledge. When I am reading, I make sure to have post-its, then when I come across something worth capturing, I make sure to write it down so that the essence is captured in one post-it note. The idea is to dedicate some time on weekends to turn the post-its into notes on Obsidian. For now, I think this will work for me. I suggest that you also start today and try not to be distracted/overwhelmed by how amazing these online productive gurus are doing.
do yourself a favour and resist the community plugins for your first 6 to 12 weeks - there is more than enough in the base product - hopefully after you have gotten familiar you will ditch the post-it note stage and simply go directly into obsidian - best of luck to you @pon00050. 🙂
That's a great approach to getting started with building your web of knowledge in Obsidian, Taking notes on post-it notes while reading and then dedicating time on weekends to transfer them into Obsidian is a practical way to capture and organize information. It's important not to get overwhelmed by the productivity gurus and instead find a workflow that works best for you. Keep up the good work.
You'll find this lines up excellently as the "Inbox" in their workflows, as well as review / repetition as you record it into the digital version.
Sounds like a great way to stay organized and ensure a smooth workflow, Reviewing and repeating tasks can definitely help in maintaining efficiency and accuracy.@@bc4198
i also appreciate that it is an offline tool and that syncing is optional
Seconded. I live on a narrowboat, and use mobile tethering, and it can be a right pain when connections get a bit dodgy- suddenly online help isn't, you just lost a half hour edit, or your RUclips epic flame out just got binned (watch it son! Hehe).
Its amazing the way that Project / Product Managers are aiming Products at 21st Cent ++ audiences (!!!) yet remain totally ignorant of any of the issues involved with the Digital Nomad lifestyle.
"He yah the NEw USer will be free, footloose & sitting on in a café on a Coool apple laptop connected to a 5Gig Faaaat pipe in Bangladesh".
Even on codewars I work in VS Code then cut & paste into the editor as otherwise its 'Oh, bye bye edits'"!
@@SlowPersuit not to forget centralisation of all data is not really a good idea, you would think people would learn from the nsa/cia scandals + cambridge analytica
@@JustAn0therSoul I think everyone is down with that. Just ask for a RUclips report on the data they hold on you.
Obviously the current one is AI- not only do they own your data profile, BUT when you use swathes of your proprietary code to get help on, debug or re-write, when the new code is issued they now own the publishing rights (effectively) for all the code you have trained the model on, and also to a large extend, your product (that has been enhanced by the AI model).
Anyone remember the 2005 ish one- "All your (code) Base are ours"! ;-)
You can sync things (I sync Obsidian vaults as well) using something like Syncthing between your phone and other devices. It works on your local network. I get the syncing without my notes and other stuff ever touching the internet. It's free, opensource, and incredibly fast.
Yes, it does help with responsiveness of the tool too, feels much better than slow tools.
I got Make It Stick on your recommendation maybe 2 months ago. Finished reading it about 2 weeks ago. Excellent read and it changed how I approach learning. I'm teaching myself infinite sequences and series and have adapted my techniques based on the reading. Whether you're a teacher, a life long learner, or a student at university you will definitely get a lot of reading Make It Stick.
a lot out of**
This is the best introduction i've seen on Obsidian. Actually made me want to use it and to read Make It Stick which i've had for ages in my bookshelf to read and never got to it.
Thank you! I've been wanting so badly to make & keep useful notes on books & youtube videos & podcasts, & didn't know how to do so in a way that [stuff, or, the vast amount of information that I am capable of learning & then forgetting] wouldn't get lost in ever so many notebooks.
Editing is fantastic I loved it. The obsidian highly recommended
I've been using Obsidian for about two years, but I have to admit, I just like it for the file organization. I don't think I have a single note linking to another one, but perhaps I'm leaving some useful functionality on the table.
I'll try to get my hands on "make it stick" and try obsidian. I've always loved to learn things, but after pausing my masters and starting to work as a software developer, I noticed that my old system did no longer work, because of all the stress and so little time. Turns out my method required a lot of time and did not work at all when not investing a lot of time..
I hope better methods can help me to keep learning again, and never stop.
These videos give me hope, thanks :)
I use Obsidian for documenting software development using highlighted code blocks. I also use it for all my life notes, study notes, and anything that I want to document. Great video. Note that the community continues to add new features such as the new simplified tables. Notes can have markdown text, images, videos, and just about anything you want to save.
Key to getting started with note taking in a productive way is just simply start taking notes in Obsidian without caring about the endless features. In the course of time you’ll learn it step-by-step.
Some time ago, I saw a node system with various links (it was visible on a monitor of a developer), since then I was thinking about it, how useful it can be for various tasks, not limited to programming. Seems like Obsidian is what I was looking for. Thanks!
great video and also quite life changing! Keep up the great work!
Best video to understand the value of it! thank you for making it
Fantastic video. I've been skeptical about note taking apps that promise to revolutionize your learning or workflow or whatever. You've provided a compelling reason to actually try out Obsidian.
One note better and simpler
I will have to give this tool a try for a month to see how I like it. I usually do pen and journal, but will give this a try for study notes.
thank you for sharing this amazing tool with us!
4:45 That resonates so strongly with me. I wish I could go to university again, using Obsidian this time.
Great video.
Thanks for the inspiration.
OMG, this is just going to take me down even more rabbit holes with my lack of self discipline and easily off-on-a-tangent-level-distractibility - I'm in!! 😄
Great video, thank you.
I tried Obsidian some months ago. Dropped it. I’ll pick it up again.
This is incredible.
How do they use this data you enter?
The internal 'feel' of each note-making app is different, and it makes a big difference to how you approach and use them.
Obsidian for me is like a big scrap-book, I do not care about consistent layout. This encourages me to note often, and move on without fussing. Zettler, is the exact opposite for me, so I use instead, to 'formalise' and collate. You may find the exact opposite suits - the restrictions are instead guiderails enabling fast, accurate notes etc.
The second suggestions, is to use browser to markdown clippers to automatically save text, and ideally, import it automatically. If I find a stand-out goldmine, I print the web page to PDF (after using a reader type extension to strip all but the main text and images). I then treat the content with more care, instead of just collecting/hoarding.
Experiment till you find an effortless method for you, as most important, is to be an active learner.
Best note taking app I’ve ever seen❤
Nice visual features but with a simple notebook you can do the same, just draw the network or a mindmap
I think the key thing with the visualization is that it can help you find connections you didn't know were there. MindMaps are more about connecting ideas within the same concept/idea, whereas the graph is more about two different concepts linking on a common thread. Hopefully that made sense. it's difficult to describe rather than show.
Excellent and thanks.
HELP!!! Is there a software package that can help me organize my doctoral dissertation, for example, if I rearrange a Figure or Table, or insert a new Reference, it will automatically re-number everything in proper order throughout the entire paper???
Wow, THANKS!
Thanks!
A nice way to use the sync feature for free at least for apple users is to make a vault inside your iCloud Drive and then use it on your different devices. then it syncs in real time and works exactly as the paid method. I'm not that deep into obsidian yet, so I don't know if the paid service gives you any collaborative extras or anything else, but this is a very easy workaround.
Will it still be private or is that only on the physical computer?
I've had zero issues doing the same with Dropbox for over 2 years. Some people have trouble syncing with Dropbox. Maybe I've been lucky.
As private as iCloud can be. Apple does use encryption both directions and at rest I believe@@munaali840
Enjoyed your video.
I tried obsidian but quickly fell down a rabbit hole of youtube tutorials, communities, forums, plug ins and it all got too much. It's similar to Notion for me in that respect, in that it is such a blank template with almost unlimited customisation I find it overwhelming and too susceptible to distraction through endless tinkering, formatting and optimising.
Apple notes for me (which now features internal note linking too, by the way!)
Ive looked at obsidian and dabbled ( for my phd research) . Question ill get this amazing diagram but then so what? Why is this pretty web going to be better than carefully structured notes
Agreed. I can appreciate plaintext hyperlinking, and backlinking, and plugin support (although it would be better if it was open source), but the graphs seem rather useless.
You can have both. A structured folder with structured notes and linked ideas. The diagram is not the point. The linked ideas is what makes the difference.
For instance if you come across a concept while reading a note, you can quickly comb through other notes containing the same concept. Thereby giving you more context and deeper understanding.
Can you hand write notes and is it available for iPad and can I use it with Mac and windows? lol lots of questions there.
I write in XMind because I like flowchart style and XMind has automatic topic arrange and abilities for addition coloring, grouping, etc. Can Obsidian replace this?
Great video! Unfortunately, it was never taught to us.
I am conducting research on the best learning methods. It's currently in draft form.
This is Basically Luhmanns old Zettelkasten.
Great conten Man 🔥🔥🔥
IDK. I already take notes in markdown. Started in Typora then shifted to VS Code out of convenience. If I want to group notes I use folders. I could link to other notes but I rarely find it useful. I guess I don’t get it. Make it Stick looks interesting, though. I’ll check that out.
How does a visual representation of connected hash tags help you become more productive ?
Honestly, I dont think it does. It may help you link concepts and knowledge but that's does not equal increased productivity. Only if u struggle organizing data for eg a book, thesis or a paper it might increase your productivity bc it makes it easier to organize data and creating the desired product. But that is basically what luhmans "Zettelkasten" did in analog form. The hard work of grasping a concept? No tool will make that easier.
For me it’s not the visual representation but the fact that I can actually link notes and seemingly jump between them. With global search this is just so much easier to navigate and search.
you can create links to notes that dont exist **yet**. that means if you get an idea you make a link to that idea and can later write more to it. that enables you to incrementally fill in gaps in your knowledge. also, by writing down all that your thoughts become less cluttered and messy.
Quick question, b/c I'm sure people will want to know... can you embed LaTeX in the notes?
Yes. Math seems to work out of the box. For more LaTex functions there are community plugins you can easily install and enable.
So it's a mind-mapping software basically. BUT the risk is your visual mindmaps from obsidian may obstacle dynamic amendments ability, when you need to change, update, improve, reconfigure or start from scratch, because visual ia strong it sort of make the maps crystalize more.
Mmmm, no.
Obsidian is a text-editor.
Through plugins you can do a lot more, including mind mapping, but first and foremost it's an editor.
Excellent. I use Obsidian for personal knowledge managment and creative writing ideation. My writing group is looking for a tool like this that we can use collaboratively, but I've not yet discovered any straighforward ways for several people to use a shared Obsidian vault while continuing to use their preferred plugins. I'm hearing cries to use Notion, which makes collaboration easy. I prefer to get it working with Obsidian, but the configuration has to be minimally geeky. We are writers, not coders.
But if you want collaboration that is minimally geeky and is for writers not coders, why not use Notion? I know it is not free, but it is not expensive either. You'd be getting on with the writing, not synchronizing multiple vaults 🙂
@marknicholson5508 Four of the seven of us have tried Notion and like its functionality but do not like the proprietary format, which could make any necessary future content migration difficult or costly. We like that Obsidian uses plain text that can be stored anywhere, rather than being kept in another format in a database. We may have to trade portability to avoid the clunkiness of Obsidian in its current state. I expect it will evolve from a tinkerer's toolbox to an end-user's knowledge tool over time.
What about capacities? I think it's mix of notion and obsidian
Great video!
For file synchronization between my phone and my laptop I use syncthing configured to ignore the .obsidian folder.
It works great, is free and can work without internet
I still don't see why this would help me on any way. I do not get it. Its like creating another personal WWW, but why do that when you have the real WWW and now with AI is even easier and faster to search it? *WHAT AM I MISSING HERE, CAN SOMEBODY EXPLAIN?*
Obsidian vs Logseq? Thoughts & thank you 😊
I wonder if I can save the folder on my own server to push to my cloud..
"You're not stupid" don't overestimate me.
I have two problems which I hope someone will help me resolve. (1) The problem with what the Python Programmer describes with back links is that YOU NEED TO KNOW WHAT IS ALREADY IN YOUR SYSTEM to link back to. And when you have 3000 notes, this becomes problematic and unreliable with lots of missing links. Is there a plugin or feature on obsidian where the program suggests a link if you type a key word which links to existing notes with the same key word? And (2) Isnt there a danger that you spend you whole time curating your knowledge, and not having energy left for action, doing and using your knowledge in a new and creative way?
There are relatively easy ways to sync obsidian files without paying. I personally use syncthing. But there are ways to use cloud storage like google drive.
Can you do a video on the zettelkasten method?
I was just thinking about it watching this video. It's basically the same just digital!
For people who are thinking obsidian will magically change your life.
Note that there is NO single app which will transform your life.
Its just a app, finally its you who have to do all the study and practice.
Wow! Such a beautiful insight! You should be given Nobel Prize
I have to do the study and practice, as you say. AI language machines allow for organization of what seems like random tidbits of knowledge for the learner to be sequenced and presented in an interconnected way. The AI is a peer tutor for a process of inquiry.
pro tip: you can circumvent the premium costs for syncing across devices if you place your vault in a cloud storage like dropbox.
I downloaded Obsidian. My preliminary take is its glorified hashtagging on top of MS OneNote.
I was hoping it to be similar to a mind map adding a context over the graph lines.
Secondly I am unsure of how this will help me to get a quick understanding from my notes.
I think you may have discovered one of the primary benefits of obsidian: it isn't made by Microsoft. Although, it isn't open source, either, for what seems to be no good reason. If you're looking for a program a little more complex, (and open source) might I suggest Emacs?
You can add everything else via plug ins
Why is Microsoft something to be avoided?
Links to other docs and locations in docs have been in office apps since the 90s.
I'm a huge fan of the LaTex support!
and the mermaid support
I don't know if i"ll use Obsidian, but this guy's video making game is 100%. This is the goal other video makers aspire to
So i am just planning to get into learning Python and AI, I guess it may be the perfect time to start with Obsidian?
U can’t see a picture or description of the video
what's the difference between this and taking notes in HTML ???
Sounds interesting
I wish ChatGPT had Obsidian level note mapping but for responses.
Hmmm. I wonder how this would work for recipes organization ....
Amazing
It feels like I wasted over 20 years of taking in information not having Obsidian. No other app like it or that has some similar features interests me either but I constantly use Obsidian probably more than most other things ever, second only to my IDE at this point.
One advantage of obsidian is you can backup your notes and export to other things so time isn’t wasted
The only thing I don't like about Obsidian is that you're not able to past in images easily or group things together for easy view without the map.
Please have a look at remnote when you're at it.
I become an excellent student after Obsidian links😢😢😢then❤❤❤
Synchthing works quite well to copy vault changes between PCs or a PC and a mobile device, for free.
Nice video.
You said you wanna make as much notes as you can. However, what’s the purpose, goal? Why do you want to write so many notes, how are you going to use them?)
I've synced my Obsidian vaults using Syncthing between my phone and computers. My notes never touch the internet. It's free, opensource, and incredibly fast.
Obsidian has a small learning curve, but the app has genuinely changed my life. I find that it helps me stay organized without having to do the meticulous work of sorting through my files - and I have a lot of files.
How to organize it ?
What if you have 100 or 200 or 1000 note ?
@@Abdelrhman10 i’ve used it for all university notes and writing assignments. I use the back link feature to create a link between files for specific assignments. like if i have 20 articles to read for a biology class, I make a file titled “biology” and then i back link all my notes and assignments to this one file. I’ve done this for almost 5 years and have over 500 notes. Finding stuff is much easier on Obsidian than on my regular file manager for my computer.
@@Abdelrhman10tools bud. Obsidian has tools where u can automate scripts to be in a folder. Basically. It's like a personal project management app in .md format.
You don't fit all notes in one vault/obsidian project folder.
Fantastic video. Have been using Obsidian for just a few days now and just paid for Sync. 👍🏻
that was a waste of money , imho
I've been using Obsidian daily on up to 4 different computers now for a couple of months and the sync functionality has been seamless and extremely useful for my workflow. Each to his own I suppose.
Just keep building meaningful links between your notes.
This seems similar to what Tony Buzan does with his Mind Maps.
Is it?
Logseq is open source. Better to go with that
An obsidian RUclipsr here. I am impressed this is one of the best videos about Obsidian but not by an Obsidian-focused RUclipsr.
the larger the database, the more difficult it is to maintain
Your channel is a source of inspiration for me.
i dont see whats special on hashtags in obsidian. i am sure you can do the same in some other apps and connect notes.
It's not just hashtags, it's the whole Markdown formatting. And yes, there are many other apps that support Markdown and can link your files together. Obsidian is just one tool that the creator of this video is talking about.
Just like there are many different makes and models of cars. Find the one (car or app) that works for you.
I do recommend writing notes in your voice as it does really increase retention. However the graph mostly just a visual gimmik and making connections will be made obsolete by AI, so i wouldnt waste time on it.
I have so many notes that I don’t go back to. Even leetcode questions I do with no categorizing. This will be a good practice to revisit them and link them. Can be good for system design notes as well, as there is a lot of redundancy there. I’ll give it a try. Thanks
You won't be able to do it.
Most of these apps, I feel are more bloatware and have too many "features". They seem more focused on notetaking rather than actually learning anything, because in the end the best way to learn is active learning, ie actually doing practice, not notetaking. Just my hot take.
Notion is another example of an app that takes more time formatting rather than learning anything.
I just use old - fashion word
I think note-taking isn't bad. You need to be more selective with it. I recommend notes for content based e.g English
Is it in german to?
Thank you.
Also, if you don't want to subscribe to the paid syncing and you have a NAS or even online drive (Google Drive, Dropbox, etc.) you can just set that to watch the Obsidian storage folder to upload and sync the notes to all your devices. That's what I've done. Works great!
What you are saying is to create our vault inside Dropbox? Then it’s synced automatically?
Just put your vault folder in iCloud drive and you don’t have to pay for syncing
When I realised there was a community plugin to sync your notes among different devices (also mobile) through Git, which also works as a backup, I was sold.
it breaks…a lot!
nice one, Giles - Obsidian is a game changer - I am slightly chuffed because, for once, I am ahead of you - take care
No one gets to tell me I'm not stupid.
I might have missed it but did you start by explaining what Obsidian is? I'm almost 3 minutes in and still don't know what it's for.
i fail to see how Obsidian connects ideas and not just notes?
unless the notes are atomic.
how would it be objectively better than having an index of notes?
That is one option, ensure your notes are atomic.
Or, use some of the more explicit linking options, like linking g directly to a related paragraph in a different note. There's a lot of different ways to do it, just depends on what works for you.
That's one of the pros and cons of Obsidian: there can be a lot of different ways to accomplish what you want, and sometimes you have to figure out what works best for you.
@@DionV can you help me identify these "different ways" to have a visual graph representing connection between "ideas" and not just notes, other than making the note atomic, since then one note is representing one idea?
save
Still I dont Understand How to use Obsedian or Notion for learning and Remembering Complex Topics like : JavaScript Prototypal Inheritance or Inheritance in JavaScript using Constructor Function.
I mean How to remeber too many things by using Obsidian / Notion / XMind( MindMap)
Well I am a Window User.. and these three things helps me..
But Still I am Confused.. because.. doing all these things are Great..
But It takes lots of time. When I try to Underatand thoery in Programming using Obsidian or Notion
.
When Instrctor use Diagrams to Explain Inheritance..
Because theres a Lots of steps Involved in it..
And you cannot understand just by Typing stuff.. you need Diagrams or Figures to fully Understand it..
So I use white paper.. 😂😂😂
Because Windows have no free Software to do all these things
you are revealing all the secrets