Why do I keep trying Obsidian?

Obsidian should be the right answer for taking notes. It’s free, powerful, local-first, and does everything one might need. The ecosystem is huge.

Every few months, I find myself questioning my decision to stop using it after the last attempt¹ So, I re-install and start again, usually from scratch.

At first, it’s such a relief. There are buttons for doing the important things. There is a command palette for doing just about anything else. I can easily remap the keyboard shortcuts. The graph view, which I ridicule as useless most days, looks pretty cool, actually.

It’s so nice being able to just sit back and click around in the UI without the usual set of keyboard contortions in Emacs.

What a refreshing change!

Then, I’ll dig into some recent blog posts or YouTube videos from people sharing their latest configurations, plugins, workflows, etc. This is where things start to go wrong. I overcomplicate things right out of the gate. Too many plugins, too many folders, too many settings. If I wanted to make my notetaking tool into its own hobby, I’d keep using Emacs.

Obsidian’s biggest flaw is that it’s not Emacs.

Still, I’m determined to give it a fair shake, again, just for grins and to alleviate boredom.

This time I’m not installing any 3rd-party plugins until I’m sure I need them (for whatever meaning of “need” is appropriate). I’m not creating a bunch of nested folders. How about this, as a start?:

├── _attachments    # all attachments. No hierarchy
├── 00 System       # templates, scripts, etc.
├── 10 WIP          # Work In Process, projects, etc. Subfolder for each project.
├── Clippings       # Web clippings (to be filed or deleted later)
├── Daily Notes     # Daily Notes, obviously. Yearly folders.
└── Knowledgebase   # All other notes. No hierarchy.

I’m also avoiding superfluous front matter. Good grief, I sure can overthink the front matter. My default template is just a title and (created) date. Speaking of default templates, why the hell can’t I set a default template for all new notes? I’m trying to avoid installing Templater, but it’s going to be tough.

So far I’ve only installed the Calendar plugin. It remains a mystery that this isn’t built in.

Anyway, it’s always fun for a while. Let’s see how long it lasts this time.

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