On why and how I use Obsidian as my PKM

from:: Memex
related:: On PKMs and the extended mind thesis

In the past I've used various combinations of Evernote, Tinderbox, OmniOutliner, Scapple, TaskPaper, Diigo, Apple Notes, VooDoo Pad, SimpleNote, Notational Velocity, as well as simple plain text files and folders, but I've never been as excited about the possibilities of a PKM system as I am about Obsidian.

Obsidian gets so many things right from a usability perspective, but they also have a thoughtful development philosophy and user-focused principles that prioritize long-term portability and privacy via offline-first control of your local plain-text markdown files. In short, they are not trying to lock you in to their system since Obsidian essentially works "on top" of any folder of plain-text markdown files, making it relatively easy to bring your notes to many other apps due to the ubiquity of markdown and wiki links. This, along with their non-VC profit model, a generous free version, and a great community, made me feel confident enough in its long-term viability to start using it as my main PKM... thing.

I use Obsidian in a variety of ways, but mainly to externalize my learning, thinking, todos, etc. into a reliable system I can refer to later. This is helpful when I need to jump between topics or priorities because it lets me get back to a given context without too many negative context-switching effects. It also helps me do the occasional brain dump or GTD-style mind sweep so I can have a clear head to focus on whatever my current priority is and maximize opportunities for deep work and flow states.

I also use Obsidian as a good excuse to go through the mental exercise of writing things down, which requires me to think through my thoughts on a deeper level in order to articulate the specifics of my understanding, as opposed to being content with a superficial intuition. I.e, writing can be an augmentation of one's thinking in that clear writing requires clear thinking (Writing as thinking). I think writing in this way can also serve as a decent substitute for the Feynman technique.

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