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Obsidian - The last note taking app I'll ever use

I think I finally have it. The best way I would consider taking notes.

Things I need

  1. Sync notes across devices (and backup)
  2. Be able to write math1 (Bye Workflowy2)
  3. Have privacy (I don't think any online solution gives me true ownership over my notes)
  4. Be able to publish pages online (Notion?)
  5. Be extremely fast (Bye Notion, and Logseq3)
  6. Works offline!
  7. Have a distraction free writing experience (no flashy stuff. Just pure minimalism)
  8. Let me use my favorite text editor (looking at you Vim)
  9. Let me switch context quickly without thinking too much.
  10. Allow markdown! (Bye MS Word and other proprietary software)

Ok. I will stop right here. I think I could address all these with the mother of all note-taking apps:

Why Obsidian?

  • Obsidian Git plugin
    • Use git normally on my windows PC.
    • Use termux on android and obsidian app to access content (read-only) on my phone. Utilizes fine-grained tokens so that I can access only that repository from my phone.
  • Obsidian \(\LaTeX\) suite
    • Helps me write math really quick and also allows me to use snippets for boilerplate stuff that I need to add from time to time.
    • Also has the option (which I haven't utilized) to use javascript code to generate text based on a snippet pattern and a parameter value
  • Privacy is default
    • I am not hosting my notes anywhere but on my private GitHub repository
  • I can actually publish very easily using obsidian
    • Initially I used Quartz but then I started using Mkdocs Material
    • This gives me an added convenience to publish only a part of the vault while leaving the other part private for me. That's a lot of control.
    • Also, I focus more on content (and actually can even forget that I have a blog online)
  • Extremely fast
    • Extremely fast
    • Extremely fast
    • Extremely fast
    • Extremely fast
    • Extremely fast
  • Cause it works offline.
  • Distraction free?
    • Initially I was worried about graphs and how I wanted it to look. Later I just settle for the Prism theme.
    • I use the dark/light mode in conjunction, whenever I need to do academic work, I use the light mode and the dark mode for writing stuff (like this blog). Helps me stop being derailed when I am doing important work (which I will do invariably on the light mode)
  • It supports Vim! That's a sale for me
  • Switching context?
    • I use a plugin called longform which is actually used to write longform texts, but it helps me organize and access different folders quickly without needing to click on the native obsidian folders a lot.
  • Obsidian is all markdown
  • It is boring
  • It is limited

A little Showcase

Obsidian on PC

Obsidian on PC

Obsidian on mobile Light

Obsidian on mobile (Focusing)

Obsidian on mobile|313x697

Obsidian on mobile (Leisure reading)

  1. I didn't learn \(\LaTeX\) for nothing. I want to be able to use it cause its just so darn good! ↩

  2. Only for notetaking, for general things that require syncing Workflowy is good ↩

  3. Though I have to say, logseq was one of its kind. I really loved it. But Obsidian was just more mature. ↩

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