Thoughts on Obsidian

I tried using Obsidian for a while last year. I also tackled David Sparks’ excellent Obsidian Field Guide course on the app and its uses.

There’s no denying that it’s a powerful app with lots of capabilities. But, even with some customised theming, it’s not pretty. Utilitarian would be the word I’d reach for to describe it to someone. It’s a step up from a text-only user interface (TUI), but only a step. As a result, it didn’t spark joy for me. 🤷

A recent post by Jack Baty resurfaced these thoughts:

I spent some time in Obsidian again yesterday. I do this once a month or so just to see if somehow it’s changed into something I’d like to use. Obsidian is great software, in theory, but I still find it boring and unpleasant to actually use.

I may give it another try in a year or so, or look at similar apps. But I suspect that I’m not (right now) the target market for Obsidian and similar note-taking / note-linking apps. Never say never. But there’s one thing I’ve taken to heart over the last few years. No amount of tech can overcome a lack of understanding of what the problem is that you’re trying to solve.