Comment by archibaldJ | Hacker News Reader

Comment by archibaldJ | Hacker News Reader

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I'm the type most comfortable with taking notes on a physical piece of paper (cuz then I can draw stuff and make mind maps).

After many months I'm still learning to use Notion more extensively for different things e.g. automating stuff via the API

This is my first time coming acrossing Obsidian, just wondering if anyone's been using both Notion and Obsidian.

How would doing things in one and not the other differ from a use-case perspective, etc?

(I never quite understand this graph thing from a cognitive-offloading perspective, and how it should be utilized for domain-specific things, etc) I feel like it's often the act of taking notes that is benefitial (eg helping us to clear up the conceptual space). But maybe that's cuz I'm not in a name-intensive field like biology?

I use both Notion and Obsidian. The main difference is that Notion is an entire database processing platform, especially once you get into mirroring databases, and getting savvy with filters and check boxes. Not to mention the fact that everything in Notion is its own page. This makes it wildly customizable, and again, programmable.

Obsidian is a lot more static. It's basic strengthis having offline capabilities, simplicity, and markdown. I use it exclusively for my Zettelkasten, which I also have on Notion (I started my ZK and migrated it over to Obsidian). Obsidian is great for ZK in part due to its simultaneous multiple panel openings. So, you can see multiple notes at once. Notion can do this too, and I've use its Gallery fxn for exactly that, but there's something less claggy about Obsidian in this regard.

Notion is great for GTD and project management (again, when used dynamically with filters etc). Obsidian is great for note storage and retrieval, as well as processing ideas and arguments for use later in writing articles, scripts, etc.

I see! Thanks for the detailed breakdown and comparisons! I'm now somewhat convinced that I should definitely get familiar with Obsidian and exploring different aspects of it

Zettelkasten has been something that I wanna try out for a while!

I love talking about it, so ask away!

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