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Comment by gennarro | Hacker News Reader

Would highly recommend reconsidering paper notes. Get a small notebook [0] and write down what you need. You’ll lose it and spill coffee on it but you’ll be fine. For the vast majority of things the note writing experience is what makes the difference, not the actual paper. For the rest a subscription is not for me, but to each their own.

0 - https://unsharpen.com/pocket-notebooks/

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> For the rest a subscription is not for me, but to each their own.

Apps like Logseq, Obsidian and Dendron don't have subscriptions.

I’m only familiar with Obsidian, but it’s business model does have an $8/mo sync tier, and a $16/mo publishing tier as well as a $50/user/year commercial plan.

You can easily set up sync using SyncThing or Dropbox or any other tool that syncs directories between devices. I did pay $25 because I enjoy using Obsidian - but I don't think there is anything missing in the free version. The best part is that everything including themes, plugins and themes are synced perfectly between desktop and mobile.

> You can easily set up sync using SyncThing

Unless you're on iOS/iPadOS, as far as I know.

You can use iCloud to sync everything - your actual notes and the workspace files. Easy, free, works great.

Assuming all the devices you work on are Apple devices.

Some people use iPhones but work on Windows/Linux.

If you choose to straddle ecosystems there really isn't that much that the likes of Obsidian can do to help though (especially when it comes to iPhone). I use Obsidian with Mac + Android (Synced via Dropbox, and backed up using git) and it works. Little bit of manual setup, but I can handle that.

At the end of the day Obsidian is just a directory structure of Markdown files. If needed, you can edit them with Obsidian (say using the Dropbox app).

I’m iPhone & Pop_os! . There are some obsidian forum threads that can help, I think this is the one that I used for my setup (1).

It is not completely obvious in the UI, but the basic idea is that you use a iOS git app (I use the excellent Working Copy) to just push and pull everything to GitHub, working around some inherent iOS limitations. As a bonus, you can setup the Shortcuts app to auto push and pull with closing and opening obsidian. There’s a git sync extension for obsidian, makes it all pretty seamless once it’s set-up.

1. https://forum.obsidian.md/t/mobile-setting-up-ios-git-based-...

My method is platform agnostic.

You set up all your vaults under the same folder. You 2-way sync that folder to a cloud folder- Dropbox, MEGA, sync, box- whatever. You then create a folder with the same name on another device, and then use the client for your cloud service for that platform, and then set up two way sync with that folder on the cloud.

Works great with my Android-PopOS system.

Also tried it with Android-macOS, and iOS-Windows.

I never managed to do that. Obsidian insisted on putting its vault in its own folder, not on iCloud, IIRC.

Is there a guide how to set it up?

This is not my channel, but is a pretty good guide to set it up

It equates to basically standing up a new vault on an iOS device and choosing to store it in iCloud in the first place, then migrating the data over

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqI4_gQqPQg

You just set up a two way sync.

One folder- a Notes folder where all your "vault"s are- on your phone. That syncs with a folder on the cloud. Then get the sync app client on your laptop/PC. Then sync a local folder from your laptop with the cloud folder.

The Obsidian for desktop app is pretty great.

The whole thing works great for me.

So it's like this-

    _______                  _________________                        ________
    |phone |---------------> |cloud           |<--------------------- |laptop|
    |notes |  (2 way sync)   |folder of       |     (2 way sync)      |notes |
    |folder|<--------------  |MEGA/DB/box/sync|---------------------> |folder|
    -------                  ------------------                       --------

This method is tried and platform agnostic. All you need is a client that is available for your platform.

> One folder- a Notes folder where all your "vault"s are- on your phone. That syncs with a folder on the cloud.

Not if Obsidian doesn't let me choose the folder, because the sync apps don't have access to its default folder.

I installed iSH [0] (Alpine linux emulator) on my iPad and sync obsidian directories between my laptop and the iPad using git and ssh. Works like a charm.

[0] https://ish.app/

For android, there is box, sync, MEGA, etc. There are more.

> does have an $8/mo sync tier

As Obsidian keeps all your notes as plain markdown files, you can easily get it for free with two-way sync set up with Sync, box, MEGA, etc.

+1. I wanted to build a daily journaling habit but digital just wasn’t cutting it for me. I managed to do it once I bought one of these [0]. I punched a hole in it and tied a pen to it.

The forgiving format (entries are not pre-dated so you’re allowed to miss a day, the bar on entry length is set low by design) coupled with absence of friction when traveling (no poor connectivity, low battery, etc.) really went a long way.

I knew that even the need to find a pen to write the day’s journal would be enough friction for me to skip it, which is why I tied one to it.

I’ve filled up a couple of these little notebooks, but I haven’t been able to replicate this consistency with any digital solutions.

[0] #HashtagADay: A Hashtag Journal https://www.amazon.com/dp/145213927X/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glt_...

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