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Comment by coffee2theorems | Hacker News Reader

Thanks for the great blog post, I could feel the frustration of not getting something to work, and the anxiety of feeling like I'm under performing. I've added you to my RSS reader now. :)

I've started to use index cards to write down daily tasks and I'll switch over to obsidian if I find myself asking the same question more than once. I think for me the process of writing something down slows my mind enough to let me focus on it.

I like @ZXoomerCretin's idea of keeping a running document of what I do each day. I think it would make anual review time a lot easier.

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Heres my digital pensieve -

Daily running log of what I have done

Dynamic todo list where things move up and down freely

remarkable tablet where I watch lectures and write notes (writing things down slows my mind and focuses as you say)

Daily Weekly Fortnightly Monthly Text files for spaced repetition, if I get to one and I have forgotten something then it’s moved up, if I feel like I know something it’s moved down

Longer memories are stored by topic:

Memory (working memory) Platform Operations Zany schemes Non-AT … + many more

Each is a hierarchy, platform is some 20 categories each with 10ish sub categories

It’s actually hosed on my NAS, tailscale connects all my devices so I can edit and view anywhere

I look forward to the day I can query and edit this with thought

Yes! Obsidian with daily note plugin and templates makes it really easy to build a quick list of things and automatically link to yesterday’s notes. A little extra time with templates and some custom js and you can make it a single key combo to copy the notes to paste buffer for sharing in slack standup thread.

Also, set up a praise folder and take screenshots every time somebody says something nice about the work you’re doing. You can automate documenting the context around it, too with quick add

Do you all pay for obsidian? Subscriptions rub me the wrong way for whatever reason and it was enough that I didn't want to pay so I use something else.

I'm using the free version synchronized with Syncthing, works great for just myself. Have a couple plugins I built for my own workflow. The good thing is that I can jump to any other markdown app if I want to

There is no free version if you use it for work.

(Full disclosure - I’m speaking from a place of privilege where I can afford the subscription cost of Obsidian)

I hear you on subscriptions rubbing you the wrong way. Hear me out, though. This is a bootstrapped team that builds and supports apps that empower you, the individual. Your data resides in plaintext and you can use your own sync server.

Not everything needs to be a subscription, but I don’t mind paying a few dollars per month to support the team.

Just my 2c.

If you're interested in an open-source, free equivalent, check out VSCodium (open-source version of VSCode), and FOAM (VSCode plugin - https://foambubble.github.io/foam/). In a new project, create a `docs/` folder, and start with `docs/notes.md`. When you want to branch out to other files & links, you can type [[MyTopic]] and FOAM will automatically create MyTopic.md, and will allow you to click on the link and navigate to it. Later, if you want to publish your notes as an HTML site, you can run `mkdocs` on the `docs/` folder, and it'll create a website from your notes. This MkDocs plugin enables the crosslinks in HTML: https://github.com/Jackiexiao/mkdocs-roamlinks-plugin. Good luck!

> Do you all pay for obsidian?

I did pay to support their development[1] early on. I've been an obsidian user since early 2020 and I had to roll my own sync solution at the time. At the time I was experimenting with a lot of other PKIM/Note apps and Obsidian was the only one that didn't do proprietary storage format and really honored the "minimal but trivial to extend in powerful ways" philosophy that I value.

> Subscriptions rub me the wrong way for whatever reason

I can understand that. Software development is hard and we are _long_ past the days where software was static. In some ways, I miss buying a computer that didn't expect an internet connection to constantly self-update. On the other hand, though, paying a few bucks a month so make sure the app is updated to take advantage of new OS features and generally keep up with device capabilities is worth it for me.

If there was some 2-5$/month option to support obsidian development I'd consider it. Yes, I know their cheapest sync plan is $4/month but it's only good for 1 gig of data and my biggest vault grows by that much every year or two... hence using SyncThing on a cheap VPS :).

[1]: https://help.obsidian.md/Licenses+and+payment/Catalyst+licen...

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