Using Obsidian for academic writing and creativity
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- čas přidán 16. 06. 2023
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In this conversation with David Nicholls, I describe how I use Obsidian to support my academic writing and creative process, in response to Dave's question: Is the effort you need to put into Obsidian worth it?
I explain how I've set up different vaults in Obsidian, depending on what it is that I'm trying to do, and use examples from my own practice to show why I think Obsidian deserves all the hype. I'm not sure if I convince Dave that the benefits of using Obsidian for academic writing are worth the cost in terms of the time you need to invest, but it's a conversation that I enjoyed nonetheless.
Thanks for sharing, this has reminded me to keep things simple and focus on the goal: sparking ideas and writing
Thank you for sharing this interesting interview presenting your way of using obsidian. It got me to reflect on how I use obsidian myself and got me pondering on whether to change my current level of isolation of different use cases.
Interesting workflow...
Just to say that your guest mentioned 'Jason' and 'On The Rig' podcast, and how this guy Jason loves Obsidian, so I search the internet and found no mention of such a podcast. Maybe you could put a link here in your comments?
Hi Colin. I'll include the link to the episode in the show notes. For now, here it is: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/where-jason-and-inger-go-way-too-deep-on-obsidian/id1526042481?i=1000583547949.
how do I set this up?
Hi there. I'm not sure exactly what you're asking. If you're looking for instructions in how to install the software and plugins, then that's more than I can answer in a comment thread. I might create a video explaining the setup, but that probably won't be soon, as there are other videos I'd rather create before then. My advice is to first spend some time thinking about what kind of writing workflow works for you, and then start experimenting with different writing software. I'm not suggesting that Obsidian is 'the best', and there are many options available. I had another conversation with Dave, a very productive academic, where he describes his workflow (czcams.com/video/D6KZeVlphOI/video.html). You may find that useful as a way of helping to describe how you write best. Let me know if your question was about something different, and I'll do my best to respond.
I treat Obsidian as a very nice Markdown editor with a lot of plugins for extensibility. All my stuff goes into one vault with a hierarchical folder structure. I hardly ever use links between notes, because they are organized hierarchically in the folders. I ignore the mind-mapping stuff - if you want to learn Esperanto, go ahead, but don't tell me all communications have to be done in Esperanto. Obsidian's like that - there is the cultish group that is _really_ into the mind mapping, and think everyone who's not doing that is doing it wrong. I guess I'll be wrong and productive.
Theres no right or wrong with obsidian. thats why it is so good!
It works for me, @@paulywalnutz5855 - that, and it having a great community!
Having different valuts for idea and writing defeats the purpose and it a poor example. Sorry. The better approach is to have one valut but leverage folders to separate and arrange these areas into a maneable hierarchy. This method is clean, and keeps the power of linking, and thus inability functionality that comes with it. When use a "Maps of Content" notw to collect dissparate ideas and notes into any order you like.
Hi Clarke. I'm just describing what works for me. The nice thing about Obsidian is that you can use it in different ways. I tried a single vault with MoC and it wasn't worth it. For me.
@@thinkinginpublic very true that the beauty of the Obsidian, and is that there are many ways to carve it up. Yeah I think by placing everything into different volts you’re losing far too much functionality for it to be a serious alternative.
And it seems to me that the issues you’re having can be solved by simply leveraging the folder structure in a similar way that you’re using the vaults, and yet you will remain with the ability to link because everything is sitting in the 1 V.
I’d also add that coming up with your own structure is something that has to be earned. Not copied, but you do want to make certain that you’re not painting yourself into a corner and it does seem to me that’s exactly what you’re doing by placing writing and 1 V notes in another for one thing, you going to have an issue with duplication And you won’t, even though it’s an issue because everything is in different vaults so while it might seem like something that works for you now I would seriously consider not going down that path because you are affectively wiping out the real power of using an application like obsidian in the first place.
Just my two cents apologies.
@@ClarkeScott Thanks for sharing your thoughts. I tried a single vault in the early days of using Obsidian, and to be honest, it's not something I've thought about since then. I'll definitely reflect on your comments here, and maybe consider merging the vaults.
I think it makes sense to seperate signal from noise. The daily notes is a vault to be messy. The commonplace book is a little more sacred for long-lived knowledge. By crossing the streams the evergreen knowledge is tainted with useless shit. Having “one vault to rule them all” reminds me of those searching for one single app to manage their entire productivity stack. Good luck installing all those 3rd party plugins to tame that beast!
I hope nobody follows his advice. His commonplace book is basically useless for his writings. This is an undesirable result. The best solution for the problem of transition from the forest to the paths is building MOCs or any kind of structure notes during the process of making notes.
P.S. I think we should stop saying “for me” as a tactic to avoid criticism. We are discussing objective practical problems. For instance, I can say that a hammer is better than a chair to nail. It's not for me. It's better, period. We can imagine some conditions in which a hammer is not the best tool to nail. But those conditions will be also objective, although they can be rarely applicable.
I think it's a bit of a stretch to say that this approach is useless for writing. After all, I use it to write.
Use structure notes when you need them. Clearly he doesn’t need them to spark ideas and write. I really like the simple approach here.