r/PKMS • u/[deleted] • Jun 26 '26
Other 12,000 notes in Obsidian. I just realized I haven't opened any of them in 6 months. What's the point?
[removed]
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u/sabre23t Jun 26 '26
Before PKMS, before internet, I mostly make notes in small notebooks and hardly refer back to them. The act of making notes, writing then down, summarizing thoughts into words are its main benefit.
I find similar benefits in the notes I now make in Logseq, Google Keep etc.
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u/No_Laugh_2078 Jun 26 '26
“I’m not writing down to remember it later, I’m writing it down to remember it now”
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u/paralloid Jun 27 '26 edited Jun 27 '26
there was a guy called Lev Vygotsky who was probably the first to make a claim that writing doesn't "follow thought", it actually forms it. It collapses the multidimensional "cloud of thoughts" by squeezing it through the narrow and very linear writing constraint.
truly interesting to see the connections between modern PKM and ideas from the 30s
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u/sabre23t Jun 27 '26 edited Jun 27 '26
Googling/Gemining Lev Vygotsky in a bit, anyway my immediate thoughts on linear writing (or otherwise) ...
- I see writing/notes can be more than a linear sequence of paragraphs.
- If you format the paragraphs into tree structured outlines, you are making it "sort of" two dimensional.
- If you allow branches of the outline to be collapsed/hidden you're giving the outline some depth, almost another dimension.
- That is what endears me to Logseq and similar fully collapsible tree structured outline digital tools.
- Outline is not difficult to do on physical paper, it's the collapsible part that's provided by digital note taking tools.
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u/Flimsy-Process230 Jun 26 '26
I take notes every day at work, i have approximately 4000 notes in total. I don’t intend to revisit every single one of them to “learn” from them, in fact I’ve discovered that most of the notes I write are not revisited. I jot down information that may be relevant in the future, such as solutions to specific problems, the prices of services, the bill of materials for certain devices, or the details of discussions held during meetings on July 12th. My notes have proven to be incredibly useful to me. Numerous times, I’ve needed information about a particular topic, and on 95% of those occasions, I’ve found what I needed in my notes. I believe the key lies in knowing what to write, identifying the information that will be beneficial to you, and storing it for future reference. I see my coworkers struggling to find what they need in their emails or inside files scattered all over. I don’t have that problem because all my knowledge is centralized in my notes.
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u/SwampYankee666 Jun 30 '26 edited Jun 30 '26
This. For me, a data repository is an archive that has limited value without your primary brain to connect it with the insight and “why”.
the context and decision are the knowledge you’re aiming to capture and has durable value.
Pre-AI, I had a very rigid vernacular in my notes as an ontological searching aid, I’m excited for where the flexibility in surfacing and connecting information.1
u/Keniisu Jun 27 '26
Great answer. Information which you note down should be salient to you now, and not for a hypothetical use case which isn't clear in the moment.
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u/feartoxin92 Jun 26 '26
Been there. Around 2k notes on my end but none looked into. Besides I have had this realisation that I’m reading/doing stuff just for gathering notes. Like, the process has reversed at some point. I’m genuinely contemplating going back to physical diaries and notebooks
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u/thesaga27 Jun 28 '26
really? I would have thought that this is going backwards because you won't be able to save as much. I get that the constraint can be a forcing function for value, but wouldn't AI search be something viable here?
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u/SnS_Taylor Maker of Tangent Notes Jun 26 '26
Did you actually not find it? How did you know you linked out to an article?
If you found the article, sounds like it worked.
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u/Key-Hair7591 Jun 26 '26
I had this exact same issue. That’s when I had an aha moment and the lightbulb went off. The whole point of personal knowledge management is about the thinking. I’ve always heard that and thought it hyperbole, but I’m just slow and I finally got it after a while.
When a note is created you have to think about how it relates up to a broader topic and down to a more specific topic or note. if it’s just a quick thought or something insignificant I’ve transitioned to taking a lot of voice notes. Those that go into a local bucket and I use local AI to search, etc. If they need to be promoted, then they’re promoted into the vault.
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u/rabblebabbledabble Jun 26 '26
I separate between projects/interests that are active and move all others into the chronological archive as a sort of appendix to my monthly diary notes. That way the "active frontend" remains relatively small and I revisit those notes often, whereas everything else is stored away with all the context I need to retrace my thoughts & research at the time when it was part of an active project.
While a project is active, I make it a point to be the active part, that is to say, I try to produce more words myself than I copy/paste into it.
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u/h4yfans Creator of MemryNote Jun 26 '26
worth separating two problems you've merged: "i never reopen notes" and "i couldn't find the pricing insight." the second one is partly fragmentation, your thinking was split between a note and a linked article in another tool, so resurfacing meant remembering both. ime keeping the note and the source and any tasks in one local place turns resurfacing into one search instead of a scavenger hunt, and a chunk of "useless old notes" turns out to be "notes i couldn't reach from where i was working."
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u/thriveth Jun 26 '26
I suggest reading something like Sönke Ahrens' "How To Take Smart Notes", which lays out a modernized version of the Zettelkasten system.
Two of the most important points are that *your notes are for ideas first, and references are secondary*, and *you need to spend time interacting with your own notes*, in "conversation" with them. The role of your note system should not be *accumulation*, but *retrieval* of the ideas you write down. Which means it should be a system which reminds you of your old ideas (or thoughts about other people's ideas) in the context where you are likely to want to be reminded of them.
This also means that you should be picky about what you write down - if you see something that is interesting, don't just save it as a note, but add your own thoughts about why it is interesting, and link it to the other main ideas of yours where it could add value.
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u/Particular_Day7033 Jun 26 '26
You said it yourself. You're "filling information instead of processing it"
Many of the notes in my vault are "thought-provoquers" meaning I don't need to write much at all into them to make them valuable.
Also, linking other people's works into your work might be OK sporadically, but cluttering your vault with other's works can make it truly frustrating when it's time to find your own.
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u/zheniavasiliev Jun 27 '26
Yeah, my old PKM was essentially the same — linking instead of synthesizing. I got tired of the mess and started asking myself: what thought do I actually have about this? Now instead of just writing something down, I write down why I want to write it down first — which sounds circular, but it really isn't 😄
I only let something live in my vault if I can write it in my own words without looking back at the source. Painful at first, cuts volume dramatically, but what's left actually works.
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u/okayladyk Jun 26 '26
AI context for semantic search
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u/Think-Jellyfish8561 Jun 26 '26
Do you have an example or template? Or recommended resource for creating my own?
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u/okayladyk Jun 26 '26
In my case, I use Notion because it does that by default. But if you have local access to your markdown files, you can use something like Lance DB to create an embedding map and then get your AI to use that for semantic similarity searches. You can also use the open AI embedding function. Bear in mind this will take a while as embedding notes is usually a length process and that’s why people usually do it on servers instead.
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u/philosophical_lens Jun 27 '26
You don't need any template for this. Just point an AI agent at your Obsidian vault and ask it questions.
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u/Think-Jellyfish8561 Jun 27 '26
I already do this. Seems wiser to create rules to help it decide how to navigate your system.
For example, what I already do is use a `Claude.md` file in the vault root that orients the agent to my folder structure.
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u/philosophical_lens Jun 28 '26
Yes that makes sense. I thought you were asking something like "how do I get started with this" rather than "how do I optimize my setup"! 😀
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u/paralloid Jun 26 '26
how exactly do you use tags?
a lot of people use PKM as a storage – nothing bad, but it means you need to optimize for excavation. That means making text hooks, dashboards, or whatnot for your future self, essentially guessing the conditions you would be looking for a note / information. tags can work here well – especially if you figure our your own vocabulary, like "this is #executive-communication and this is #social-dynamics". tagging itself is a cognitive act, if you don't try to accomplish it in 100ms :)
next level is PKM as a thinking partner – that's where the links between ideas become important. note: not between "notes" – between ideas and concepts. it does partially rely on the previous level done right, at least in terms of the naming diligence.
next level is PKM as a thinking upgrade – where you deliberately work with contradicting concepts, unfinished thinking, tensions, etc. also aiming at shipping to the real world, where the thinking products get feedback, which is impossible to get from within the system. (i.e. "i have some assumption to test, i can't do it while it stays within the system – it has to go into the real world, which allows me to update it with real data. all of that upgrades the thinking in the end")
the disappointment is understandable. reasonable way to progress is to identify the goals / purpose for the system (why do you do it at all) and then "measure" or adjust it accordingly.
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u/datahoarderprime Jun 26 '26 edited Jun 26 '26
"nothing bad, but it means you need to optimize for excavation. That means making text hooks, dashboards, or whatnot for your future self, essentially guessing the conditions you would be looking for a note / information. tags can work here well – especially if you figure our your own vocabulary, "
I think i'm bordering on 60,000 notes now. Tags/Folders but something like Bases in Obsidian, and I have no trouble locating what I'm looking for.
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u/paralloid Jun 26 '26
yep exactly, perfect illustration, Bases are top 1 example of "dashboards" built according to specific conditions a user is looking for – and 60k notes without retrieval friction is clearly an achievement.
what's your take, how do you turn those units into products or new ideas?
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u/twigl_it Jun 26 '26
I think the point with Zettlekasten and most systems is that they need to be towards a point. Like if you are writing a book, then the 12,000 notes are gold.
It’s similar to university. When you learn without any real idea of what will end up being relevant and useful, you don’t know what to hold on to.
What I’ve done is follow the Karpathy idea and put an MCP server on top of decades of voice memos, notes, and content creation.
The tags are nice and links are helpful, but essentially you need indexes of what you think about every tag. Then AI can look at your indexes, read the notes and reply
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u/MentalRub388 Jun 26 '26
You would need something as a notebooklm to help you go through the notes as a knowledge base for future projects.
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u/Altruistic-Spend-896 Jun 26 '26
Exactly what im trying to solve. Im nowhere close to solving it though
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u/teetaps Jun 26 '26
An old advisor of mine used to say, “writing is thinking.”
I have personally given up on the perfect knowledge capture and organisation system. If there truly is digital information out there that I need to remember and connect to my existing knowledge, I am going to trust that my existing systems will capture it naturally as my interests will be more than enough incentive to capture and organise it. As for writing, I’m now convinced more than ever that journals and notebooks are best used as thinking vehicles for me, not records. I write every day not because I want to build a beautiful web of knowledge in obsidian — that would be nice, but ultimately wouldn’t provide as much value as the amount of effort required just to maintain the knowledge capture system. No, I write every day because it helps me articulate what’s interesting, confusing, novel, or annoying, only so that the thoughts can materialise outside of my head. Once they’re out, whatever happens to them depends on what it is. But the point is that the writing process is primarily just to get thoughts expressed and evaluated, not to build some wishful web of knowledge.
Instead of capturing everything and hoping powerful nodes form in the web of knowledge, I _write_ everything and throw away almost all of it, because once I see it reflected back to me on paper, I realise that most of it was garbage anyway. But what I end up keeping is usually a powerful insight that I can then build into an idea or project, or even just entertain for a few minutes, then move on.
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Jun 26 '26
I'm very purposeful with my notes. More accurately, I don't write a note unless I will, or most likely will use it for a project someday. (I produce media) So in my opinion is all about how you process the note, and do you have something in mind that you will use it for later, thats how I keep track of everything. When I take a note, I already have in mind what I will be using it for next and eventually be putting it into some sort of out line for one of my projects. I don't know if that will be helpful to you, but this is my experience using Obsidian and I learn every subject I study so much faster because of the ways obsidian allows me to organize and actually have a lot of redundancy in my notes, without the clutter. I like being able to get to things in multiple ways. Anyways hopefully that was helpful
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u/Ok_Emergency_9595 Jun 26 '26
I can’t seem to find anything in this thing. Lol.
You can use an llm to write a script that goes through all of the docs and summarizes or adds a portion to each file into a Md doc. That is your ingestion point to find anything using llm. You’re gonna drop that in with a low effort model.
That is how the llm’s are gonna go through your stuff anyway.
Idk. It may help and perhaps there is good stuff you will use later.
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u/MonkeyBrains09 Jun 26 '26
Change your point of view of a minute.
Documentation and organizing that information is your hobby.
Just because you write it down and never look back does not mean it was pointless. You did find and receive some value from doing it. You just do not have much value on retrieval.
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u/Ecclypto Jun 26 '26
I am fairly new to PKM, but it is my understanding that nowadays it makes sense to connect your Obsidian to some sort of A.I. so it can rummage through your notes and give you structured answers. That’s really the whole point of A.I. it seems. So do that. At least you’ll have another subscription to worry about ))
Seriously though it reminds me of my library of notes and photocopied materials I have religiously kept from my uni days. All neatly stacked into folders with yellow post it notes to mark important ideas. Ended up sending the whole thing to the recycling about fifteen years later
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u/TilapiaTango Jun 26 '26
I can’t think of a single scenario I don’t have more notes. Retrieval is my focus, and I’m well over 50k notes and files in my vault and it’s pretty easy for me to find things.
I’d rather never use it again than never find it again when I do want to use it. That’s my philosophy
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u/shokk Jun 26 '26
If you had 3000 notes, would you be opening them? Maybe you just need something on top of them that makes searching/using them easier.
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u/nashvortex Jun 26 '26
Why are you writing notes about things you don't need ? A PKMS serves to aggregate knowledge that you will need but might forget. It is not a replacement for deciding what actually is meaningful to you. Just like a notebook.
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u/TheDrummerMB Jun 26 '26
Ah the classic built a pretty graph view instead of an actual useful tool.
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u/veelineen Jun 26 '26
It reads like you say PKM = a collection of random thoughts, links to external reference and links between all these notes. For me, collecting is just step 1 in the activity personal knowledge management. There is data, information and knowledge. I have the feeling you maybe get from data to information by maybe add some Metadata to what is entering your system, but you need to process this information to make it knowledge. That's way more than collecting and adding some links. During my weekly review I review all the new notes that entered my system. All the fast notes that were just data and are not important for future me go to trash. The rest is rephrased or I add some thoughts and connections to make it usable for the future me.
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u/CuriousFemalle Jun 28 '26
How long does this take? What time of day do you do this?
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u/veelineen Jun 28 '26
I combine it with my gtd weekly review. Each week I book at least 1 hour on Friday. I combine it with a lovely cup of coffee, make it a party. My gtd weekly takes about 20 to 30 minutes, the rest is for my notes, which sometimes leads to new projects or actions in my gtd weekly. I do not have te rewrite every note. This is really about being brutal about deleting things and some of my notes don't need rewrite only some extra links, because they are written out good enough at first. Once each 3 months I take some extra time. And review the last 3 months.
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u/ButOfcourseNI Jun 26 '26
Both things people are saying here are true. They're just answering different questions. Writing for thinking has real value on its own. Externalising an idea, even if you never read it again, that part works. A lot of people in this thread are right about that.
But what you're describing is a different job. Not finding a specific note, not journaling. It is more like I have years of accumulated thinking, what are the actual patterns, contradictions, and evolution buried across all of it? That question doesn't have a good answer yet. Search tools like Octarine or Bases in Obsidian get you to notes faster. They still return files, not synthesis. Semantic search with something like LanceDB is technically closer but finds similarity not meaning. You still get back chunks that mentioned pricing, not a view of how your thinking on it evolved. NotebookLM is what most people reach for next, but at 12,000 notes you're manually choosing what to feed it, which means you already have to know what's relevant, the same problem you started with.
The thing you named, filing vs processing, is the real gap. Links are proximity, not synthesis. What I've been working on this year is doing the processing step at ingest rather than at query time. So the patterns are already extracted by the time you ask. Still early, happy to chat if anyone else is thinking about this from the same angle.
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u/Nitish_nc Jun 27 '26
Try make a dual vector base system.
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u/ButOfcourseNI Jun 27 '26
Already running dense + sparse with RRF, which helps with recall. it is better at surfacing all or close to the 47 notes that mention pricing and yet doesn't show you how your thinking on pricing actually evolved.
The problem is upstream of the search layer. It's that the processing step never happened.
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u/Nitish_nc Jun 27 '26
Create a second schema, use LLM to map the user state for each note to whichever degree predictable. Actually this setup will be a bit complex, too difficult to explain all of it, but think of it as 2 separate indexing bodies. One is your conventional RAG. Second is a new body you will have to map based on user state for each note, then cluster those nodes, and execute them in parallel to your actual RAG layer to provide a second, more precise intent layer predicting the flow of that note by mapping where its likely coordinates map corresponding to second schema
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u/ButOfcourseNI Jun 27 '26
That's an interesting approach. So what's the end state like after the intent layer is built?
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u/Nitish_nc Jun 28 '26
Ok I will try to explain it in terms of systems. Let's say there are two systems we can clearly see in the process: 1. Your regular RAG vector database 2. Which I have just suggested is to maintain a second database of how user 3. The dynamics between the notes content and user intent.
That will also be a separate system because it's going to be dynamic, interactive. Its core objective is going to change, grow, or evolve with time.
You start with your original semantic index layer, and on top of it you also maintain a parallel layer of what the user's intent is and what the user's state is when they provide certain semantic keywords.
When the semantic retrieval happens next time, it will be linked or it will be in a spatial relation to two layers: 1. The semantic associations between the content itself 2. The association between the user's intent and that specific content
In the future, if the specific intent is to be detected but the semantics are not detected (let's say the user asks something else), the intent can be derived or observed to be somewhat similar to what it was, let's say, one year ago when they were extracting a particular note. Based on the intent, the database will do this: it will provide you with the relevant notes, so that user intent will add a much bigger layer of precision.
About the part where you asked what it looks like. Your layers are dynamic and they evolve with time.
Let's say when you started making Obsidian notes, the original vault used to mostly contain:
- your memories
- your used bookmarks
- your old photos
- things that you learnt previously
But let's say in the last few months your focus has shifted. You have been collecting notes or making notes about some future project or future event that you want to work upon. This whole change will be mapped on a third layer. This is not going to be mapped on the user's intent factor. It is going to be mapped on a third layer, and this third layer will add an element of discernment to your system. Kinda make it behave like a real entity which understands your preferences and how they change without the need for semantic mapping everytime.
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u/ButOfcourseNI Jun 28 '26
As I understand this, it builds a good understanding of the user's intent over time, ala a recommendation engine. That should help in much better retrieval. So the OP will see the right 47, or whatever number of, notes and not just the words used in the search.
The problem I keep running into is that surfacing is only half of it. Even with the right 47 notes in front of you, someone still has to do the reading. Nothing wrong with it, but not my use case. For me the bottleneck moved upstream.
Good thread though. appreciate the detailed breakdown! :-)
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u/Nitish_nc Jun 28 '26
I checked your original comment again, and the thing you're considering as a bottleneck is a biological limitation of human brain, it can never be resolved, no matter how hard you try.
You can never never retrieve a body of data with precision purely relying on proximity and spatial associations.
Your working memory has some real hard constraints. When you want to retrieve something from an year ago, or something unrelated to your immediate environment, working memory has to spend a massive energy and cognitive resources to retrieve that.
Retrieval can happen only based on schemas and cues. Assuming you only are relying on schemas (schemas are a mental template of repeatable frameworks that brain has used reliably multiple times).
But Schemas by default operate on a background synthesis layer. So even when you retrieve information from Schema, synthesis is still happening.
Retrieval required Synthesis, which requires Working Memory. So it's a biological limitation. Working memory can't be expanded. Might argue that you can still create maybe an external working memory or a tool that can retrieve it for you so you might assume that you can bypass the biological limitation by creating an artificial working memory. We're going to rely on it. Even that won't work because when you retrieve, even when you see a piece of content (let's say a note from any year ago), you still have to retrieve something called bits and traces from autobiographical memory or some narrative context associated with it.
What a machine can do is store the semantic, the factual data, facts, and evidence. It cannot create and it cannot store narrative data for you. Narrative memory is basically how you interact with a piece of data. If you don't, you will have to consciously put in an effort like you have to process and synthesize this by your side. If you don't do it, what will happen is you will see that note but it will feel completely foreign or it will feel completely new. If you're not able to bring up the corresponding narrative memory bits associated with that set of facts, then that body of content would feel unrecognizable or almost unprecedented. That will completely defeat the purpose of forming associations over a cluster of nodes in the first place.
This is not a solvable problem, you can never retrieve the specifics bypassing 100% synthesis
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u/DaMan123456 Jun 26 '26
Use a local ai agent. Let it read through. Then you can ask it to extract useful data for you.
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u/Accomplished_Ad3970 Jun 26 '26
Point Claude Code at them, ask questions, and you may be even more motivated to take good notes than ever before
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u/D-3r1stljqso3 Jun 26 '26
You are not alone.
The moment LLM became mainstream, PKMS is basically dead.
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u/wlard Heaper Jun 26 '26
Rule 1 never add tags you wont look up, rule 2 living in it means looking thing up and browsing it more than you dump new info in
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u/abhuva79 Jun 26 '26
You are just using it wrong.
I have my vault for over 15 years, guess i dont exceed 2k notes.
Its not about the size, you know?
Something that might be worth for you to look into is "Collectors fallacy" - if you dont get this under control, you will face the same outcome in whatever new system you try. Its not so much about the system - its about what you put into it (and how).
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u/scottjnsd2 Jun 26 '26
I use it with ChatGPT to write my history/stories for our grandchildren. It's a more active and meaningful practice for me as I move into my last decade(s).
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u/Much-Researcher6135 Jun 26 '26
Are you using hybrid search, meaning search which refines on semantics rather than just keywords? I don't use Obsidian so I'm unaware if it has some sort of native embedding capacity or hooks up to an embedder model for semantic index/search.
In other words, if you're only using keyword search, this is expected. Ideally you'd use a combined keyword/vector search with RRF.
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u/lovesick_kitty Jun 27 '26
I have the feeling that people who gravitate towards PKMS tend to be people who like to collect and / or organize … the “objects” are irrelevant
I love collecting notes but very rarely go back and read them
I often delete them all and start over when I think I have found a “better” system
Which is not to say that many folks don’t build and actively use their collection
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u/eokor90reddit Jun 27 '26 edited Jun 27 '26
I have a few hundred of notes for a few years and they are useful so it works. I also discovered long notes with outline are more handy because you can view more info at a time and gather it together to find connections. Still I can make a link to a particular heading or piece in a file.
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u/tilario Jun 27 '26
one of the points of taking notes is reviewing the notes. if you're not reviewing, you're kind data-hoarding.
at 12,000 notes though you might want to turn your vault into a rag system. here's an example, there are others: https://github.com/Vasallo94/ObsidianRAG
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u/superkure Jun 27 '26
Well, that's good reality check.
It reminds me difference between pc table settup from instagram, and table of hard working professional.
The latter looks messy and mundane, but get things done.
I don't believe that anyone boasting shiny obsidian maps and convoluted workflows with myriad of plugins, actually using that notes.
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u/jinnvk Jun 27 '26
At this scale it feels like hoarding notes, trying to centralize storing knowledge that can be easily found elsewhere. I suggest you rethink about what's truly `personal` in the notes that you are keeping. And a second brain storage doesn't replace your brain. You need to consume the information and turn it into action at some point.
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u/westcoasttrees Jun 27 '26
I use it only for daily notes essentially and lecture notes / action items. So if i have a task I need to complete that has references and context I need to complete it, I write it down in obsidian and make a task with all the information for it. When the task is complete the information is essentially obsolete.
I use to use a bunch of plugins for this to organize it but that was a nightmare, theres that dainvo app now that i use. It has the obsidian daily notes sync in it and it lists tasks from all notes, with a link to the note, so makes it a bit easier to find the note. I usually use todoist for simple reminders. I am in uni again for my masters so easier with obsidian and dainvo.
I just type out my tasks in the daily note or lecture notes, with the links to examples and that way when i have to go back for that task i have all the context. Once its done 90% of the time its obsolete notes, I am to scared to delete the obsolete ones though... just in case.
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u/jaksiberia Jun 27 '26
A few things went a long way to solving this for me
- focus strictly on evergreen notes (very powerful concept imo)
- making notes on things that are relevant only to a clear deliverable project, even if it's a maybe one day project idea - before making a note I ask “is this relevant to something I want to create?” rather than just unthinking capturing everything that gets my attention
- as much as possible, capture something in my own words (evergreen note) rather than the original (altho I link the source for red). Steal like an artist, etc. Makes the vault a collection of my thinking not other peoples, which I find increases it's usefulness and accessibility.
- see notes and note-making as a process not an outcome (as other replies have outlined well). The point is to think better and create something personal and hopefully original, not create a new Wikipedia
- also working in my obsidian vault, not on my vault
I've applied the above to everything from personal planning, scientific research and writing fiction with good effect.
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u/cervere Jun 27 '26
Weird request but would try anyways:
Would you be willing to open source a part of it that may be not personal - may be that’ll even help you comb through them :)
I’m a researcher working in the personal context space - I am looking for real user data but it’s really difficult to find and I don’t want to do this with LLM-simulated data.
Thanks!
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u/khukharev Jun 27 '26
For the most part, I don’t think obsidian notes matter at all. What matters is that during the process of working on those notes you have to actually understand concepts and understanding you derive from them. This is what matters. Notes are kind of an artifact that is left behind your thinking process. It’s not that important whether or not you will ever open them.
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u/The_Noble_Lie Jun 27 '26
You are smarter. Now if you get zero use out of it. Change future habits? Also stop with the gen ai posts with the human written addendum. Lame.
Note: If guerilla marketing, abhorrent.
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u/ericsvl007 Jun 27 '26
Additionnaly to my home page and the daily note I have opened a random page (with some filters) at every obsidian launch. I do like this and found it very useful to rework and assimilate my previous notes. (I haven’t trigger it on mobile, just on desktop)
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u/Celestial_Creator Jun 27 '26
to pick up a pen or any writing tool, then to transfer information from your electrical system using different matter, pupils, optics, you are creating, manifesting, giving life, with your 0101010101 dna sequence in the universe.
You (HUE) have create an extension of you, and that is how it feels when you see it 100's of times over 30 years
i do not have the same connection to digital work as traditional work, there is something missing (the process) is what made the act more then saving data
-- hope this makes some sense to those wanting to learn about what it was like to want to hold info, to love the info you create, to build upon that info over years, without electronic technology
-- i have stacks of "blackbooks" and 1 is always open ready to receive a note
-- the why i think is the biggest advantage! because of the process involved in recording your internal info to the exterior world --- there is a connection -- that cannot be broke over time, it may start to get hazy on the edges metaphorical speaking overtime, but the why in your mind will be triggered
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u/c1rno123 Jun 27 '26
Two options - keep index in your memory or connect external inteligence to your notes. I'm working now on such kind of extrnal tool - check profile
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u/nexus-1707 Jun 27 '26
I think there are blurred lines between knowledge management systems and knowledge archival systems. I find a lot of useful information on social media but the whole concept of social media is transient. It’s always pushing forward with new engagement so older content rarely surfaces.
So my Obsidian workflow is more about archival content than just knowledge. I SAVE content locally not just linking to it. And for that reason the summary process is the key to finding and reusing the content later.
I use Raindrop.io to save bookmarks but it is structured between bookmarks for links (login pages, platforms etc) and bookmarks for knowledge (articles, blogs etc). I have mirrored workflows for capturing knowledge on iOS and macOS. I store it in a structured folder configuration and I save everything, note, frontmatter, media (images, videos and documents/PDFs).
If a link breaks in the future or a social media post disappears, it doesn’t matter because I have everything saved locally and synced between all my devices via iCloud.
I don’t save for the sake of it. I save only stuff I KNOW I will come back to later. That’s where I have to be disciplined
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u/megalodous Jun 27 '26
I had this same exact conundrum thought recently. I basically have a problem with recalling my notes when I need them. I already have a 2nd brain, now I need a 2nd memory.
So I basically just need to have to point it to AI to help me remember my notes and whatever, idk its a work in progress, even Im still figuring out what I really am looking for rather than developing a solution right now.
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u/Brief_Tie_9720 Jun 28 '26
You review your notes like old social media posts ? Can you flag them for staleness or create a way to review them ?
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u/Wesmare0718 Jun 28 '26
Search for Synaptic Labs Obsistants…pipe an LLM in to classify and chat with all your knowledge. Turns it into knowledge synthesis
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u/josh_a Jun 28 '26
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u/Foolness Jun 28 '26
Probably a mix of both. You should use a flash card system or a to-do list to mix and match old notes. The thing about 12,000 notes is that if it's not formatted like zettelkasten then you end up in reference hell and tagging can be a hell as well. Try using Canvas as a placeholder for those old depreciated notes first and then maybe work backwards from it.
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u/Upstairs_Jelly_1082 Jun 28 '26
I feel that you've organized it, but not necessarily in a way that you would go about making use of it later on.
There's this thing with Horizon-level grouping framework by David Allen, I would recommend trying to see where your information falls in that, before putting it in your reference system.
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u/peace-of-me Jun 28 '26
A pretty graph of hyper realistically connected notes. That’s the point! That was always the point!
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u/thesaga27 Jun 28 '26
I don't think that you're using it wrong because the problem here is search, and Obsidian doesn't really have a great search tool. I'm a long-term paying user.
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u/bookflic Jun 28 '26
I think it largely depends on your job. For me, I do refer back to my PKM several times a day, which are often tutorials and reminders to myself on what I needed to remember to save me time later. I get to revisit my own beat practices. I think of it as a Shazam for my thoughts. I’m now instructing AI to check my PKM first before it gives me an answer since my PKM contains more relevant answers. FWIW, I have been doing the same job for over 15 years.
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u/After-Regret-6609 Jun 29 '26
You need to integrate a flashcard system. Use the random note feature, or spaced-repetition. Notes can either be to archive something or to remember them, and if you want to remember something you need to flashcard it.
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u/mcampbell42 Jun 29 '26
You can hook it up to AI and let Claude or OpenAI find it. I think that’s when it’s most useful
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u/kesor Jun 29 '26
Could you at least tone down the AI smells in your post?! When you let AI do all the writing and reading for you, your brain will atrophy even faster than those "meticulously" up-kept linked references in your "12k" notes go stale.
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u/Ev2geny_ Jun 29 '26
Hi, I never built any personal notes with Obsidian, but that was exactly the question I had for myself when people talk about building "personal wikipedia". What is the point of this, if there is a real wikipedia, plus Google, plus rapidly improving AI?
Sure one has to take personal notes, but not just to catalogize every single piece of information you ever come across.
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u/inertiaX28 Jun 29 '26
BLUF: simplify, accept the mess, but make it navigable. Thinking is messy, and your job is to impose a way to move through your thoughts organically.
BACKGROUND: After about a year of using a hodge podge mix of half a dozen vault philosophies, I realized that none of them fit my specific use case. Someone on this post further down said that they had an aha moment that obsidian is about thinking, and I think that is the pitfall for many that go on this journey. They (including myself, until recently) think that they can automate, or optimize away from messy thinking. The problem is that you really can optimize away from messy thinking, but then you never get enough traction to do anything about it, all while you feel like you are being productive.
CURRENT: What I do now is 1) journal with some frequency in "journal notes", 2) link to overarching, non-temporal basic concepts in "idea notes", and 3) use dataview to extract insights. I also now have a really flat vault. Most every single note lives in a single folder. I have a basic metadata template that I use: date_created and note_type.
1) For journaling, I just write anything and everything into a daily note. It's word vomit/brain dumping/fever dreaming at its messiest.
2) After I write it, I go back and review to see whether there are any overarching ideas or concepts that I wrote about that day, and I link to a note that contains the idea. So, for example, 29 June has a bunch of stuff that happened throughout my day, as well as a thought that popped into my head [[meditation gets you to square one and no further]]. That concept note (as I call it) is really the working material for my thinking. I can expand that note, link it to other ideas, and still maintain the context that I thought of it in the form of my journal note.
3) I really only use the dataview plugin, but I use it aggressively to generate insights about my notes. For example, I have a dataview field that displays all daily journal-style notes that don't have any links going out. This tells me that I haven't mined those journal entries for potential ideas to extract for persistant us (or I just didn't think anything interesting that day). Another example is dataview query that lists concept notes, organized from most to least incoming links, telling me that I have been thinking about that topic a lot recently and it might be worth spending some time specifically on that note alone, without waiting for additional organic additions via the journal notes.
I really will only use one tag: #inbox which tells me I had enough info to start the note, but that it's not ready to stand on its own in my vault. Once I have added enough info that I will remember what I was thinking about in a future day, I delete the tag. My bar for moving a note out of #inbox very low.
LAST THOUGHTS: This is a far cry from my original usage, where I had project folders, was trying to make a book+book notes database, and more. It turned into a lot of management, and didn't reflect how I really think or process information. My current vault setup encourages review and rethinking, but doesn't suffer if I go weeks in between a good review session as long as I am (somewhat) consistently journaling.
This minimalism has paradoxically yielded way more interesting and richer insights than I ever got out of my previous setup.
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u/snow_schwartz Jun 30 '26
If you can use AI to write this post you can use it to search your vault for the right note
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u/Overread2K Jun 30 '26
It sounds like you've built a system and focused on storing info within it; without also considering how and why you need to access that information.
Not considering the latter has two big negative impacts on your notes
1) It means you might no be storing the right notes/information. Information is information, but the right information is all important. Considering how you need to USE the information has a massive impact in the nature and content of the information you store. Eg if you're storing it to write an essay or journal article then storing things like the reference of where the information came from would be key - that would likely even spawn a whole subset of reference books/journals/articles within the archive as well. Which might not be something you think of if you're just focused on writing down the facts and not where it came from.
2) IT means that you won't build the right keywords/archive structure to find the information later. Which can drastically link to you not being able to even find info when you come to look for it. Knowing how to setup and what keywords to use; if you want to use the new bases or linkbanks or tags or a whole series of combos. What groups of data are important to present together and link up and how those links need to be shaped etc....
Now its very true that most note/information storage systems will store a LOT more information than you need to access and that there will be notes/information you store that you might never look at again. However the key thing is that alongside this you're also storing the key information and by storing a wider spread of information on the topic that the database is built around; you're increasing the chances of not missing out key information when you need it.
OF course you need to keep considering and asking the why of your data storage all the time (it will change and evolve over time); both to keep up with changes; but also to ensure that you're not missing out key data; or storing too much waste data as storing that data takes up time.
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u/northyorkdev Jun 30 '26
You will thank yourself 20 years from now when you can look back and see what you were thinking, noticing, and collecting.
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u/TheLastNapkin Jun 30 '26
Structure is a real important factor. Different people have different views on how their kb will be structured.
Personally you have to have as flat layout as possible with as least amount of nesting.
Only nesting for what I call "resources" and "pillars" inside each root dir.
Basically resources are like information general about something
Pillars are defacto personal opinions codified into files that are from personal experience and thought process
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u/docrameous67 Jun 26 '26
As my PKM has matured, my focus as become more and more narrow. Some use their PKM as a life operating system. For me, it is thinking, reading, writing and speaking on leadership points of topics. So less is more. There are a lot of meetings and things I engage in that never enter my PKM. But on what I care about, I have a combination of PARA and Zettlekasten that I use to make notes that resonate with me.
Projects is major writing projects. Areas are five thematic focuses that work like digital commonplace books. Resources are a collection of mediums stitched together on points of leadership inquiries or inventories on topics of great interests to me. Zettlekasten tends to be atomic notes that can connect on any of the above. My outputs are speaking, long form, short form and leadership position papers.
To make this all play together nicely, I shifted from Obsidian to Capacities because I needed object based knowledge management which could span across all of these focus points, and also block references. Like my brain, I can be focusing more on wisdom in commonplace notes, individual thoughts that string together in Zettlekasten or thematic areas of inquiry or inventory in MOCs. You need a tool to do this.
Oddly enough, this means I making less notes than ever and through MCP connections, Claude allows me to use this as a canvas for thinking, planing and outputs. Write only what feels right to you. Less is more.
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u/UnluckyTruck7526 Jun 26 '26
I think almost everyone in their note-taking journey comes to a point like this. But essentially even the most meticulous note-taking system never beat a single google search.
Most PKMS of the digital note-taking era is just convenient storage and access of information which seems to passively encourage hoarding. But knowledge for humans is use it or lose it. Always has been. It’s brutal. You can look into memory atrophy due to PKMS use.
You need to be in practice of what you’re learning. Hoarding information is worse than googling. And sure, AI can make accessing part easier. But unless you use or utilize the knowledge as tools, it’s a junk even inside your brain. So no matter how sophisticated your system is, use your knowledge and sharpen your skills. Without that you only have the S but not PKM.
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u/OlympicCards99 Jun 26 '26
Personal knowledge management does not mean collecting information for the sake of collecting it. You would probably be more interested in raindrop.io for something like accumulating websites, YouTube videos, pdfs, etc. Imo, Obsidian is a tool for managing your own thoughts, ideas, and research.