this post was submitted on 07 Jan 2025
51 points (89.2% liked)
Linux
48895 readers
1105 users here now
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
Rules
- Posts must be relevant to operating systems running the Linux kernel. GNU/Linux or otherwise.
- No misinformation
- No NSFW content
- No hate speech, bigotry, etc
Related Communities
Community icon by Alpár-Etele Méder, licensed under CC BY 3.0
founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Now that you've mentioned Obisian I realised that systems like it are quite different from how most things work. I use it myself and really like it, however it also takes quite some effort to get the best out of it. You have to actively create useful links between things and think about different ways you would want to access the content to be able to actually find it when you need it. For example you need to create aliases for elements if they are known by a different name in another context.
When I first started using Obsidian, I used folders too much because I felt like things were "messy" if not tidied away. I already knew that one of the weaknesses of hierarchical folder systems is how it can make having an overview of the system harder, but it took a while for me to properly understand that.
As you say, it's necessary to be proactive with making links to things. I found that when I used Obsidian for journalling, I started to put square brackets around loads of stuff, because the inactive links didn't do me any harm, but they did highlight what might be useful as active pages. Something I picked up from the Zettelkasten crowd was occasionally having a "Map of Content" page, where I used it as an index of topical links. It always worked best when I allowed them to arise naturally, as needed. Once I got the trick of this, I found I was able to find things far more easily, because I was able to navigate via the links.
Tags are a tricky one to use. I never found them useful as a primary organisation method — they were worse than both hierarchical folders and link based organising in that respect. They were super useful as an augmentation to my organisation though, especially when I used them sparingly.
This is all an overlong way of saying that yes, I agree with you, using systems like Obsidian do require a switch in how you think in order to best use them. Something that I always enjoy pondering is whether pushing ourselves out of our comfort zone is something that's inherently good — something something cognitive flexibility? I don't know, but I enjoy endeavours of this sort nonetheless