Obsidian: It’s Not Me, It’s You.

Obsidian — As a Second Brain? A Notebook?

I Was Searching For A Reason To Keep You, But Instead Found A Reason To Uninstall You.

Not once, not twice, but three times, I gave you my all like Mariah Carey and now I’m singing Someday.

You cannot tell me that I’m the only person who scrolls through productivity apps, like a freshly married couple looking for their dream home on Zillow.

I was there on the couch, nesting and wrapped in blankets I didn’t even know I owned. Sipping cool water from a blue mason jar through a metal straw, lounging with mood-lighting and I ran across Obsidian.

Well, that was the first time I downloaded Obsidian. I opened it, peeked around and silently minimized it then did a search on the tool.

Obsidian Fanatics Definitely Rival Notion Lovers

Yeah, I stumbled right into the second brain evangelists, productivity app gurus, and the choirs on subreddit that found their savior. After, witnessing their revelations I decided to give it a whirl.

I spent a good chunk of time setting up the app because just like with every app there are themes, plugins, and since this is a flexible tool, I was able to customize my interface experience. I found out about gradients and the girl who lived for Lisa Frank was crying in glitter until I realized that I had to do just a little bit of css.

Excuse me? You want me to supply stylesheet language? You want me to clearly uninstall this application and that is exactly what I did.

It’s Not The CSS

Who does this?

Evernote doesn’t.

OneNote doesn’t.

UpNote, TickTick, Notion, not even the indie devs on GitHub.

It’s The Fact That This Is A Shipped Product

Is this your quirky way of appealing to us? I’m writing about this in my Facebook group saying do not date and including a text that will make the moderator close the comments section.

Most users want a product that is easy to customize. Selecting themes, fonts, icons, and stickers, where it is just click or tap is the expectation. I do not want to learn your css classes. Yet, it doesn’t end there because then another oddity occurs when you have to turn plugins on.

I’m not sure why someone would need to turn on plugins since the general assumption is that if I do not have the plugin installed I do not want it. The only logical explanation I can conjure up is in an instance where Obsidian is behaving badly and you want to isolate the problem.

That was the first time I tried Obsidian and uninstalled then a spark of excitement hit me again and I did the unthinkable…I downloaded Obsidian again.

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Reinstalling Obsidian: Round 2

I started coding again.

Yes, I started coding. I started spinning docker containers. I installed Termius on my mobile devices so that the love of my life wasn’t worried and thought I was playing on my phone.

I fell in love again with coding and wanted a place that could hold everything I learned. I wanted this place or tool to be able to hold my world of wonder.

Scouting A Place For My World Of Wonder Checklist

My simple little list of requirements for the notebook, tool, platform or whichever that I needed. Along with additional commentary on what happened in reality.

Must Be Pretty
You are pretty-esque. It works. I can throw in some css to glamify it.

Must Be Easy To Use
Sorta. I didn’t need any advanced features. It let me type, copy, paste, organize. The simple set of actions that are expected for a tool such as this.

Must Render Markdown Correctly
Before, I was just typing like a commoner. Now, I want to use the elite markdown format that has been universally adopted. Reality → This was strange. I would “import” or paste markdown and the output would be fine in my repo, but obsidian would add random lines of space. Often, giving me something that didn’t scroll before was now two mouse wheel swipes.

Must Have Pretty Code Blocks/Code Snippets
I love code blocks and I just want them to be pretty, not scroll when it shouldn’t and also let me click on the copy icon because that’s just too cute.

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I’m Officially A Lunatic: Round 3

No, I am not.

Yes, I am.

I started writing short stories.

I love writing stories, but that requires a different environment. I’m relaxed, sipping a sad White Claw and pretending it is doing something while I frolic in prose.

I wanted an app that would handle long sessions of typing.

I chose Obsidian again.

I’m not obsessed, I’m just thorough.

This is a different use case. The first time I was just checking it out, the second time I was in my dev girl moment, the third time I’m just a cute little cozy dame who wants to write a political thriller with romance. Obsidian will be fine, it’s just text and this time it will only be for mobile.

I was immediately hit with a problem.

Obsidian doesn’t sync.

No, seriously. It won’t sync across devices unless you pay for it. Not a lifetime license, either. Just another monthly shackle, because apparently we’re still collecting subscriptions like charm bracelets.

Of course, I can just connect it to a repo. Of course, I can just use github. Of course, I can just uninstall this damn app for good and never look back and guess what?

That’s exactly what I did.

My Life Sans Obsidian

Here’s my hand-picked selections for what I use for the things I do.

My absolute favorite apps are simply just two different apps that work extremely well for what I need, which is just writing.

Visual Studio Code, for desktop

Yeah, I use Visual Studio Code for writing. I was told this is odd and I’m not sure why. The themes are gorgeous. The extension I live for is Markdown Preview Github Styling.
My theme? Well, that’s mood-based. Syncing? Done via Git. No additional fees were acquired.

Writer Journal, for mobile devices. I love this app. It’s gorgeous. Stunning. I can export my stories in markdown and upload them to Github.

In the end I just couldn’t justify another charm bracelet that wasn’t even pretty.

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How are you using Obsidian? Leave a comment or send a message.