Tools I Use: Obsidian
"Wisdom doesn't necessarily come with age. Sometimes age just shows up all by itself." - Tom Wilson
Information is structured data. Knowledge is structured information. Wisdom is structured knowledge blended with the tested lessons gained from experience. Mastering each of these domains does more than just empower an individual's ability to succeed. Collectively, they are a source of power for change. Like all sources of power, they are dynamic and if left unattended they weaken and dissipate.
Generally speaking, wisdom tends to be more durable than knowledge and experience, which in turn are more durable than information and, most volatile of all, data. There are cases, of course, where data is just as durable as wisdom. Jumping off a tall building, for example, is a bad idea because gravity isn't just a good idea, it's the law. Likewise, moving through life with a model of the world (wisdom) constructed entirely with sketchy data, sloppy information, untested knowledge, and insulated experience can be swept aside and destroyed in an instant.
Creating, organizing, and maintaining the components of each of the domains mentioned above is a lot of work. For most us mortals, we need a tool to help with this. For years, I used notebooks and hand-drawn mindmaps. But as personal computers evolved according to Moore's Law, the prospect of digitizing this work became possible. In corporate parlance, such tools sit on top of a "knowledgebase" - a growing mountain of data that can be efficiently organized into information and knowledge. I've tried dozens of tools for this purpose over the years and the only conclusion I can make for suitability is that everyone's idea of a useful knowledgebase is highly subjective for the simple reason is that the tool has to reflect how the user thinks. The tool I've been using for the past 5 years is called Obsidian.
The header image show the current graph of my Obsidian-sphere - over 10K files organized by links and tags. So far, Obsidian's the only tool I've discovered that satisfies may criteria.
Powerful and fast search capabilities
Portable - Data is stored as markup files and images and can be synced across all my devices.
Actively developed and supported - There is a regular cadence of enhancements and bug fixes and an active user forum.
Extendable - Has a robust plugin ecosystem.
Inexpensive
There may well be other tools out there now that can satisfy my criteria. But unless it becomes apparent that some compelling feature is absent from Obsidian and available in another tool, I'm not likely to change. Even though I've been using Obsidian for 5 years, I'm still discovering new ways to slice, dice, and view the data I'm collecting.
Things I Use Obsidian For
Writing
Decision journaling
Business and marketing plans
Notes from courses
The Pages (see "The Artist's Way" by Julia Cameron)
Health History and Plans
How-To's for fixing things around the house
Garden plans and how-to's
Articles copied from various sources
System admin notes and how-to's
All of these subject areas, except for the system admin and health related information, exist in the same vault. Currently, there are over 10K files in the main vault. All of it easily searchable and cross-referenced. I see a day in the near future when I'll be able run an LLM locally and include AI related queries against my knowledgebase. I know this because several months ago I did, indeed, set up a local LLM just to test the feasibility. It worked. However, my hardware is woefully under-powered for current implementations which made the installation functionally unusable.
"Tools I Use - Obsidian" last updated on 2025.08.24.
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