When it comes to tools for note-making and personal knowledge management, the old Chinese curse definitely applies these days: we live in interesting times.

At this point in the adventure, some folks will say, “Mark, why not use both Logseq and Obsidian? You could have the best of both worlds by using Logseq for outlining and Obsidian for fleshing out the ideas you outline in Logseq!”

An acquaintance on Mastodon, @Ellane, does something like this, making fleeting and reading notes in Logseq, while reserving Obsidian exclusively as a repository for her own thoughts.

I Love Logseq’s Best of Class Annotation Tools
Hands down, Logseq’s built-in tools for viewing and annotating videos and PDFs are better than their equivalents in any other tool.

https://medium.com/lifefunk/logseq-and-others-why-im-still-using-logseq-a932f1947624

Logseq is a tool to write outlines. Don’t try to make it behave like any old plain text editor, as the outline structure is fundamental to how Logseq functions.

By nesting blocks underneath other blocks, you create a hierarchy in your notes. Forget files and folders; in Logseq we organize things by branch

https://www.reddit.com/r/logseq/comments/12hxo9c/logseq_vs_obsidian_is_there_actually_a_difference/

I use both but for different things. They’re so different that I consider them complimentary rather than competitive. Neither one is really a drop-in replacement for the other.

Logseq makes blocks and outlines first-class citizens. You can switch to document mode and hide the bullets but they’re still there in the file.

Obsidian makes plaintext .md markdown files and prose first-class citizens. You can link to blocks and use nested bullet lists, but not as seamlessly and powerfully.

Logseq makes it easier to work with blocks, transclusions can be edited in place, and you can automatically be building another page consisting of blocks you’re writing in your daily journal or another page. The PDF and (I hear) video annotation is much better in Logseq. The Logseq apps are still in beta and can be buggy. The mobile app has far fewer features than the desktop app and doesn’t support themes (except by pasting CSS) or plugins. The toolbar can’t be customized and the only way to access the full command palette is with a Bluetooth hardware keyboard.

Obsidian runs faster and produces cleaner and more interoperable markdown documents. It’s much better for longform writing. The app itself has been in stable release for a while, and long before that it was less buggy than Logseq is now in my experience. There are far more plugins (nearly a thousand as of this writing) and themes (over 100). The mobile app has nearly all the features of the desktop app, supports most plugins and all themes, and is highly customizable, especially with the Commander plugin. On a phone, it puts almost all the power of Obsidian in the palm of your hand.

IMO, Obsidian is more versatile and Logseq is more specialized.

I use Logseq for tasks and all the transitory things going on in my life currently and in the not-too-distant future—lists, temporary reference, etc—and Obsidian for my long-term notes and for writing. If I had to only use one, it would be Obsidian, but I’m glad I can use both because I also really like Logseq’s very different set of strengths.

Hand Lettering

The legend

First define your keys: every symbol or colour should stand for something different.

Templates and decorative elements

File over app is a philosophy: if you want to create digital artifacts that last, they must be files you can control, in formats that are easy to retrieve and read. Use tools that give you this freedom.

File over app is an appeal to tool makers: accept that all software is ephemeral, and give people ownership over their data.

Text generator is a handy plugin for Obsidian that helps you generate text content using GPT-3 (OpenAI). - GitHub - nhaouari/obsidian-textgenerator-plugin: Text generator is a handy plugin for Obsidian that helps you generate text content using GPT-3 (OpenAI).

Use Text Generator to generate ideas, attractive titles, summaries, outlines, and whole paragraphs based on your knowledge database.

In 2019 I took a course called Building a Second Brain by Tiago Forte. Throughout the course I illustrated summaries of the main concepts which you can find below.