Frank DaviesRearranging my chaotically organized notes and may look into using Johnny Decimal. I like zettelkasten in principle but I suck at maintaining indexes and JD seems more compatible with how I use neovim.
ArtGeek (Ken Tryon)@fd93 Interesting concept—looks like the original Zettelkasten system ported to digital. I often say I think in outlines, but my notes are mostly random thoughts anyway, so I’m less concerned about organizing them. I often use mindmapping apps when thinking through or writing about a given subject.
@ArtGeek At least on https://zettelkasten.de they basically argue for keeping notes in a zettelkasten in a flat structure with no subdirectories, which while fine was not for me; my brain cannot fully embrace the hypertext mode of organization
I read up a lot on Zettelokasten when I was getting started with Obsidian, and I'd forgotten the flat file organization—that would drive me nuts. On the other hand, with organized tagging and a good search function, it could work. I find I often need search to find where I buried a note.
@ArtGeek that is basically my problem with idiomatic zk and similar approaches, yeah, it requires maintaining copious amounts of metadata in a way that makes more sense when you have a paper box filing system
I’m rarely thinking clearly enough to tag a note well while writing it, and I’m unlikely to tag it later. Embedded searches in Obsidian help some—I can gather thoughts into a document and use that as a reference while writing. Mindmapping is the best tool I’ve found for organizing thoughts, although that is my starting point for brainstorming. Notes come later.
I also write notes to capture random thoughts or ideas related to my reading.
I’ve seen plugins to create mind maps in Obsidian using Excalidraw, but they felt kludgy. If they could effectively organize Obsidian notes, that would be useful.
iThoughts used to have decent markdown export, but the dev suddenly quit the entire project. MindNode does OK on export. My favorite is SimpleMind, which I think only exports to lists (not headings) or plain text. None of them support two-way cummunication, which an Obsidian plugin could.
@ArtGeek not for the first time, this conversation makes me believe that we don't have enough librarians and that we underpay them
@fd93 Librarians are my friends. 😏 If you want someone who can find a needle in a haystack, ask a librarian.
@fd93 Out of curiosity, what app are you using for notetaking?
@ArtGeek I also use neovim with my plugin daily-notes.nvim and plainban to restore some of the functions from Obsidian plugins
@fd93 Gotcha—I’d missed the VIM references. neovim is basically modern vim? I think I used VIM briefly on an IBM 3090 in the early 90s. I was working for the same hospital IT group I work for now, and at the time our timekeeping system ran on the IBM. I was the second PC analyst they ever hired. I came back in a very different role in 2013, and now MS is the new IBM.
Also, VIM users seem to have a religious commitment. 😏
Christian Tietze@fd93 Different tools and methods for different problems! I love JD and ZK both :)
Hyde 📷 🖋 
@fd93 @ctietze yeah but you should check this
https://johnnydecimal.com/10-19-concepts/11-core/11.05-the-index/
@hyde @ctietze https://johnnydecimal.com/10-19-concepts/12-advanced/12.02-jdex-alternative-methods/
I think I'm doing this? I much prefer a single source of truth versus a bazillion independent ones
