The New[ish] Kid on the Block

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I've written previously about potential systems and methods to assist in my continued learning and blogging processes, and that for the most part they remain untouched and unused. This is partly due to  shortcomings in the systems/processes themselves, and partly - probably mostly - due to my tendency to rely on a motley mixture of analogue and digital, online and offline stuff in a frankly ad hoc, pretty random kind of way: I have a messy mind to match the state of my desk [ for which, as it's winter, read dining table ].

My latest foray into such territory is a piece of software I've looked at many times before, but from which I was almost immediately turned off of at first look: Obsidian. This is free, runs on all main operating systems; Windows, MacOs, Linux, etc., as well as having mobile versions available, but it always struck me as as too obscure in its operation for my liking. As with all of these situations, my go-to is to find someone on YouTube to glean some instruction from and clarify things. Today, I found an introductory series of videos by an American writer and blogger on the subject of Obsidian, which turned out to be very easy to follow, and dived - or as the Americans will have it, dove - in.

It's certainly has very impressive note-taking, collating and linking capabilities, and runs entirely locally on your device, or devices, if networked, and does not require remote hosting or storage. This capability is available if required, however, and will sync with all the usual suspects such as your DropBox account should you have one. The power of the thing starts to open up as you put stuff into it: its total blank canvas at the outset is pretty daunting - a bit like a physical canvas to a painter, you settle into its emerging ethos with each mark you make - but therein lies its beauty and power. How far I go with this one remains to be seen, as it will have to co-exist with the myriad notebooks, scraps of paper and printouts that form the body of my current modus operandi. As always, I'll keep you posted...

 

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