iPad Pros

David Sparks is the co-host of Mac Power Users, Focused, and the Automators Podcast. He was on episodes 99 and 126 of this podcast. David is back on to discuss his latest Field Guide for Obsidian. Obsidian can be a scary app for some and in this episode I hope we can make it a bit more approachable.

This episode of iPad Pros is sponsored by Agenda, the award winning app that seamlessly integrates calendar events into your note taking. Learn more at www.agenda.com. Agenda 18 is now available as a free download for macOS, iPadOS, and iOS.

YouTube Version of the Podcast

Links and Show Notes

Links:
MacSparky
Obsidian Field Guide – Use Promo Code “FOT”
Obsidian’s Official Website

Chapter Markers:
00:00:00: Opening
00:01:16: Support the Podcast
00:01:54: David Sparks
00:02:56: DEVONthink vs Obsidian
00:06:14: What is Obsidian?
00:08:42: Multiple Windows?
00:09:50: Plugins
00:11:40: Why Obsidian?
00:14:06: Everything apps
00:15:50: Personal Operating System and other uses
00:17:40: Tasks in Obsidian?
00:19:44: Text
00:20:54: Organizing your files
00:24:10: Business Model
00:26:33: Custom UIs
00:28:40: Linking to files
00:29:17: Vaults
00:30:14: Sponsor – Agenda
00:31:42: Bookmarks
00:34:34: Plugins
00:36:42: Core Plugins
00:37:53: Templates
00:38:56: Podcast Show Notes
00:40:34: iPad Version
00:42:30: Auto Linking?
00:43:08: Graph View
00:44:38: visionOS?
00:45:07: Automation
00:48:15: Inbox
00:48:58: Apple Notes Import Tool
00:50:23: Canvas
00:51:20: Writing a book?
00:52:33: Blog Posts
00:52:57: Core apps
00:56:33: What did you learn creating the FG?
00:57:36: Favorite Plus Guide Interviews?
00:58:46: Anything else?
00:59:25: Discount Code – “FOT”
00:59:56: Closing

Transcript of Interview

David Sparks

(1m 54s) Tim Chaten:

Welcome back to podcast, David.

(1m 55s) David Sparks:

Thanks Tim. I’m really happy to be here again.

(1m 56s) Tim Chaten:

• Yeah, I always like to have you on as you do your field guide,

(2m 2s)

very, it seems like in depth.

(2m 4s)

Like how long do these things take you to do seems like an in depth like sabbatical or not, you know, as a professor would go on into the studies. Yeah.

(2m 11s) David Sparks:

Depends you know on the title this obsidian one took like eight months because it was really hard Obsidian is a hard tool to teach because it can do Anything so it’s like how do you tell somebody what to do with anything and so took a long time to get my head wrapped around Methodology to teach it once I got that done it went pretty well, but the yeah that one took a while I think try I try to do two a year, but the last few years. I’ve only got one out so

(2m 39s)

There you go

(2m 39s) Tim Chaten:

Yeah, I mean, Obsidian, as we’ll talk about, it is such an in-depth app, and it can be scary to a lot of people, as we’ll talk about.

(2m 48s)

So you were last on back in 2021, talking about Dev & Think, which is an app I go way back with, back in college, it was kind of a go-to tool for me.

DEVONthink vs Obsidian

(2m 56s) Tim Chaten:

I’m curious, Obsidian, has it stolen some of the roles Dev & Think used to have for you, or are these just different, new roles altogether?

(3m 7s) David Sparks:

I feel like obsidian is very complementary to Devon think Because well for two reasons the first is they complement each other’s shortcomings like obsidian can do attachments and files But it can’t hold a candle to Devon think and Devon thing can do text But it’s just not as powerful as obsidian with text. I mean, I mean obsidian is getting new plugins every day I mean, it’s the whole thing is built around markdown, Texas engine. So like the thing that Devon think is best at, it helps with the thing that Obsidian is worse at. So I basically use Devon think as the database and I do manage the text in Obsidian. In fact, it’s interesting, we did a special session as part of the field guide plus edition on using them together and several people index their whole Obsidian database in Devon think because why not, you know, because you could, it’s just a folder full of markdown files. Why not link it to Devon think?

(4m 7s)

So yeah, I actually find them very complimentary. In fact, the release of those courses was intentional because I was already into Obsidian at the time and I realized that I think Devon think is like the foundation and Obsidian is the cherry on top.

(4m 22s) Tim Chaten:

And I’m trying to remember, Devanthink, does each…

(4m 27s)

You can link to anything within Devanthink, is that right?

(4m 31s) David Sparks:

Yeah, and you can create link not just not just to documents but to specific locations of documents like you could say PDF page 3 and you could create a link to that and Obsidian does the exact same thing you can create links back to obsidian Very focused so tying them together is a question of putting the links in the right places

(4m 31s) Tim Chaten:

Like it has…

(4m 32s)

Yeah, and then Obsidian has their…

(4m 43s)

Right Mm-hmm Yeah, that’s that’s kind of a cool use case with using links which are you Vic, you know They’re just ubiquitous and I’d imagine those links work cross platform Mac and iOS iPad

(5m 5s) David Sparks:

• Yeah, I believe so, yeah.

(5m 8s)

I haven’t tried between Devantik and Obsidian on iPad,

(5m 13s)

but yeah, I think they should work ’cause they both are kind of universal, yeah.

(5m 13s) Tim Chaten:

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

(5m 15s)

Has your process evolved at all in creating natural field guides since the Dev and Think field guide?

(5m 23s)

Did you do anything different this time around?

(5m 27s) David Sparks:

Um, well, you know, we’re in the process, I use air table as like the foundational database for these projects.

(5m 35s)

And then, uh, I spent a lot of time using the tool to make the field guys, especially with Devon, think and obsidian.

(5m 41s)

Um, we’re actually moving for future production in a notion because it just feels like, um, it does a little bit more than air table and I’m not sure what air tables future model is.

(5m 55s)

And, you know, so I.

(5m 57s)

We moved a bunch of stuff into notion.

(5m 59s)

So the next field guide will be written with notion as a background.

(6m 2s)

But this one was done with air table and a lot of obsidian notes and Devon think resources, you know, kind of the usual thing I do.

(6m 10s) Tim Chaten:

Yeah. Okay. Excellent.

(6m 12s)

And then for those that haven’t used Obsidian, they may have heard of it.

What is Obsidian?

(6m 16s) Tim Chaten:

Can you share a bit about, you know,

(6m 19s)

just kind of the 5,000 foot view of what this app is and what makes it different from the other apps out there? Yeah.

(6m 22s) David Sparks:

Yeah, that’s the hard part, right?

(6m 26s)

So I guess we’d start by saying it’s an Electron app.

(6m 26s) Tim Chaten:

Mm hmm.

(6m 32s) David Sparks:

So it’s kind of universal.

(6m 34s)

And the idea of it was you take a folder full of Markdown files,

(6m 40s)

which are plain text files, and then you write an application that goes to that folder and looks at interesting ways to tie them together and connect them and do things with them.

(6m 52s)

What Obsidian is– and really, it’s so simple,

(6m 56s)

but that’s what makes it so powerful.

(6m 58s)

Because any text files on your computer, you can throw into it.

(7m 3s)

And then they made the plug-in architecture an open architecture.

(7m 8s)

So third parties can write applications for it.

(7m 12s)

Like there’s a plug-in I use that changes straight quotes into smart quotes, just does that for me or anything.

(7m 22s)

Of course, the real magic of it is bi-directional linking.

(7m 25s)

So using the standard wiki convention of two square brackets on either side,

(7m 33s)

you can link to pages and elements inside the database.

(7m 37s)

So you get this very cross-hatched database of text.

(7m 41s)

So you start writing your ideas in it.

(7m 43s)

People use it for dissertations and veterinary appointments and everything in between.

(7m 49s)

It’s just a very powerful idea.

(7m 52s)

The beauty of it is it’s just a folder full of Markdown files.

(7m 56s)

So if Obsidian gets fired into the sun and doesn’t exist anymore, your data is completely portable.

(8m 3s)

It’s completely owned by you.

(8m 4s)

It’s not stored in the cloud anywhere.

(8m 6s)

Well, you have a cloud sync, but it’s end-to-end encrypted.

(8m 9s)

You really have complete ownership of your data.

(8m 12s)

And for the iPad folks, the nice thing is the iPad version is nearly 100%

(8m 20s)

compatible with the i8.

(8m 22s)

with the Mac version. So all those plugins and all that stuff you can do on the Mac basically translates over to the iPad. So you get Obsidian on an iPad with a keyboard and you feel pretty much like you’re working on a Mac.

(8m 37s) Tim Chaten:

Yeah, throw in an external display and you’re able to spread out.

(8m 39s)

Do you know, multi-window, what’s the story there on iPad versus Mac? Is this an app you use in a single screen or are you spreading out across?

Multiple Windows?

(8m 50s) David Sparks:

Well, it has the ability to create separate panes inside the single window, and you can multiply and divide on that, up and down, like top and bottom, left and right, and within those segments even more.

(9m 4s)

So it also has a tabbing system, so you can have multiple tabs open for different documents,

(9m 10s)

and it just depends what you want to do with them.

(9m 12s)

The biggest challenge, of course, on the iPad is screen space.

(9m 15s)

If you’ve got a 12.9, you could probably get two or three windows at max.

(9m 20s)

but I wouldn’t want to go much beyond that. But, um, it’s, it’s,

(9m 25s)

it’s an interesting app. I mean,

(9m 26s)

it doesn’t feel like an iPad app if that makes any sense because of its electron roots. It’s not like your typical iPad app. Um,

(9m 34s)

it feels like the electron app, uh, rendered on an iPad, um,

(9m 39s)

which some people hate.

(9m 40s)

I think you have to try to decide if that works for you or not. But, but you know,

(9m 45s)

the trade-off is all that power.

(9m 47s) Tim Chaten:

And you mentioned plugins, you can install those directly on the iPad?

Plugins

(9m 54s) David Sparks:

Yeah, yeah, in fact the syncing system will sync the installed plugins and I find that the vast majority of them work Occasionally, I’ll run into a plug-in that does not work on iPad but that that’s where I say there’s a bit of a Wiggle factor there some of them for one reason or another don’t work on my pad but the and I think it may even be like a permissions thing with Apple, but the

(9m 54s) Tim Chaten:

And there’s…

(9m 55s)

Mm-hmm.

(9m 56s)

Oh, nice.

(10m 19s) David Sparks:

But largely they work and so the installation you create on your desktop can run on your mobile iPad pretty well.

(10m 28s)

I would say, and I get pushback on this from the Obsidian audience,

(10m 33s)

but I feel like the iPhone experience is subpar.

(10m 38s)

I mean, I feel like the iPad is fine, you’ve got a keyboard attached.

(10m 42s)

It really feels like you’re sitting on a laptop.

(10m 44s)

In fact, more than most apps do.

(10m 46s)

Like, you know, working mobily with an iPad.

(10m 49s)

I do a lot of writing mobile and opening Obsidian in a coffee shop

(10m 54s)

or whatever with a keyboard feels like I’m sitting on my Mac.

(10m 57s)

But the iPhone, the screen size is just so small.

(11m 1s)

You know, it’s really hard to make that work on an app that’s really, you know,

(11m 6s)

it’s more of a translation of the Electron app than it is a native iPhone app.

(11m 13s)

So if you were going to use it just on an iPhone, I’d say maybe look elsewhere.

(11m 17s)

But for iPad stuff, you’re fine.

(11m 20s) Tim Chaten:

Yeah, it seems like iPhone may be good for reference.

(11m 23s)

Here we’ll just pull up a document, just check stuff out.

(11m 25s) David Sparks:

• Yeah, yeah, and that’s what people do with it.

(11m 27s)

Like you create views that show you your task list or your current document or whatever.

(11m 33s)

And that’s great for that, but to work on a document,

(11m 35s)

I would say the iPad’s probably the minimum.

(11m 39s) Tim Chaten:

Yeah, so I asked Matt Birchler, what I should ask you since we were chatting about Obsidian,

Why Obsidian?

(11m 46s) Tim Chaten:

and he was wondering just, is it the speed, the fact that all the local files are right there, that if the company goes kaput, you have it, the plugins, what about it makes this app really connect with you?

(12m 1s) David Sparks:

The answer to Matt is yes.

(12m 1s) Tim Chaten:

Everything, all that.

(12m 3s) David Sparks:

I mean, you know, it’s really a combination.

(12m 6s)

I, if I, you know, you put together, the data ownership is a big deal.

(12m 11s)

Like, I was interested in Roam Research when that first kind of hit the wire,

(12m 15s)

but I never liked that model of me putting all this data into their cloud and not knowing who else is looking at it and what happens if.

(12m 22s) Tim Chaten:

Were you also probably burned by the Evernote era and the struggles of trying to get everything out of that when that kind of crashed?

(12m 29s) David Sparks:

You know, I never liked Evernote. This is my dirty secret from the from the very beginning There was two problems with it. First of all, I thought it was but ugly and and then the second of all was Everybody knew that use Evernote was putting tons of stuff in Evernote, but nobody was using Evernote You know what? I mean? It just became this like closet that you kept stuffing things into Thank you.

(12m 29s) Tim Chaten:

You had the foresight.

(12m 42s)

Yeah.

(12m 52s)

Yeah, I remember taking a ton of photos and using the OCR, because in those days that was like a new thing, and I did search stuff within that.

(12m 59s) David Sparks:

Yeah, yeah, yeah, so I didn’t really have and then at one point I make power users we had like a we had an Evernote account we shared so if you sent an email to a special email address it went into our feedback outline him yeah we did that for a while but it just didn’t you know I just never was sold on it so I didn’t have a problem when they went out but the but you know the question I Get asked often as well is obsidian a landing place if you’re leaving Evernote, I think it can be But I also think Apple Notes would be really good for that I think that Apple Notes is probably a better fit because it’s better with multimedia than obsidian is But if you’re working with words, there’s not much better than obsidian in my opinion. It’s just so good for that kind of thing and honestly if you had

(13m 16s) Tim Chaten:

Oh yeah, and you have the shared notebooks and stuff.

(13m 18s)

Yeah.

(13m 55s) David Sparks:

That closet full of data in Evernote

(13m 59s)

I don’t think you should move it somewhere else.

(14m 1s)

I think you should just throw it overboard and start over.

(14m 3s) Tim Chaten:

Yeah, I use the Mac Dev and Think importer to just like capture it and put it in a separate Evernote database within Dev and Think.

(14m 4s) David Sparks:

It’s just, it’s just so much, you know, I really,

Everything apps

(14m 8s) David Sparks:

yeah, yeah.

(14m 13s)

Yeah, I’ve been talking a lot lately about Gaul’s Law,

(14m 22s)

the idea that, you know, systems need to earn their structure and that like…

(14m 29s)

too often, as nerds, we’ll go into something like Evernote, Obsidian, whatever, and say,

(14m 34s)

“Well, I’m gonna build out a whole structure for this thing.”

(14m 37s)

And then you spend days on the right, you know, structure, and then you find you don’t even like the tool a week later or something.

(14m 44s)

I think you really should just kind of go slow with it, and Evernote was great for throwing things into that we never read.

(14m 52s) Tim Chaten:

Yeah, no, it’s funny like the whole concept of like The time investment and like I used to have a big delicious library And I didn’t scan all my DVDs and put them in there and like I love that But like it’s just it’s time that just you know now it’s like I’m never gonna use that now. That’s like Yeah Yeah, and it’s like almost like it’s like oh, this is fun like gathering all this data, but in the end it’s like is it

(14m 52s) David Sparks:

And I don’t think you should make this…

(15m 9s)

Yeah, yeah, all the time you put into it is kind of like down the toilet.

(15m 13s)

And I think that can– yeah, yeah.

(15m 21s)

So be careful with that.

(15m 23s)

But I mean, Obsidian to me is really the premier tool for working with words.

(15m 29s)

I mean, one of my big uses for it– and it’s interesting because there’s two versions of the course, there’s the basic version at $50 and the advanced version at $100.

(15m 37s)

the hundred dollar version comes with.

(15m 39s)

the ten series webinar series.

(15m 40s)

So I’m learning tons from people using it and people are, like I said,

(15m 44s)

writing dissertations and they’re changing the world with the stuff they’re assembling and creating with Obsidian.

Personal Operating System and other uses

(15m 50s) David Sparks:

My big use is what I call my personal operating system,

(15m 54s)

where I found that writing down how I think about things gets me to a level of understanding about how I think about things that I didn’t have otherwise.

(16m 4s)

We all have thoughts in our mind and whether it be about Um…

(16m 9s)

Whether we should use Dev & Think, or Obsidian, or Aristotle’s definition of virtue, we all have like some idea of what that is.

(16m 17s)

But when you reduce it to a writing, it really forces you to understand it better.

(16m 22s)

So I’ve been doing that for years. I call it my Sparky OS. It’s my little operating system.

(16m 27s)

And I… and I… I… it gives me a structure to hang big decisions on.

(16m 32s)

And not a lot of people are interested in using it for that, but for me, Obsidian is like killer at that.

(16m 37s)

It’s just so that there’s nothing that can touch.

(16m 39s)

And I think that’s the thing with Obsidian is you should get to know it a little bit and decide what it becomes for you.

(16m 45s)

I’ve seen people that use it as a daily log journaling system.

(16m 50s)

I’ve seen people that have client businesses that use it for that because you can link every transaction with a client using that linking system to the daily note.

(16m 59s)

So you can go back and see exactly what day you dealt with client X, Y, and Z.

(17m 3s)

And then everything is encrypted so you’ve got no problem syncing it across the wire because it’s USB.

(17m 9s)

It’s your password that they don’t know.

(17m 11s)

That’s assuming you use the Obsidian sync system.

(17m 14s)

And so it’s just, you know, so for those people it’s a client management system.

(17m 18s)

Like I said, for other people they write their PhD thesis.

(17m 20s)

For other people it’s what they call personal knowledge management, you know, which is, you know, the most abused word on the internet right now.

(17m 26s) Tim Chaten:

[laughs] Yeah. Yep.

(17m 27s) David Sparks:

Right behind the word Zen, you know.

(17m 30s)

But yeah, it can be a PKM.

(17m 34s)

If you want to manage your life through it, it can do that too because the linking just makes it so easy

Tasks in Obsidian?

(17m 40s) Tim Chaten:

That kind of brain dumping as you’re thinking through things, does some of that end up in OmniFocus?

(17m 46s)

Like you either copy that out or link to it from OmniFocus?

(17m 49s) David Sparks:

Yeah, they have a very thorough task system in Obsidian.

(17m 54s)

It’s through a third-party plugin.

(17m 55s)

And I covered that in the course.

(17m 57s)

And I decided, well, I’m going to use it for a month just to see if I could just run my tasks out of it.

(18m 2s)

Because that’s the other thing with Obsidian,

(18m 4s)

it can become what you want.

(18m 6s)

It’s not as good as OmniFocus.

(18m 8s)

I mean, I don’t–

(18m 10s)

and it’s just– because OmniFocus is made for that task.

(18m 12s)

Yeah, so an example would be, I will

(18m 13s) Tim Chaten:

Yeah, and you have the watch app to remind you.

(18m 19s) David Sparks:

have a project in Obsidian that I’m working on.

(18m 23s)

And that project has a canonical page or canonical document in Obsidian where that’s the source of truth,

(18m 33s)

I guess I’d say.

(18m 34s)

And out of that, there’ll be a hyperlink to a OmniFocus project and a hyperlink to a Notion page and maybe links to emails that relate to it and like all sorts of things coming in and out of it.

(18m 49s)

I’ve talked a lot about the idea of contextual computing and what I mean by that is the idea of using a computer in a way where it just serves your needs.

(18m 58s)

It does exactly what you need it to.

(19m)

And Obsidian can become a really good source of truth and it can link to a Dev and Think folder,

(19m 9s)

it can link to an OmniFocus project,

(19m 12s)

and then you can have links in those apps going back to that page.

(19m 16s)

So with a little bit of thought.

(19m 19s)

You can have a way to jump into a project and stay inside that project and not leave that project for hours.

(19m 25s)

Just using those links to jump around and you’re getting a best-in-class experience on each application or project you use.

(19m 35s)

So that that’s kind of the way I use it. But like I said doing these webinars I’m just learning some people are using it for all sorts of things. It’s very interesting.

Text

(19m 45s) Tim Chaten:

Yeah, I think the scary part of Obsidian is, um, it isn’t a big, like, here,

(19m 50s)

attachments and stuff that Devon thing does.

(19m 52s)

It’s it’s, it’s text, which, which words can be scary.

(19m 56s)

Like it just slow.

(19m 56s)

It’s like the, the, it’s like going into space.

(19m 59s)

It’s just black emptiness.

(20m)

It’s like, what do you put there in the text?

(20m 1s) David Sparks:

It is, but it really isn’t, because everything links.

(20m 1s) Tim Chaten:

Yeah.

(20m 1s)

Yeah.

(20m 4s) David Sparks:

And you can tie it together very quickly.

(20m 6s)

And I find my thoughts on one topic can lead into another one.

(20m 11s)

And they link, and they have a graph where you can kind of chase your thoughts around and see how you got from point A to point B. And it’s all markdown.

(20m 20s)

So if you understand markdown, it’s very easy to format it on the fly.

(20m 25s)

And creating links is a simple process of typing two open square brackets.

(20m 31s)

And then Obsidian indexes everything, so it auto-fills for you while you do it.

(20m 36s)

So, I don’t know, I find it so nimble.

(20m 39s)

Like I’ve tried to do stuff like this in Apple Notes and Dev and Think and, you know,

(20m 45s)

pick your poison app, and just none of them make it as easy, you know.

(20m 50s)

So that’s why it got really sticky.

Organizing your files

(20m 54s) Tim Chaten:

As far as hierarchies and folders and stuff, what’s kind of the organizational mindset with Obsidian?

(21m 2s)

It’s kind of a web of interconnects and like…

(21m 4s)

[laughs]

(21m 5s) David Sparks:

• Yeah, it really is.

(21m 7s)

It’s funny because I use more hierarchy than most people.

(21m 11s)

And it may be because I grew up using folders,

(21m 13s)

I’m very comfortable with them.

(21m 15s)

But my personal hierarchy is shallow folders with text.

(21m 20s)

And Obsidian has this thing called properties,

(21m 22s)

which is a fairly recent addition,

(21m 24s)

but you can categorize your notes by like what area of your life they fit in,

(21m 29s)

or what their status is, are they active or done?

(21m 33s)

So then you can index.

(21m 35s)

on that and like get very quickly a hot list of things that are active and relate to your role as a father or whatever and so so I kind of lost the third so you don’t need a lot of hierarchy if you can use those things but I do like rough folders just because I don’t know just it’s that belt and suspenders part of you and and when you look into the obsidian database which is is a folder that has a bunch of marked down subfolders in it.

(22m 5s)

You can see where things are generally.

(22m 7s) Tim Chaten:

Yeah, to make it easier to work with the local files if you need to on your Mac or what not or iPad

(22m 7s) David Sparks:

Yeah, yeah, and that’s the other weird thing.

(22m 13s)

It’s like you can fiddle around in the database from a third party app.

(22m 18s)

Like you could use something like Hazel to move stuff around and Obsidian’s just gonna follow whatever your lead is.

(22m 25s)

I kind of lost the thread earlier when I was talking about Dev and Think,

(22m 28s)

but like one of the things that’s interesting to me is Devon think deals with metadata outside.

(22m 35s)

of the source file.

(22m 37s)

So metadata has a little like data file on each thing you make.

(22m 40s)

So tags and things you create are all stored there,

(22m 43s)

which makes Devon think great ’cause you can export the file and you lose that metadata,

(22m 48s)

but the file remains intact.

(22m 50s)

Whereas in Obsidian,

(22m 53s)

the metadata is embedded in the markdown file,

(22m 56s)

like the little double brackets is in essence metadata.

(22m 58s)

And the properties are YAML data,

(23m 3s)

which is like a header.

(23m 5s)

So, if I wanted to have Hazel say, “Well, look at the files, and if one is marked ‘archive’,

(23m 26s)

take the markdown file and move it to an archive folder outside of the Obsidian database.”

(23m 32s)

And Obsidian doesn’t complain.

(23m 35s)

“Well, that file’s not here anymore, so I’m not going to show it to you.”

(23m 37s)

And you’ve now archived it.

(23m 40s)

And it kind of is mind-bending that you can do that to data, right?

(23m 46s)

You look at an app like Apple Notes, which is a great app, but that’s very much a proprietary database.

(23m 51s)

If you go in there and change a 1 to a 0 anywhere, the whole thing could blow up on you.

(23m 56s) Tim Chaten:

Mm-hmm Yeah, I could see people I believe Ulysses allows you to edit external files Like if you prefer Ulysses to do some kind of writing thing within your obsidian, you could probably do that As far as the business model it seems like the free version has quite a lot of stuff What’s kind of limitations and where do you run into the roadblocks?

(23m 56s) David Sparks:

And that’s just not going to happen with Obsidian.

(24m 7s)

Yeah.

Business Model

(24m 20s) David Sparks:

Yeah, I don’t I mean I don’t have any inside knowledge But it started out as a as a free for personal use app if you’re a business user It’s I think $50 a year or something like that and then they have also monetized Features, which is an interesting model like I pay Some yearly some for the sync system like you could sync these files on iCloud or Dropbox Although people have mixed levels of success with that for various reasons

(24m 49s)

but or you could just

(24m 50s)

pay them the annual fee and let them sync it and the beauty of that is Their sync is end-to-end encrypted and the whole system built around it So it always it’s just the best way to go It’s gonna cost you a few bucks and I figure why not I’m not paying for the app And then they also have a thing they call published and like I have a published vault as part of this course And I pay for that as well So they put it on a website and people go to a special link and then they can see it so they’ve got like

(25m 20s)

Multiple methods of monetization. I do know that the team has grown Recently and it’s that the app has really got legs over the last few years So I don’t think it’s going anywhere. It’s a small development team It doesn’t appear to be one of these companies that took a bunch of seed money So now they’ve got a like race against the you know investors It but I have no personal knowledge of that, but it just that’s from the outside that’s what it looks like to me is that they’re running a…

(25m 50s)

Hey, let’s make money on this thing, model,

(25m 53s)

instead of let’s build it huge and then sell it thing.

(25m 55s)

And that’s the kind of apps I prefer, you know?

(25m 59s)

And the team is responsive and the community is responsive.

(26m 3s)

And I don’t know, I, you know,

(26m 6s)

when you had written me about this coming on the show,

(26m 9s)

I thought the iPad audience needs to hear about this because it is an unusual app for the iPad,

(26m 14s) Tim Chaten:

Mm-hmm Yeah, and It’s as you said it seems like pretty much everything’s there And I do like the you know you hit command comma just like on the Mac on the iPad It’ll open up all the little preferences. You can mean tweak right there Do those sync to the Mac like if you set up if you have a Mac and iPad like those preferences?

(26m 14s) David Sparks:

but it is actually quite iPad friendly.

Custom UIs

(26m 37s) Tim Chaten:

Or is it kind of in their own silos?

(26m 38s) David Sparks:

Yeah, they come over yeah, even that you know, like one of the things about MCD and that’s kind of fun because it’s this odd Electron app it has an HTML user interface Configuration so people who can program the web can develop their own UI for it So color schemes fonts margins like all the usual suspects and there’s this Open database of like two or three hundred different

(27m 6s)

looks for the app.

(27m 8s)

And you just go under the appearance tab in the settings and they take you to a website and you know There’s one there for Christmas like if you could imagine. Yeah, not that I would recommend it but But they’ve got it, you know, they’ve got everything from very subtle to like 80s neon That would be kind of fun, I don’t know there is a things theme which is pretty funny Which is very popular where they basically just took the look of things and they applied it

(27m 16s) Tim Chaten:

Oh, that’s great.

(27m 26s)

Can we get like an ios6 theme?

(27m 28s)

[laughs]

(27m 30s)

Oh, that’s cool. Yeah.

(27m 35s)

[laughs]

(27m 38s) David Sparks:

to to obsidian Everybody so whenever you see a different person’s obsidian database that they all look a little different because people have different preferences, you know

(27m 50s) Tim Chaten:

As far as keyboard shortcuts, is that something you use quite a bit of?

(27m 54s) David Sparks:

• Yeah, it’s massively programmable.

(27m 57s)

I mean, any command in it,

(27m 59s)

you can set your own keyboard shortcut and they sync over to iPad too.

(28m 3s)

So it’s like, like for instance,

(28m 6s)

was it Control + U is the URL one,

(28m 10s)

which where I copy URL to an Obsidian note.

(28m 12s)

That’s the one I program and I’m constantly using it.

(28m 15s)

Then I can go over and dump into Dev and Think or whatever.

(28m 18s)

And it gets me like, you know,

(28m 20s)

that like every new OmniFocus project.

(28m 25s)

related to a project that’s tracked in Obsidian gets that link in the OmniFocus comment area.

(28m 32s)

And then I get a corresponding link back to the OmniFocus project in Obsidian,

(28m 37s)

and then it’s magical.

(28m 39s) Tim Chaten:

Yeah, that’s awesome. For linking to different, I guess, files, do you have to know the name?

Linking to files

(28m 48s) Tim Chaten:

Do you have to name each file, or how does the actual linking process work? You mentioned the double brackets.

(28m 54s) David Sparks:

Yeah, it’s just you hit Oh to open square brackets and type start typing the name of it and it autofills so like if you’ve got You know if you’ve got one on Devon think tips, and if I just type like de it’s gonna autofill

(29m 13s) Tim Chaten:

• Mm-hmm.

(29m 15s)

Okay, nice.

(29m 16s)

And you can have different, like, libraries.

Vaults

(29m 20s) Tim Chaten:

And it seems like a limitless, unlimited amount.

(29m 21s) David Sparks:

• Yeah, well, I mean, yeah, it’s just,

(29m 25s)

they’re all separate folders full of markdown files,

(29m 28s)

but they call it vaults is their term for it.

(29m 30s)

But yeah, so like, there are some people that have like separate personal and work vaults.

(29m 36s)

The benefit of the app really is in the more notes you have combined a lot of times, the better.

(29m 43s)

But like, if you’re doing a very specialized project,

(29m 46s)

like if you’re an academic and you’re doing something very specialized,

(29m 50s)

doing all the research and everything.

(29m 51s)

And there you can make custom vaults for each thing, if that makes sense.

(29m 51s) Tim Chaten:

Yeah, it’s like, I almost want to go to, I wish I was like younger and could go to college again and like use all these tools because it’s just be such a different experience like,

(30m 5s) David Sparks:

Yeah, yeah, yeah, but then you think about going to college again,

(30m 7s) Tim Chaten:

yeah. Oh yeah, that’s okay. Maybe for a couple days for fun, but yeah.

(30m 9s) David Sparks:

and you’re like, no, that’s okay.

(30m 10s)

[Laughter]

Sponsor – Agenda

(30m 15s) Tim Chaten:

This episode is sponsored by Agenda. In this quick break, I want to share just a little bit about agenda if you haven’t used it.

(30m 21s)

If you haven’t tried it out, it’s a great note taking app that really thoughtfully integrates your calendar and reminders into your notes.

(30m 27s)

If you have a meeting coming up, you can use an agenda note to prepare for that meeting and have all the information related to that meeting on hand.

(30m 34s)

Do multi-page scans right in Agenda, capture the whiteboard with your camera, sketch things out with your Apple Pencil, and even link to other agenda notes to have those on hand.

(30m 44s)

You can even collaborate with your coworkers to have a single shared note for that meeting.

(30m 49s)

Your notes, unlike a task manager, have a few…

(30m 51s)

…different states that is all conveyed through a single radio button.

(30m 54s)

Filled in yellow indicates your task is on the agenda…

(30m 57s)

…or is top of mind and shown in a special on-the-agenda view…

(31m)

…letting you view everything important in your life…

(31m 3s)

…from all your different projects all in one place.

(31m 6s)

A simple tap on the radio button lets you take it off the agenda…

(31m 9s)

…or mark it as done if it is a note that has a completion state you want to indicate.

(31m 13s)

There’s also a wonderful timeline view that lets you view your calendar…

(31m 17s)

…easily linked to agenda notes to calendar events…

(31m 21s)

…add a brand new agenda note that you want to associate with a certain event…

(31m 24s)

…add a reminder to the reminders app…

(31m 27s)

…and you can even quickly reschedule calendar events or reminders.

(31m 30s)

If you’ve ever tried using a task manager to take notes…

(31m 33s)

…and were frustrated by that experience, give Agenda a try.

(31m 36s)

It’s the note-taking app that actually helps you stay on track…

(31m 39s)

…with your work and personal projects.

Bookmarks

(31m 42s) Tim Chaten:

As you’ll hear David share in this episode, it’s important to pick an app…

(31m 45s)

…that is loved by the developers and is getting constantly worked on and improved.

(31m 49s)

There’s nothing more frustrating than that.

(31m 51s)

than to invest your time in an app for that app to no longer get updates.

(31m 55s)

Agenda is a prime example of an app that is constantly being improved and worked on by the developers.

(32m 1s)

Agenda launched in May of 2018, and now 5 years later, is now at version 18,

(32m 6s)

with some exciting features and the test flight getting ready for yet another release.

(32m 10s)

The developers you can tell are also users of their app,

(32m 13s)

and the improvements being made are things actual users like myself want and need.

(32m 18s)

If you haven’t tried Agenda, I’d really encourage you to give it a try.

(32m 21s)

Agenda is free to download and use with no obtrusive ads.

(32m 25s)

To unlock the full power of Agenda, give Agenda Premium a shot.

(32m 29s)

One thing that Agenda continues to do that I love is their approach to the premium features and unlocks.

(32m 33s)

If you ever decide to cancel your Agenda Premium subscription, you get to keep all of the premium features available when you were a subscriber.

(32m 40s)

Or you can opt for their Lifetime Unlock, which will unlock the full power of Agenda on all your Apple devices with a single one-time purchase.

(32m 48s)

To learn more, go to Agenda.com.

(32m 51s)

Download Agenda 18 today for free from the App Store.

(32m 53s)

My thanks again to Agenda for sponsoring this episode of IvaPros.

(32m 57s)

Learn more at http://www.agenda.com.

(33m 1s)

Like bookmarking and pins, are these something you ever use?

(33m 7s) David Sparks:

Yeah, they they have they started out with this isn’t called stars, then they converted to bookmarks bookmarks are a little more powerful I don’t use them that often honestly the I know my way around my vault enough Commando is the search term for a note title So I a commando and a couple letters, and I’m off to the races. It’s it’s um I Don’t use the mouse much. You know I mean, it’s just

(33m 35s)

very fast to hit command

(33m 37s)

and because these are skinny vaults, there’s not a lot of heavy data and it’s mainly text,

(33m 43s)

they are very nimble.

(33m 46s) Tim Chaten:

Yeah the commando is so nice. Agenda added that a couple months back and you’re just with the keyboard just like you’re… yeah for all the the power apps or whatever. Yeah it reminds me like the quick silver days when I was using that on the Mac. Yeah is that app still around? Not even…

(33m 51s) David Sparks:

That seems to have become like the standard, right? You know, yeah Those are good days I Saw it was like a year ago, but you know, it’s just you know, I don’t know what they’re doing with it Dude, did you ever use the cube interface for Quicksilver?

(34m 10s) Tim Chaten:

Yeah it’s a legacy kind of thing.

(34m 16s)

Yeah yes yes it was.

(34m 21s) David Sparks:

It was so great. I don’t know why like Alfred and Ray cast these guys don’t copy that. It was so fun

(34m 22s) Tim Chaten:

Yeah the the era when I got into the Mac was like the Intel transition and that’s just a fun era of just delightful design. You mentioned plugins earlier. I know Federico’s like hired developers to like customize the app for him. You mentioned some of the plugins earlier.

Plugins

(34m 45s) Tim Chaten:

Like, what are–

(34m 46s)

What are some others that are worth pointing out?

(34m 49s) David Sparks:

• Well, it depends what you wanna do with it.

(34m 52s)

Like if you wanna manage tasks,

(34m 53s)

there’s a to-do plugin that’s very good or tasks plugin, I’m sorry.

(34m 57s)

I think if there’s one, you should really try,

(35m 1s)

it’s called Data View.

(35m 3s)

And it’s a way to index and find notes based on those property datas.

(35m 10s)

So it’s very, very powerful.

(35m 13s)

And like, it kind of gives you a next level way to index and access your vault.

(35m 19s)

So that’s a really good one.

(35m 20s)

I mean, I went through like 10 of them in the course and then in the plus course,

(35m 25s)

we went through like another 10.

(35m 27s)

They really range, I mean, from things like,

(35m 29s)

oh, just take this markdown list and turn it into a mind map or, you know,

(35m 35s)

whatever it is you wanna do,

(35m 36s)

somebody’s probably written a plugin for it.

(35m 39s)

It is a super active community writing these plugins and some of the best ones just do like one little thing.

(35m 47s)

and some of the–

(35m 49s)

The others are– it seems like they’re applications

(35m 54s) Tim Chaten:

As far as mind maps, do you still use MindNode at all?

(35m 58s) David Sparks:

Yeah, MindNodes remains my mind mapping tool.

(35m 58s) Tim Chaten:

Is that–

(35m 59s)

Yeah.

(36m 1s) David Sparks:

In fact, you know, Obsidian is an interesting app because you get into it and you think,

(36m 5s)

“Well, I’m going to do everything in Obsidian,” you know?

(36m 8s)

And because I think that’s a very tempting proposition as you start getting into it deeper and you get the…

(36m 8s) Tim Chaten:

Because you can, but it’s not specialized.

(36m 13s) David Sparks:

Yeah, but you can, but you get that benefit of everything is connected.

(36m 14s) Tim Chaten:

But you can.

(36m 19s) David Sparks:

I feel like for me personally, I went through that.

(36m 22s)

I’m like, “Oh, maybe I could do journaling here or whatever.”

(36m 25s)

And then eventually I realized, “No, you know what?

(36m 26s)

But day one is really good at drilling.

(36m 28s)

OmniFocus is really good at task management.

(36m 30s)

And it’s like, I kind of pulled back a little bit and, um, and I think that’s a very common experience, but you kind of have to get into it and kind of go on that little journey to figure out where you, where you end up.

(36m 37s) Tim Chaten:

Yeah, yeah, and I discovered that there are these core plugins. These are first-party plugins and there’s like this daily note concept. You mentioned journaling, so this is like

Core Plugins

(36m 49s) David Sparks:

Yeah. Yeah.

(36m 55s)

But, you know, like, you could use that in two different ways.

(37m 1s)

Like, you could use it as a daily journaling tool, and that’s great.

(37m 5s)

It’s end-to-end encrypted.

(37m 6s)

You’re all good.

(37m 7s)

But, like I said, I think day one is better for that.

(37m 11s)

So, I like getting my photos and, like, it just, it does a better job because it’s built for it.

(37m 16s)

But if you’re working on projects…

(37m 19s)

and you want to track progress on projects,

(37m 22s)

the Daily Note’s a great way to link to a project and say,

(37m 25s)

“Hey, on this day at 11, I spent two hours, you know,

(37m 29s)

researching this thing or talking to Mike about this thing.”

(37m 32s)

You know, and…

(37m 32s) Tim Chaten:

You know, like a journal for a work project, kind of, you know.

(37m 33s) David Sparks:

Yeah, and then, because the backlinks work,

(37m 37s)

you could go to the page for the project,

(37m 40s)

and it would have backlinks to every day that you worked on it.

(37m 42s)

So you’ve got a really easy way to kind of keep track of that stuff.

(37m 46s)

People who build by the hour love it for that kind of

(37m 49s)

insight.

(37m 52s) Tim Chaten:

Yeah, and have you built any templates for the kind of projects you work on?

Templates

(37m 57s) Tim Chaten:

[laughter]

(37m 58s) David Sparks:

I have built so many templates, because they have a built-in template system.

(38m 2s)

So you can template notes, like if we have an episode of a podcast, I have a template.

(38m 8s)

And it’s got links back to, you know, all the pages that I need, not only in Obsidian,

(38m 13s)

but outside the internet, and OmniFocus, and wherever else I need to go.

(38m 17s)

And it’s just kind of like a system.

(38m 19s)

And so you build a template, you activate the template.

(38m 23s)

Again, because you can easily add keyboard shortcuts,

(38m 25s)

I have a simple keyboard shortcut to activate it.

(38m 28s)

Pick the template, make the note, and off I go.

(38m 31s)

So project creation is super easy.

(38m 34s)

Yeah.

(38m 34s)

The answer is yes.

(38m 35s) Tim Chaten:

Okay.

(38m 35s) David Sparks:

I’ve never built a third party plug-in.

(38m 38s)

I don’t want to– I could probably cobble one together.

(38m 40s)

But the fact is there are people that are better at that, making really good ones.

(38m 45s)

And if you go into the Obsidian forum and say,

(38m 47s)

gee, I really wish there was a plug-in that did this thing.

(38m 50s)

And then like two weeks later, it shows up.

(38m 52s) Tim Chaten:

Yeah. Right. You mentioned podcasts like notes and stuff. Are any of your podcasts… Do you show prep in here? I’d imagine there’s… Is there a way to share that with the co-hosts?

(38m 52s) David Sparks:

So it’s not that hard.

Podcast Show Notes

(39m 7s) David Sparks:

No, the collaboration story is, is, is abysmal.

(39m 7s) Tim Chaten:

No, that’s not existent. Okay. Yeah. Okay.

(39m 10s) David Sparks:

I mean, you know, it’s just, there isn’t one.

(39m 13s)

I mean, I think they’re working on one, but, um, it really is a solo tool.

(39m 18s)

I mean, and you know, multiple people working in the Markdown file at the same time could lead to all sorts of chaos.

(39m 25s)

I know some people have tried like to store it on Dropbox and give other people access at the same time.

(39m 31s)

And, and I guess it could work, but I, I think it’s probably not recommended and not.

(39m 37s)

The best of ideas like, so what I do for podcasts is the actual show document is either a notion page or a Google document and then everybody can go in there and access it and then in my notes, the stuff that I’m doing personally on it that I don’t necessarily want to share with everybody is in Obsidian and then there’s just a URL link so I can jump between them.

(39m 58s)

And I do put Obsidian links in public documents and it’s fun because other people click them and nothing happens but for me.

(40m 7s)

On my system, it goes to Obsidian because that’s a link that I generated because everything is stored locally.

(40m 13s) Tim Chaten:

No, they’re… mhm.

(40m 15s) David Sparks:

The data model for me is very attractive and maybe I’m just a privacy nerd but I really like the idea of completely controlling some of the most important data in my life.

(40m 27s) Tim Chaten:

Yeah, no, and you can back that up in all sorts of different ways and The the iPad version we’ve spoken a little bit about being pretty much feature complete Any any other quirks or things of note to just point out?

iPad Version

(40m 45s) David Sparks:

Well, it just doesn’t feel like an iPad app, you know, I mean, if you’re listening to this and you’re thinking about it, try it, just download the app.

(40m 53s)

And it would probably encourage you to not do it, not do Obsidian, because you’d be like, I’m used to an iPad app that looks, you know, more warm and fuzzy than this.

(41m 4s)

This feels, you know, this doesn’t feel like a normal iPad app.

(41m 9s)

But I think it’s once you get used to the kind of the Obsidian system that you’re willing to put up.

(41m 15s)

With those limitations, so in one sense, it’s a super powerful iPad app because it does pretty much everything a Mac app does.

(41m 22s)

The other sense it doesn’t feel warm and fuzzy like a normal iPad app.

(41m 26s)

And I think that is a weird kind of course to navigate as a user.

(41m 31s)

Like I know people who’ve tried it and said, I just can’t do it.

(41m 34s)

I don’t like the way it looks.

(41m 35s)

So that’s fine.

(41m 37s)

But, you know, and there are other apps out there with backlinks and things kind of progressing.

(41m 45s)

But I just haven’t seen any with the power and the third party buy in that this one does.

(41m 50s) Tim Chaten:

Yeah, in the music notation realm it reminds me of Sibelius on the iPad, which is very iPad native. I’ve had first Doesn’t have all the features and then you have Dorico which is flat-out just the Mac app with all the features But it’s got some rough edges because of it having all the features I prefer Dorico because I can do and I need to with it Yeah Yeah It does

(42m 5s) David Sparks:

Yeah, yeah, yeah Yeah Well even like you use agenda right an agenda has a lot of those features you could do a lot of this with agenda It’s just not as powerful

(42m 20s) Tim Chaten:

Yeah, Agenda has the linking different notes, and it has collaboration.

(42m 25s)

So it has that one thing over Obsidian, at least, yeah.

(42m 26s) David Sparks:

Yes, yes.

(42m 28s) Tim Chaten:

And I really like the relevant links within Agenda.

Auto Linking?

(42m 34s) Tim Chaten:

It’ll kinda remember stuff.

(42m 37s)

Does Obsidian have any smarts to it, like outside of what you’re telling it?

(42m 43s) David Sparks:

Yeah, I mean, it’s always like you can, it searches based on what you’re working on and make suggested links and things like that, I guess.

(42m 52s)

And then also the graph system also surfaces knowledge.

(42m 57s)

You may it, I have found that it gives me insight sometimes having all the stuff linked together that I wouldn’t have had otherwise, but it takes a little commitment before you get to that.

Graph View

(43m 8s) Tim Chaten:

• Yeah, and this is graph view.

(43m 10s)

This is kind of like, I don’t know.

(43m 12s)

I see pictures of it.

(43m 13s)

It’s just kind of wild showing the interlinking.

(43m 16s) David Sparks:

Okay, let me tell you about the graph you because like everybody shows that they show the big graph And they’re like oh look at this, and it’s like it looks like a planet or something And it’s like completely useless The actual graphs that are useful are local graphs when you’re in a note say show me a graph of how everything links to this Note and that actually gives you insight, but the the global show me everything graph you it’s I guess It’s bragging rights for nerds, but it’s not really it’s Thanks a lot.

(43m 17s) Tim Chaten:

Yeah, yeah, go into this.

(43m 19s)

Yeah.

(43m 41s)

Yeah, I mean it could be a pretty, you save it as like a lock screen, so you zoom in from that to the note you’re working on, then you can kind of zoom out from there.

(43m 47s) David Sparks:

Yeah, I guess, I don’t know.

(43m 53s)

Well, yeah, while you’re in the node you’re working on,

(43m 56s)

you can just have it display the local graph,

(43m 58s)

which is showing everything this node is connected to and everything connected to this node.

(44m 4s)

Useful.

(44m 6s)

The global one, in my opinion,

(44m 8s)

I’m sure there are people who find ways to use it,

(44m 10s)

but I don’t find it.

(44m 12s)

I mean, you can, the graph tool is very powerful.

(44m 14s)

powerful. You can say only show me those…

(44m 16s)

with this tag on it or with this property. I mean they’ve got a many ways to slice and dice it but the global graph view while it looks interesting it’s not that useful in my opinion. Yeah depending on what your appearance…

(44m 27s) Tim Chaten:

Yeah, can you color code notes so that that globe would have different colors of different notes that are okay?

(44m 34s)

Yeah Yeah, um do you have hopes for obsidian on vision OS will this just be kind of like the electron app?

(44m 35s) David Sparks:

there’s different schemes for it.

visionOS?

(44m 43s) David Sparks:

Good question. Probably not. I don’t know. I mean, the idea of Electron as it goes anywhere,

(44m 52s)

I mean, they got it on iPad, so maybe they’ve got a plan. I don’t know. That’s a good question.

(44m 55s) Tim Chaten:

Yeah, I mean, it’d be fun going in that graph.

(44m 57s) David Sparks:

Yeah, like going to the universe. Really feel like you’re in the mind palace, right?

(44m 59s) Tim Chaten:

Graph and VisionOS.

(45m 1s)

Right, yeah.

(45m 3s)

Yeah, exactly.

Automation

(45m 7s) Tim Chaten:

As far as automation,

(45m 9s)

is this more on the Mac side of things,

(45m 11s)

or is there shortcuts integration,

(45m 13s)

or do you need to use things like Hazel to kind of like…

(45m 17s) David Sparks:

You know, the automation is actually a pretty good story on this app because they’re text files and you can automate text files and you can do almost anything you want with them, like even with shortcuts.

(45m 26s) Tim Chaten:

And even if, yeah, you don’t even need obsidian shortcuts because you’re just working with text,

(45m 27s) David Sparks:

Yeah, exactly. Yeah, yeah. So like, and the way it works with the vault. I’m with the sink. If you’re using on an iPad and using obsidian sink.

(45m 30s) Tim Chaten:

which there’s all sorts of shortcuts for that.

(45m 39s) David Sparks:

You actually store the vault in your local iPad storage, which almost nobody does anything in that storage, right? You’ve almost always got it in iCloud.

(45m 47s)

Or like some cloud storage, but there is local storage on your iPad. So you save the vault to your local storage on iPad, then make that the source of the sink back up to their vault.

(45m 56s)

And that way it doesn’t go to iCloud so that you kept it secret. It remains encrypted. And that’s totally accessible by shortcuts. So you go into shortcuts and change words in it.

(46m 7s)

You could add notes, delete notes, move notes. You can do anything that you can with a file or text management.

(46m 17s)

I mean, I think I really, there’s almost nothing you can’t do with shortcuts automation on text files. So it’s actually pretty good.

(46m 26s) Tim Chaten:

Yeah, if you throw an image into the files app in your Obsidian database, what does that do when you open Obsidian?

(46m 34s)

Okay.

(46m 34s) David Sparks:

Obsidian indexes it and and it just keeps it there so and you can reference it with a markdown link so you know I’ve been getting blowback from people because doing talking about the field guide I tell people like I Prefer probably Devon think for heavy file stuff But there’s a lot of people that throw everything in their obsidian vault Microsoft Word documents images Whatever and then they can access it and link it to the end obsidian And I just feel like I like the idea of this pristine.

(47m 4s)

And so I don’t put a lot of files in there.

(47m 8s)

You can also manage with the way those files are managed.

(47m 12s)

I prefer there’s a setting to say,

(47m 15s)

anytime I add a file attachment to a document in Obsidian,

(47m 19s)

create a subfolder right in the database right there and keep them together so I can find them later.

(47m 27s)

But some people just kind of throw them all into the main directory or some big multimedia.

(47m 33s) Tim Chaten:

You mentioned you can do almost anything with this, through shortcuts and just working with text.

(47m 43s)

Have you seen people use the action button to turn a dictation into text that’s in an

(47m 49s) David Sparks:

Yeah, sure. I mean, you could do that.

(47m 51s)

I think a lot of people, myself included, often use Drafts for capture.

(47m 56s) Tim Chaten:

Mm-hmm. Yeah. Okay.

(47m 58s) David Sparks:

I think Drafts is a better capture tool than Obsidian.

(48m 1s)

But Drafts works with Obsidian, so you can push a button in Drafts and dump the file into your Obsidian file location.

(48m 8s)

It’s pretty seamless.

(48m 10s)

But I actually prefer Drafts for, like, if I want to capture text stuff.

Inbox

(48m 16s) Tim Chaten:

Do you use any kind of inbox with Obsidian, or is it kind of organized from the get-go?

(48m 20s) David Sparks:

Yeah, I do. I Have a folder called inbox and I put stuff in there and I I’m really stingy about my obsidian database I don’t like to put everything in there. So like sometimes stuff goes into the inbox and I look at it later I’m like that was a dumb idea and I’ll just delete it You know, I kind of I want obsidian to be good information that I can rely on I feel like one of the mistakes people make is they ever know that they throw everything in the kitchen sink in and they’ve got all these links and everything’s messy.

(48m 50s)

And they don’t actually get the benefit of it.

(48m 52s)

I think there is, you can overdo links and you can overdo imports into the apps like that.

Apple Notes Import Tool

(48m 58s) David Sparks:

One of the things they just did recently that I should point out is they built,

(49m 2s)

the developers built a Apple Notes import tool.

(49m 5s)

And ’cause you know, Apple Notes has that,

(49m 9s)

has that proprietary database.

(49m 10s)

It’s actually hard to get notes out.

(49m 12s)

It’s almost a road to a hotel.

(49m 15s)

It’s not as bad as Evernote, but it’s not great.

(49m 18s)

and the um…

(49m 20s)

but they built a tool that goes from parses pulls out your rich text notes converts them to markdown and takes all your attachments and imports it into your obsidian vault into a special folder called apple notes so if you want to play with it and you’ve got a apple notes database just go into the plugins and download the importer plugin which is made by the developer and just import your apple notes and you’ve got a starting point

(49m 48s) Tim Chaten:

That’s really cool.

(49m 48s)

Is that, I can’t imagine that works on iPad.

(49m 53s)

Does it?

(49m 54s) David Sparks:

Have not tried it, so I don’t know I did it on a Mac So I don’t know yeah, you may have to get your a Mac McGarrett a mothballs, Tim Yeah still going great

(49m 54s) Tim Chaten:

Okay.

(49m 56s)

Yeah, yeah.

(49m 58s)

Yeah, yeah, my 20, it’s 12 years old now,

(50m 4s)

that good old faithful laptop.

(50m 7s)

Still going strong, yeah.

(50m 8s)

It’s my iTunes match uploader.

(50m 10s)

I’ll get on my external super drive,

(50m 14s)

plug it in and rip some limited-edition soundtracks.

(50m 18s)

to

Canvas

(50m 31s) David Sparks:

Canvas is a feature where it kind of has like a,

(50m 35s)

you can make a graphic diagram.

(50m 37s) Tim Chaten:

Okay, kind of like freeform or less less that way

(50m 37s) David Sparks:

It’s like a diagramming tool in Obsidian.

(50m 40s)

And yeah, but not as good probably.

(50m 45s)

But the beauty of it is that it ties to Obsidian notes.

(50m 49s)

So like if you wanted to put together like a overview of all your active obligations and link them to the notes that relate to those obligations.

(50m 58s)

I mean, the more buy-in you have in Obsidian,

(51m 1s) Tim Chaten:

Yeah, because you could highlight this. Can you deal with shapes? Can you link a shape?

(51m 5s)

So I like highlight this square and link that to a note kind of thing and yeah, okay?

(51m 8s) David Sparks:

Yeah, exactly. Everything is linked, and then you could link back to it.

(51m 11s)

So it’s a very kind of nimble thought environment.

(51m 16s)

And canvases, if you think visually, like me, that can be of use.

(51m 19s) Tim Chaten:

Very cool. And then, is this a tool, should authors stick with Scrivener or could you do a book in an EPUB export through Obsidian?

Writing a book?

(51m 30s) David Sparks:

Yeah, you could absolutely write a book in it.

(51m 32s)

And people do.

(51m 32s)

I mean, it’s very light-footed text editor.

(51m 39s)

But you can get plug-ins to do a bunch of stuff to the text for you and format it.

(51m 43s)

And there’s a lot you can do with tools.

(51m 47s)

And if you want to turn it into typewriter mode or no distraction mode,

(51m 51s)

there’s plug-ins for that, too.

(51m 52s)

So you can create whatever writing environment you want.

(51m 55s)

But you’re writing in a simple text editor,

(51m 58s)

So there’s not a lot.

(52m)

A lot of distractions.

(52m 1s)

And, um, yeah, I’ve written many blog posts and extended things, uh, legal contracts, whatever I’ve ever in a lot of stuff in Obsidian.

(52m 9s) Tim Chaten:

Yeah, I’d imagine you could, yeah, have a special, you know, character, like profiles and all sorts of stuff if you wanted to.

(52m 17s) David Sparks:

Yeah. Yeah.

(52m 18s)

And it’s all linked together, which is kind of —

(52m 21s)

so it’s super easy, and you can set up multiple panes.

(52m 24s)

I mean, Scrivener is a dedicated tool for that.

(52m 27s)

Maybe it’s better.

(52m 27s)

I don’t know.

(52m 28s)

But it’s — this is an environment in which you could do that sort of work.

(52m 32s) Tim Chaten:

Yeah. Do you have a way to export directly to your blog from this or are you copying and pasting?

Blog Posts

(52m 38s) David Sparks:

Just because it’s markdown. I’m I I’m good. I markdown is kind of the lingua franca for me. So so long as it’s markdown. I can put it anywhere But you can also They have two modes here like the edit and a preview mode and the preview mode you can copy out as rich text

(52m 56s) Tim Chaten:

Okay, nice.

(52m 57s)

So this has become definitely one of your core apps.

Core apps

(53m 1s) Tim Chaten:

What are like, what is that?

(53m 2s) David Sparks:

Yeah That’s a great question You know I’m always like looking at things I actually have recently started making a document called my tech stack because I need to document my Experiments and make sure I don’t waste too much time on it Obsidian is where I do thinking Apple notes is where I keep PKM type information like you know the veterinary

(53m 4s) Tim Chaten:

Like, what are your core apps?

(53m 5s)

These are the Obsidian, OmniFocus.

(53m 8s)

Yeah, yeah.

(53m 30s) David Sparks:

appointments and stuff like that.

(53m 32s)

I don’t want to kind of clutter my Obsidian database and stuff like that.

(53m 37s)

OmniFocus is where I manage tasks.

(53m 39s)

But because I’ve got a team member and a few other people helping me,

(53m 44s)

we’re doing some stuff in Notion now because they have to be able to see it, too.

(53m 47s)

So there’s a little bit of bleed over.

(53m 50s)

Some projects are managed in Obsidian–

(53m 52s)

I’m sorry, in OmniFocus, some of them are managed in Notion.

(53m 55s)

It just depends on the project, which isn’t ideal to have it in multiple places.

(53m 58s) Tim Chaten:

Yeah, the web version of OmniFocus doesn’t solve any of that, it’s still a problem.

(54m 3s) David Sparks:

Yeah, it really is not ideal.

(54m 6s)

I mean, they’ve talked about collaboration too.

(54m 8s)

I’m not even sure I want collaboration in OmniFocus.

(54m 11s)

I kinda like having, like Obsidian and OmniFocus to me are very personal buckets.

(54m 16s)

And I’m not sure even if I could share it, that I would.

(54m 19s)

But even like there’s spillover, like Obsidian Field Guide,

(54m 25s)

I’m doing these webinars for the plus versions.

(54m 29s)

And all of that is tracked.

(54m 32s)

And then when I have a guest in, I just put the mark down into an Apple note and share the note with the person who’s the guest.

(54m 40s)

So they have the links to the zoom call and things like that.

(54m 43s)

So there’s a little bit of flexibility in the system for me, but, and then the calendar, which is a key component for me is fantastic Cal mail.

(54m 54s)

I’ve, I’ve tried everything and I keep coming back to Apple mail, but you know.

(54m 57s) Tim Chaten:

It’s a sad state with… it’s just… nothing.

(55m) David Sparks:

Yeah, but you know

(55m 2s)

I I have what I call Apple mail with a same box chaser. You know and Same box is a been a sponsor of the podcast So I should say that but they’ve got a system like in there where you can go in and block domains And they there’s a lot of cool tools and same box that allow you to make Apple mail work harder for you So I do that But yeah, I I am struggling right now to like kind of nail down

(55m 29s)

Where all the lines are drawn because there are some

(55m 32s)

great tools and we’re going through this revolution of PKM and linked notes where there’s a seems like there’s a new tool every week but my feeling on that is you know I wouldn’t spend a lot of time in whatever the latest one this week is I think you need to kind of let them mature and make sure it’s a an app that’s gonna that’s got legs and is gonna be around for a while because it’s It’s a massive investment of your time to put stuff into these things.

(56m 2s)

If they, you know, they say, well, you know, we didn’t get enough, um, we didn’t,

(56m 6s)

we didn’t get enough users to do a capital race.

(56m 8s)

So we’re shutting it down.

(56m 9s)

And that’s happened to some of these tools already.

(56m 11s)

And I am, I’m not a big fan of that.

(56m 14s)

So, so, um, yeah, I think for me, the, the key tools for notes are obsidian and Apple notes at this point.

(56m 21s)

But then I see you in agenda and I’m like, temped.

(56m 24s)

I’m like, huh, I should be looking at agenda.

(56m 25s)

Yeah.

(56m 26s) Tim Chaten:

Yeah, no, I love Agenda. It’s very Apple-y, like it’s, yeah, they take advantage of all the things.

What did you learn creating the FG?

(56m 33s) Tim Chaten:

When creating this field guide, did you learn anything new about Obsidian that you’re now implementing and how you use the app?

(56m 43s) David Sparks:

Not particularly. I’ve been using Obsidian since very early days, because I immediately understood the value of a local database.

(56m 53s)

And, you know, everybody was talking about Rome three or four years ago, Rome Research, and I could not, I even wrote the like head guy at one point wrote back and said, well, what’s your plan for end to end encryption?

(57m 6s)

And they’re like, well, we don’t really know. And I’m like, I, I just don’t, you know, so, so as soon as I saw Obsidian show up, I.

(57m 13s)

I tried it out immediately. And initially it wasn’t mature enough, but it very quickly. And that’s the weird thing with this app is it is evolving so quickly, but very quickly it got to a point where I could use it.

(57m 26s)

And so I, I’ve been using it for three or four years. So I didn’t learn a lot new because I’m in it every day.

(57m 35s) Tim Chaten:

And doing the interviews for the Plus version of the Fuel Guide, what were some of your favorite guests and what were some of the most surprising things you learned from them?

Favorite Plus Guide Interviews?

(57m 47s) David Sparks:

Was very picky about who we interviewed. So everybody here is really great I mean Nick Milo from looking you’re thinking is kind of like the one of the loop, you know the leaders in obsidian space but we also had Ryan Murphy on who’s written multiple plugins and does amazing things with it and One of the fun fun ones was Lee Garrett who came in Lee is a relatively new obsidian user. He’s super techie and very smart and seeing somebody like

(58m 17s)

you know Scratch with it and he had interesting ideas that I hadn’t heard of before because he’s bringing his own distinct viewpoint to the application Yeah, they’ve all been good though. Honestly, it’s it’s been really fun. We still have a as I record this I still have one more interview that one’s gonna be with Mike Schmitz and a couple more of those sessions I had originally promised on the sales page six sessions, but it’s grown to ten since then

(58m 41s) Tim Chaten:

It’s a good, good problem, I guess, anything we didn’t cover about Sibiu that you’d like

Anything else?

(58m 51s) David Sparks:

It is a very different animal, it’s very powerful,

(58m 55s)

and if you’re curious about it, you should just give it a try and see what you think, you know.

(58m 59s) Tim Chaten:

It’s a free download.

(58m 59s) David Sparks:

There’s a free download, my introductory free portion of the course is like 45 minutes or so.

(59m 8s) Tim Chaten:

Yeah, it’s a lot. I was watching it. It’s like, this is a lot of.

(59m 9s) David Sparks:

Yeah, so you can watch that and get yourself going and that would kind of get you going.

(59m 16s)

You can see it and I think you would know pretty soon if it’s for you or not, and if it’s not for you, that’s fine.

(59m 21s)

I think we all had to find the tools that work with us, right?

(59m 24s) Tim Chaten:

Yeah, definitely.

(59m 25s) David Sparks:

I’m going to add a discount though, FOT, Friends of Tim,

Discount Code – “FOT”

(59m 26s) Tim Chaten:

Excellent, thank you.

(59m 30s) David Sparks:

and that will get you 10% off, so make sure to put that in if you decide to buy it.

(59m 32s) Tim Chaten:

Awesome, thank you.

(59m 35s)

Awesome, thank you, David.

(59m 39s)

Where can people find the fuel guide, Obsidian, and your other ones?

(59m 44s) David Sparks:

Everything for me is at maxsparky.com.

(59m 47s)

If you wanna go specifically to the field guides,

(59m 49s)

go to learn.maxsparky.com.

(59m 51s)

Thanks, Tim.

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