There is an approach in philosophy where before asking whether something is good or bad or useful you ask what it is. So, let us ask, what is Obsidian.
Obsidian is a Markdown editor
At it’s core Obsidian is a Markdown editor. Markdown is a simple way to add formatting to text using symbols. This is an efficient way to edit.
Obsidian is a place that you can write your thoughts
But perhaps Obsidian is what you use it for. And one thing you that you can use it for is write your thoughts. It’s a separate text editor where you can write down all your thoughts to improve your thinking.
Obsidian in an extensible markdown editor
Obsidian is a text editor scripted in JavaScript with plugins. Rather than solving all problems itself, it provides the means for a community to solve problems for one another.
Obsidian is a way to quickly search your notes
Obsidian has a quick fuzzy search of the times of your notes allowing you to quickly find your notes.
Obsidian is your own “cache” for documentation
I often like to think as a personal cache for documentation and reference material. Documentation can be long-winded, or too technical, or aimed at a general audience. Obsidian allows you to build your own documentation which only contains the things that you care about in an informal way, and linking to your own examples.
You can use this initially for something easy or specific to you and then go back to the main documentation.
Even just having your own documentation which links to the relevant parts of the main documentation.
Obsidian is a Community
Lots of people use Obsidian to do things. And this community has properties and values. It’s a better community than things like notion.
Obsidian is an easy-to-use markdown editor
There are other tools that do things like Obsidian. Emacs org-mode is a prominent example that was created decades earlier.
Finishing up
If you want to learn more about Obsidian you can read my somewhat academic review of note-taking in Obsidian or my more introductory guide to making better notes in Obsidian.
I am @readwithai. I make tools for Obsidian related to reading, agency and productivity. If you are interested in Obsidian you might like to look at my quick guide for better notes in Obsidian or look at my cookbook of cool things you can do with Obsidian and Plugin REPL.
I am not affiliated with Obsidian.