What is Obsidian?
A markdown editor that lets you link between documents and own your data.
At its core, Obsidian is a markdown editor that allows linking between documents.
Why you've heard about it: it can be your second brain. Plug it into an LLM and it's your brain 1000x.
There is a community obsessed with productivity gains. After just 60 hours of data entry, 12 hours of CSS tweaks, and 5 hours of JSON configuration, you too can use an LLM to make a better informed decision than you can yourself. How? It's using your data. Even GPT-4o-mini's context window was longer than yours ever will be.
Why it rules
Obsidian's default is a desktop application that stores your notes locally. Meaning, you own your documents and your data. If Obsidian imploded tomorrow you would still have your .md files locally and could import them into any other system.
Obsidian plays nicely with your existing cloud storage on desktop; less so on mobile. You can store your vault in iCloud, Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox, etc. and have it backed up. If you're syncing back and forth between mobile, it's not completely seamless. If you want that, they offer a paid cloud storage option, syncing between your devices for $4/month.
If this is where this article ended, I'd rate it Load-Bearing. Where it gets ornamental is the mythology around it.
The hype: Second Brain · Graph View
First you capture your current thoughts, workflow, todos. You link between files. You can see the graph of how it all comes together. You identify patterns, you forget less, stay more focused.
The pitfall
Feeling like all information is useful.
You make identity files. Your personal history, family history, career timelines. All of these will help you see the bigger picture. You start saving meeting transcriptions, therapy notes, horoscopes. Before you know it you're capturing LLM-generated summaries of books, scrapes of entire New Yorker issues.
This is a trap. It's Productivity Theater: more data and systems does not mean more productivity.
My advice
If you want to move to Obsidian, migrate your daily todos and notes. Enter data as you need it. Do not spend a weekend migrating your Notion. Just because it exports to markdown doesn't mean it belongs in Obsidian. See what sticks, see how it helps you stay organized one bit at a time. If you miss something from your other system, move it.