[al_borland]

If you lookup some info on the Zettelkasten method, that is effectively what Obsidian is designed for when it comes to linking.

For me, Zettelkasten seems like way too much work, and the goals of it are not my goals. So while I do use Obsidian, I don’t use Zettelkasten, I never use the graph view, and I have very few links. For it to really pay off seems like you need to turn your notes into your digital garden. What’s really wild is the guy who came up with the system did it by hand with index cards, if I remember correctly.

Obsidian isn’t too opinionated, and there are a lot of plugins, so you can make it into whatever works for you. Zettelkasten disciples have some impressive looking graph views, but I do question how much of that is actually valuable vs procrastination.

The tool aside, I wouldn’t worry about there being something online that already exists or is better. The act of doing it yourself helps with the learning process. Any time I made a cheat sheet in college for a test they allowed it, I never needed it. The act of making it got me to learn it. I saw an interview with someone recently who said they still write book reports as an adult, like they did in grade school, because it helps them learn the lessons of the book and organize their thoughts around it. All of this takes a decent amount of discipline when there is no external force holding you accountable. If it’s worth it or not really depends on the person and topic.