# [[Notion vs Obsidian]] <iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/AhhFLXfldJQ" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe> ## Thumbnail ![[notion vs obsidian.png]] ### Inspiration ![[nancy-byerly-thumbnail-notion-obsidian.png]] ![[rachel-madrigal-notion-obsidian.png]] ![[productividad-con-ruben-loan-notion-vs-obsidian.png]] Text: "The REAL difference between Obsidian and Notion" Half of the thumbnail black and white, the other half purple and black, with me in the center? ## Title 1. How to use Obsidian Dataview 2. What is the Obsidian Dataview plugin? 3. ==Notion vs. Obsidian // Intro to Obsidian Dataview== ## Hook I first started using Notion at work in 2019, and quickly adopted it as my personal note-taking tool as well. I liked-- and _still_ like -- its interface, its API, and how down-to-earth the team behind it is. Notion revolutionised note-taking in so many ways. So why is it that I now use Obsidian, and not Notion? Well, it's all about which tool matches the way you think. In this video, I'm going to talk about the fundamental difference between the two and why the Obsidian Dataview plugin makes Obsidian the better choice for me. ## Structure - When you create a note in Notion, you're immediately faced with a decision: Where do you put it? - Notion is hierarchical. Everything is in folders. - Notion asks you to decide _where_ to put a note before you've even written it. And where you put it could influence and limit the way you think of it. In fact, many people who use Notion as a second brain of sorts end up creating folders for every aspect of their lives that they consider important. Notion encourages you to start from the top and work your way down. So you have to know where you're going before you get there. - Now, to be fair, many people use Obsidian that way too. But Obsidian *encourages* a more bottom-up approach while allowing you the flexibility of doing both. - In Obsidian, you just create a note now, and think about where it fits in later. It doesn't even matter which folder you put it in; Obsidian lets you use tags and links to connect it to every topic you think would be appropriate. One note, multiple ways to find it. - Notion: parent-child hierarachy. Obsidian: sprawling network of interconnected ideas. While we're talking about creating a second brain, which one does _your_ brain look like? - Notion's limiting structure is also apparent in its best feature: databases. - What is a database? - Structured data, and by that we mean that the data is constructed according to a certain format and is organised in some way: metadata - Why? So you can query that database according to the metadata assigned to it. - Notion: you create a database, or a table, or a list, and then you create items to go into it. Sounds reasonable. - Example: You have a jumble of notes that are a mixture of people, books you read, and one country you visited: `Alice, Bob, Maria, Kieran, How to Take Smart Notes, The Expanse, Japan.` - In most tools, you might create two separate databases: one for people, and one for books. Then, you'd start populating each database. - But what if you decide later on that you want to return a list of notes you created in 2021? Oops, they're in separate databases. Can your tool then pull in items from different databases? What about Japan, the page you didn't think to create a database for? Can you turn a page into an item in a database? - From Notion customer support: `At the moment, we don't have a way to do that.` - The flaw here is that you have to know in advance whether something's going to be an item in a database, _and_ you have to choose which database it should be in. See a pattern here? - Obsidian's counterpoint to databases: Dataview plugin - Same mess of notes - Dataview doesn't allow you to _create_ a database. Instead, it turns your entire Obsidian vault into a database. All of it, even things that you don't know yet that you'll want to be in a database. - Next, you add metadata as you see fit: `type: person/country/book`, `date: 2021-01-13` - Then, you tell Obsidian how you want to slice up your data. - one view of the data for books - another for people - another for countries - another for things you did in 2021 - another for things Joāo recommended. Notion is best for you if you have a very specific and limited use case, like internal docs for work, or lists of content you've consumed, or a list of tasks. Every interaction with the Notion team that I've had has been overwhelmingly positive, and I feel good about having supported a great product. But if you're looking for a tool that is open-ended enough to support the chaotic complexity of real human thought, a tool that will prompt you to make serendipitous connections between disparate topics, and one that will grow in ways you couldn't have planned, then maybe you'll agree with me that Obsidian is the better tool for you. ## Outro Dataview is a Community plugin for Obsidian. If you'd like to know more, check out this video on my top 10 Obsidian plugins, or, for Dataview specifically, stay tuned for a video where I discuss Dataview more in detail: how to use it, and how to install it. Until then, `thank-watching` -- thanks for watching. ## Related videos and resources // VIDEO CREDITS Linking Your Thinking: Idea Emergence Q&A Part 1: How to Create MOCs, How to use Tags & Folders https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WUq8Pun28FI ## Timestamps 0:00 Intro 0:47 Structure of Notion vs. Obsidian 05:07 Databases in Notion 07:00 Dataview (Obsidian plugin) 10:03 Choosing which one is better for you ## Pre-production - [x] Take a thumbnail photo and create one for YouTube (1280 x 720). - [x] Add description. - [x] Include the title and any keywords in the first few sentences, but in a natural way. - [x] Add related videos and resources as links. - [x] Add end screen. - [x] Add cards if necessary. - [x] Add video to relevant playlist(s), or create a playlist if necessary. - [x] Create captions using Descript or using the script, then edit them. - [x] Add chapters for YouTube if longer than 5 minutes. - [x] Schedule on YouTube. ## Post-production - [x] Promote on personal social media. - [x] Twitter - [x] LinkedIn - [ ] Create a blog post on [site](https://nicolevanderhoeven.com). - [ ] Add to weekly newsletter.