Question
What do you think of walling.app?
I am in search of an app that I can use continuously for the "second brain". Roam looks good for this job, but I think it's expensive. What are your thoughts on Walling? or any other suggestions? Thanks
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Yes I spent a good amount of time with both of them. Overall I prefer Obsidian but I like Roam's WYSIWYM. I didn't know that is on Obsidian's roadmap, very exciting.
How can i use the obsidian with portable? (for sync. and private use...) Do you have any idea? Thanks
1) Put your Obsidian notes in a dedicated folder;
2) Put the folder in your iCloud Drive or any other cloud-based folders;
3) Open, edit and save your Obsidian notes with any Markdown app (Bear, Ulysses, etc) on your iPhone /Android phone.
4) Sit down and have a cup of tea, let the cloud do the rest.
You can also use Simplenote (a service by Automattic) to be able to do this. It will allow you to access your notes on the go (with the mobile app for Simplenote), while still allowing you to use the desktop Obsidian.
Looks like it's primarily a configuration approach -- enable Markdown support in Simplenote, create a note, click the Info icon, and then select Markdown Formatted. Any new notes you create in the future will have this setting enabled automatically.
That said, I feel like there is likely a simpler solution -- I'd love to see a decent MD editor for iOS.
Elmasry from Walling here!
The main difference between Walling and other "second brain" tools is that Walling wants you to save ideas to achieve something with them, not just saving ideas for the sake of saving.
When you build a network of ideas on Walling, you can curate content from that network to your Walls, which are the core of Walling. You can use the Walls to collaborate with a client, plot out and visualize ideas or synthesize information.
After playing around with all kinds of new Roam clones I decided that for something like a knowledge base which I want to build up over probably the next two decades, it is probably a bad idea to put everything in a FOTM startup app where you don't know if it survives the next year. (No offense to any app)
This is even more an issue for cloud-based tools which are troublesome both in terms of privacy (I'm not allowed to put much work-related information into a cloud tool) and also in terms of backups and data-availability (sure, there's export, but unless you really back it up regularly by yourself, it might still go away if the tool disappears over night.)
Because of this, while I love the ideas of Roam, Notion, Walling, etc. None of these are particularly usable for me. I mainly play around with them and draw conclusions which I try to apply for my local files (as in, getting inspiration for how to organize and structure my existing documents and notes rather than throwing everything in a new tool or start from zero.) For now I settled with older tools like DevonThink, OmniOutliner, and others and manage my notes there. It is much more clunky, but I feel more secure that my workflows survive the next year or two.
If you really want a similar feature set of Roam, Obsidian is probably your best bet as everything is stored locally and in a non-proprietary format (it's only a folder of Markdown files). It is still very new and in alpha, so nobody knows how it will turn out in the long run, but at least you'll maintain access to your data.
TiddlyWiki is another option, and they added support for Roam-style backlinks. The project has been around for a good bit and has a ton of support.
It's actually funny in a way—Roam Research borrows a lot of ideas from wikis, where things like bidirectional links showing which pages link to a page are built into Wikipedia's wiki engine. It's like Roam helped "re-discover" those features and popularize them.
I think Roam Research and Obsidian focus on writing and research, especially for those using the zettekasten method of note-taking. Walling seems to be closer to Trello, Airtable’s gallery, or Notion.
I use Obsidian academically, and I really enjoy it. Roam Research doesn’t have a beautiful user interface. It’s expensive and web-based only.
If you are interested in writing notes for academic purposes, for professional writing, or having more integrated and more interlinked ideas, go for Obsidian. It’s great and free.
I'd also suggest giving Bookmark OS a look for a more visual route
What's your favorite thing about Bookmark OS? And do you find it takes much time to organize everything into folders?
Looking for a better way to plan remote meetings across time zones, and keep up with events. What software is doing that best today?
I've been jumping between Roam and Obsidian. I spent a week or two in Obsidian and eventually decided to move back to Roam for it's WYSIWYM editor, which is part of Obsidian's roadmap and will be released eventually. In the mean time, I'm sticking with Roam because Obsidian has a better import tool for converting Roam - Obsidian down the road.