I really didn’t get Obsidian bases until I read this article by obsidian CEO kepano. Now I use it extensively.
When bases came out, I tried the feature but didn’t really get the hang of it. I saw the similarities to the likes of notion, where I stored some of my databases, but it didn’t click for me.
Similar to what others reported, my problem was that obsidian doesn’t use a database in the background to create a base. Instead it pulls in every single file you have in your vault (including images, PDF’s and bases itself). It annoyed me pretty quickly that I had to filter out all the things I didn’t want to see every single time.
Furthermore coming from a BASB-based folder workflow, I had a pretty developed folder and sorting system for my files. Pulling in every single file meant that if there where pieces of information I knew I’d just wanted to use in a database table (like a lists of links or products) I’d have to engineer a way so that these files wouldn’t clutter my existing folders (like creating an „OnlyBase Folder“ for all those files and than hiding that folder in notebook navigator. URGH!)
So I checked bases off, didn’t use it and carried on.
That changed after finding this video from Karlos featuring this article from Obsidian founder Steph Ango (also known online as kepano). The video and the post both explain the bottom-up approach Steph follows. A slightly radical shift from what I were used to, but one with all the more impact on my process.
Different systems
Steph didn’t really care about the folder structure like I did. In fact he only used one folder (the obsidian main vault) for all the files he wrote himself, together with just two reference folders for… everything?
His vault features all the things you’d expect from a usual note app: Notes about appointments or things he is interested in. Evergreen notes which feature ideas he had in the past. Journal entries which comprehend the things he thinks about or working notes with things one would just jot down like travel information.
But this vault also included information about stuff one would (maybe) usually choose a dedicated app for: movies, books, recipes, even people. All those notes are connected extensively throughout his vault via links.
Steph uses links in his Vault not just to connect notes together because they might relate. They act more as a bridge to connecting several pieces of information together. An example for a journal entry he provides in his post looks like this:
I went to see the movie [[Perfect Days]] with [[Aisha]] at [[Vidiots]] and had Filipino food at [[Little Ongpin]]. I loved this quote from Perfect Days: [[Next time is next time, now is now]]. It reminds me of the essay ...All the words in square brackets are links to other notes. So later on Steph is able to see from the Aisha note that he went to the movies with her but also that this was the night he made a connection between that specific film and the quote he heard before.
This was the first thing that clicked. I used apps to collect some of this information in the past. I stored contacts in various apps throughout the time, had a list of movies in my IMDB account and took notes on books on my various notes apps. I even had a handwritten little notebook with quotes from others. Yet I never connected those. At least not outside of my head.
Using bases as the organisational foundation
The second big shift came with the use of bases inside of Stephs vault. Using built-in obsidian features he created bases that he can reference one time in a template but that offer different results depending for example on the name of the note.
So for example every time he uses a „person template“ on a note that note embeds a base which searches for every note where the name of that person is mentioned or linked. Steph doesn’t have to create that base every time. He just embeds a template base and obsidian recognizes the different file-name where the base is embeded. If that’s hard to imagine check out this post in the obsidian forum or download kepanos example vault to see what I mean.
After seeing the video and reading the post I obviously thought about implementing some of those ideas into my own note taking system. Making the shift honestly send me into a sort of panic attack at first: my head just couldn’t tackle the sheer chaos this way of organizing notes would throw me into. I managed that. Thanks for asking.
But after implementing some of those ideas I realized that the true from of organisation in Stephs Vault come from the bases. Not a rigid folder.
Using different properties in each of his files, Steph is able to use the filtering that bases allow, to check for different sorts of information from those files. For example files that belong to a common topic, that were created while talking to specific people or in the same time frame. That sort of bottom-up approach doesn’t care for rigid systems. Each file has it’s own set of propertys that connect it to ideas, time and people. Checking different filter criteria will surface different files.
Don’t make it to rigid
After using bases for a while I also came to appreciate the fact that every base always starts with all files.
Because coming back to the fact those notes are already linked, it only makes sense to see them as a whole. Using different databases and referencing the notes of just one folder doesn’t make sense, as those ideas are usually connected. Your knowledge exceeds categories, folders and segregation.
Ideas rarely (if ever) come from nothing. They are much more often the results of mistakes, coincidences, the fact that you’ve read something a long time ago, which you had nearly forgotten, and a side comment of a friend over dinner that sparks a thought.
That is, in effect, the whole thing of obsidian, at least it’s graph, anyway. Your ideas are connected. Categorizing and foldering helps your mind make sense of the world. But it’s just not truly how the interconnectedness of the world works.
I don’t copy the exact method of Steph at this point. But I’ve included enough of his ideas to make it useful for me: I categorize notes, I link heavily, I tag extensively and then I create lots of different bases to make sense of this information in a more structured way. I still use folders, but I’ve broadened them.
I’ve included enough of Stephs ideas to make it my own. Because this is the point right? Try to understand as much as you can about another person’s process. Apply everything that seems useful to your own. Just like in obsidian, just like an evergreen note. Create a simple idea. Connect it heavily. Watch the graph grow.