obsidian is the first notes app that didn't fall apart after 6 months and I think I finally understand why

I've tried everything. evernote, notion, apple notes, google keep, bear, craft. the pattern was always the same. I'd start strong, build out a system, use it for 3-6 months, and then it would get messy and I'd abandon it for the next thing. I thought I was the problem. turns out I just needed something that works with how my brain organizes information instead of forcing me into someone else's structure.

obsidian clicked for me because of three things. first, local markdown files. I can see my notes in finder, I can open them in any text editor, and I know they'll exist in 20 years regardless of what happens to the company. after losing a bunch of stuff when evernote changed their pricing and I didn't want to pay, this matters a lot to me.

second, the backlinks. I don't have to decide where a note "belongs" when I create it. I just write the note and link it to whatever's relevant. my note about a meeting with a client links to the client page, the project page, and maybe a note about a competitor they mentioned. I don't have to file it in a folder. it just exists in the web of connections and I find it through links or search.

third, community plugins. dataview alone makes obsidian worth it. I have queries that pull up all my meeting notes from the last 2 weeks, all my project notes tagged with a specific client, and a dashboard that shows me what I'm supposed to follow up on today. it took a while to learn the syntax but once you get it dataview turns obsidian from a notes app into something closer to a personal database.

my workflow now is pretty simple. everything goes into obsidian. meeting notes, project notes, random ideas, article highlights, daily logs. I capture stuff throughout the day either by typing directly in obsidian on my mac or dictating quick notes through willow voice on my phone when I'm away from my desk. the phone stuff syncs through icloud and shows up in my vault within a few seconds.

I'm about 800 notes deep and the vault feels more useful now than it did at 100. that's the opposite of every other system I've tried where entropy takes over and things get harder to find over time. the graph view is mostly a toy but it is satisfying to look at.

anyone else come to obsidian after cycling through a bunch of other apps? what was the thing that made it stick for you? and what plugins do you consider essential? I'm running dataview, templater, calendar, and periodic notes. curious what I'm missing.