Notion vs Obsidian // Databases vs Dataview  ## Metadata - Author: [[YouTube]] - Full Title: Notion vs Obsidian // Databases vs Dataview - Category: #articles - Document Note: --- tags: [knowledge-management, note-taking, productivity] author: Eleanor Konik source: YouTube reference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhhFLXfldJQ date created: 2024-12-28 19:30 --- # 🏷️ Title: Notion vs Obsidian // Databases vs Dataview ## 🧰 Action Inbox - [H1] Evaluate hierarchical vs networked note organization for current workflow — 02:15 #productivity - [H2] Test Obsidian Dataview plugin for dynamic content organization — 08:30 #tools - [H3] Consider bottom-up vs top-down knowledge management approach — 03:45 #strategy ## 🧭 Table of Contents - [📝 Summary](#-summary) - [📖 Main Content](#-main-content) - [🗒️ Notes](#️-notes) - [📚 References](#-references) - [🗣️ Paraphrase](#️-paraphrase) - [📰 Newsletter](#-newsletter) - [✅ Action Items](#-action-items) - [🧪 Hypotheses](#-hypotheses) - [📊 Methodology](#-methodology) - [❓ Questions](#-questions) - [🔮 Future Research](#-future-research) - [💡 Implications](#-implications) - [🧠 Learning Styles Assessment](#-learning-styles-assessment) - [📊 Accessibility Assessment](#-accessibility-assessment) - [🌍 DEIB Assessment](#-deib-assessment) - [✅ Logical Validity](#-logical-validity) - [🛡️ DARVO Analysis](#-darvo-analysis) - [🎯 Conclusion](#-conclusion) ### 🔗 References - [Notion vs Obsidian // Databases vs Dataview](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhhFLXfldJQ) - [Obsidian Dataview Plugin](https://github.com/blacksmithgu/obsidian-dataview) ## 📝 Summary - A comparison of Notion's hierarchical structure versus Obsidian's networked approach to knowledge management - The fundamental difference lies in organization philosophy: Notion requires upfront categorization while Obsidian allows emergent organization - Obsidian's Dataview plugin offers dynamic querying capabilities that surpass Notion's static database limitations - Key stakeholders include knowledge workers, researchers, and anyone building personal knowledge management systems - The choice depends on whether you prefer structured planning or flexible, evolving organization - Bottom line: Choose Notion for known, structured use cases; choose Obsidian for open-ended, evolving knowledge work ## 📖 Main Content The video presents a philosophical comparison between two popular note-taking tools, focusing on their fundamental approaches to information organization. Notion employs a hierarchical, top-down structure where users must decide folder placement before creating content, while Obsidian uses a networked, bottom-up approach allowing notes to exist independently and connect through links and tags. The core technical difference centers on databases versus dynamic queries. Notion's databases require predefined structures and categories, making it difficult to reorganize or view data in unplanned ways. Obsidian's Dataview plugin treats the entire vault as a database, allowing users to create dynamic views through queries without restructuring the underlying notes. This comparison reveals competing paradigms in knowledge management: structured planning versus emergent organization. The choice between tools ultimately depends on whether your thinking process aligns more with hierarchical categorization or networked connections. ## 🗒️ Notes #### ⏱️ [00:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhhFLXfldJQ?t=0) — [H1] Introduction and Personal Context - Key idea: Author transitioned from Notion to Obsidian despite loving Notion's interface and features - Evidence: "I first started using Notion in 2019 for work and I quickly started using it in my personal life as well" #### ⏱️ [01:15](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhhFLXfldJQ?t=75) — [H2] Fundamental Question of Organization - Key idea: The core difference is how each tool approaches note organization philosophy - Evidence: "Rather than giving you a full, detailed feature comparison, I'm going to tell you about the fundamental difference between Notion and Obsidian" #### ⏱️ [01:45](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhhFLXfldJQ?t=105) — [H1] Notion's Hierarchical Constraint - Key idea: Notion forces users to decide note placement before creation, influencing thinking - Evidence: "Before you even create a new note in Notion, there's one question that you have to address first. Where do you put the note?" #### ⏱️ [02:30](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhhFLXfldJQ?t=150) — [H2] The YouTube Example Problem - Key idea: A single concept can logically fit in multiple hierarchical categories, creating decision paralysis - Evidence: "But you can't have one page in three different folders so you have to know where you're going before you actually get there" #### ⏱️ [03:45](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhhFLXfldJQ?t=225) — [H1] Obsidian's Bottom-Up Approach - Key idea: Obsidian allows creation first, organization later through flexible linking and tagging - Evidence: "In Obsidian, you just create a note now and think about where it fits in later" #### ⏱️ [04:30](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhhFLXfldJQ?t=270) — [H2] Multiple Connection Methods - Key idea: One note can connect to multiple topics through links and tags without hierarchical constraints - Evidence: "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" #### ⏱️ [05:45](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhhFLXfldJQ?t=345) — [H3] Demonstration of Link Creation - Key idea: Creating connections in Obsidian is immediate and doesn't require predefined structure - Evidence: Live demonstration of creating YouTube and Personal Knowledge Management links #### ⏱️ [06:30](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhhFLXfldJQ?t=390) — [H2] Graph View as Brain Visualization - Key idea: Obsidian's graph view reveals the networked nature of connected knowledge - Evidence: "When you see the nodes and the connections between them visualized like this, then it really starts to look like a real brain" #### ⏱️ [07:15](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhhFLXfldJQ?t=435) — [H1] Core Philosophy Question - Key idea: The tool choice depends on whether your thinking is hierarchical or networked - Evidence: "And the real question is, which one does your brain look like?" #### ⏱️ [07:45](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhhFLXfldJQ?t=465) — [H1] Notion's Database Limitations - Key idea: Notion's databases require upfront categorization decisions that may not match future needs - Evidence: "What if you decide later on that the categories that you chose when you created the databases aren't the way that you will really want to access that data?" #### ⏱️ [09:30](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhhFLXfldJQ?t=570) — [H2] The 2021 Example Problem - Key idea: Cross-cutting queries in Notion require advance planning or database restructuring - Evidence: Demonstration showing inability to easily combine items from separate databases #### ⏱️ [10:45](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhhFLXfldJQ?t=645) — [H1] Obsidian Dataview Introduction - Key idea: Dataview treats the entire vault as a queryable database without predefined structure - Evidence: "It just takes all of your notes, everything that's in your vault, and turns that into a database" #### ⏱️ [11:30](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhhFLXfldJQ?t=690) — [H2] Dynamic Metadata Addition - Key idea: Properties can be added to notes as needed rather than defined upfront - Evidence: "You don't have to decide now what properties you're going to want to assign to different notes" #### ⏱️ [12:15](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhhFLXfldJQ?t=735) — [H3] Dataview Query Demonstration - Key idea: Complex filtering and display can be achieved through simple query syntax - Evidence: Live demonstration of creating table view with type and date filters #### ⏱️ [14:30](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhhFLXfldJQ?t=870) — [H1] Final Recommendations - Key idea: Tool choice should align with your thinking style and use case requirements - Evidence: "Notion is best for you if you know exactly what you want and how to write it... But if you're looking for a tool that is open-ended enough to allow for the chaotic complexity of real human thought" ## 📚 References - [Obsidian Dataview Plugin](https://github.com/blacksmithgu/obsidian-dataview) - [Notion Database Documentation](https://www.notion.so/help/intro-to-databases) - [Eleanor Konik's Newsletter](https://www.eleanorkonik.com/) ## 🗣️ Paraphrase - Notion requires you to plan your organizational structure before creating content, which can limit how you think about and connect ideas across different contexts - Obsidian allows you to create content first and discover organizational patterns later through flexible linking, tagging, and querying systems - The key technical advantage of Obsidian's Dataview is that it treats your entire knowledge base as a queryable database, eliminating the need for upfront structural decisions ## 📰 Newsletter **Knowledge Management Tool Philosophy: Structure vs Emergence** The eternal debate between Notion and Obsidian isn't really about features—it's about how your brain works. Eleanor Konik's comparison reveals a fundamental choice: Do you think in hierarchies or networks? Notion's strength is its structured approach. You know where everything goes, and databases keep information organized. But what happens when your "YouTube" note needs to live in both "Personal" and "Work" folders? You're stuck making artificial choices. Obsidian flips this completely. Create notes anywhere, connect them everywhere. The real magic happens with the Dataview plugin, which turns your entire vault into a dynamic database. No more "I should have planned for this" moments—just pure, emergent organization. **Key takeaway**: Choose your tool based on your thinking style, not feature lists. Structured thinkers thrive with Notion; network thinkers flourish with Obsidian. Resources: [Obsidian](https://obsidian.md/), [Dataview Plugin](https://github.com/blacksmithgu/obsidian-dataview), [Notion](https://www.notion.so/) ## ✅ Action Items #### DevRel - Education: Create workshop comparing hierarchical vs networked knowledge management approaches - Developer experience: Document migration patterns from structured to networked systems - Community management: Survey developers on preferred knowledge organization methods #### Community - Contributors: Develop templates for both organizational approaches in documentation systems - Maintainers: Consider how project documentation reflects hierarchical vs networked thinking - Ecosystem: Evaluate knowledge sharing tools across projects for consistency #### WordPress - Documentation: Assess whether DevHub/HelpHub structure supports both hierarchical browsing and networked discovery - Training: Create lesson plans that accommodate different organizational thinking styles - Community: Provide guidance for meetup organizers on structuring knowledge sharing sessions ## 🧪 Hypotheses - Teams using hierarchical knowledge tools will struggle more with cross-cutting concerns than those using networked tools - Developers with database backgrounds prefer structured tools while those with web backgrounds prefer networked tools - Organizations switching from hierarchical to networked knowledge management see increased serendipitous connections - Knowledge workers using networked tools report higher satisfaction with information discovery over time ### 📊 Methodology - Survey knowledge workers about tool choice vs. background and satisfaction metrics - A/B test documentation organized hierarchically vs. networked linking - Longitudinal study tracking information discovery patterns in different organizational systems ### ❓ Questions - How do different cognitive styles correlate with knowledge management tool effectiveness? - What organizational patterns emerge naturally when constraints are removed from knowledge systems? - Can hybrid approaches combine the benefits of both hierarchical and networked organization? ### 🔮 Future Research - Investigation into AI-assisted knowledge organization that adapts to individual thinking patterns - Study of team dynamics when members use different organizational philosophies - Analysis of knowledge transfer effectiveness across different organizational structures ### 💡 Implications - Practice: Teams should audit their knowledge management tools against actual usage patterns, not planned structures - Policy: Documentation standards should accommodate both hierarchical navigation and networked discovery - Education: Training programs should present both organizational approaches and help learners identify their preferences - Funding: Investment in knowledge management should consider long-term adaptability over initial structure clarity ### 🧠 Learning Styles Assessment Reading level estimate: 9th-10th grade #### 👀 Visual learners - Present: Graph visualizations, folder structure diagrams, database screenshots - Improve: Side-by-side comparison charts, workflow diagrams showing decision points #### 🔊 Aural learners - Present: Video format with clear narration - Improve: Podcast version highlighting key philosophical differences #### 🗣️ Verbal learners - Present: Clear analogies (brain networks), defined terminology (hierarchical vs networked) - Improve: Story-driven examples showing evolution of thinking about organization #### 🧩 Kinesthetic learners - Present: Live demonstrations of tool usage, step-by-step query building - Improve: Hands-on exercises comparing organizational approaches, decision trees #### 🧠 Logical learners - Present: Clear problem-solution structure, systematic tool comparison - Improve: Decision matrix for tool selection, flowchart for organizational choices #### 🧑‍🤝‍🧑 Social learners - Present: Personal experience sharing, community plugin emphasis - Improve: Discussion prompts about team knowledge management, collaboration scenarios #### 🧘‍♀️ Solitary learners - Present: Individual workflow focus, personal vault examples - Improve: Self-assessment questions for organizational preferences, reflection prompts #### 🌿 Naturalistic learners - Present: Brain/network analogies, organic growth metaphors - Improve: Ecosystem thinking about knowledge connections, natural pattern recognition ### 📊 Accessibility Assessment #### Screen reader semantics - Present: Clear heading structure, descriptive video narration - Improve: Alt text for visual diagrams, structured comparison tables #### Keyboard navigation - Present: Standard video controls - Improve: Transcript with timestamp navigation, skip links for sections #### Contrast and readability - Present: Clear visual demonstration in video - Improve: High contrast mode support for tool screenshots #### Text resizing and reflow - Present: Video scales appropriately - Improve: Responsive transcript layout, adjustable text size #### Media and captions - Present: Full transcript provided - Improve: Closed captions with speaker identification, downloadable transcript #### Forms and interactions - Present: Simple video interface - Improve: Interactive tool comparison elements with proper labels ### 🌍 DEIB Assessment #### Cultural breadth - Present: Universal knowledge management challenges - Improve: Examples from different professional contexts, global work patterns #### Inclusive language - Present: Gender-neutral examples, clear technical explanations - Improve: Avoid assumptions about work environments, include diverse use cases #### Neurodiversity support - Present: Clear structure, consistent terminology - Improve: Content warnings for rapid tool switching, multiple organization approaches #### Representation - Present: Single presenter perspective - Improve: Multiple viewpoints on organizational thinking, diverse user stories #### Psychological safety - Present: Non-judgmental tool comparison - Improve: Validation that different approaches work for different people ### ✅ Logical Validity #### Strong reasoning - Deductive strength: Solid progression from organizational philosophy to tool features - Inductive strength: Good use of specific examples to support general claims - Causal reasoning: Clear connection between thinking styles and tool effectiveness - Analogical strength: Effective brain/network metaphor throughout #### Fallacies - False dichotomy: Presents only two options, but hybrid approaches exist - Hasty generalization: Limited to personal experience, needs - Document Tags: [[tools]] [[strategy]] [[productivity]] - Summary: Notion vs Obsidian // Databases vs Dataview - URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhhFLXfldJQ I first started using Notion in 2019 for work and I quickly started using it in my personal life as well. I loved, and still love, really, the interface, the customizability, the API, and just how friendly the Notion team has always been to this day. I think that Notion revolutionized note-taking in so many ways. So why am I using Obsidian today and not Notion? Well, for me, it comes down to which tool really matches the way that I think. In this video, rather than giving you a full, detailed feature comparison, I'm going to tell you about the fundamental difference between Notion and Obsidian and why Obsidian Dataview, a community plugin, helped me choose Obsidian for good. Before you even create a new note in Notion, there's one question that you have to address first. Where do you put the note? 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 really influence the way that you're going to think about that note. In fact, many people who use Notion as a second brain of sorts end up creating notes for every aspect of their lives, like work and personal and family and spirituality and every area of their lives that they consider important. Notion encourages you to start from the top and then work your way down. If I want to create a page called YouTube, well, I can just create it here, right? And I can just have it appear in the sidebar, but then this quickly gets out of hand as you have more and more of these pages that are cluttering your sidebar. Well, maybe if I'm going to be watching a YouTube video, then it should probably be under Content Consumed. But then what if you decide that you want to start your own YouTube channel and you want to have this YouTube category encompass both the YouTube videos that you watch as well as the YouTube videos that you create? Well, then you might think, "Okay, well, I'll put it in Personal maybe." But then what if you watch a few YouTube videos that actually have something to do with work? Well, maybe you can move it to the Work folder, but we've already gone through three different folders and, really, they could have fit in any one of them. But you can't have one page in three different folders so you have to know where you're going before you actually get there. Obsidian encourages a more bottom-up approach rather than a top-to-bottom approach. In Obsidian, you just create a note now and think about where it fits in later. It doesn't even really 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. So here in Obsidian, I do have my File Explorer here but I typically don't even leave this open. I'm just leaving it open right now so you can see how it looks like. And let me create a new note. I'm just hitting Command+N 'cause I'm on a Mac. So I'm gonna create a note on this video, which is kind of like Notion versus Obsidian and I can put the title here. Now where do I put it? Well, it doesn't really matter. I don't have a YouTube folder. I could do it in folders or I could just say this is a YouTube video and now I can go to that YouTube page. So if I click on that, now I have a page on YouTube. If I think this also relates to Personal Knowledge Management, I can put that in as well. So now I've got two links and I didn't have to put this note in either of them. If I'd rather use tags, I could do that as well. Like, maybe I will put myvideo here so that I'll be able to see a list of all the notes that have the myvideo tag by clicking on it. And if I didn't want to see this tag in the body of the note, I could create it as front matter, so instead, I could have tags, my video, YouTube, Notion, Obsidian, if I want to. So I'll delete this, and then to see if it's working, I'll look at the Tag pane on the side here and it already has a bunch of tags. And look, there's one on Obsidian and YouTube and let's look for my video; there it is. And by clicking on that, I'll be able to see all the notes that have this tag. So over time, you end up with something that looks like this. This is Obsidian's Graph view and I use it way more than the File Explorer because it's more relevant to my use of Obsidian. Here's what it looks like on my personal vault where I have a lot more notes. When you see the nodes and the connections between them visualized like this, then it really starts to look like a real brain. So on one hand, we have Notion with a very organized, structured hierarchy of data that, while you're creating it, encourages you to decide on what's important. And on the other, there's Obsidian, which is more like a freeform, sprawling network of interconnected ideas. And the real question is, which one does your brain look like? Notion's limiting structure is also apparent. In what is simultaneously its best feature, databases. In Notion, you would create a database and then you create items to go into it. So imagine that you have a jumble of notes that you want to create. Some of them are about people, there's one note about a country that you'd like to visit, one about a book, and one that is simultaneously a book and a TV show. In Notion, it makes sense to create separate databases, one for people, one for books, one for TV shows, and then you'd start populating each database. But what if you decide later on that the categories that you chose when you created the databases aren't the way that you will really want to access that data? What if you just want a list of everything that you did in 2021, whether that was watching a movie or reading a book, or going to Japan? Then Notion would struggle with that. So I've created a new database called Things That I Did in 2021, and what if I want to add, like, this country that I have? So I have this Japan one, you can't sort of move that one into that table without removing it from the previous one. Just to visualize it a little bit, here are the three databases: People, Books, and TV Shows, and here are the separate notes within them. Now, for the 2021 problem, if you had thought about it, what you could have actually done is create a single database and called it 2021. And within that database, you could have had all of these notes with an extra property that says type equals TV Show and Books. But that’s if you had thought that you were going to need it in a single database. So you get into this weird situation where you had to have known what you were going to need but you had to have known it when you created it, not later on when you found different uses for that page or note. On the other hand, the Obsidian counterpart to Notion’s databases is a community plugin and it’s called Obsidian Dataview. Obsidian Dataview is very different from Notion’s databases because in Notion, you can create databases and with Obsidian Dataview, you don’t create a database. It just takes all of your notes, everything that’s in your vault, and turns that into a database. You can just build that out on the fly. You don’t have to decide now what properties you’re going to want to assign to different notes. You can just decide that when those properties become necessary. So in Obsidian, rather than starting with a database or worrying about the categorization, you just create the pages for these people, Books, and the country. Then you add metadata as you see fit. For example, you could put type: person and for this one, we could do type as country. And later on, if you decide that date is important, then you can add a date field as well. And then you just tell Obsidian how you want to view all of that data. So here's my page for Things I did in 2021 and I'm just going to open up my Japan page on the side so I can see the metadata for it. I'm going to create a Dataview query that will return this Japan page. I'm going to type dataview and then I want a table, and let's say, in addition to the name and the link to the page, I also want the type. Type as "Type" and that's going to bring in the type field here, which, in this case, should be country, but that would return so many notes. If I exit out of this, you'll see that there's every note that I have basically in this vault, but that's not what I want. So I'll also add where contains date is 2021. What I'm saying here is that I want this field to contain 2021 in case I have something that spanned over multiple years. If I click out of this query, you'll see that it's now returning Japan. So let's say I also met Kieran in 2021. Let's open up the Kieran page and I'm going to add the date 2021. And look, the Kieran file has appeared in this Dataview as well. Now let's see how to do this for people. I'm going to just copy this and then go to my People page, paste that in, but instead, I'm going to say type, person, and now Kieran's showing up there as well. And if I want to do the same thing for Alice, then I just have to add the metadata here so that the type is person too, and Alice is in there as well. So unlike in Notion, there's still just the one database but you can have these Dataviews, one that's called People and one that's called 2021, and see a different subset of the data in the database. And those can change all the time. They are queries rather than entire databases based on something that you had to decide in advance. So where does that leave us? Notion is best for you if you know exactly what you want and how to write it. And if you have a very specific and limited use case, such as internal documentation for work or a personal wiki around a very small and narrow area of expertise or if you just want a list of tasks and content consumed, Notion will give you the structure that you want and allow you to map out everything and make sure that no stone is left unturned. But if you're looking for a tool that is open-ended enough to allow for the chaotic complexity of real human thought that'll help you make serendipitous connections between disparate topics, a tool that will grow with you in ways that you could never have planned, then maybe you'll agree with me that the best tool for you is Obsidian. Dataview is a community plugin for Obsidian, and if you want to know more about the plugin ecosystem, then check out this video on the top 10 Obsidian plugins. If you're more interested in Dataview in particular, well, then stay tuned because I'm going to make a video soon that will go over the installation, setup, and use cases for Dataview. Until then, thank you for watching., Notion vs Obsidian // Databases vs Dataview, YouTube, 01ka89372dfxn9792q2djdts1g.