{"id":910,"date":"2021-08-03T17:41:06","date_gmt":"2021-08-04T00:41:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/marcusvorwaller.com\/blog\/?p=910"},"modified":"2021-08-03T17:58:11","modified_gmt":"2021-08-04T00:58:11","slug":"the-less-sad-state-of-personal-knowledgebases","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/marcusvorwaller.com\/blog\/2021\/08\/03\/the-less-sad-state-of-personal-knowledgebases\/","title":{"rendered":"The Less-Sad State of Personal Knowledgebases"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>A few years ago (2015) I wrote about <a href=\"https:\/\/marcusvorwaller.com\/blog\/2015\/12\/14\/personal-knowledgebases\/\">the sad state of personal knowedgebases<\/a> (PKBs). This is a quick check in 6 years later to see how we&#8217;re doing. First of all though, what is a PKB?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Personal knowledgebase<\/strong>:<br \/>Software that lets you store all your thoughts, research, bookmarks, etc. in a single organized place. It&#8217;s different from a normal notes app in that:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Notes should have a hierarchical relationship to each other. There should be a visual representation of the hierarchy.<\/li><li>Cross-note links, wiki style, should be simple to create and first-class citizens.<\/li><li>Sync should provide access to notes across devices.<\/li><li>Search should be excellent.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>That&#8217;s the basics anyway. Almost every true contender for a first-class PKB will have lots of other features.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>My PKB of choice remains <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thebrain.com\">The Brain<\/a>. I&#8217;ve been using it for about 15 years now and haven&#8217;t come across anything that wants to make me switch. I love it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"580\" height=\"385\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/marcusvorwaller.com\/blog\/images\/image-1.png?resize=580%2C385&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-911\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/marcusvorwaller.com\/blog\/images\/image-1.png?w=1740&amp;ssl=1 1740w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/marcusvorwaller.com\/blog\/images\/image-1.png?resize=530%2C352&amp;ssl=1 530w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/marcusvorwaller.com\/blog\/images\/image-1.png?resize=768%2C509&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/marcusvorwaller.com\/blog\/images\/image-1.png?resize=1536%2C1019&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/marcusvorwaller.com\/blog\/images\/image-1.png?resize=1200%2C796&amp;ssl=1 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 580px) 100vw, 580px\" \/><figcaption>My section on Personal Knowledgebases in The Brain<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>It&#8217;s not for everyone though, and that&#8217;s fine. In my <a href=\"https:\/\/marcusvorwaller.com\/blog\/2015\/12\/14\/personal-knowledgebases\/\">last post<\/a>, I lamented the lack of options. Fortunately since then some new contenders have arisen and competition is heating up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>My favorites are <a href=\"https:\/\/obsidian.md\">Obsidian<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/roamresearch.com\">Roam Research<\/a>. They&#8217;re very similar and I&#8217;m not particularly qualified to discuss their specific pros and cons. The main difference seems to be that <a href=\"https:\/\/obsidian.md\">Obsidian<\/a> is free (at least for personal use with no sync) and Roam is commercial. Both models have their upsides and downsides.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In addition to these, there are some less traditional options like <a href=\"https:\/\/www.notion.so\">Notion<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/zim-wiki.org\">Zim<\/a> that, while they don&#8217;t satisfy the requirement of having hierarchy visualization, are still close enough to qualify as a PKB.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It&#8217;s nice to see renewed interest in what, for me, has been an essential tool. Hopefully competition will continue to spur innovation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A few years ago (2015) I wrote about the sad state of personal knowedgebases (PKBs). This is a quick check in 6 years later to see how we&#8217;re doing. First of all though, what is a PKB? Personal knowledgebase:Software that lets you store all your thoughts, research, bookmarks, etc. in a single organized place. It&#8217;s [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[111,87],"class_list":["post-910","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-etc","tag-personal-knowledgebases","tag-software"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/ppj2P-eG","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcusvorwaller.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/910","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcusvorwaller.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcusvorwaller.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcusvorwaller.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcusvorwaller.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=910"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/marcusvorwaller.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/910\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":914,"href":"https:\/\/marcusvorwaller.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/910\/revisions\/914"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcusvorwaller.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=910"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcusvorwaller.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=910"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcusvorwaller.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=910"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}