That is a perfect description: Friction. I find friction in almost all the applications that offer "linking your thinking" solutions. I spend more time maintaining them than using them. For about 3 years I have used Obsidian. It is essentially a "note dump." I keep a Moleskine 3.5x5.5 and write notes that I eventually transfer to Obsidian. I try to relate them, but that is so tedious I just do the minimum. (But I keep those little notebooks all in a drawer.) P.S. Ms Pereira..I love your accent.
Sometimes the friction comes from the app, sometimes it comes from the methods we are using. One example I like to give is to "organise notes". Organisation of notes can be super tedious or become a form of active procrastination. I used to become frustrated when organising my notes, that's why I changed it to "organising my ideas" (and that's where linking enters for me). Linking becomes a form of making sense of what relates to what rather than "structuring my notes" (if that makes sense 😅) I wonder if your friction with linked notes may be related to that. Also, thank you for your kind PS. It brought me tears (no kidding) 😊🙏🏻
Thanks. I liked the explanation. Most comparison videos focus on the small little features that are different between the two, but not necessarily on the workflow of each app. I was struggling to notice the difference between the two myself until I used them both for an extended period of time. Hopefully, this video will help new users to make a faster decision when choosing between the two.
Thanks for the feedback and I am glad it helped 😊 Only in my workflow alone there are other points of comparison, most in favour of Scrintal but some definitely in favour of Obsidian as well. Your comment inspired me to think about other videos I could be recording. I won't promise but I will definitely keep it in mind. Thanks a lot!
I love the idea behind Excalidraw. I don't think it solves the problem I mentioned in the video (I may be wrong as there is sometime already since I last tested it), but it opens up the possibility for something that I would love to see as reality: linked diagrams. No other app is so close to it as the Excalidraw plugin, I believe. That's the idea where the different "shapes" in a diagram link to different notes/boards. So rather than representing everything as a graph, we can represent things as graphics. I don't know any other tool that can do that apart from the Excalidraw plug-in. (do you know any?)
@@BiaResearcher No I dont know another that does it like excalidraw. Its a game changer but I see your point most defineately. Keep the videos coming. You earned a new subscriber 🙂
I think there is nothing bad in switching between app. As we do in research if something does not work for us, we change our method or design. But there is a difference in mindless switching, and knowing the true reason, why particular app did not worked for us. I think if we have proper valid arguments that why particular app do not suits our requirement for particular task. What do you think about that, please share. ??
Yes, I agree. I have changed apps a few times and I don't regret it 😊 The problem, as you mentioned, is mindless switching, often with the hope that "the next app will be better" but without thinking "better for what?"
I started to use Obsidian 3 years ago. I am extremely happy with it (Kanban Task is something that I discovered recently). You are right, you can do many things with Obsidian and its community plugins. As Graph Banner, to see directly in the note, which notes are linked (if this is for you so important). As a programmer I enjoy Obsidian and its difficulties. There are just a couple of alternative to Obsidian: Zettlr (great, .md Files and open Source) or Logseq. There, where your files are not yours is not a place where I want to be.
I am glad to hear you have found an app that brings you joy. I believe that is the most important 😊 Also, you got me curious on the Graph Banner plug-in, now I need to check it out (I won't move away from Scrintal, but it can help my students who want to use Obsidian). Thanks for the pointer.
I find "app hopping" a destructive behaviour, I feel it's the same type of distraction you get from randomly scrolling through social media, and at the end of the day you're tired and empty, wasted time and energy. Sure, without trying how do you know if it's useful or the "best app" for you and your learning process? But that's more an excuse than a valid pretext. The focus should be on the objectives: are you in school and trying to pass a discipline? Are you a busy worker and need to learn continuosly from different sources and means? Are you a person who creates content or papers for journals as a living? One should take the time to master well one tool, and only after really mastering the tools, should we make the decision to improve our process. As such, I'm a strong believer on the power of sticking to a tool and having a strong community to help you really master the flow, the process and the tool. And, one needs to stop once in a while and evaluate: what are my results? How do I feel? What do I need to change and where?
I agree. The app is a means to an end, and jumping from app to app without knowing what we are trying to do will just bring frustration anyway. Having said that, there is one thing we disagree on and one thing I would like to play devil's advocate about 😊 I disagree that we should master the tool (and fully implement that tool's process) before improving the process. That would be like using a hammer to fix a screw before we decide that twisting it is a better process. Some tools may throw our minds in the wrong direction to the point where our processes can't be optimised for what we want to do. So I believe, instead, that we should focus on our processes before fully focusing on a tool. Of course, to get started choose any tool, stay with it for a while, discover what you want, and then find a tool that suits your mindset and methods best. But it doesn't mean to marry the tool before thinking about the process. On the Devil's advocate side, there is one reason I find it useful to keep an eye on new apps, which is to: learn new ways of thinking. It doesn't mean to jump from app to app, but keep an eye on them. These new ways of thinking can provide a perspective on why we are finding friction in our processes, and then we can decide how to use our current app with that new way of thinking.
Really good explanation of the differences! Question about Scrintal: taking book notes as an example, say I want to be able to connect ideas from different books to each other. Will I have to create all of my book notes within the same board, or do the notes live independently from boards, and I can bring them into boards as I choose? Thought about using Obsidian to do the same thing that you do on Scrintal: Use the graph instead of a canvas. The graph shows the relationship between notes and as soon as you create a new note, it's going to appear on the graph and be connected to the first note! You can keep multiple notes open side by side to copy and paste between them. While Scrintal looks great, The reason I'll be sticking with Obsidian for the time being is that it works entirely offline. Even if I ever lose access to Obsidian, I will not lose access to my notes which are stored in plain text. And the conventions that Obsidian uses to link notes to each other and create the graph view are already used by other PKM applications. So even if the Obsidian team stops its development, there are alternatives and there are going to be successors too.
In Scrintal, the notes live independently of the boards, so you can move them in or out of boards as you wish. In fact, a note can exist outside of all boards (you can find it via the Archive, links from other notes, or the search). The general graph tends to have too much information to be useful for this use case. If I open my Scrintal graph in Obsidian I can't really see the "empty space" between connected components. The local graph wouldn't work as I wouldn't know which local graphs to have opened. We only know after seeing all cards created within that "section". Someone mentioned ExcaliBrain, but I haven't tried it so I am not sure if it would work. Maybe worth a try? I only confidently made the move to Scrintal when they added the option to export all my notes as Markdown files, so I always have my own backup. Having said that, I wouldn't try to convince you to go out of Obsidian. Each person has their own needs (and honestly, Obsidian is great!) so if that works well for you, I don't see why you would need to move 😊
@@BiaResearcher I’m always looking at alternatives, it’s not I find Obsidian perfect~ Thanks for the info! If you export your Scrintal notes in MD, and you open the folder as a vault in Obsidian, would the connections work? I.e. does Scrintal use the same way of connecting files (at least in the exports) as Obsidian and co?
Yes, the notes work and the exported links are like the ones in Obsidian. Having said that, the export function in Scrintal is not the best. In the filesystem, each file needs to have a unique name, but in Scrintal two or more cards can have the same title if you want to. So when they export, the name of the file is a code rather than the title of the card, which is not good if you want to know what is inside a note. That's something we have reported so let's see when the team will change that.
This isn’t a criticism of you specifically but the main output of productivity gurus like Ali Abdaal is talking about productivity in abstract. Not a single video about what all this time spent harvesting and organizing information actually accomplished in the real world. Harvesting and organizing is not an end in itself.
Thanks, that's very good feedback 😊 I believe Knowledge Management is a means to an end, but it is true that most of the time we just assume the end rather than demonstrate it. I have a couple of videos already scheduled, but I will work on a few new ones based on your feedback. Thanks a lot!
I love Scrintal, but the faintness of the lines is a pain. Plus, I want to document the connections rather than just link them. Heptabase has a nicer graphical view but lacks the ability to have boards within boards, so as a Visual-Spatial thinker Heptabase lacks the added dimensions. However, Scrintal has a major update planned for Autumn 24 so lets so what improvements are coming.
I would love to be able to see a card as a link. That way, the card itself is the documentation of the link 😉 I am not sure if that's what you have in mind.
I love your use of strikethrough to indicate something has been processed. Fills in a big gap for me. I often get stuck on the question of where things should live: in the source note or in the new note. This solves that conundrum!
I will not recommend this app at all. The app has been under development for years and is moving at a snail's pace. The developers add features only to roll them back after realizing mistakes. They have been promising new features for months, yet when asked for accountability, they cite their small team size as an excuse. This is very frustrating. The app is unreliable, with data loss occurring sporadically. Customer support is notably slow, and the developers frequently take long holidays. Despite having a Slack channel, responses can take days. The team is highly opinionated and has a backlog of feedback that seems to be ignored. I suggest looking at other apps like Hepta, which started at the same time but has a much more hardworking team compared to Scrinthl. Although Scribtal is being publicized and offers a cheap lifetime license, its poor uptake is due to its failure to deliver. The beta has been ongoing for over four years, and it seems it might continue for another four or even ten years, or perhaps it will never progress beyond the beta stage.
I see your frustration and there is some level of truth in it regarding the slow support channels. That is definitely something they need to change asap if they want an official launch. But there is also some level of exaggeration in your message. The unique feature they rolled back (as far as I know) was the Readwise integration (which I believe was a good move). In July 2021 Scrintal was still a drawing (so it is definitely not 4 years in development). Every good app IS opinionated so I don't see why that is a problem, and I don't see any app implementing all feedback sent by everyone. They read, select, and create their own internal roadmaps. It is often the case where the development team has a small group of power users they consult with over time. I understand that is the case for Obsidian (I may be wrong), it is definitely the case for Tana, and it is also the case for Scrintal (I know because I am part of that group. They not only listen but we have regular meetings with the team). Last, Heptabase supports a very different type of workflow to Scrintal. They look like competitors from the outside, but as you start using them, they support completely different things. The most appropriate one depends on what your workflow looks like.
@BiaResearcher, thanks for replying. I understand you're a brand ambassador for Scrintal, so you likely know more about it than I do as a user. However, I don't think my comments are exaggerated. Scrintal changed its pricing model after initially defending it strongly. The next reversal was readwise. Then they decided to rebuild their backend, which delayed other features. This also happened with their AI plans, which were canceled last minute after being announced. Now, they are changing direction again before addressing user requests. This makes them seem confused, unlike competitors like Heptabase and Tana, which have grown quickly and gained loyal users. Scrintal, after 4 years, is still offering cheap lifetime prices to attract subscribers. It's surprising that while the PKM software market is booming, Scrintal hasn't grown much or gained any price advantage. Without their lifetime discounts, people wouldn't have joined, and many who did are unhappy with the progress. Tana, Obsidian, and Hepta have strong communities and hardworking developers, which Scrintal could learn from.
I respect your opinion and I think I understand the perspective you are coming from. I think the biggest mistake Scrintal made was to have a single group of alpha users. Tana, for instance, has 3 tiers (if I understand properly). The ones closest to the developers even have to sign a Non-Disclosure agreement. Only that group sees the ins and outs of Tana. So they see them changing their minds, changing any backend development, and have back and forth discussions. The ones in the second tier, get first peek at new features when they are already being prepared for release. The last group is "everyone" who only hear about a feature when it is already out and ready. This protects everyone's perception of the tool development (and their own marketing). The mistake Scrintal made, IMO, was to put everyone in that alpha group (the one closer to the developers). Nowadays they changed so there may be less "perception of change". They wanted to build transparency, but too much transparency can backfire. So I agree with you that, on that front, Tana, Obsidian and Heptabase are doing an excellent job (Hepta is also excellent in answering user feedback. I sent them a tweet and 2 days later there was a release responding to it. That's impressive). Time will tell us what will happen with all this new wave of tools. Whatever happens we will benefit from it 😊
I make the links manually between cards. But as cards get added to the board, if there is any link between them, the link will automatically display in the board. Whereas in Obsidian if the link won't automatically appear in the Canvas. Does it make sense?
@@TheChameleon84 The concept is similar but the execution is very different because notes are stored on the Graph itself, not in files and folders. Because the notes live on the graph all that additional organisation isn't required.
@TheChameleon84 I am not sure if you mean the graph view (like in Obsidian Graph view). If that's the case, it is not the same. The graph view doesn't allow to create new notes "in" the graph view, or to open multiple notes while seeing the graph at the back. I am not sure if ExcaliBrain would be more flexible, though, as I haven't tried it.
Thank you. This was very helpful. I very much want to be able to see the primary connections instantly. This might make me stay in Scrintal. I'm really weighing between the two programs to that degree that I haven't started using any of them properly. My hesitation is also connected to having many learning lessbilities. I know it will take a lot of effort to make it work and I don't want to put the energy in the wrong tool. I thought I had chosen Scrintal, until I realized that I'm not even allowed in to the app without being online, so all off line work goes away. I also find that Scrintal is more difficult to use in ways I didn't expect.
Have you made a list with your needs yet? It is important to take some time to choose your workflow first (mindset and methods) then use that knowledge to choose the best tool. For instance: - In which contexts do you want to take notes? Is it on a computer, mobile or tablet? Comfortable at home, at your work desk, or while commuting? How often do you have/need Internet connection? - Which type of notes you want to take? Reflections, descriptions of your knowledge, or quotes and meeting descriptions? - In which situations you need to find those notes again? Your goals, context, and way of thinking will indicate the best tool for your needs.
Thank you! I have thought that I was clear in my head on an inner list of what needs I have, but thinking about it now I realise that I always go on to a compromise mood and rather wonder how I can make the system's functions work for me with the consequence that I start to adjust my needs and goals to what possibilities the tools are offering.
Been there, done that 😅 And it is the case for most (if not all) of my clients, so you are not alone on that. I hope the reflection will give you a bit more of direction 😊
@@BiaResearcher Thanks, definitely. Your two latest videos were very useful. And for me it ends up with going for Scrintal. It does have more of a flow regarding how I think I want to work.
It is a matter of practice. The more you listen to other people speaking English, the more you train your ear to understand English. Keep practicing and one day you will understand 😊
Scrintal needs 290 years to complete all their roadmap just to be the 10% or all the rest apps of the market like obsidian, Affine, Miro, Boardmix, etc, etc, etc Sad but true
Many thanks Bianca. I am interested in the ontology paper you showed in the vid. does the Scrintal tool allow to extract/build ontologies or is it possible to import ontologies into the tool?
If by ontology you mean RDF/OWL no. Scrintal only works at the note level. You can create/import ontologies in a conceptual level, where cards represent the different entities, but not in a "computationally" formal way with RDF and OWL.
I agree as quick thought capture is also something that is key for me 😊 I believe a mobile version is in their roadmap but it doesn't seem to be a top priority yet.
I agree it is too expensive when compared to functionality provided by several other apps in the same price bracket… HOWEVER my experience is that the usage friction level is also considerably lower than most others. I support the ethos of performance, security and core functionality over a bloaty do everything feature set. As Sam indicates it is very easy to get information in and network it very quickly. Additionally the voice input is amazingly accurate, fast and useful. My main gripe is that the map view is seriously underdeveloped and becomes pretty useless with more than a few dozen notes.(eg no local focus, no levels of focus and on iOS no means of seeing a node and jumping to the note to work on it).. I have hoping to see improvements in this area but nothing so far.😢 All this said I do recommend giving Reflect a go and see if it fits for you.
I'm a long time user and I still feel very frustrated by the speed of updates regarding their roadmap and the multiple requests from users, (I include myself too) it is true that they are a small team, but so many things are missing that it is very difficult to bet on them, the reason is simple, this market (own competitors that they themselves are compared on their website) has already standardized many things that are essential and BASIC, (full size photo pasting, freedom in diagrams ...) that remain for months without being done. Scrintal needs more staff to have updates that have an effect, stop being such a rigid software and do not want to invent the wheel or bother their customers with boring requests that never end. Making a basic scheme diagram with Obsidian Canvas is an absolute pleasure and ultra fast, while Scrintal is the opposite, and until they get better at that they will never scale their business. I have extended myself because I am sure that your course will be better when Scrintal gets better ...someday. Obrigado pola lectura!
Thanks for the comment. I understand your concerns about development pace. I was also upset for a few months as the dev had slow down a lot as they were restructuring. Now it is back to their previous pace of development (which is much better). Regarding competitors, I don't like the comparison with Obsidian and Miro. The goal in Scrintal is the visual organisation of notes rather than the visual development of diagrams. That's why the comparison wih Miro is a bit tricky. When it comes to Obsidian, the main difference is that Obsidian is text-first (although we can make it Canvas-first) whereas Scrintal is Canvas-first. For those taking idea notes or atomic notes, that makes a considerable difference + the ability to work with teams. In my opinion, the actual competitor is Heptabase rather than Obsidian and Miro.
@@BiaResearcher ofcourse. I mainly use it for my lit review. My topic is a consumer behavior study based in the UAE. I have been collecting sources from academic articles + web articles. Now, I select a keyword based on the outline I created for my lit review and let Napkin bring forward connections for the keyword.
ooh, tricky topic 😁 I am one of those people who promote breaking ideas free from the PDF. Having said that, it would be awesome to link our notes to a specific fragment of the PDF (which I suppose it's what you mean 😊)
Bianca, you did a fantastic job. You mentioned that "sense making" is part of what you teach, and I think this is a good example. I love this concept and I hope that you take it even further. Salute! 💛
oown Thanks for the nudge 🥰 I have recorded quite a few videos but never brought myself to hit publish. I guess it is time to change that. What would you like to hear about the most?
