Enthusiastic promoters claimed that linking thoughts together in note-taking apps like Obsidian would spark a revolution in human thinking.
Instead, they’ve mostly left us with bigger, fancier digital filing cabinets.
The Hype: A Promised Revolution in Thinking
When bidirectional linking note apps like Obsidian and Roam Research were released, some writers and podcasters trumpeted a new era in human creativity and thought.
I recall listening to a Focused Podcast episode in which the guest and hosts discussed how these new linking apps would enable wondrous new insights and thoughts.
At the time I listened to this podcast, I thought these claims were grossly overblown. I had already made connections and gained new insights, all without using a linked notes app. Humans had been doing so for thousands of years by using their minds. Nothing new or revolutionary here.
Growing Disappointment With Linking Notes Apps
Recently, I’ve heard several writers express their disappointment with the results of linking notes in apps like Obsidian.
They feel like the promises of mental insights and creative breakthroughs have let them down.
While these apps do well in providing digital files, organization, quick recall, contextual computing, and constructing a personal knowledge archive, they haven’t delivered on the promises of a revolution in human thinking.
The Reality: Hours of Linking, Few Insights
Many people spent untold hours making notes, linking ideas, and collecting more and more linked ideas, but with little or nothing to show for it in new insights.
Casey Newton wrote an article asking why linking note-taking apps have failed:Why note-taking apps don’t make us smarter: They’re designed for storage, not sparking insights. Can AI change that?.
The author describes how, like many of us, he threw himself into associative note-taking:
• He gathered links around concepts that he wanted to explore.
• He made notes (and linked them with similar notes) when he encountered an interesting idea or conversation.
• A few times a week, he’d revisit those notes.
And yet, nothing happened:
“I waited for the insights to come, and waited and waited.”
Casey Newton
The Empty Discoveries
I have yet to see a practical example of an amazing new insight gained because notes were linked together in an app.
Once, I listened to podcasters discussing how, as a result of linking their notes about famous jazz players, they made a fantastic discovery: many of them shared the same birth year. You don’t need a linked notes app to make this discovery; a few quick Google searches would have provided the same “insight.”
I’ve spent hours adding and linking notes in Obsidian and Craft, but I have yet to come up with a groundbreaking insight as a result.
I typically gain insights outside a notes app, such as when I’m reviewing Readwise highlights from my reading, taking a walk, or building a mind map in the MindNode app.
Why the Promise Fell Flat
There are various explanations for why note-taking apps have not fulfilled their promise. But one of the most obvious is that the software could not deliver on its promises.
“One interpretation of these events is that the software failed: that journaling and souped-up links simply don’t have the power some of us once hoped they did.”
Casey Newton, Why Note-Taking Apps Don’t Make Us Smarter
Another writer, Andy Matuschak, points to a deeper issue: these tools obsess over notes, not meaning. Andy’s Working Notes; Note-Taking Systems.
“Digital note-writing systems fixate on the presentation and manipulation of individual notes, mostly ignoring inter-note sense-making.”
Andy Matuschak
Thinking Still Belongs to the Brain, Not an App
Casey Newton points out that thinking occurs in the brain, not in an app, and that thinking is an active, ongoing process.
Thinking happens when “you are spending long stretches of time staring into space, then writing a bit, and then staring into space a bit more. It’s here that the connections are made and the insights are formed.”
Casey Newton, Why Note-Taking Apps Don’t Make Us Smarter
This can’t be automated in a Notes app.
Apps can help us store ideas, but they can’t do the thinking for us (and neither can AI, but that’s another question).
Insights come from wrestling with ideas, not linking them.
How to Have Thoughtful Breakthroughs
If we want breakthroughs, we have to stop waiting for software to provide a magical solution and start doing the slow and challenging work of human thinking.
• Spend time outside the notes app: journaling, outlining, mind mapping, reflecting. Engage in activities that focus on thinking and allowing your brain to make associations and gain insights, something it’s great at.
• Use notes apps for reference, not as a creativity machine.
• Block time to wrestle with ideas instead of endlessly organizing them.
So, How Should We Use These Apps?
Notes apps can be effectively used to:
• Collect and organize ideas.
• Create a searchable personal archive. (PKM)
• Act as a springboard—not a substitute for real thinking.
Use multiple sources to feed your mind ideas, then let your mind make the connections and create insights.
AI Note: I wrote this blog post myself, using my own words and thoughts for the initial draft. I used AI only to suggest headlines, section headings, and text improvements.
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