Stop Notion. Here's Why Obsidian is the BEST Note-Taking app in 2026

Hello everyone and welcome to this new YouTube video. And in today's video, I'm

YouTube video. And in today's video, I'm going to show you why you should stop notion or any other note takingaking app and instead use Obsidian combined with cloth code. So let's begin. First, let's

cloth code. So let's begin. First, let's

take a look at the loop that every people that try second brain app goes into. Everyone starts with the same

into. Everyone starts with the same excitement when they discover second brain apps. First, you discover a second

brain apps. First, you discover a second brain system, something like the caston method or the para method, and you start building your second brain. The benefits

are obvious. You never lose a good idea.

You learn faster, you create better content, you think more clearly. And so

to apply this system, you pick a tool, usually notion, sometimes Obsidian or any other note takingaking app. And then

you spend a weekend building your system databases templates colorcoded tags, all of that stuff. It looks

beautiful and you feel really, really productive. But then the wall system

productive. But then the wall system collapse because after two weeks the system requires more maintenance than expected. You have 47 outfield databases

expected. You have 47 outfield databases and an inbox with 200 item. Processing a

single note takes longer than just writing in Apple note. So you stop using it. Not at all at once, but gradually

it. Not at all at once, but gradually you will stop using it more and more.

And one day you realize that you haven't opened it in the last 3 weeks. And so

you go back to Apple Notes or Google Docs or the any note-taking app that is initially on your phone. And at least it is fast. But your original problem comes

is fast. But your original problem comes back. Not scattered everywhere, no

back. Not scattered everywhere, no connections, no retrieval and no compounding of your knowledge. So six

months later, someone's mentioned second brain systems again. And then the excitement returns and the cycle begins again. So let's understand why these

again. So let's understand why these loops exist. Because the problem is not

loops exist. Because the problem is not you. The problem is the tool. Because

you. The problem is the tool. Because

most second brain apps are designed for teams and project managers, not for thinking and knowledge compounding. They

demand constant maintenance to stay functional. But Obsidian was built

functional. But Obsidian was built differently. And with cloud cut inside

differently. And with cloud cut inside it, the midness problem disappears entirely. So in this video, I'm going to

entirely. So in this video, I'm going to show you five reasons why this combinations wins and all the different use cases you can apply that will transform the way you see second brain system and that will make you understand

why Obsidian is the best note-taking app in 2026. And so the first reason is that

in 2026. And so the first reason is that with Obsidian you own everything. The

main philosophy point of obsidian is this notion of file over app. Obsidian

course philosophy is that your files matter more than the app. Every note you write in Obsidian is a plain Morgan file on your computer. You can open it in any text editor in another app or on the

1960s computer. The format will never

1960s computer. The format will never change and your notes will always be readable whether Obsidian exists or not.

The second thing is data sovereigny.

Your vault lives on your hard drive, not an Obsidian servers and not in anyone's cloud. Obsidian has no access to your

cloud. Obsidian has no access to your files and no one does unless you choose to sync them. So if you want sync across devices, Obsidian Sync is available as an optional paid add-on and it is

entirely your choice. You can also use a drive system something like uh iCloud or Dropbox or anything like that or you can even put your vault into a GitHub repository and use GitHub as your

version control system. And the main point is that your data belongs to you and that's it. Also, Obsidian is futurep proof by design. What happens if Oyen shows them tomorrow? nothing because

your files are still there on your computer. You can open them in VS Code,

computer. You can open them in VS Code, in Typora, Beer or any Morgdon editor.

You can migrate to any future tool that reads Morgdan. And every major app being

reads Morgdan. And every major app being built today reads Morgan natively, including AI agents. And if everything fails with AI advancing this fast, you could even vip code your own note takingaking app in a weekend and use it

to read your files. So just to show you a live example of how it looks like inside Obsidian. So I will just show you

inside Obsidian. So I will just show you here. I have cl code open on the left

here. I have cl code open on the left and I have my obsidian folder on the right. Here I'm currently in my

right. Here I'm currently in my databases for YouTube videos and I will take the script for this video. If I

just click here and I show reveal in finder, you will see that the entire uh file is a markdown fine on my computer.

Everything is like that. Obsidian is

just a visualizer for markdown files. So

of course it looks like this without obsidian and in obsidian it looks like this. So the presentation is a bit

this. So the presentation is a bit better but you get the point. You have

everything on your hard drive. Now let's

take a look at why notion is a trap or any other app that has proprietary format. So the main problem with other

format. So the main problem with other note takingaking app is that they have a proprietary format. Notion stores your

proprietary format. Notion stores your notes in their own proprietary format.

As I just said you are not writing more than you are writing inside their own system. And exporting from notions

system. And exporting from notions produces messy HTML or broken markdown with significant formatting loss. If

notion shuts down or changes its pricing, extracting your second brain is a painful, incomplete process that ends up you uh losing a lot of data inside

your notes. Also, notion is locking by

your notes. Also, notion is locking by design. Your notes, your databases, your

design. Your notes, your databases, your years of knowledge, they all tied to their platform. So, you pay the

their platform. So, you pay the subscription to access your own thinking. And if you want AI notion, you

thinking. And if you want AI notion, you must pay extra for the proprietary AI on top. So you might say that yeah you can

top. So you might say that yeah you can connect code with MCP to notion but it's just way less effective than using cloud code directly on your computer reading your own files in markdown on your

computer and although you can't choose the model you have no privacy it's their AI and it's their terms and you're bound to them and the other reason is that notion has become an overbe tool because notion just started as note takingaking

app first but today it is a project management platform a wiki a CRM a spreadsheet a website builder and every new features makes it slower poorer and more complex. The more powerful it

more complex. The more powerful it becomes for teams, the worse it gets for individual thinkers and you end up maintaining your tool instead of thinking in it. So, if you've been using

Notion and had a lot of databases with a lot of rollups and stuff like that and even customuilt properties and formulas and stuff like that, you see what I mean when I say that notion is slow. It is

painfully slow and it's not the case with Obsidian. So, now let's take a look

with Obsidian. So, now let's take a look at Obsidian skills feature that makes it such a game changer. So first it's Oxygen basis. You have databases like in

Oxygen basis. You have databases like in notion but without the lockin. So Oxygen

basis is a native database system built directly on your files. You can now track any object type books you read newsletters wrote notes by status videos by project and stuff like that. You can

filter sort group basically everything that notion promise but this time built on plain text files. It's blazing fast because the underlying files are lightweight markdown and if Obsidian ever disappears as I said before your

files are still in plain text. So

another hab can reach them instantly. So

let's look at a live example of a base that I have in my uh current obsidian setup. And here as you can see I have my

setup. And here as you can see I have my script for this YouTube video that you're currently watching. And as you can see here I have a base with the categories the type the status when it has been created and the publish date.

Uh and here I can see the category YouTube videos. And if I click on that I

YouTube videos. And if I click on that I will see all of my YouTube videos and I can create different views. I can see only the scripts. I can see the metadata. So it's a file that uh I

metadata. So it's a file that uh I create for each of my videos with the description and tags and stuff like that. Uh or I can see uh the ones that

that. Uh or I can see uh the ones that have been published already. And

actually I need to update this space. Uh

but I will show you how you can do this very effectively with clot code. And

here I have the articles that are linked to the YouTube videos because each of my video become an article that lives on my blog on my X profile and on Substack as well. So this is my YouTube video

well. So this is my YouTube video template but I can show you any other one. For example, if I go into my

one. For example, if I go into my permanent node base, you will see that here I have all of my permanent nodes for my um with my set caston system. So

here I can see all of my nodes. So it's

not the best way to visualize them.

Honestly, the best way would just be uh opening the graph view. More on that later. But here I can filter by all the

later. But here I can filter by all the nodes or by concepts or by quotes uh for all the different quotes that I have.

And I need to make some updates to all of that because it's a switch that I've made recently uh to use bass. But uh

anyway, you get the point. It's very

very effective and it makes uh retrieving information way easier because our brain naturally thinks in objects. So when you want to find

objects. So when you want to find something, if I want to find a note, I just open my base for notes and I have it. If I want to find a newsletter I've

it. If I want to find a newsletter I've written in the past, I just open the quick feature. I open newsletter and

quick feature. I open newsletter and here I have all of my past newsletters with the different subjects, the different uh status and the type of newsletter it is. So it is very powerful

and as you've seen it's very very fast even with my previous um bases with permanent notes. I have like 400 results

permanent notes. I have like 400 results as you can see it's very very fast like you can bl you can navigate to that very quickly. So the other feature that is

quickly. So the other feature that is amazing is grab view. Your knowledge is made visible by obsidian. Every note you write can link to another nodes via weak links inside obsidian and the graph view

visualize all those connection as a network. You will see clusters of

network. You will see clusters of related ids, gaps in your knowledge and unexpected bridges between topics. This

is how your brain actually works because the brain doesn't work in hierarchical folders but in associative connection and navigation inside the grab view is very intuitive and one note leads to free others and new connection surface

and that's actually the best way to just navigate to the different concepts and notes you've been taking. uh and when you want to for example create content, write a book or anything like that, then it's also very easy to just open the

graph view, navigate inside, find out the connection between them and instantly spark any ID. So you'll never start from the blank page. So here is a live example of the graph view of the

vault. So I will just open the graio.

vault. So I will just open the graio.

It's command G on Mac, control G on um Google Chrome. And here, as you can see,

Google Chrome. And here, as you can see, I have my inter gravio. So right now I don't have any filters to just filter my permanent notes. So, I have those weird

permanent notes. So, I have those weird clusters here. Uh, for example, here I

clusters here. Uh, for example, here I have all of my YouTube videos in these little clusters. All of my products

little clusters. All of my products related files, but here I most importantly I have my entire custom system. So, here I have the permanent

system. So, here I have the permanent notes and I have a lot of different notes and I can see the the connections between all of them which is amazing.

For example, I have Jven's paradox here.

I can see it's linked to the mental model.

uh and I've maybe connected here to this note which is the author I guess of Devon Paradox. So it's a great way to

Devon Paradox. So it's a great way to just uh navigate through your notes and find interesting concepts. And finally

the plug-in ecosystem of Obsidian is just amazing. There are thousands of

just amazing. There are thousands of community plugins that extend Obsidian in any direction you need. You have

canban boards, calendar views, space repetitions plugins, sitation managers, mind maps, all of that stuff. I just

have one rule for you concerning plugins. Start with zero plugins and

plugins. Start with zero plugins and then add one only when you have a specific problem in mind. A vault with 50 plug-in is a system waiting to break itself. So stay minimal and also keep in

itself. So stay minimal and also keep in safe that all the community plugins are coded by people just like you that are pushing their code into Obsidian. But if

you want full data sovereignty and it's very important for you to have privacy and stuff like that, be careful with which plug-in you add because you have um supply chain uh security problems

that may arise. So that's something to keep in mind. But I don't even use that many plug-in in my opinion to be honest.

I maybe have the GitHub plugin and I also have the a plugin to find connections between note that is very cool. I will just show you how it looks

cool. I will just show you how it looks like. For example, let's look at this

like. For example, let's look at this note I've taken from David Shapiro.

Actually, the author is missing. I will

add it. So yeah, it's from David Shapiro. Highly recommend watching this

Shapiro. Highly recommend watching this content and reading these letters if you want to learn more about AI. But for

example, here I have this note I've taken. Uh and if I want to find specific

taken. Uh and if I want to find specific connections that I may have not found.

So for example, right now I only have one connection. Uh I can just open the

one connection. Uh I can just open the and right here I am in the smart connections plug-in and it shows me all different nodes relate to this own node.

So it's very uh very cool to find new connection especially when you're using um a system like Z caston to create connections. But even just to for

connections. But even just to for example, if you're writing a newsletter on a subject and you have the world newsletter planned out, you can just open this plug-in and it will show notes that relates to what's written inside the newsletter. So if you want to find

the newsletter. So if you want to find quotes or find notes in your vault that may relate to the newsletter and that can add value to it, you can do that. So

it's an amazing plug-in. I think it's the only one I use. So yeah, it was just to show you an example of how the community is always building cool plug-in. You could even, I guess, v code

plug-in. You could even, I guess, v code your own Obsidian plug-in if you want.

So yeah, the flexibility is amazing. And

now let's take a look at the fourth reason which is what I call the AI paradox because Obsidian refused to add native AI. Every second brain app rushed

native AI. Every second brain app rushed to integrate AI in 2023 and 2024. We

have notion AI everode AI like all the note takingaking app added AI as a layer on top of their proprietary format and Obsidian just said no we're not going to add AI natively into Obsidian but we

will add AI integration that would be available via plugins but it is not our priority. The privacy comes first and

priority. The privacy comes first and paradoxically by refusing that they became the best AI app. Why? Because AI

works best with plain text files aka markdown aka what Obsidian reads and create on your computer. And when you use cloud code inside your Obsidian vault, it will read your notes directly.

So you don't have any API overhead, no format correction and no workaround. Clo

will open the same folder you work in and it will read the same file in the same format. and no second brain app

same format. and no second brain app that host your data can offer this because the AI and your second brain are the same system and the best thing with that is that I just mentioned cloud that's what I use because it's maybe the

best right now uh AI model you can use uh and the best AI agent you can have on your computer but you can choose any AI you want if you want cloud you can use cloud but if you want a local model for food privacy you can install and connect

it with plug-in if you want to switch model next year because something better to come out you can just switch and install a new agent and start over obsidian gives you an open platform and you can bring in the it just you want.

Finally, there is privacy by design.

Cloode code will process your files locally and nothing leaves your machine unless choose to send it. So actually I think if you're using cloud code inside obsidian uh there are some data that are sent to um entropic server because they

need I think for legal purposes keep your data for like 30 days or something like that. You can also add uh some

like that. You can also add uh some features inside code to prevent them from collecting data to improve their models if you want. Uh, so yeah, it's not you don't have full privacy by using

cloud code inside Obsidian, but I think you get the best sweet spot between having a powerful AI agent and okay privacy by using it. Personally, I'm not

especially uh big on privacy. I don't

like like I I don't have the need to have my files that are always um private all the time. But uh for people that are working with very sensitive projects, uh

it's very important to understand and to uh take into consideration. But if you compare this to notion AI, they processes their notes on their server and using AI. And so you have no way to

uh have this level of privacy. And your

second brain is your most private actual asset. So it should stay that way as

asset. So it should stay that way as much as possible and also as much as you want. So here I'm just going to go into

want. So here I'm just going to go into cloth code to show you a bit how it looks like. So, as I just said at the

looks like. So, as I just said at the beginning of the video, here on the left, I have my cloud app opened uh with CL code. I'm in the code section and

CL code. I'm in the code section and it's opened in my uh life OS folder, which is my Obsidian vault folder on my computer and it can actually work inside. And one thing that's amazing

inside. And one thing that's amazing that I've talked about in my latest video is that you can use Obsidian CLI to have Clot Code uh navigate into your vault uh very efficiently because

basically the CLI for it stands for command line interface and it's basically um a way for the agent to understand your vault and navigate into your vault and create files and modify

them uh in code and not just by reading the Morgan files and modifying them manually. So, it's way more efficient uh

manually. So, it's way more efficient uh and it works incredibly well. And from

there, you can basically do anything.

You can create content. You can you can update your bases. You can uh find new connections between nodes. You can have it you can have it search inside your vault for any information you want. So,

yeah, the possibilities are endless. And

the final reason is that clo eliminates the maintenance problem that I was talking at the beginning of this video.

Because that's the real reason why second brain systems fail because this not the methodology but the maintenance overhead you have to take into consideration anytime you want to apply any system. Because building a second

any system. Because building a second brain used to mean learning the tool, setting up templates, naming conventions, stack taxonomies, databases structure and folder hierarchies. And

every time you wanted to change something, hours of manual organization.

You spend more time tending to the system than thinking inside it, which is like the worst thing ever. So, Close

Code lives inside your vault as I was just saying, and it is an AI agent that runs directly in your vault. It reads

every file, understand the structures, and it knows the categories, the templates, and your writing styles. And

every session, it will pick up exactly where you left off. And it can endorse anything for you. You can create a new base for a content type you've never tracked before with one prompt. You can

rename a property across 400 files, reorganize a folder structure without breaking any links, update tags, add front matter, connect orphan notes, process the inbox. All of that can be automated using CL code and the

maintenance that used to take hours, no takes minute. So I have a personal

takes minute. So I have a personal example for this is my own vault revamp that I've done this week. So I recently migrated my entire vault from a folder based system to a property based systems

with Obsidian basis and I had like uh more than 549 notes updated with new YAML front matter which is basically the language that Obsidian uses to create the bases and I have more almost a

thousand files moved to the correct folder structure. All bases created and

folder structure. All bases created and all templates rebuilt and cloud code endor the entire migration. I gave it the architect plan. It executed. I

reviewed and validated and that migration would have taken weeks of manual work before and now it took less than 30 minutes. So I will just show you a live example of clot code running a command inside terminal. So as I just

said here I am in clot code here I am I am in my obsidian. So I'm currently my permanent basis and I believe that there are some uh some notes that don't have

any author. So I'm just going to ask uh

any author. So I'm just going to ask uh clot code to find uh all the nodes that don't have uh the author inside create a view explicitly for them and then uh

find the author for them so the notes can be filled. So I will just delete that. So I just ask clot code to find uh

that. So I just ask clot code to find uh to go into into my permanent node base.

So this one and create a specific view for all nodes that don't have any autos like I just say. So let's just wait for it to process and I will show you the view we just created. Okay. So it just finished working. I think it take it

finished working. I think it take it took less than a minute. And here, if I go here, it added this new uh filter for the base that I didn't have before for all the notes that don't have any other.

So, I'm just going to open it. [snorts]

And it didn't work. But that's something that happens with CL code. So, I'm going to be fully transparent and show you uh just have when it doesn't work, you just have to take close code that is not working and it will fix it. So, I'm just

going to do that. So, as I just said, I asked CL code to fix that and it updated it. Now, it works. I have 71 nodes that

it. Now, it works. I have 71 nodes that have no author. I can see that very easily if I go into the properties and I open the author property. I'm just going to close that for clarity. And here you

can see I have all of my notes with absolutely no author. So now what I can ask it is okay uh look at each each note inside this uh view and uh find the

authors for all of them. So I just ask clot code to look at all the nodes with no author and find the authors for all of them. use the same taxonomy that

of them. use the same taxonomy that other nodes that already have. And if

they don't find the author, they must let me know and only update the notes when they're absolutely certain of the author. So, I just ask it know it's

author. So, I just ask it know it's working and I will get back to you when it's done. Okay, so it just finished. I

it's done. Okay, so it just finished. I

had some troubles uh having it doing what I wanted, but as I said, it's part of the process. So, I'm showing you everything for transparency, but basically at first uh so Ied to look at

all the notes with no author and had the author, it didn't find the right one. So

I told him to go into the permanent note base. Then it found 90 notes but it was

base. Then it found 90 notes but it was uh a lot. I even asked it yeah why why is it taking you so long bro? Um and so at the end I I just said okay let's just update five notes with the author and

create a specific view for them in the buy. So it picked uh five notes and uh

buy. So it picked uh five notes and uh it found basically them updated it and created a special view. They were all notes about the GTD method by David Len.

So, it had a David Alen and if I go here and I go into David Allen, uh, we have the five notes it was talking about. And

if I go into properties and add author, it should said David Halen. So, that's

that's an example I wanted to show you.

I could do a lot of them, but for the purpose of the video, I'm not going to do that. But I also wanted to show you

do that. But I also wanted to show you that I also have a category for authors.

So, I can't find all of the different hotels uh from my notes. Actually, there

are a lot missing. As I said, it's a switch that I've made recently. So I

could told it to update the base and even add David Alen and all the other authors in my notes, but you get the idea. So the new starting point, you no

idea. So the new starting point, you no longer need to build the perfect system before you start. You can just start with a folder and a few notes and then take clothes code to help me build a system around what I already have. It

will interview you build the structure and you will validate it. As your needs evolve, you evolve the system with one prompt. And the barrier that broke every

prompt. And the barrier that broke every previous second brain attempt is no gown with cloth code which is the main idea I wanted to convey with you in this video.

So to conclude this video I wanted to end on why Obsidian won. It won the second brain competition by refusing to play the same game as everyone else.

There are no proprietary lockin, no forced AI, no cloud dependency and no bloated feature set. It's a minimal open futurep proof platform where you bring your own intelligence and when you bring clot code the maintenance problem

disappears the system compounds and the second brain actually becomes useful. So

if you want to get the full setup and learn how to implement it I made a complex setup video uh on my channel on last week. So you can it will teach you

last week. So you can it will teach you how to install obsidian connect to cloud code and even download my free vault template in the description. So as I said the link is in the description. The

link is appearing on screen uh as well and everything is free to start. You can

have a working system in under 20 minutes. Um so that's basically it. As I

minutes. Um so that's basically it. As I

just said in this video, I'm going to update my system to leverage basis.

Right now the system you have in my free volt uh mainly leverage folders uh using the paramethod. Uh but I will make an

the paramethod. Uh but I will make an update when the system is fully functional. Uh so that's something to

functional. Uh so that's something to look for. So, if you don't want to miss

look for. So, if you don't want to miss out on it, uh, subscribe to the video and yeah, and if you want to know what Noah's Arc is and what I'm trying to build with this channel, Noah's Arc goal is to help you build a sovereign second

brain system, turn it into a profitable and purposeful business so you can use that business to fulfill your potential as a human being. Sovereignty starts

here. And what I want you is to be able to own your tools, own your data, own your knowledge, and uh be able to turn that into a business that will uh serve your life mission as a human on this

earth. So if that resonates, I would

earth. So if that resonates, I would love to see you in the arc. As I just said before, the link to join Noah's Arc Bank where there is my free vault template is in the description. I highly

recommend you to watch my latest video as well on how to install everything.

And yeah, if you found value in this video, like the video, subscribe, and I will see you in the next one. Bye.