I'm not sure how long I will continue to provide an update; I suspect as long as I keep learning new and exciting things about Obsidian, I'll continue with at least a summary.
Progress
I've now moved 1,318 notes from TheBrain to Obsidian. I've been focusing on that area of my notes that I use most often, and as a result, I've found the transfer process becoming smooth as I repeat an export-import function for the same type of data more frequently.
I continue transferring small chunks of files simultaneously, primarily monthly journal entries, from TheBrain. I attempted to move six months at a time and spent more time than I wanted getting it all sorted and aligned. Obsidian provides built-in tools such as a "format converter" if using one of their leading competitive platforms; unfortunately, TheBrain is not one of those services; therefore, I have to "find-replace" more than a few items with each journal entry. Excessive use of replace has slowed my progress slightly as I don't want to go through all the entries again, picking up missed links.
My Goal with Graph View
The graph view in Obsidian came to the rescue again. I decided to experiment with Zettel notes. [1] I discovered that tracing a book through graph view, including the chapters and notes from the book, provided insight in helping me find the best way to map out a Zettel note in Obsidian. I haven't transferred any more "chains of thoughts" through my Zettel notes yet; however, I am happy with the results.
I mentioned last week that my goal with graph view and, therefore my Obsidian notes, in general, is to create these "chains" or "strings of thoughts" throughout my brain. I'm focused now on journal notes which make a hub by year. From the junction, each month connects with each day. Initially, I attached all months to form one long string, and I did not find this as helpful visually.
From each day in the string, I find the critical attachments, i.e., hikes, trip reports, and mountain peaks climbed. Mountains, walks and ATV-OHV rides connect to another hub under geography. States are broken down by county and quadrangles, and I can tell from a glance which quadrangles I have visited often by the number of links to the entries listed within the enclosure.
I'm still debating whether to use projects with such links or not. At this point, I am comfortable leaving that type of entry off the main page; I believe a significant project would become so large as to overwhelm the thought strings I want to pay attention to. I still track projects; I don't feel a need to connect a "live" link in order to progress. I continue to use the search feature for these activities, including journal entries I mentioned last week for family members.
As a final side note, the larger my database, the less impressive the search feature with Obsidian becomes. So, I'll have to play around with searching more complicated items and perhaps read a blog or two regarding the subject. If I find something interesting, I'll pass it along next week.
Written September 21, 2022
Reference:
[1] Zettel is the term for note in the Zettelkasten Methodology created by Niklas Luhmann.