Obsidian, Notion, or Acreom for the PIOS
Alright now I want to state first and foremost I have made the PIOS in all 3 tools. Not to mention Capacities, AnyType, and Affine as well.
Thus I know it can be DONE, but is it worthwhile in some tools?
Notion has a habit of causing you to constantly revamp your dashboard and LifeOS, Acreom breaks a lot, and Obsidian is a steep initial learning curve.
Then what is best to use??
Notion is where it all started
I spent a ton of time with any and all project and task management tools. However I was frustrated by the lack of multiple layers. You only ever had "projects" and "tasks", which meant solely TWO layers. I needed more than that for the organizational structure I envisioned.
Notion allows you to have as many as you like, and sometimes to a fault. Although I was able to make the first and second versions of the PolyInnovation Operating System.
Through Notion I could create the 6 or so layers that the PIOS currently has, and within those create unique databases to work together. The problem was back then that they weren't connected. There was no holistic task manager, or ways of truly relating databases. Now with Notion calendar that could be the unifying factor, but its too late. I'm already moved off of the platform, which is probably good since it went downhill performance wise (databases still mess up for me to this day).
Acreom was going to be the Ultimate combo
I wanted a replacement for using a calendar app alongside my note taking tool. Acreom also included integrated task management as well.
They had claimed there was a 2way sync calendar feature, which seemed like the perfect balance of Notion and Obsidian. I could have integrated tasks, and a local operating tool.
However they had gotten rid of that necessary feature right before I had tried the app. Not only that but the task management barely worked, and they had a different operating ethos on how tasks should work in the first place too.
In addition to almost losing half or all of my data, TWICE, this tool was not worth the trouble.
Capacities, AnyType, and Affine
All three have their own unique quirks that change how the PIOS operates within their information architecture.
- Capacities has their object based note taking, and is only databases really. It also had a ton of performance issues in database views, or selecting text boxes.
- AnyType is really weird with their own lingo/langugage, such as "Sets", and they don't really replace Notion's full capacity in databases.
- Affine was the closest to being useful, but the interface wasn't working just right.
Each with their own problems, that prevented me from fully utilizing them with the PIOS. The PIOS works best, well any system works best, if the tool itself does not block you from taking action.
If you encounter literal UI/UX problems, then the system you use doesn't matter, the tool is blocking you from USING that system.
Hard like Obsidian
Obsidian is a strong mineral, and its note taking app is very similar in rigidity. To some that makes it a slightly harder tool to learn. It is also hard to break. However after trying it a couple times I fell in love with it.
To the people who say "you need plugins to make it better, so why use it at all", go to hell. Unlike Wordpress where plugins can break your site, in Obsidian plugins they don't mess with the actual usability of the app. I have only had two instances where installing a plugin broke something or made the tool lagged. Either that was because my vault was TOO BIG, and it was taking a while to index for the plugin. Or simply it was a bad plugin, so I uninstalled, then no issues.
However more times can I count, have plugins dramatically increased my usability of the note taking tool. While I can't consider it a good task management app, and project management plugins just don't work (besides Kanban). The sheer speed of the tool, the ease of getting around, and the performance in HUGE documents; Are all amazing benefits that cannot be overlooked.
The PIOS is a perfect fit for Obsidian.md, and although it took 3 tries for me to fully start using Obsidian. I am so glad I did make the switch.
I hope this post gives you clarity on which tool you should use to organize your life.
I truly believe the key to modern success is using a modern tool to advance your thinking, and increase your systematic content production.