Actually Obsidian notes are just text files in Markdown format so you can edit them however your want or create them or do anything you want with them without the Obsidian app. They do have a proprietary linking syntax [[]] for linking to other notes in the vault but that's a key feature. :-)
"Personal engineering" doesn't sound quite right, unless you are building something? But there is a (somewhat fuzzy) distinction between more pure science and "applied science", maybe that is useful here...
Yeah, something about "engineering" sounds too specific, whereas 'science' feels more open-ended. When the first low-cost desktop computers first emerged, it wasn't clear what they would be called -- "Microsoft" thought they should be "microcomputers". Some people called them "hobby computers" ... Probably a lot of people think we should call ourselves "hobby scientists too".
I do think it's worth distinguishing "contributing to science but as a hobby" (amateur or citizen science?) from "taking a scientific approach to figure out how to fix my problem". The two aren't mutually exclusive, of course.
I looked carefully at Obsidian a few years ago but gave up due to some of the proprietary markdown (for links, I think) and because you have to use their own editor. But Obsidian certainly seems to have more momentum, with new add-ins announced regularly, so if I were choosing today I might pick it instead. But like I said, it's best to stick with what you're comfortable with and not play productivity porn.
Actually Obsidian notes are just text files in Markdown format so you can edit them however your want or create them or do anything you want with them without the Obsidian app. They do have a proprietary linking syntax [[]] for linking to other notes in the vault but that's a key feature. :-)
"Personal engineering" doesn't sound quite right, unless you are building something? But there is a (somewhat fuzzy) distinction between more pure science and "applied science", maybe that is useful here...
Yeah, something about "engineering" sounds too specific, whereas 'science' feels more open-ended. When the first low-cost desktop computers first emerged, it wasn't clear what they would be called -- "Microsoft" thought they should be "microcomputers". Some people called them "hobby computers" ... Probably a lot of people think we should call ourselves "hobby scientists too".
I do think it's worth distinguishing "contributing to science but as a hobby" (amateur or citizen science?) from "taking a scientific approach to figure out how to fix my problem". The two aren't mutually exclusive, of course.
Started using Obsidian six months ago and haven't looked back.
I looked carefully at Obsidian a few years ago but gave up due to some of the proprietary markdown (for links, I think) and because you have to use their own editor. But Obsidian certainly seems to have more momentum, with new add-ins announced regularly, so if I were choosing today I might pick it instead. But like I said, it's best to stick with what you're comfortable with and not play productivity porn.