Thread by @TfTHacker

1/ Block References in @obsdmd

There are two falsehoods about Block References that I want to cover in today’s tweet rant:

Falsehood 1: @RoamResearch invented the block ref

Falsehood 2: Obsidian doesn’t have block refs

Strap in, it’s going to be a crazy ride

#obsidianmd

2/ Falsehood 1: Roam invented Block References

In 1980, @TheTedNelson in one of his books coined the phrase transclusion and even demonstrated it in his own Xanadu Project. Transclusion says you have a single document assembled dynamically from separate sources.

3/ It is good to educate yourself on the transclusion as it helps you better understand the goal of block refs. I suggest this Wikipedia article. It’s not a new idea, the concept of compound documents have been around for a long time.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transclus…

4/ I think the reason people often think that Roam invented blocks refs is for one of two reasons:

Reason 1: Roam did an excellent job implementing transclusion. I also feel they still have the best implementation, but not the only good one.

5/ Roam has fallen into this habit of calling other firms clones. This is unethical marketing. Some companies have stated they are clones of Roam, but that is a small number of PKM apps, so its unfair.

So just because another tool has transclusion, doesn’t mean they copied Roam.

6/ Roam copied Xanadu. They should pay @TheTedNelson some royalties or give him stock in their company.

7/ Falsehood 2: Obsidian doesn’t have block reference

It does have block references and I use them every day.

Again, I happily state Roam does a better UX implementation, but I am very satisfied with Obsidian’s approach and it will improve.

I can transclude with all my heart

8/ To learn about Obsidians block ref system, I would suggest starting with looking at the documentation for block refs in obsidian:

help.obsidian.md/How+to/Link+to…

9/ Also the ever inspiring @NickMilo has a nice video covering block references.

10/ I would also say that the block ref system in Obsidian has an advantage making it superior to Roam.

If you export a page from Roam, block refs become almost useless. You just see the block ID in your text. Something like this:

Blah blah ((a9azxAsDq)) blah blah

Nasty!

11/ Obsidian builds on Markdown and added a simple block ID system.

You can even manually set the block ID for yourself.

So the previous example in Obsidian might look like one of the following, depending on what you want to accomplish:

12/

Blah blah [[page 1## Section1]] blah blah

Or

Blah blah [[page 1#^paragraph1]] blah blah

This is superior, because we see a human readable location of the transclusion source (block ref).

13/ This makes your notes future proof if you move to another system.

One of Obsidian core beliefs is that your data is your data, and you should be able to use it wherever and however you want forever.

No lock-in.

Their block ref system upholds this design principle.

14/ To summarize, both Roam and Obsidian have transclusion.

Roam’s UX in my opinion is better implemented, but assumes a Roam only universe.

Obsidian’s approach works well, and better yet is designed to allow you to maintain ownership over your data.

15/ I spoked to the lead developer at @obsdmd about block refs, and they have plans to continue to upgrade this functionality.

So this makes me feel better about my “investing in myself” choice in going with Obsidian.