These types of tools (Roam, Obsidian, Second Brain, etc) get a lot of attention on HN and I've never understood it. It feels like these tools are only being used because they give people a false sense of being in control of their live by digitally hoarding all kinds of stuff even if it's useless.

I've done all my planning and note taking using plain text files for years, and never had the need for these complex tools. I tried Roam and Obsidian because of the hype, logging and connecting everything I read for a few months, but then I burned out and realized they don't help me at all. Most of the value from note taking I get is by writing notes, not by managing them or looking them up later. I'd almost never look up stuff again so all this management effort is wasted. And if I need to find something I can either use Google (no need to keep track of links) or it's so obvious that I can do a simple text keyword search through my notes.

Can someone explain why these tools are so great?

Personally, I tend to think that is OK not to use the tool the way they say it should be used on their websites. I use Obsidian but never cared about neither the mapping/backlinks, logging, etc.

However, when needed, it is there. Here is a tiny tip I found a few days back -- try Obsidian with the Plugin Omnisearch[1]. I'm surprised why this is not built-in like Sublime Text. These tools are a beautiful sanctuary -- a happy place -- if you will, for you to write and be at home.

1. https://github.com/scambier/obsidian-omnisearch