Mark McElroy's Introduction (and 3-Month Experiment)

Hi, folks. I’m a writer and strategic advisor who uses #PKM tools to synthesize information and connect ideas. I started in Roam, but moved to Obsidian more than a year ago. After some interaction with friends online, I started exploring Logseq this year. (For the first three months of 2023, I’m using Logseq exclusively, and planning to retro the experience at the end of March.)

At the moment, I am enjoying working in a true outliner again, adapting to a block-first environment (versus Obsidian’s page-first metaphor), and wishing that queries and project management were a bit easier to work with in Logseq.

I’m eager to learn more here … and to encourage you folks to consider joining me over on Mastodon for insights and conversations about the work. You can find me there at @markmcelroy@pkm.social – but I’ll be popping in and out here, too, of course.

Thanks!

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Did you give up on Tana?

Hi! I’d wouldn’t say I gave up. But after using it exclusively for a month or two, I did decide that, whileTana is magical, in its current incarnation, it wasn’t for me. Long story short: I prefer local-first, Markdown-based, “trust no one” solutions that aren’t backed by VC money. I wrote about it in detail here:

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have you considered Affine?

Might be worth a try for the months following your logseq trial

Eeeek! I’m sure it has its selling points, but Affine looks like it’s very, very early in the development process … not yet a candidate for me, I’m afraid. But thanks for the lead!

totally agreed! thats why i said after the current 3 month logseq commitment
; -D

Excellent Article Mark. Thanks for taking the time. I think I need more understanding of Logseq’s ability to save searches so I can create my workflows like Tana does. I like the approach of doing experiments rather than becoming fixated on “this or that” energy. Thanks again.

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Good to hear from you, Mark! I think I was in one of the Roam Book Club cohorts with you and I’ve been following your blog and YouTube channel for awhile. I appreciate your thoughtful analyses of Tools for thought apps. I’ve also been trying to move away from Roam since they discontinued the Scholars program which made it more affordable for me. I’m experimenting with Tana, Obsidian, and Logseq now. I feel a little overwhelmed…I wish that Roam was more affordable because I’d probably have been content to stay.

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The nice thing about Logseq is that you can just start using it with very minimal friction. Just jot down things as they happen in your daily journal and tag them as you go along. In Logseq, creating new pages with double square brackets [[page]] or using a #tag is the same.

You can later refactor your set up with advanced concepts like page and block properties, namespaces and queries.

As I wrote recently in Twitter:

After using Bear, Capacities, Craft, Logseq, Reflect, Mem, Obsidian, Tana and UpNote for the last 2 months or so I’ve settled with Logseq as my note-taking/PKM tool. Can’t believe it is free. I wish I discovered it sooner.

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