Summary

Steph Ango’s (Obsidian CEO) personal vault setup and philosophy: bottom-up, chaos-embracing, laziness-friendly note-taking designed to create emergent structure. Minimal folders, categories via properties, heavy use of internal links, and strict personal rules to eliminate decision fatigue.

Steph Ango(Obsidian CEO)的個人 vault 設置和哲學:由下而上、擁抱混亂、以懶惰友好的方式記筆記,旨在形成自發結構。最少文件夾、通過屬性分類、大量使用內部鏈接,以及嚴格的個人規則以消除決策疲勞。

Key Points

  • “File over app” philosophy: Obsidian vault = plain folder of files; portability > features
  • Minimal folders: avoid folders because notes often belong to multiple topics; use categories property + Obsidian Bases instead
  • No nested sub-folders; navigation via quick switcher, backlinks, and internal links
  • Most notes in vault root (personal writing); References folder (external things — books, movies, people); Clippings folder (others’ writing)
  • Personal rules: always pluralize tags, YYYY-MM-DD dates everywhere, 7-point rating scale, single weekly todo list
  • Tools: Minimal theme + Flexoki color scheme, Obsidian Web Clipper, Obsidian Sync

Insights

The “pluralize all tags” rule is a small but high-leverage decision: it collapses the “book vs. books” decision into zero ongoing cognitive overhead. This is the broader principle: a few upfront style decisions (rules) eliminate the same decision being made hundreds of times poorly. The “embrace chaos, create emergent structure” philosophy is the opposite of GTD-style rigid hierarchies — it works because Obsidian’s backlinks and search are strong enough that structure emerges from connections rather than needing to be imposed in advance.

Connections

Raw Excerpt

Having a consistent style collapses hundreds of future decisions into one, and gives me focus. For example, I always pluralize tags so I never have to wonder what to name new tags. Choose rules that feel comfortable to you and write them down. Make your own style guide.