The feature oriented pitfall is something that occurs when we shape our solution around features instead of goals. And that’s risky.
I recently started using Obsidian in an attempt to start note-taking. It was a super fun experience. Obsidian is a great tool that has many, MANY features and It can do a lot of things, so I naturally spent some time exploring its capabilities. While doing it I caught my mind wandering to specific use cases and scenarios where it could be pretty awesome.
I could have a template for this, and this, and that, and even this! Which directory structure should I use? Should I organize my notes with tags? What’s up with dataviews??
After a week of tinkering I had exactly three notes, all of which were made solely for testing the features and workflows of the tool. I had nothing. My single objective was to start taking more notes and although I had this goal in mind, the shiny features were far more appealing to my curiosity.
Eventually I was overwhelmed enough to have some clarity and say “screw it, i’m going full simple so that I actually write something”, which was such a good feeling. So I started writing with no crazy automations or workflows. Just a markdown file at a directory and that’s it.
I believe that the need for organization and automation will arise naturally as I write. Patterns will emerge naturally to solve problems I don’t yet have.
My problem was that I had no knowledge at all about my problems domain. I had never taken notes before, so how would I know how to leverage all these features? Don’t get me wrong, it’s possible and even relevant to be able to forsee relevant use cases by looking at features, but this often requires some prior knowledge of the domain. The trap lies on exploring the shiny things while assuming use cases to give that shiny thing a purpose.
There’s a fine line between using a feature to solve a problem, and creating a problem to use a feature. While it’s important to explore and understand what a tool offers and why, it’s much more important to define a goal so that we’re able to identify what is really needed to accomplish it.
This article is not about note taking at all, if that wasn’t already clear. I often find myself drifting away from my goals while exploring shiny things. This happens in all areas of my life and I’m constantly battling this instinct in order to accomplish my goals in a simple straightforward manner.