Personal Knowledge Management#

a.k.a. the practice of just writing stuff down!

Sphinx is my current preference#

I use Sphinx since I was exposed to it at work and reStructuredText has only grown on me since.

reStructuredText versus Markdown#

Plain-text is a popular data storage format. reStructuredText and Markdown seem to be the most popular, however there are others. Whether you use rst or md, I think this largely comes down to personal preference.

rst

md

HTML Rendering?

Yes (Sphinx)

Yes (jekyll)

Extendable?

Yes (Sphinx extensions)

Yes (jekyll plugins)

Hosting?

Yes (readthedocs.io)

Yes (GitHub Pages)

[[WikiLinks]]?

No (idea for an extension?)

Yes (Foam, Obsidian)

To-Do Lists?

No (idea for an extension?)

Yes

I find Sphinx easier to setup since I’m a Python guy; If you believe the website, jekyll is just as easy to setup and run.

Alternatives#

Things that I’ve tried and discarded for one reason or another:

  • Bullet journal (and other physical notebooks)

  • TiddlyWiki

  • Zim

  • Obsidian

  • Foam (* I actually use this at work just not personally)