Interesting question. I used to sell very expensive entreprise software for designing silicon chips and there was always a tension between folks who wanted integrated software (they talked about “frameworks”) and those who wanted “best of breed” tools and didn’t mind the pain of hopping between them.
The fact is that there is an advantage in having everything in one place (like David Allen suggests in Getting Things Done). If you can live with say an Outliner plugin that is 70% as good as Workflowy, a Kanban plugin that is 70% as good as Trello, a Canvas plugin that is 70% as good as purpose-built mindmapping tool, or Miro… etc then go for it!
But if you want “best of breed” you will have to do a bit of cut & pasting, importing and exporting to get what you want.
Do you think using Obsidian (or similar apps) for various tasks affects its efficiency as a note-taking tool? I think the top 10 applications in the Community Plugin’s are definitely worthy of cultivation. I have been working with obsidian for weeks and have finally reached the event horizon, so to speak. Any further, and I would be counter-productive (but gleefully so). Maturing the Mermaid Diagrams, Canvas, Templating, and Math notation support for the data sciences would forge this tool as a the weapon of choice when modeling domains of business applications. It can be used, as is, for building a personal knowledge manager, then can be used for mentoring, so that is just fantastic. I would say your getting close to the tip of spear. Maybe another 5 or 6 years (at least) of growing pains to go. Glad I found it now, though. Phew.
Is there a point where adding too many functionalities becomes counterproductive? Yes. But I don’t know where that would be for this tool. It’s amazing. I would feel bad for anyone, that can’t use it in their line of work. For IT, it’s perfect- Namely, because of the way we must think about our work. However, I can see just about any anyone that is mired in the complexity of change using this tool; the question becomes, who is not?
Why not use specialized apps for specific tasks? For example, a dedicated task manager for tasks, a CRM software for customer management, etc. The other commentors answered this question the same way I would.
Are there any downsides to using a note-taking app for multiple purposes? Not for me, but I am pretty much pinned to a desk. Heck, I’ve even been toying with the idea of developing a plugin for this thing. It’s massively addictive, that’s for sure. The ability to access it via mobile app, and the freedom to arrange things based on my own personal preference; with no judgement. I think that’s it’s the secret sauce, and I think the graph view is what pulled me in. I use it more now, but it had an unexpected learning curve. I think because I started off with trying to harness an understanding of a multiple large domains. I don’t regret it though, I feel more comfortable with something, if I understand the limitations.
Many different tools would benefit if they support a decent way to add optional notes to whatever they do (like tasks/todos) but usually don’t offer anything of quality. If they do, you’re now in a situation where you may need to work with multiple different ways of managing/writing notes and very probably still worse than Obsidian.
I’m one of those old-aged first-adopters of everything. You won’t believe how often I lost lifetime and information in the process of rescuing my data from a (proprietary) app, program, database, operating system etc. only seconds before the manufacturer of that tool chose to give up, got eaten by others or didn’t care to switch to the next OS.
Having survived that, I chose to settle with tools whose output is accessible for decades to come, not knotted with obscure databases or depending on fickle OS. For that I do not strive for the fittest tool for a given job.
I feel, those restrictions are kindergarden compared to the horrors of obsolescence.
Do you think using Obsidian (or similar apps) for various tasks affects its efficiency as a note-taking tool? - I would say no. Unless the plugins and such you are using create a lag in which you cannot take notes. I have definitely tried plugins in the past that make it impossible to do anything in my vault.
Is there a point where adding too many functionalities becomes counterproductive? See the first question above. I would also say that adding functionalities the were not initially considered by the developers may be counterproductive in that it takes too much time and effort to get them working the way you want. If you are constantly fiddling or trying to get Obsidian to work as a project manager, calendar, and blender, it can very quickly become counterproductive.
Why not use specialized apps for specific tasks? For example, a dedicated task manager for tasks, a CRM software for customer management, etc. - I am more like you, in that I use specialized apps for specific tasks. I don’t want Obsidian to be my database for everything, particularly if I need a bunch of plugins, learning, tweaking, etc. to get it to function that way. There is no way that Obsidian could take over as my project and task manager. I use Todoist. It would also make no sense for me to use it as my calendar/appointment/timeblocking tool. I use Fantastical/Google Calendars. I do track some people files in Obsidian, but I don’t use it as a full CRM. Tracking 20,000 people in Obsidian would not be a smart choice for me. I write books in Obsidian (using it as a text editor, which is what it is made for, but using a plugin to compile the chapters into one longform ms). But I do not format my final ms in Obsidian, I use a specialized program for that.
Are there any downsides to using a note-taking app for multiple purposes? It’s like the days when my phone service provider wanted to be my internet service provider and vice versa. I refuse to have my phone service and internet service under the same provider, because if I lose one, I lose both. If I lose phone service, I want to be able to email people. If I lose internet, I want to be able to phone people. If Obsidian is my notes app, task list, and calendar manager, and it crashes for some reason, I don’t want to lose all functionality. And if I am only using it as my notes editor, I know I can still read and edit using any other text editor on my device.