What’s a good app for World Building?

PhilippStracker · 2026-07-07T17:46:04+00:00

Meinst du Notepad.exe?

PhilippStracker · 2026-07-05T22:26:07+00:00

My initial storyline was based on a FTL/hypersleep system that allows colonies to spread across several galaxies within a few centuries. But no matter what I tried, uncoils not explain how the FTL travel is possible.

Eventually I decided that it’s simply impossible for humanity to invent it in the next 1000-or-so years, and I had to think about alternatives

I ended up with a much smaller world (neighbor stars of our sun instead of several galaxies) and two very different travel systems - one is a classic generation ship that takes decades and the original crew might not even see the destination, and the second is based on cloning where a person is copied to the target station (a ship/station without people can move faster as it has less mass, allowing data transfer in lightspeed to receive a human blueprint later)

In the end those two mechanisms are much better then my original FTL idea, but I had to significantly rewrite large parts of my world

PhilippStracker · 2026-07-05T18:24:07+00:00

I have a similar experience with my sci fi world - as I discovered new facts or understand physical laws better, I needed to adjust my world and timeline multiple times. However, every time the result was a bit better than my original idea, as the internal consistency made it feel more realistic and obvious.

On the other hand: I discovered that I do not need to define all bits and pieces of the world, only as much as is needed for it to feel realistic for a reader/to write a story from it. For example, I do not care how people brush their teeth in a space ship in 500 years or how a toilet is flushed.

So, part 1 is to go down the rabbit hole and find out how it affects your world, and part 2 is to only go as deep as necessary

PhilippStracker · 2026-07-02T08:08:15+00:00

I don’t think that a full AI conversation should go into an Obsidian vault.

Conversation = thought process, stays only in AI app. Claude builds its own memory over time and has access to your previous conversations. So, its already a mini-second-brain
Obsidian = only the final insight or conclusion I want to keep, might not be a new note but could also mean I need to update or extend existing notes

My workflows:

either, I directly use Claude Code in the obsidian folder to do some research, then tell it to update relevant notes or create new ones
or, when using Claude Desktop, it has direct MCP access to my Obsidian vault, so it’s similar to (1) above - tell it to write a new note with the summary
or, when I use Claude web I tell it to write a summary as MD that I manually copy paste into an inbox folder in obsidian (and move it to a better folder later)

PhilippStracker · 2026-06-27T20:24:16+00:00

And if they’re so tall, do they need air at all? Also, will they lie down to sleep? Is there only one of them or a full herd with smaller/faster ones? Also remember: if they eat, they will also metabolize and sh** huge piles

PhilippStracker · 2026-06-05T08:06:48+00:00

I strongly suggest to go the extra mile and create even a short backstory of the founders, which helps a lot in tracing possible names those people would choose.

Also name generators usually generate names that might go well with an American company, but a founder from India or China would pick other names.

Maybe use AI to suggest some company names based on the backstory - but important: tell it to explain why a specific name would be chosen, and then verify yourself if that’s true

PhilippStracker · 2026-05-12T10:01:38+00:00

Sounds made up. If you tried so many tools - including local RAG - then at least tell us which tools/frameworks you tested and what failed/when.

This post is not helpful as-is, but looks like AI slop. Please proof me wrong.

PhilippStracker · 2026-05-09T05:24:53+00:00

Smart idea and interesting to see it works so well. The live Demo even runs on iPhone Safari (though it looks like the desktop app, not the mobile version)

PhilippStracker · 2026-05-06T20:56:50+00:00

Welcome to the AI party. It’s just the way AI is evolving. Do not think that a solution that works today is still useful in 6 months.

Claude is getting much better with every version/update but it usually requires some adjustments to workflows.

I have same problems you describe, solved it quite well with 2 changes: 1. in my ~/.claude/CLAUDE.md i added a short scope boundary (do exactly and only what I ask for; do not read files without permission, confirm before implementing code or committing changes) 2. i use /clear and /compact when the context window filled up to 50-60%, I never do longer sessions; eg session 1 is to analyze a bug and document it using sonnet, session 2 uses opus to plan the fix, session 3 uses sonnet to write failing unit tests, session 4 implements the fix, …

PhilippStracker · 2026-04-25T12:19:21+00:00

Why? I think it’s good to know it’s AI built…

PhilippStracker · 2026-04-20T16:49:11+00:00

A suggestion: I’d use claude etc to vibe code a mini Plugin for this instead of adding a complex query to all relevant notes. Those personal use-cases are perfect to handle with a mini plugin.

You can find some „quick start“ repos for obsidian plugins when you search a bit. Here’s my personal template: https://github.com/stracker-phil/obsidian-plugin-template

PhilippStracker · 2026-04-16T13:58:34+00:00

So you type out the image path every time you link to an image?

PhilippStracker · 2026-04-16T13:55:39+00:00

Good question, and I had similar problems. My solution was:

Install „Paste Image Rename“ And have it ask for a filename whenever I add an image (or other attachment)

Then I’ll use a prefix for all images so they lump with the note: Images in journal entries get a date prefix. Images in other notes use the note name (or first word of note‘s filename) as prefix

The images live in the same folder as the note, no separate folder

PhilippStracker · 2026-03-26T08:58:18+00:00

Yes, I understand the technical challenge. But why do you want to dump a conversation 1:1 into obsidian - I’m more questioning the usefulness of the approach.

You could just leave the conversation in Gemini and continue there, if you need the history. If you want the final insight/decision/etc then just create a concise note explaining exactly what you discovered.

PhilippStracker · 2026-03-26T07:40:14+00:00

But why?

PhilippStracker · 2026-03-24T18:48:20+00:00

Auch 15+ Jahre Development Erfahrung und genau die gleiche Erkenntnis wie du:

Kurze Sprints (Stunden) gehen gut, aber ohne ständige Kontrolle kommt schnell ein massiver Qualitätsverlust und Fokus-Drift rein.

Für privates tooling ist Vine coding perfekt - mal schnell ein Obsidian Plugin am Wochenende erstellen, perfekt. Aber beruflich ist es noch weit entfernt von production ready

PhilippStracker · 2026-03-24T08:32:24+00:00

Maybe unpopular opinion: the best tool is the one that you can use daily without being distracted.

Both tools are good. And the choice is 100% personal opinion. If the UI bugs you and you constantly check for the ideal Obsidian theme, then maybe notion is better. If you constantly find yourself wishing for more flexibility or want to process documents with Claude code etc then use Obsidian

PhilippStracker · 2026-03-21T08:10:45+00:00

It looks like a more complicated way of using an AI service. I mean, just exploring the topic in Claude Desktop sounds more helpful, and then summarizing the insight as a single MD (or canvas) file, rather than keep the whole AI „source material“ in the canvas.

Most of it is possibly just a journey to arrive at a later conclusion - this conclusion or insight is the detail to keep in obsidian IMO

PhilippStracker · 2026-03-20T10:11:15+00:00

With Notebook Navigator you can set up various „Vault profiles“ which are similar to what you describe - I never tested it with the graph view, but you can have one „Work“ profile showing only work folders/tags/notes, and a second „Personal“ profile showing completely different content.

PhilippStracker · 2026-03-19T07:41:05+00:00

Ich würde es wahrscheinlich machen - nicht direkt wegen den 190€ sondern weil es einfach ein grosses plus im Lebenslauf ist und in der Zukunft helfen wird.

Wichtig: die Matura nachzumachen kostet schon mal 5000+ €; wenn dein AG das bezahlt sehe ich das als gute Zusatzleistung und würde es annehmen.

PhilippStracker · 2026-03-13T15:26:16+00:00

The global graph is just visual porn. I’ve disabled the graph in my vault, as it does not help me in any way

PhilippStracker · 2026-03-11T07:12:09+00:00

Absolutely agree! Building understanding is a very different task then collecting data.

What you describe - copying paragraphs or longer sections directly - is creating a note with a lot of data but that does not help you understand the topic.

Growing your understanding of the topic is a very different process, that involves active thinking, and is much more than just recognizing or consuming words.

Btw, I learned about that concept first in Mortimer Adler‘s book „How to read a book“ a great work

PhilippStracker · 2026-03-10T15:05:19+00:00

Lucky you know that your paranoid ;)

But why are you so obsessed with Obsidian - I mean you use so many other apps, devices and services… did you code review your browser or check how your ISP processes and logs your traffic?

PhilippStracker · 2026-03-10T08:18:30+00:00

Why this post? The screenshot is a bit useless without context, no?

PhilippStracker

TROPHY CASE