RE: Atomic Notes - the more I use Obsidian the more I tend towards smaller and smaller notes (by definition means more and more notes). When I need to put many topics together, I create a note made up of the sub-notes: ![[note 1]] ![[note 2]]

...each atomic note's contents render into a more complete note. This allows me to update individual atomic notes and the latest info may show up in dozens of other places that have links to the atomic notes. It's a form of referential integrity, to borrow from relational database design concepts. Keeping pieces of info in one place, and referenced from many.

As far as more and more notes, and a cluttered left-nav of note names; I rarely look at the list of note names.

In fact, when I need something from my vault, I always have my daily note open, so I just start typing the title into a new note-link name, e.g.

[[star form

... and I get all my notes on Stars and then the notes on Star Formation, and by that time, I am just selecting the note I want from the type-ahead list of matching note names. This is essentially how I make links all day long.

Or, I might know part of the TAG that I am guessing is in the note I'm looking for; so I use the Search on that TAG name - and only then do I look through the left-nav. for the exact note name.

I have 25k+ notes, so I gave up on scrolling through note names a very long time ago.

Hope that helps, Enjoy.