RoamFM: Recent Episodes

Norman Chella

RoamFM is the podcast all about Roam Research, for members of the Roaman community. Join us as we dive into the minds of amazing Roam users, taking a peek into how they use Roam to create wonderful connections.

Join our AirrSpace to talk about how Roam could scale! You can find it here

In this episode, we talk with Cato Minor, who is the Duck of Roam, quacking his way into fun, ridiculous experiments with physical controls, crazy CSS, and much more. But behind these experiments, is the intention to explore something deeper.

Coming in from medieval Twitter, Cato Minor focuses on digital humanities studying medieval, Latin, as well as classic Latin. In the midst of trying out many note-taking apps throughout the years, he had stumbled into Roam.

We talked about:

Knowledge workers of the past and now, what are the differences between them?
Memory as a process of internalization and digestion, and how outsourcing this to a tool hinders our ability to learn
Adventures of note-taking: the differences between the many note-taking apps Cato has tried
How do we make the digital word more physical?
The interesting physical experiments, from using a train set controller to a TV remote to use Roam!
The power of medieval diagrams: how can we learn from people who have drawn outlines in the Middle Ages
How do we create win-win situations for the individual in the PKM space?
How will Roam scale?

Enjoy!

Timestamps

3:48 Where Cato Minor got his name from
5:19 Medieval Latin and Cato's fascination with it
7:13 In the Middle Ages, all knowledge should serve us in our seeking of God
9:20 Memory is what gives us material to transform
16:34 Make your notes unique
18:59 Roam is a great motivator for experimentation
22:47 Physical touch gives us food for thoughts
24:21 Everything is a touch screen
29:28 Cato's adventure in experiencing other apps
41:00 How to make peace in the continent of Note-taking
48:39 What you can do now with CSS
55:09 How do we foster a tinkerer's community?
1:05:00 Roam's growth via the community
1:09:18 How will Roam scale?
1:16:25 On Featuritis vs. Engelbartian Intelligence
1:25:23 [[What does Roam mean to you?]]

Links

Cato Minor's Twitter

Support the show (https://www.buymeacoffee.com/normanchella)

Warning! This is an explicit episode!

In this episode, we talk with Bardia Pourvakil, AKA @thepericulum. Bardia is a member of the Roam Research team, having started off as a technical writer and dove into the world of Roam.

We talk about:

Bardia's origin story as a technical writer to discovering Roam Research
What are the key components for a tool autodidacts use to learn?
How he joined the Roam team and built up his Clojure skills through contacting Conor
Roam team's workflow, and Roam pairing sessions
Bardia's emphasis on community, building things for developers to build upon and the search for fulfillment

Enjoy!

Timestamps

4:16 Bardia's origin story as a technical writer
10:43 Joining Roam as Support
13:26 "You're being really annoying but I like you" - [[Conor White-Sullivan]]
15:34 The 3-hour pairing session with the CTO
18:48 The power of the Roam Community
22:46 Build things for developers to build upon
24:57 The search for fulfilment and finding that answer
27:50 Never fall in love too much with what you're doing
31:21 Bardia never believes in institutions
34:08 Learning by Design
40:34 Roam Team workflow
43:36 Roam Pairing and Roam Games
47:37 What Roam is still missing and documentation
53:05 What Bardia is excited about: Mobile apps
58:10 The wonderful world of Roamania/Roam Manor
1:04:10 The cross pollination of ideas and inviting Roamans to Roamania
1:08:36 The Roam House Guestbook
1:11:28 [[What does Roam mean to you?]]
1:13:30 Bardia's dstryd.albums and creating art naturally

Links

Bardia's Twitter
dstroyd.albms Instagram

Support the show (https://www.buymeacoffee.com/normanchella)

WARNING: This is an explicit episode!

This is for Lydia.

In this episode, we talk with Beau Haan, a trained actor, model, and one of the key pillars of the Roaman community. Leading the Roam Book Club, he's built a space for many participants to share their thoughts with a Roam-specific Zettelkasten method. With up to 300 actives in RBC3, they found the chance to discover more of themselves and their thoughts at block-level.

We talked about:

Beau's origin stories, from running away from home to entering rehab and telling stories
The loss of loved ones and the impact that has on one's life
Discovering Roam Research and how he became a true believer without even trying the app
What he learned from his personal coaching sessions with [[Sönke Ahrens]]
How questioning the way you learn is questioning your identity

Enjoy the episode!

Timestamps

3:55 How Roam has changed how Beau behaves in the world
7:13 "I'm supposed to be dead": Beau's origin story
11:35 "I wish they had Roam" losing loved ones to drugs or alcohol
13:06 The story of Lydia
19:29 Discovering Roam Research for storytelling
21:21 Signing up for the Believer's Plan
22:25 [[Sönke Ahrens]]' private coaching sessions
25:31 Roam granularity and the power of the community
27:40 Testing Roam Zettelkasten with Roam Book Club
29:16 "You're wrong about Zettelkasten"
32:18 The Angel named [[Matt McKinlay]]
36:19 Learning who you were in Roam Book Club 3
40:29 Preparing for the next wave of Roamans
45:35 Questioning the way you learn is questioning your identity
50:49 Becoming defensive from questioned identity
53:17 Outsourcing our learning methods to others and blaming them for failure
55:55 We have the fear of public speaking and thinking as ourselves
57:55 [[Sönke Ahrens]]: Forget about the tool and focus on the writing
1:03:50 The rush of being at the peak of a mountain
1:10:17 Emitting the same energy as the believer's call
1:13:59 The friend, and the RBC Workflow
1:18:30 The beauty of Roam is the people
1:22:07 The Roam Energy, and articulating infinity
1:23:58 Protect the Roamans from those only wanting to make profit
1:29:52 Join the town and be part of Roam
1:31:37 [[What does Roam mean to you?]]
1:33:22 A Letter to Lydia

Links

Beau Haan's Twitter
Roam Book Club's Twitter
Bookclub 4 Waiting List

Support the show (https://www.buymeacoffee.com/normanchella)

In this episode, we talk with [[Abhay Prasanna]], Founder of Roam Bounties, and active Roaman in Slack as well as the Twitter Roaman community. Abhay is always up to date when it comes to everything related to CSS and adding in visualizations to one's roam graph to make it look prettier, more functional, and much more.

As someone who has created one of the most, used Roam themes, Dracula Pro (adapted set of colors from another theme), Abhay has been on a long journey to explore himself through the usage of Roam.

We talked about:

Life before Roam: From engineering to management consulting
Gaining a vision once he discovered Roam: The perfect notebook
His daily notes workflow where 90% of his blocks live only in his daily notes!
Aesthetics and how they play a part in him viewing his own knowledge graph
Tackling the voice of the unreliable narrator, defining who you are through making connections and building evidence on yourself
What do you really want from your Roam graph and how does that affect you in life? From algorithms of thought to algorithms of feeling.

Enjoy!

Timestamps

3:47 Abhay's origin story and the little breadcrumbs of our lives
5:40 Connecting life experiences and emergent writing in Roam
9:46 The anticipatory regret for not writing something and not making a connection
12:47 You write for the entirety of your knowledge graph
14:05 Abhay's workflow is an evolution
16:34 Marginality, Mattering and the Roam Community
19:43 The writing happens in conversations, and Pokemon evolutions
24:06 Valuing the structure of your mind and your Roam graph
30:54 We are completely innocent and blameless and make mistakes
32:39 The shadow of optimization, and wanting to feel functional
35:33 CSS and the power of aesthetics
38:32 Learning CSS with Roam as the experiment
40:14 Providing the act of service for the Roam community
46:28 Why purple is a memorable color
49:01 How do you plan for Roam experiments?
51:20 There are things that we value, but do not have exclusive rights to our attention
52:31 Salience, sovereignty, and protecting our own attention
59:54 How do we tackle the Unreliable Narrator, our lies and our truths?
1:01:50 Continuity of contact, not closure into conclusion, and facing heuristics
1:03:34 Finding what you don't resonate with helps with answering what you really want
1:10:52 The only agenda is to figure out what is actually salient
1:15:01 Algorithms of feeling and using Roam templates for your emotions
1:20:00 Revelation and illumination are hard to distinguish
1:20:49 What Abhay is looking forward to in Roam
1:23:42 [[What does Roam mean to you?]]

Links

Abhay's Twitter
Dracula Pro Roam Theme
Masonry Vanilla CSS

Support the show (https://www.buymeacoffee.com/normanchella)

In this episode, we talk with Jeff Morris Jr. aka @jmj on Twitter, who is the Founder and General Partner of Chapter One VC. He was previously the VP of Product Revenue at Tinder, and in the role, Tinder became the number one top-grossing apps in the app store.

He invests in early-stage startups who are passionate about the future of work developer tools and subscription businesses. So if you are interested in having a product person on your cap table, Jeff is the person to go to.

As someone who I've been following for quite a while on Twitter @JMJ, he is quite the enthusiastic person when it comes to Roam Research and tweeting about it quite a number of times.

I've brought him onto the show to talk about:

His origin story, how he dreamed of becoming a professional NBA player, to screenwriting and diving into tech startups
Becoming connected with Roam Research after glancing at the tool from someone's screen-share and getting connected with [[Conor White-Sullivan]] later on.
What to look out for as an investor In companies like Roam: staying far away from the San Francisco Bay area startup scene, becoming non-conformist to tackling problems and more
What is it about Conor's decisions that has compelled Jeff to invest in Roam Research?
Jeff's workflows on how he keeps track of investor meetings, learnings, health and more
What will Roam look like 40 years from now, and why it's the Jimi Hendrix of the PKM space.

Enjoy!

Timestamps

3:00 Jeff's dreams of becoming a professional NBA player, and Jumpsoles
4:53 Catcher in the Rye, Screenwriting and getting a script picked up by Sony
8:26 Discovering Roam Research through an engineer's screenshare
9:55 People who invested in Evernote did not think Roam was a good investment idea
10:39 The 10-hour pitch on the porch and beers
12:54 Evernote vs Roam, from an investor's perspective
16:04 Jeff's note-taking workflow before and after Roam
17:13 Roam Consultants and Multiplayer Graphs
21:03 Conor's truth seeking and conspiracy theories
21:58 How do you measure scalable complexity?
24:09 "Roam was meant for power users at the start"
24:42 "I think the goal of Roam should be to make Roam accessible to as many people as possible"
26:15 New users can get overwhelmed by all the power users
30:18 The Non-Conformist Personality of Roam Research, and Jimi Hendrix
33:06 Hiring the Roam team, and why Conor needs to find his lead guitarist
36:03 The flaws of the Bay Area, and tech talent groupthink
40:16 The rise of distributed companies and what that means for investors
44:32 What will Roam look like decades from now according to the both of us
49:35 The metric of company durability
51:12 Infopop, the information management system for the physical world
53:59 When is Jeff going to hire a Chief Meme Officer?
57:06 How Jeff structures his Roam graph for investor meetings and more through templates
1:00:00 Product frameworks and investing frameworks
1:03:16 [[What does Roam mean to you?]]

Links

Jeff's Twitter (@jmj)
Chapter One

Support the show (https://www.buymeacoffee.com/normanchella)

In this episode, we talk with Ryan Muller, the author of Fractal Inquiry. Focusing on learning and education at Google For Education, Ryan wrote Fractal Inquiry in pursuit of a system for building knowledge in Roam.

It covers the tools you need, plus six tips and eight use cases in building your knowledge graph through one of my favorite methods of knowledge expansion: questions. How do you develop the right questions to dive further into a field/thought/idea?

We talked about:

How evergreen and atomic notes are tied together via questions, using fractals as an analogy
Ryan's origin story, how he dove into note-taking and spaced repetition, from learning languages to other fields
Fractal inquiry: What is a fractal? How do you shape the right questions? What constitutes a good and bad question? When should you delete them? When should you filter them out?
Would a public fractal inquiry graph work?
The education system and how the field as a whole is slow in growth compared to others.

If you're on the journey to cultivate a quality knowledge graph, Look no further. Let's dive into my chat with Ryan Muller, the author of [[Fractal Inquiry]].

Timestamps

5:19 Ryan's origin story and obsession with spaced repetition
7:11 Discovering [[Stian Håklev (侯爽)]]'s research system
9:47 Combining the spaced repetition system with block references
12:56 When do you stop inquiring into one atomic idea?
15:26 What is a fractal, and how does it help with questions
20:38 Can you do fractal inquiry in a public graph? What do you need?
23:39 Current focus on macro-economics
27:13 Formulating useful questions using spaced repetition
31:20 A very small percentage of Ryan's inquiries in his graph are future-oriented
34:04 Changes in education, learning with YouTube and Minecraft
39:00 Where the US education system may be going and where does Roam fit into that
48:32 Excited feature request: more support for incremental reading in Roam
51:37 [[How would you describe Roam to someone who hasn't started using it?]]
53:35 [[What does Roam mean to you?]]
56:12 What compelled Ryan to start asking more questions in the first place? + How to do it in Roam

Links

Ryan's Twitter
Fractal Inquiry

Support the show (https://www.buymeacoffee.com/normanchella)

Welcome to the final episode of Season 1!

In this episode, we talk with Richard Meadows, a finance writer, investor, and journalist. After quitting his full-time job at age 25, he has been pursuing his own hobbies and research interests while traveling around the world. He is also the author of Optionality: How to Survive and Thrive in a Volatile World.

Optionality the book lays out the time tested strategy for not only becoming resilient to shocks, but also positioning yourself to profit from an unpredictable world, especially in the world that we are living in right now. I reached out to Richard because I found out something very fascinating about him: he is the first user of Roam Research!

We talked about:

Richard's origin story: from a business reporter in New Zealand to quitting his full-time job at 25
Making the big trip to India and meeting Conor, becoming the first beta tester of Roam Research
How did his workflow improve over time? We look at Richard's writing workflows and hear what is considered a page, what queries are used, nesting decisions and more
Optionality: What is it? How can we apply it?
How do we prepare for an ambiguous future and volatile world?
Why asking yourself 'What's your 10-year plan' is a stupid question
How can you use Roam to figure out what options are the best for you?

Enjoy!

Links

Richard's Website: The Deep Dish
Richard Meadows' Twitter

Support the show (https://www.buymeacoffee.com/normanchella)

In this episode, we talk with Sam Marfleet, who is a writer, a marketer, and currently writing a study guide to The Hero with a Thousand Faces. Hailing from Trinidad and Tobago. He discovered Roam in early 2020, Which had answers to a question he's had in a very long time: How can he remember all of these stacks of notebooks that he's had written and forgotten?

As someone fascinated with storytelling, writing, and symbolism, Sam had embarked on this study guide to explore the meaning of a story. So in this episode, we talked about:

How Sam discovered Roam Research and the impact it had on him
The Hero of a Thousand Faces: why story is an interesting concept
The relationship between books and the public intellectual space, and why we like to measure the number of books read
Exploring the study guide as a format: how Sam's study guide helps you understand the material better
Joseph Campbell's works on mythologies, the stories that we tell, and the psychological challenges that are manifested as symbolic characters
Diving into the empirical truth of stories (aka. metaphysical): what does it mean for a story to be true? What does it mean to have a story influence every aspect of our lives, ethics, society, and more?
The Public Mythology Graph: what a graph about humanity's stories should look like, who should be involved, and more.

Enjoy!

Links

Sam's Website
Sam's Twitter

Support the show (https://www.buymeacoffee.com/normanchella)

In this episode, we talk with Mridula Duggal who is a Ph.D. candidate in Economics at the IDEA Graduate Programme, Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, and Barcelona Graduate School of Economics. Focusing on monetary policy, adaptive expectations, and fiscal policy, we are going to dive into the world of economics, I hope your Roam is open because we're going to take a lot of notes for this one. From reading research papers and taking notes in the margins, as well as handwriting her own personal notes on paper Mridula found a solution to her problem when it came to resurfacing up previous notes when she found Roam research this year.

We talked about:

Her note-taking origin story: How she made the transition from only paper for note-taking into Roam Research
Her workflows on paper and applying those in Roam
The frameworks she uses when reading up research papers for her field
The world of macroeconomics, focusing on inflation expectations: how do agents form these expectations, what are the factors, and what policies do countries implement in response?
The history of inflation targeting and her interest in a specific area of macroeconomics

Enjoy!

Links

Mridula's Website
Mridula's Twitter

Support the show (https://www.buymeacoffee.com/normanchella)

In this episode, we talk with Ramses Oudt, who is the Co-Founder of RoamStack, helping you find the tools, techniques, and workflows. You need to get the most out of Roam Research. Ramses is a teacher turned technical consultant, a move made possible becausehe is obsessed with knowledge management, having discovered Roam in February this year, after several people urged him to check it out. Roam cured his writer's block after just a few weeks of use and since then he's used it to think more profoundly about work challenges than ever before through RoamStack.

We talked about:

Pondering the question: How do I make knowledge my own?
His career from telemarketer to policymaker in the HR department and his foray into knowledge management.
Achieving greater knowledge management through Building a Second Brain
Implementing the PARA system into Roam and his workflows using the tool
The problem with online courses today, as someone who is a prolific online course taker, Ramses shares his insights on why courses are formatted as they are right now as content dumps.
Creating RoamStack, starting from Fabricating Serendipity by Kahlil Corazo
The purpose of RoamStack as a knowledge hub for the non-technical Roaman
Ramses thoughts on the best practices of managing a shared graph environment.

Enjoy!

Links

Ramses' Website
Ramses' Twitter
RoamStack Website

Support the show (https://www.buymeacoffee.com/normanchella)

In this episode, we talk with Lukas Kawerau, aka. Cortex Futura on Twitter! A known Roaman in the personal knowledge management space, Cortex is an educator through the Roam courses Galaxy Brain and Cite to Write, to help you build deeper knowledge and think better.

In the middle of getting a Ph.D. in Political Science, he has done work on governance, cyber security, and data analysis throughout his career. With that comes the itch to make things, connect, to write notes down, and create his own personal workflows until stumbling into Roam. In this episode we talk about:

The name Cortex Futura: Where does it come from?
Lukas' origin story and how Roam blew his mind
The Cortex Ph.D. workflow: Using Google Scholar, Zotero, Synchronous Reading, and more
The principles of context-dependent insight, and how it differs from progressive summarization
Algorithms of Thought, how tools of thought will expand and make an impact on existing institutions
What Naval said on the Tim Ferriss podcast that made Lukas upset, and why

Enjoy!

Links

Cortex Futura's Twitter
Cortex Futura's Website
Galaxy Brain Online Course
Cite to Write Online Course

Support the show (https://www.buymeacoffee.com/normanchella)

In this episode, we talk with RJ Nestor, an executive coach, musician, and writer. With 20 years of experience helping people say what they mean to say and do what they mean to do, he does a variety of things: from coaching actors how to sing to teaching communication principles for business leaders and more. With Roam in his toolkit, R.J. provides the tools and guidance to execute your ideas and realize your potential.

We talked about:

RJ's origin story, from his background in musical theatre and juggling creative projects
Using David Allen's Getting Things Done for coaching, creative work and writing screenplays
Discovering Roam Research, R.J.'s Workflows and starting the day, the night before
R.J.'s special system to capture all the chaos in our heads
How R.J.'s course Your Road to Roam can help new Roamans in designing their own Roam system
How to sing by not singing

Enjoy!

Links

R.J. Nestor's Twitter
R.J. Nestor's Website
Your Road to Roam Online Course
Powerful Task Management in Roam Research Online Course

Support the show (https://www.buymeacoffee.com/normanchella)

In this episode, we talk with Andy Narracott, Founder of Finding Impact, a practical resource for social entrepreneurs in the trenches, making things happen against all odds. This includes the Finding Impact Podcast, with weekly interviews on strategy, tactics, and practical advice on helping you build your social enterprise, as well as his newsletter.

Andy, a consultant with a background in international development, focusing on sanitation has quite an interesting background. So reaching out to him, I wanted to ask about his workflows. His fields of interest and everything in between.

We talked about:

How he discovered Roam Research and how he's been taking notes before discovering this tool
Workflows on how he uses Roam for work, as well as a personal knowledge management system, deep in the fields of sanitation, international development, and social entrepreneurship.
The meaning of impact. How do you find it in any business that you do?
The flaws of philanthropy, introducing something else that is much more effective.
A public graph for global development: What is the architecture behind it? How do you visualize the graph? What kind of information should be put in and much more?

Enjoy!

Links

Andy Narracott's Website
Andy Narracott's Twitter
Finding Impact Newsletter
Finding Impact
Finding Impact Podcast

Support the show (https://www.buymeacoffee.com/normanchella)

In this episode we talk with Mike Schmitz, who is a productivity nerd (as written on his website), loves reading books and enjoys making things.

He is currently the Executive Editor at The Sweet Setup, a website where you can discover the best apps and workflows for your iPhone, Mac and iPad, as well as Co-Host of the Focused Bookworm and Intentional Family podcasts.

His website, faith based productivity talks about his intersections: the amazing tips, tricks and principles of productivity, and his faith from his sermon sketch notes, as well as his Bible study notes. Mike combines all of this in Roam.

We talked about:

Mike's origin story and how he became a productivity coach from writing so much and combining it with faith
The impact of his sermon sketch notes, as well as his quotes and passages from the Bible
His Roam workflows and observations + how he pools emails as a to-do on Rome.
The meaning of faith-based productivity and the true definition of hustle
'Cult' which can be an uncomfortable word used to describe loyal users of a tool

Enjoy!

Links

Mike's Twitter
Faith Based Productivity
Intentional Family Podcast
Bookworm.fm Podcast

Support the show (https://www.buymeacoffee.com/normanchella)

In this episode, we talk with Drew Coffman, who is an optimist interested in the connections between creativity, technology and true meaning.

As someone who has been on Twitter for a very long time, Drew is in multiple circles from Tech Twitter, to Roam Twitter, and many other things that captures his attention. His YouTube channel (aptly named Drew Coffman), has videos about Roam Research from a beginner's point of view, trying to understand the different features that the tool has.

We talked about:

Roam's community and how that is a hidden feature of Roam
The impact of Roam research on our ability to interact with each other, through our notes
The power of nostalgia and how it impacts us.
Leonardo da Vinci, The Renaissance Man
Answering the question: What would your [[Mona Lisa]] be?

Enjoy!

Links

Drew's Twitter
Drew's YouTube Channel

Support the show (https://www.buymeacoffee.com/normanchella)

In this episode, we talk with Joel Chan, Assistant Professor at the University of Maryland.

His involves the following quote: 'My research seeks to understand and create generalizable configurations of people, computing and information that augment human intelligence and creativity. I want to help create a future where any person or community can design the futures they want to live in.'

In the pursuit of his research, he has stumbled into Roam and is dedicated to seeing its possibilities. Implementing a hybrid Zettelkasten and Zettel Question system, he has designed a system to achieve knowledge synthesis which is what we will be talking about in this episode.

We covered:

Joel's workflow, how he creates notes, Zettels and Zettel Questions
Synthesis and the sum of all its parts: How do you integrate knowledge from different fields to create something new?
Charles Darwin's notebooks, and Roam's competitor
Why is analog media so powerful?

Enjoy!

Timestamps

2:49 Joel's note-taking system: Lab notebooks
4:24 Using Evernote Premium and the cabinets
5:55 Professors have their second brains in students and collaborators
8:35 Discovering [[Stian Håklev (侯爽)]]'s PhD Roam workflow
11:23 New version of Zettels: Zettel Questions
13:56 The best insights only come from a 'single mind'
16:40 Why is analog media so powerful?
18:22 Charles Darwin and Note Excision
20:06 Mixed media and Roam's challenges
23:09 Roam's biggest competitor, and Richard Feynman thinking on paper
24:38 Emulating Roam features on paper, and terrible analog media practices
27:54 The meaning of synthesis and polymathy
28:59 Engaging in greater knowledge synthesis with Roam
30:44 The manifest function and latent function of institutions
31:43 The 3 requirements for synthesis
34:36 Multiplicity and how it allows for synthesis
38:14 [[What does Roam mean to you?]]

Links

Joel Chan's Website
Video: Roam Tour #1: Professor Joel Chan- Zettelkasten and Evergreen Notes for Generative Thought
Stian Håklev (侯爽)'s Video
Tinderbox

Support the show (https://www.buymeacoffee.com/normanchella)

Click here for the video version on YouTube!

With Roam Fund, Roam Scholars Program, APIs and Multiplayer Roam coming up, there's still some things I'd like to figure out:

How will Roam enable creators to maintain a sustainable career?
What are the possibilities and models for monetization using a Roam graph?
Are there example products out there that we can replicate in Roam as a source of income?

Introducing the first (of many) RoamFM hangouts, this talk will be about monetization models, premium graphs and defining the 'Roam Creator'.

This hangout is simple:

Zoom Room where I'll kick things with my thoughts on public/premium graphs (will be made available on the RoamFM graph), monetization models and what a Roam Creator can be
An open discussion on these topics
Some announcements for RoamFM
Later on we'll close off with prompts and questions on what other possibilities to consider (to talk right then and there, or to save for another hangout)
Freeform conversation after! (Anything goes)

I've set this event for 2 hours just in case, but if we end earlier/later, will leave the room up accordingly.

The objectives are:

To expand our possibilities and use cases as creators using Roam Research
Explore different ways for monetization and business models
Engage in Otium: the pursuit of intellectual curiosity. Everybody is part of the discussion
See some amazing Roaman faces!

I'll be exploring different models, where future of Roam might go for money-making, and how creators can fit in there. Will share my own findings and predictions, and I want to have it open up for discussion.

Support the show (https://www.buymeacoffee.com/normanchella)

In this episode, we talk with Matt McGann, who is the founder of Health Horizon. tracking upcoming health technologies as they develop in real time for companies, investors, and innovators as well.

He is also the creator of Roam for Teamwork: covering multiplayer knowledge bases, where everything is connected and nothing is duplicated. How to set up Rome as a place where teamwork naturally builds a coherent repository of the organization's knowledge. So if you are interested in setting up a multi-player Roam for your team, this is a great resource for you. You can find this roamforteamwork.com.

Starting off with a Ph.D. in Theoretical Physics at the Australian National University and getting into entrepreneurship, Mat is now working on Health Horizon, managing a team of four on a shared Roam Graph. So this episode will be all about processes, methods, product management and more, all on detailed Roam-specific processes. We are going to get technical In this episode.
We talked about:

Starting a podcast about academia and getting paid $10k for 5 episodes
How Mat stepped away from academic papers and focused on popular scientific breakthroughs
The mission behind Health Horizon
Mat's multiplayer workflow: queries to sprints, Sales CRM, tasklist management, pseudo-notifications and more
Why multiplayer Roam is the inverse of singleplayer Roam

And more. Enjoy!

Timestamps

2:30 $10,000 for 5 podcast episodes on academia
9:20 Why is his website called Unlamed?
11:23 [[Science Communication]], and losing interest in science
13:52 Academic papers are more about accountability
16:32 Making the jump from academia to entrepreneurship
18:40 Barrier comparisons between physics and biology/medicine
20:33 What happened to these promising medical breakthroughs? Health Horizon's story
23:41 Who it's for: Health innovation, Roam Medical, etc.
26:08 Discovering Roam by mistake during Christmas
30:03 An Inverse graph, implementing Roam into [[Health Horizon]]
31:58 Health Horizon workflow: The Attention page
33:07 Sidebar shortcuts, tags and deliverables
36:23 Splitting notifications into multiple types
40:23 How [[Health Horizon]] runs sprints in Roam
44:34 Pagination and standardization saves time
46:13 Restructuring in Roam has little friction
48:17 Using attributes to enforce structure and summarize
50:54 Tracking new sales opportunities: an example
54:56 Sales are a case by case basis, no templates
56:39 Recreating Team Excel in Roam
58:06 Mat's requests: notifications and dropdown
1:02:50 Transcribing physical books and margins into Roam
1:08:32 [[How would you describe Roam to someone who hasn't started using it?]]
1:10:52 [[What does Roam mean to you?]]

Links

Mat McGann's Twitter
Health Horizon
Roam for Teamwork
Unlamed: The blog of Jamie Freestone and Mathew McGann

Support the show (https://www.buymeacoffee.com/normanchella)

In this episode, we talk with Brandon Toner, a pharmacist based in Nova Scotia, Canada. He's known from his goal to build a habit of expression through a reset on Twitter. This is a broad episode ranging from healthcare to school, note-taking philosophies and the search for powerful conversations.

We talked about:

Doing a hard reset on Twitter
Information management in pharmacy, healthcare and possibilities with Roam Research
Intricacies in healthcare and what information we must consider
Brandon's workflow in the field of learning healthcare
The philosophy of note-taking and its connection to identity, expression and more
How Roam can help you build your own worldview

Enjoy!

Timestamps

1:50 Brandon's criteria for Twitter conversations
3:34 Hard reset on Twitter and connecting with people an dideas
5:53 The Dark times, and the tools that never felt quite right
8:01 Brandon's future version of himself
9:40 What Brandon does: Pharmacy in Nova Scotia, Canada
11:24 Information in healthcare and pharmacy
14:59 Building dynamic reference material for healthcare
16:48 "When I consume knowledge, I want it to become a part of me"
18:05 The responsibilities of a clinical expert
19:54 Brandon's thoughts on schooling with Roam
22:07 Roam dependence and impact on our systems and routines
27:58 The scaffolding for a network of information
29:28 What is structure? Note-taking as a philosophy
33:42 How do we balance between chaos and order?
34:52 Brandon's workflow in bringing order to chaos
40:39 "You can't skip that dance" and Go Boards
43:35 Putting down other tools, and the burden of freedom
48:14 What happens in the true believer calls? and how Brandon joined Roam
54:35 Cult vs. culture, and Conor thinking out loud in calls
59:35 The revolution of maintaining societal knowledge
1:07:17 Exploring Roam's diversity of users
1:09:56 Celebrating life and our loved ones
1:14:51 Roam baked in productivity culture
1:18:41 The low floor, high ceiling, and Roam possibilities
1:21:34 [[How would you describe Roam to someone who hasn't started using it?]]
1:30:20 [[What does Roam mean to you?]]

Links

Brandon's Twitter
Expanding Thoughts (Brandon's Newsletter)
Brandon's Website

Support the show (https://www.buymeacoffee.com/normanchella)

In this episode, we talk with Tracy Winchell, the Founder of Roaman Journals. A teacher of daily journaling practices to others, Tracy is a self introspective person when it comes to facing ourselves in writing. And when introduced to Roam, she has started implementing the tool into journaling.

In this episode, we talked about:

Life before Roam Research: her time as a journalist, within broadcasting and more
Her workflow for journaling and introspection in Roam
Our relationship with the creator/higher power
The intricacies of daily journaling and how Tracy approaches it
The three selves, and how we should confront them

There is a part one and part two to this episode, so you might hear a disconnect in the middle of the episode due to technical difficulties. Enjoy!

Timestamps

1:36 Artillery and firing guns
5:04 Accidentally ending up in front of a microphone: Tracy's origin story
8:28 Starting the Reboots Podcast and the moment of clarity
10:23 Discovering Roam Research
14:58 Combining journaling techniques with Roam
19:09 Interviewing Dr. Benjamin Hardy of Personality isn't Permanent
21:26 Outsourcing the recall
24:04 Tracy's workflow for starting the day: Note to Next Day Self
30:03 Checklists and how they stop you from execution
33:00 2nd Half, and RoamBrain
36:04 The three selves, according to Dr. Benjamin Hardy
40:43 Projecting things into the future, and intersecting future emotions and time
43:25 Just in time wisdom
44:14 Tracy's Reflecting pool, and the Serenity Prayer
50:47 Faith and a higher power
54:00 Introducing Roam to a journaling audience
58:05 Tracy does not want to look at her analog journals
1:02:39 The friction finding something of value in previous journals
1:05:05 What does victory mean to you?
1:10:07 The next trinity of fields Tracy will dive into
1:11:57 [[How would you describe Roam to someone who hasn't started using it?]] and [[What does Roam mean to you?]]

Links

Tracy's Twitter
Roaman Journals
Roaman Journaling for Self-Awareness & Growth Course
Reboots Podcast

Support the show (https://www.buymeacoffee.com/normanchella)

In this episode, we talk with Dalton Mabery, a YouTuber, video editor and tweet thread maker at 20 years old, trying to find the intersection between church and technology. His YouTube channel covers tech, productivity, and lifestyle with a lot of tutorials and guides on many networked thought thinking tools, including Roam.

We talked about:

His note-taking origin story, and stumbling into Roam
Dalton's information capture workflow, and remixing past knowledge
Overcoming traditional definitions of creativity
Why he left #roamcult due to negative experiences and impressions: can we be elitist or too cultish?
Future-proofing notes and why Obsidian caught his attention

Note: This was recorded a while ago and ever since then, Dalton has made the decision to come back to Roam Research.

Enjoy!

For the full transcript, click here

Timestamps

1:19 The fun in reading books: Dalton Mabery's note-taking origin story
3:06 Discovering Roam through Not Overthinking, and the Aha Moment
4:44 Small response from friends when demonstrating Roam
7:51 Dalton Mabery's workflow in Roam and use cases
9:09 How he reads and takes notes on articles
10:35 Creating tweet threads from his notes
11:32 The Master Page and researching for the next YouTube video to make
13:48 Filtering types of content through organization and tags
16:41 Remixing content into other formats and our different note-taking systems
19:09 "If anyone comes up with something completely new, it's probably heresy"
20:33 What new ideas are now, and distilling data into knowledge
22:04 How YouTubers interpret tools, and Austin Kleon says steal, don't copy
25:24 Why Dalton Mabery left Roam
27:06 The elitist vibe of #roamcult
28:52 The host is not happy against elitism
30:59 Comments of potential users being sick of Roam, and Keep Productive
31:56 Creators' responsibility to have a good impression of note-taking tools
33:09 Handling a YouTube channel about Roam
34:37 YouTube comments are can be really good or really bad
37:00 You don't need much to start creating content around Roam
38:34 If you want to start an interview show
40:31 Dalton's looking for guests for his new show
42:00 Future-proof notes, and the advantages of Obsidian
45:33 What happens the tool closes down?
48:23 [[How would you describe Roam to someone who hasn't started using it?]]
49:55 [[What does Roam mean to you?]]

Links

Dalton Mabery's Twitter
Dalton's YouTube Channel
Dalton Mabery's Website

Support the show (https://www.buymeacoffee.com/normanchella)

In this episode, we talk with Ali Abdaal, a Cambridge university medicine graduate, a former doctor in the UK National Health Service and a prolific YouTuber, making videos about life as a medical student, productivity tips, tech, Roam Research, Notion and more.

We talked about:

Ali's note-taking origin story: From storing notes on close-up magic to seduction, medicine and now book notes
His information capture workflow, using Evernote, Notion and Roam for specific uses.
Why Ali thinks he is not a creative person
Defining creativity from remixing content as opposed to originality
Pursuing the perfect note-taking app, and the similarities between note-taking apps and marriage
and content creation, as well as the value that we can provide to others who we are trying to help defining the perfect note taking app. Ali talks to me about the similarities between a note taking app and marriage.

Enjoy!

Timestamps

+1:09
1:09 Life after 9-5
3:09 Fulfillment from creative work
5:21 Ali Abdaal's note-taking origin story
8:09 When Building a Second Brain came into play
9:30 "It was as if this guy was speaking to my very soul"
10:18 Ali doesn't use PARA at all
12:44 What is a project? Ali's use case as a YouTuber
14:13 Evernote as a base for long-term memory
15:53 Ali Abdaal's fluid information capture workflow
17:17 Discovering Roam and the $250,000 missed opportunity
19:17 Roam is unsatisfying so far, and the Nibble Framework
21:49 How productive does Ali Abdaal want to become?
25:00 What is enough? How much money is enough?
26:46 "I'm not creative at all. I don't think I have any original ideas"
30:46 Creativity does not come from originality
33:40 First-brain breakthroughs and how Roam encourages that to happen
35:13 We have observed X, therefore we think Y
38:20 The flaw behind Roam Research, and Notion vs. Roam
39:45 Roam vs. Notion followers on Ali Abdaal's YouTube channel
40:23 Drafting a video: The Perfect Note-taking App
41:27 There is no such thing as a soulmate
43:43 Different people are attracted to different personalities
46:43 Getting divorced is messy and expensive
48:25 Meaningless sex with lots of people is unfulfilling
51:41 Polyamorous note-taking relationships
53:34 Why all these note-taking apps aren't competing against each other
55:29 Labeling is simplifying and dangerous
59:11 What system do I want? How do I know this app fits me?
1:02:30 Talking with a creator vs. a consumer
1:05:27 How does Ali handle parasocial interactions?
1:06:23 Repeated value is value nonetheless
1:08:21 Repeated vs. Original vs. Spontaneous value
1:10:42 The Table of Contents Notes Game
1:12:50 What Ali Abdaal would like to see from Roam
1:19:40 Ali doesn't think about Motivation
1:21:41 Editing our respective podcasts
1:27:35 What Norman does
1:29:18 How I explain myself to family
1:30:56 [[How would you describe Roam to someone who hasn't started using it?]]
1:32:07 [[What does Roam mean to you?]]

Links

Ali Abdaal's Twitter
Ali Abdaal's YouTube Channel
Ali Abdaal's Instagram

Support the show (https://www.buymeacoffee.com/normanchella)

In this episode, we talk with Aravind Balla, a software developer working remotely from Hyderabad, India. He loves JS and CSS, and is the co-host of the Learning Curve podcast, sharing his findings, discoveries, and, his learning journey with fellow host Bretik.

In the #roamcult community he is known for creating Gatsby-theme-Andy, a digital gardening theme inspired by the works of Andy Matuschak and is based on Gatsby-theme-brain.

We talked about:

Aravind's note-taking workflow
How Notion and Roam plays different roles in his work
Examples of evergreen notes from Aravind's graph
The origin story of Gatsby-theme-andy
Defining what is publishable in a digital garden
Planning episode for the Learning Curve Podcast

Enjoy!

Timestamps

03:24 From Evernote to Notion and Aravind's meta questions
05:54 No more Evernote except for Kindle highlights
08:40 There was no friction in transitioning to Roam
09:38 Notion vs Roam for Teams
10:58 Loading up Roam in low network connectivity
13:09 "Once it is loaded, it never dies. So I never turn my MacBook off"
14:53 Aravind's main workflow, information capture and more
17:06 Some fleeting notes are thrown away, and examples of permanent notes
18:18 Aravind Balla's Evergreen notes from [[How to Take Smart Notes]] and Linchpin
20:02 Have empathy towards your work
21:58 Publishing notes online can strike ideas in the person who's reading it
23:05 How Aravind remade Andy Matuschak's digital garden theme in Gatsby
25:47 Gathering around digital gardeners and Andy's followers
28:38 What's considered publishable? Defining a digital garden
34:56 How did the Learning Curve podcast start?
37:46 Predicting conversations with #roamcult, and Mental Agility
42:48 Aravind's keen for the API to rollout
45:48 Planning an episode for the Learning Curve Podcast
49:48 [[How would you describe Roam to someone who hasn't started using it?]]
51:48 [[What does Roam mean to you?]]

Links

Aravind's Twitter
Aravind's Website
Aravind's Notes
gatsby-theme-andy

Support the show (https://www.buymeacoffee.com/normanchella)

Today's guest is Kahlil Corazo, who is building Project Accessible Genomics, a playbook for deploying genomic pathogen surveillance in the global South. He is also creating training materials on using Roam for project management, as well as Fabricating Serendipity, connecting Roam individuals to each other, and see its results.

The longest episode so far in RoamFM, we talked about:

Project Management and how startups can use Roam
The Idea-to-Reality production stack, and the Rider and the Stallion Model
Fabricating Serendipity between Roamans
Breaking down the Business Model Canvas using Roam
Possibilities in the field of genomics

Included as well are my own reflections on the podcast so far. Enjoy!

Timestamps

2:14 Fabricating serendipity: The podcast and RoamStack
4:16 Masterminds and Discovering Roam
7:08 Serendipity happened because of that simple meetup
9:02 Training teams for project management through Roam
13:38 New ways for online education through projects
20:16 The Rider and the Stallion Model
22:53 Our relationship with passions and emotions are political
24:59 Taming the stallion through Roam, workflows
30:35 Morning pages and written meditation
33:15 Maker Manager Days and different stallions
38:17 Focus on the problems because you want to fix problems
39:24 Systems versus Goals
44:18 The Roam Business Model Canvas
46:44 Combining Zettelkasten and the Business Model Canvas
47:51 Validating ideas in the field of genomics
52:41 Making genomic pathogen surveillance accessible
55:23 Roam trains you to think, Re: Stian's episode
59:21 Use Roam to find an area that just fits you
1:01:28 Contemplating the future of Roam Research (startups, features)
1:04:53 [[How would you describe Roam to someone who hasn't started using it?]] and [[What does Roam mean to you?]]
1:06:18 Explaining Roam as a power tool for thinkers
1:13:52 Interesting answers in describing Roam
1:21:55 Incremental changes to my relationship with Roam
1:25:21 Generating ideas through the Art Oracle Deck

Links

RoamFu Twitter
Kahlil Corazo's Twitter
RoamFu Thread List
Roam and Your Idea-to-Reality Production Stack

Support the show (https://www.buymeacoffee.com/normanchella)

In this episode, we talk with Jessie Li, an independent consultant at Singapore Management University's Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center, and Founder of Fat Garage, an interesting website covering Chinese entrepreneurs in niche markets, such as asteroid mining, synthetic biology, and more.

She founded the roam/cn Community, a collective of Roam users from all walks of life in Mandarin, filled with videos, articles, and other resources to learn together, and develop use cases for Roam Research.

We talked about:

How she discovered Roam through Product Hunt, and getting jealous of her friend's Roam graph
Supporting Chinese Roam users in roam/cn and growing up to 200+ members
The future of Roam in media, as a university and a new Twitter

Enjoy!

Thank you to Matt Brockwell for the awesome review!

Timestamps

3:45 Jessie's background, developing China's entrepreneurship ecosystem
8:25 The meaning of 'Fat Garage'
11:31 Discovering the tool through Product Hunt
13:32 "I was jealous of his graph"
16:15 Roam in beta, and the a-ha moments
19:35 The Business Model Canvas
24:04 Jessie Li's templates and routines
27:18 Starting roam/cn and gathering the Chinese Roam community
29:48 Interpreting Conor's interview on 20minutesvc
33:36 WeChat group with 230+ members
38:20 Overlap between Roam China's members and other WeChat groups
41:33 Seeing roam/cn in 5 years, and the future of Roam
42:36 Roam will be a better university
44:58 Roam can be a better media
48:59 Roam can be a better Twitter
59:41 Running roam/cn in a chaotic way
54:06 Collective intelligence and the roam/cn public Roam graph
57:52 [[How would you describe Roam to someone who hasn't started using it?]]
1:03:53 [[What does Roam mean to you?]]

Links

Jessie's Twitter
Fat Garage Website
roam/cn BiliBili Channel
roam/cn Public Roam Graph

Support the show (https://www.buymeacoffee.com/normanchella)

In this episode, we talk with David Crandall, a software architect and fractional CTO. As someone involved in Data Architecture since the mid-nineties, he has been obsessive with note-taking, having done so for 25+ years(!). Roam fits the bill for writing all his thoughts!

We talked about:

The Dark times: how he found Roam, moving abroad with 26 luggage bags and more
David's workflows: Meeting notes, habit tracking and anti-productivity
Why he dislikes non-contextual metadata
Predicting the future of Roam from a software architect's perspective, and #roamcult

Enjoy!

Timestamps

2:28 25 Years of Note-taking and discovering Roam
5:40 What caught his attention, and the Daily Notes page
8:52 Transferring all his analog notes in
9:40 Moving a family of six to Cozumel, Mexico
13:12 David's workflow, and learning Roam in quarantine
17:02 Meeting notes: David's process for turning nouns into pages
20:20 Non-contextual tagging and why David hates it
24:12 Finding value from graph overview + suggestions
26:37 How David uses Roam to track his habits
32:02 Being anti-productive
34:06 David's main Twitter account and Minecraft
36:18 Future Roaman Jrs.
38:21 The future of Roam and David's accurate prediction
42:09 The way we interact with Roam will change
46:14 The potential of #roamcult in this future
51:29 Networked social media, Visa and threaded conversation
54:30 What scares David about the hive mind concept
55:29 Describing Roam as a Jarvis [[How would you describe Roam to someone who hasn't started using it?]]
57:28 [[What does Roam mean to you?]], Roam's use in counseling, therapy, and vulnerability

Links

David's Twitter
David's Website
Predicting the Future of Roam

Support the show (https://www.buymeacoffee.com/normanchella)

In this episode, we're having a conversation with Mark Robertson, who is an instructor of history at several California community colleges, teaching American and World History. He focuses on historical memory, race and racism, US foreign policy, and critical pedagogy. His true joy in life is to assist and empowering the interested to better know themselves as learners and as a part of our larger human community. You can find him on Twitter @calhistorian.

We talked about:

Struggling to find the perfect tool on the journey to be a history instructor
Discovering Roam through the Tiago-Conor disagreement
The influence of the book, The Past as a Foreign Country, on our perception of history
Live-Roaming: Using Roam to teach students in college
Why he refuses to lecture, and the use of Socratic Dialogue

Enjoy!

A big thank you to Dave Thackeray for our first review on the show! You can check it out here

Timestamps

3:48 Origin story: Almost failing and going to community college
6:15 The Tiago-Conor beef
8:11 Eternal skeptic, trying tools and avoiding web apps
11:09 The meaning of 'The Past is a Foreign Country'
15:53 "The perception of our past is skewed in some troublesome ways"
19:55 "I refuse to lecture" How Mark does Live-Roaming
21:55 Socratic Dialogue and Project-Based Learning
23:49 How can I help you answer these questions? Mark Robertson's teaching style
28:06 The willingness to say "I don't know"
30:51 Avoiding "Why am I here in class if I could just read the textbook?"
31:51 Using Roam with a digital whiteboard
34:29 The power of DEVONthink
40:22 Any student can come to any of his courses
44:30 Challenging the notion of "Roam ignores structure"
48:33 [[How would you describe Roam to someone who hasn't started using it?]]
51:54 [[What does Roam mean to you?]]

Links

Mark's Twitter
Roaming in the Past: Thinking, Siri Shortcuts and Workflows
The Past is a Foreign Country

Support the show (https://www.buymeacoffee.com/normanchella)

The Past is a Foreign Country

In this episode, we're talking with a member of the #roamcult who uses Roam as a lab book.

Cherry Sun is a second-year Ph.D. student based in Auckland, New Zealand. She's studying a stem cell population from the human placenta and its potential role in babies that are born dangerously small ([[Fetal Growth Restriction]]).

As someone who is doing multiple experiments at the same time, Cherry has been finding ways to capture thoughts, record measurements, and results, and to collect all of them in one graph and database for her to make all the connections and Roam fits the bill.

We talked about:

Cherry Sun's origin story: How she went from pen and paper to Notion to Roam.
Using Roam as a lab book, for experimentation ad stem cell research
Predictions in using Roam for collaborative research in her field

Enjoy!

Timestamps

2:33 From Notion to Roam for recording experiments
5:03 When the square brackets started flying
6:18 Searchability and changing the way we write
7:37 How do you make your notes searchable?
9:06 Having a running timeline of active cultures organically generated
11:59 "The date is the smallest metadata you need"
13:51 Bullet journals and paper and pen writing
15:25 The power of work-life separation
17:42 Handwriting is too personal for Cherry
20:11 Function over creation, and having intent with Roam
22:35 Cherry Sun's thesis on [[Fetal Growth Restriction]]
25:03 Cherry's Roam Thoughts and her long-time project
28:47 "This might form a connection somewhere down the line"
30:45 Pitching Roam and [[Thought loss anxiety]]
35:26 The future lab book: Roam for collaborative research
40:31 What does Roam mean to Cherry

Links

Cherry Sun's Twitter
Using Roam as a lab book and more: My journey to becoming a more organized researcher

View the full notes on the public graph!

Support the show (https://www.buymeacoffee.com/normanchella)

In this episode, we talk with Maggie Appleton who is the Art Director, Metaphor Designer & Anthropological All-Rounder at egghead.io.

Soon to start a Masters in Digital Anthropology, she is known for her contributions to digital gardens as well as illustrated notes. She is at the forefront of visual thinking and when it comes to Roam, she's done a lot as well. I'm using her theme right now for my private Roam!

We talked about:

The dark times pre-Roam and how she discovered it
Her digital garden and definitions of an evergreen note, growing from budding to seedlings to the Evergreen
Discussions on the #roamcult itself, and her take on who Roam users are from an anthropological perspective
And the tool itself, from workflows to predictions to the freedom in which one can find their own ways of using Roam.

Enjoy!

Timestamps

02:31 Life during the before times, how Maggie stumbled into Roam
04:53 "Most of Roam is resources" How PARA fits in Roam
07:31 Using Nat Eliason's system for task management, quick capture
09:38 Maggie Appleton's workflow for capturing information
14:30 From Kyle Harrison: Presentable notes in public vs. private
17:16 How Maggie's evergreen notes differs from other people
20:09 Building a digital garden on Gatsby
22:45 The fast pace of #roamcult and changes in Maggie's Roam setup
25:27 The rabbithole of hypertext, Project Xanadu
27:08 Maggie's current rabbithole: Anthropology and Digital Anthropology
30:00 Pattern languages and the influence of Roam Research on Digital Anthropology
32:48 Why the web doesn't have bi-directional links
34:48 Project Xanadu's specs: a communal payment system
37:32 Web 3.0: The semantic web
39:26 How would you describe Roam to someone who hasn't started using it?
42:32 The problem with Roam onboarding
43:59 "If there was an official onboarding, that would feel non-Roam"
46:54 A timeline overview, spaced repetition on Roam Toolkit
49:56 Building the Thoughtmine: Norman's digital garden
52:06 Differences between blocks and pages, and how Roam treats them for queries
53:41 Drafting things on paper
54:49 What does Roam mean to you?

Links

Maggie's Website
Maggie's Twitter
To see what she's doing now, you can check out this link!
See this on the RoamFM Public Graph

Support the show (https://www.buymeacoffee.com/normanchella)

Our guest in this episode today is Robert Haisfield, Founder of Influence Insights, as well as the behavioral product strategist at Spark Wave. Focusing on behavior design and gamification, he applies his knowledge to tech products better accomplish their intended goals.

We talked about:

Rob's note-taking origin story, from standup comedy to behavioral science papers and consulting
The exploratory behavior of people, what they expect from entering digital gardens and public Roams
Workflows, usages of Roam, in particular 'pruning' your database for quality use
Entry points to one's Roam to accommodate for different readers

Enjoy!

Timestamps

2:20 Writing down everything, note taking and standup comedy
4:38 Research through Notion, Bear and now Roam
8:14 How Rob found Roam, and older Notion workflows1
11:34 Testing Roam out with projects, and note-taking hygiene
13:49 Overwhelming graphs, Bear vs. Roam
17:37 Switching from a keyword approach to an evergreen note approach
20:13 Roam's accessibility for non-Roam users...there's none
23:36 Higher bar on a public Roam, articulating ideas
26:14 Exploring 2-dimensional navigation and Andy Matuschak's notes (follow along!)
29:52 "I love getting lost" The fun part about exploring hypertext
34:52 Expressing through outlines and blocks, and the value of a digital garden
36:18 The different ways people search for things
37:48 The open notebook, Rob's hypertext
40:12 Hypertext adventures, and behavioral economics sets up a choice architecture
42:33 Entry points, and Obsidian's graph view
47:59 Rob's future projects and tips for starting Roam
53:41 How would you describe Roam to someone who hasn't started using it yet?
54:36 What does Roam mean to you?

Links

Influence Insights
Spark Wave
Rob's Twitter
Rob's Public Roam
VIDEO: Rob Haisfield's Tour of Roam Research
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HO_qvM-URHY
VIDEO: Chatting with Glue - Close reading / Analysis / Note Taking
- https://youtu.be/NMzr-qsv188
Andy Matuschak's Notes

Visit the RoamFM Public Graph for more info!

Support the show (https://www.buymeacoffee.com/normanchella)

In this episode, we talk with Stian Håklev, who is the engineer/learning architect for Minerva Project.

We talked about his origin story: diving open science, collaborative communities, and international development and connecting all these findings through Roam.
What should get a page and what shouldn't, using references as an inbox and more
His thoughts on Roam as a networked thought tool, and how it changed his thinking.

Enjoy!

Timestamps

1:59 Stian Håklev's origin story
4:13 Linux, programming and open source
5:48 Academic citations in multiple Chinese journals
6:47 How can we support self learners and collaborative learning? PhD and pedagogical theories
9:30 Minerva Project and rethinking undergraduate education
11:54 Introducing Roam into Stian's PhD reading workflow
14:06 Building the Frankenstein of Roam Research
18:31 How Stian Håklev uses Roam Research: From manual linking to using the tool VIDEO: Reproducing PhD reading workflow with Roam Research by Stian Håklev
21:58 The Daily Pages concept and design affordances
23:30 No friction when starting from daily pages, and references as an inbox
27:13 There is no distinction between page, tag, and link
28:25 Struggling with Zettelkasten or Evergreen Notes
33:00 Collecting all the artifacts and projects Stian has built
36:10 Collaboration and harnessing the creative exhaust
39:22 The vision for a collaborative Roam
40:57 Exploring complex design issues and semantic technologies
43:37 How to describe Roam to someone who hasn't started using it yet?
46:47 What does Roam mean to you?

Links

Stian's Twitter
Networked Thought Newsletter
Stian's Blog
Minerva Project
DokuWiki
BibDesk
Keyboard Maestro
VIDEO: Reproducing PhD reading workflow with Roam Research by Stian Håklev
Venkatesh Rao Tweet Thread on Roam Research
VIDEO: Meet Roam-I and Roam-E, A Roam Research Concept Demo
VIDEO: Tiago Forte's Interview with Conor White-Sullivan
Sonke Ahrens' How to Take Smart Notes

Visit the RoamFM Public Graph for more info!

Support the show (https://www.buymeacoffee.com/normanchella)

In this episode, we talk with Michael Ashcroft, a consultant, co-founder and Non-Executive Director of the Carbon Removal Centre, a UK-based non-profit organization whose purpose is to advance sustainable carbon removal.

He is also a certified teacher of the Alexander Technique, an awareness-based educational process that helps people live with greater ease and freedom, and a Co-Active coach, working with clients in his spare time.

We talked about:

How he stumbled into Roam Research from Building A Second Brain
His workflow when building his second brain
The Alexander Technique, and using Roam to expand his understanding of it, and applying it to coaching
How he uses Roam as a self-coaching tool
#roamcult as a culture, not a cult: The filter for meeting interesting people

Enjoy!

Timestamps

02:08 Michael's origin story and meta-realization: Building A Second Brain
04:29 Michael's workflow and version of smart notes
07:09 Deconstructing how to take book notes
8:58 Determine if ideas have their own pages
11:14 Letting go of note-taking structure in advance Re: Evernote
12:41 If Einstein had a Roam...
14:13 Subconsciously building a digital garden
16:29 Multi-graph connections, and unique blocks across Roam
18:09 Synchronising public and Private Roams
19:58 "The onboarding is the #roamcult"
20:44 The Aha! Moment and the many possibilities
21:53 Exploring emotions in Roam and self-introspection
23:53 Co-Active coaching and the Saboteur
25:20 How Michael Ashcroft uses Roam to do self-coaching
27:33 Projects, Areas, Roam, Archives
30:24 Alexander Technique: Undoing habits
34:05 Roam to enhance understanding of Alexander Technique
35:33 Using the right words that resonate better
37:23 Alexander Technique teachers tend to impose jargon on people
38:46 Michael Ashcroft's future plans for Alexander Technique
40:11 A course as a universal resource
41:59 The world is hooked on doing or caring
44:02 How can we help?
46:00 Caring is interference
47:43 Non-doing, and to frame something as a battle is interference
49:42 How would you describe Roam to someone who hasn't started using it yet?
51:06 What does Roam mean to you? Roam Culture
52:28 The secret handshake is #roamcult
54:19 PKM meetups are a filter for interesting people

Links

Michael Ashcroft's Website
Michael's Twitter
Thinking Out Loud Newsletter
How to be Superman (Alexander Technique)
Building A Second Brain
Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain

Visit the RoamFM Public Graph for more info!

Support the show (https://www.buymeacoffee.com/normanchella)

Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain: The Deluxe Edition

Welcome to RoamFM. Here, we dive into the minds, workflows and machinations of the #roamcult, the believers of [[Roam Research]].

Launching in July, we'll be talking with members of the #roamcult on how they use Roam and what amazing connections were through this tool. Guests are varied in experience, background and ways of thinking, so we'll explore different ways to use Roam.

Enjoy!

Support the show (https://www.buymeacoffee.com/normanchella)