OtiumFM

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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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.

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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

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

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