OtiumFM

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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