Roam Research for thinking and knowledge management

This does sound like it is only a temporary solution :

Currently, Local Only graphs are stored only in Local Storage on your browser

How long the wait is for the ‘upcoming version’ is we do not know…

  • [[Goals]] for upcoming version
  • [[Desktop App]] - where you don’t need internet connection at all to use Roam
  • Automatic synchronization with a directory in your file system - for JSON
  • 1 Way syncronization with Markdown files
  • Meaning - Edits to a Roam page will overwrite a Markdown file in your directory
  • Which will allow you to keep a version controlled history of your Roam DB in git
  • Changing those files will not automatically change the state of your roam though.
  • [[MVP]] of 2 way syncronization
  • Ability to upload a Markdown file to your Roam and have it overwrite the existing contents of your roam db
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Exactly. The seeming explosion in interest in taking notes (taking notes, of all things!) has got to be explained by something else other than software. As a human activity, taking notes is no more interesting than sparking joy by organizing sock drawers. So why do we chatter about it so much, and debate pros and cons of some guy’s cloud service? I still think, as I said elsewhere,

Imagine if this forum was obsessed with using Macs to organize affordable housing, instead of Conor White’s follies.

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From what I’ve seen, I think you’re probably a master note taker, and have mastered knowledge management to a high level, so this all probably seems passé to you.
People like me struggle with this, and are searching for things that will help us understand, make connections, and retain information.

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I listened to this podcast episode with Andy Matuschak the other day:

He notes: (it’s the answer to the first question, right at the outset)

Knowledge workers are surprisingly bad at knowledge work… and don’t really seem to know it. I use “bad” in kind of a loose sense here, but if you compare—for instance—the seriousness of their practices to those of 99th-percentile athletes or musicians or something, it’s really interesting how casually [knowledge workers] treat their practice. Myself included! That’s fascinating. Activities like note-taking, for instance, are completely folksy and ad hoc and unsystematized. No one really has a clear sense of what it means to “accrete insight.”

This is why I show up here, really. Knowledge should have compound interest, but instead I’m more like a goldfish than a “knowledge investor” on most days. There’s gotta be better ways.

I also think “note taking” is an awful term for what these discussions actually centre on. We aren’t talking about scribbling on index cards. We’re talking about how we learn, and how we use what we’ve learned to create new things.

Hey, for my part, I am usin’ this stuff to help address the world’s hardest problems!

edit: ps I nominate this thread for the best thread of all time

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Agreed. And yet not a mention of any of these concepts on the podcast? (apologies if I am wrong, I have drifted away from the actual episodes…)

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As a historian who studies memory, race/racism, and US politics, yes. Yes. Yes. But this is not the thread for that discussion.

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Tweet thread

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I didn’t realize they ‘earned’ much since they’ve been VC-funded, yes?

Some of the comments in that thread are funny.

Amusing in a different way: someone at Amplenote (which added backlinks two weeks ago) tweeted in a Roam-related thread about their Roam-import tool, and Conor blocked him on Twitter.

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He mentions several organizations that sponsored their development, but I don’t think VC would have anything to do with them because they are a “note taking app”. That’s what I recall from his interview or tweets.

So it looks like 2020 is going to be the year of COVID-19 and backlinks.

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I know they borrowed money from Tesla GTM, but they are VC-funded too. I distinctly remember a VC plumping up the company a couple of months ago, saying he got into Roam after a meeting and demo. A quick search found two two different listings for their seed round:

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Yeah, you’re right. I remember Chapter One now.
I think initially know one was interested, then the cult kicked in.

Hearing about VC funding made me curious about their privacy policy and terms of conditions. It’s interesting bc it seems like they have two definitions of data: 1) data as notes and 2) data as use. The former seems protected (for now), but the latter not so much. It’s the latter that’s actually valuable to VCs. I’m pretty sure they could care less about backlinked bibles.

These things are so tricky to parse, though, is that what others are reading as well? Where’s a lawyer when we need one? ¯_(ツ)_/¯

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Seems pretty straightforward. They promise not to look at your data or let anyone else look at it (sans warrant).

But you, mon frère, you and your (allegedly) de-identified info (which analyses have shown isn’t quite so anonymous) is up for grabs: your IP address (which can be cross-referenced with data from elsewhere to identify you), when you log in, the hardware you’re using, credit card type, and metadata about how/much you’re using the service.

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Yep, that was my take, too. :-1:

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I think that, for these people, zettelkasten is just the new GTD or Deep Work or 7 Habits and Roam (or Obsidian or TiddlyWiki or whatever) is the new cool tool that’s going to make the magic happen.

I think the Roam guys need to think about how they’re going to deal with the backlash, when it happens:.

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Maybe, but we are also pretty darn good at blaming ourselves.

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I think it goes deeper than that. In this culture that values transaction over interaction, Zettelkasten (and similar systems) offers a path for deeper reflection. Perhaps in reflects an understanding that more is not better as we reach the limits of sustainability and that simply more is not better, perhaps understanding deeper (connecting ideas rather than collecting them) offers a more fulfilling path.

Of course, I also like playing with new and shiny toys too… in case enlightenment lies around the corner. Falling into the rabbit hole of playing with the tools rather than doing the work…

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I’m a few days late, but did someone summon a privacy attorney??

Seems pretty good to me, actually, in the scheme of modern privacy policies. Keep in mind that data about use is valuable to VCs (if we assume that is true–I personally do not know) because it’s a proxy for potential recurring revenue. It’s also REALLY hard to parse privacy policies for when data is used to actually improve the service and when it is used for other things. So in Roam’s defense, they are pretty clear about not using your data for marketing to you…

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I did that. I like it :slight_smile: