I've decided to experiment with a completely different setup to better understand whether/why Roam is an improvement for me:
• notes: markdown
• tasks: uncertain – plaintext, Things, or OmniFocus
• time: uncertain – plaintext, spreadsheet, or Noko
Conversation
I expect to prefer:
• smoother, more polished interface
• ability to customize via scripting
1
1
I expect to miss:
• block-level references, filtering, search, queries
2
1
and I'm uncertain about:
• single system & context vs clear boundaries between tasks/notes/time
• which processes translate from Roam, which are unable to without Roam features, and whether I miss them
1
2
reporting back after a whole.. 2 days
I really miss "outlining": nested, collapsible, draggable lists, and block references (which take outlining to the next level). got me thinking about why...
1
2
it has to do with how it encodes associations via a crude 2D discrete space: vertical encodes time (which itself loosely associates/relates thoughts, like a rolling window), and horizontal encodes different streams of thought
Max's comic explains it well
Quote Tweet
can we augment our online chats with new affordances?
what does a conversational medium that supports *thinking* look like?
Is there a pathway from the linear, one-dimensional, immutable logs we call "online conversation"?
I made a comic!
a9.io/glue-comic/1
3
I ultimately still prefer mapping ideas in richer spaces, like paper + ink. but digital offers too many other advantages around findability, and navigability. and outlining is one step in the right direction
also, my stack of notebooks isn't getting any smaller...
1
2
speaking of navigation, Bear doesn't have any builtin action to open a page by fuzzily searching for its name. I've resorted to an Alfred workflow
I miss Roam's emphasis on keyboard shortcuts. "fuzzy search and open a page" is cmd-u, open in side-bar is shift-enter, etc
3
I miss navigating via links
Bear's primary navigation is via a list of all your notes + search
I much prefer how Roam de-emphasizes the explicit list/graph structure of your notes, and rather lets you implicitly construct and wonder through that structure via links
1
1
1
I also miss the Daily Notes page. I've got daily logs atm, but Roam's Daily Notes stitches them all together into a single scrollable page
It adds a sense of spatial awareness. Feels a bit more like a "place". It has to do with peripheral vision
Quote Tweet
Software interfaces undervalue peripheral vision! (a thread)
My physical space is full of subtle cues. Books I read or bought most recently are lying out. Papers are lying in stacks on my desk, roughly arranged by their relationships.
Show this thread
2
1
Replying to
Yeah. FWIW I get this roughly by:
1. tagging daily notes
2. using Alfred to view daily notes in list form (e.g. cmd+space “bst daily”)
3. cmd+up/down moves up/down the note list, scrolling between days