Read on Twitter
Realized tonight that this tweet was actually pretty important.
Allowed me to see some things about what I've been working with @RoamResearch for (give or take) the past 4-6 years with fresh eyes https://twitter.com/vgr/status/1199575415393619968
Allowed me to see some things about what I've been working with @RoamResearch for (give or take) the past 4-6 years with fresh eyes https://twitter.com/vgr/status/1199575415393619968
There is a way in which the whole point of @RoamResearch is to allow everyone in the world to "DO SCIENCE" in every part of their lives.
By DO SCIENCE, I mean...
1) Make observations
2) Sometimes.. conduct experiments to give you new things to observe
3) Seek out "Good Explanations" that account for what you've found (and more)
4) Test explanations as new observations come in
1) Make observations
2) Sometimes.. conduct experiments to give you new things to observe
3) Seek out "Good Explanations" that account for what you've found (and more)
4) Test explanations as new observations come in
A "Good Explanation" -- leaning on @DavidDeutschOxf's term here
A) Accounts for the data
B) Makes "surprising facts" seem obvious
C) is far-reaching -- ideally explaining some things you weren't focused on when coming up with it
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Explanatory_power
A) Accounts for the data
B) Makes "surprising facts" seem obvious
C) is far-reaching -- ideally explaining some things you weren't focused on when coming up with it
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Explanatory_power
Sometimes we see ourselves best when we see ourselves through the eyes of another
@vgr's post was enlightening in a few ways.
First, he held up a mirror and showed me something I hadn't see about myself before
@vgr's post was enlightening in a few ways.
First, he held up a mirror and showed me something I hadn't see about myself before
For those unfamiliar with Fox and Hedgehog distinction, the general idea is (as I understand it)
A Hedgehog has one big idea - they see the world through a particular lens (think Marxism, or Christianity)
A Fox has a lot of small ideas, they're more fluid
A Hedgehog has one big idea - they see the world through a particular lens (think Marxism, or Christianity)
A Fox has a lot of small ideas, they're more fluid
Venkat's written a bunch more about this - taken the idea further, and characteristically turned it into a 2x2 https://twitter.com/vgr/status/1199577154356334594
Historically I've tended to think of myself more as a Hedgehog.
For at least the last 12 years, I've tended to put a huge amount of intellectual effort into trying to figure out and articulate my "Grand Unified Theory of Everything"
For at least the last 12 years, I've tended to put a huge amount of intellectual effort into trying to figure out and articulate my "Grand Unified Theory of Everything"
Evolution, Predictive Processing, Christianity, Psychedelics, The Simulation Argument, Clojure, The Memex, Post-Capitalism, FOSS, Startups...
@paulg , @richhickey, Julian Jaynes, Doug Engelbart...
All of em are connected in my head
@paulg , @richhickey, Julian Jaynes, Doug Engelbart...
All of em are connected in my head
The trouble for me has always been, how do I lay out this tangled web so that others can FOLLOW IT
ADD to it
CRITIQUE it
IMPROVE it
ADD to it
CRITIQUE it
IMPROVE it
When I tried to do even a tiny portion of this in college -- connecting ideas around political legitimacy, moral psychology, web-based collective intelligence, and the startup I was doing @Localocracy -- it totally spiraled out of control
Result was that I never got to a thesis I was comfortable permanently attaching my name to in the university archives
So I chose to drop out - even though my advisor was happy with the draft.. was basically formatting changes away from degree.
So I chose to drop out - even though my advisor was happy with the draft.. was basically formatting changes away from degree.
Viscerally remember the months and months of cut up drafts laid out on the table, circles and arrows drawn on the whiteboard, trying to make the pieces fit.
Same pain again when putting together conference talks for Aol/HuffPost after startup was acquired
Same pain again when putting together conference talks for Aol/HuffPost after startup was acquired
Still, always thought I was a hedgehog with inability to clearly see and articulate the unifying theory I felt intuitively was there (always missing 1 LAST thread to tie it all together)
Never saw myself as a fox trying to reverse engineer a worldview from distinct observations
Never saw myself as a fox trying to reverse engineer a worldview from distinct observations
On reflection though, I think @vgr's totally right. And @RoamResearch as a product totally has that bias built in.
One of the first times we were mentioned on twitter was a recommendation for someone looking for an app to map out conspiracy theories https://twitter.com/ben_r_hoffman/status/1131079009989742593
One of the first times we were mentioned on twitter was a recommendation for someone looking for an app to map out conspiracy theories https://twitter.com/ben_r_hoffman/status/1131079009989742593
I've had a bit of trouble when people ask for use cases for Roam, because to me, team, and a lot of early adopters, it's useful for pretty much everything
Projects / Tasks / Project Management
Meeting and Reading Notes
Journaling and Writing
Thing is... we're mostly all insane
Projects / Tasks / Project Management
Meeting and Reading Notes
Journaling and Writing
Thing is... we're mostly all insane
There are a lot of different ways to use Roam, mine is among the messier ways, but enough people have asked that I decided to just do a full work session in our public help database tonight, the same way I do writing sessions in our team Roam. https://roamresearch.com/#/v8/help/page/vdtDghsCG
That link shows a bunch of the idiosyncratic ways I personally use the tool.
Timestamping things to keep track of my attention, seeing when I am in and out of flow.
Following tangents, references to previous blocks to pull my attention back, throwing in TODOs as I think of em.
Timestamping things to keep track of my attention, seeing when I am in and out of flow.
Following tangents, references to previous blocks to pull my attention back, throwing in TODOs as I think of em.
What was interesting about this session in particular though, is that it turned out to be particularly generative.
Helped me pull together a GRAND UNIFYING THEORY of what is motivating people (+ me) to do all these things in Roam that they could be doing in a dozen separate apps
Helped me pull together a GRAND UNIFYING THEORY of what is motivating people (+ me) to do all these things in Roam that they could be doing in a dozen separate apps
Roam is a tool that offers the promise of helping you build a GRAND UNIFYING THEORY (or two or three or four)
And debugging it
And sharing it with others
And debugging it
And sharing it with others
Whether we can deliver on that remains to be seen
It's an experiment you test by trying it (a thing perhaps worth considering if you trust the people saying #roamcult on twitter)
It's an experiment you test by trying it (a thing perhaps worth considering if you trust the people saying #roamcult on twitter)
But the building blocks are there for natural foxes to build a hedgehog second brain https://twitter.com/kylemathews/status/1192517571997683712
The reason you take meeting notes in Roam, and journal in Roam, and track your time in Roam, and store your reading notes in Roam, and map arguments in Roam
Is that you want to use those as building blocks to find Good Explanations for larger patterns in your life.
Is that you want to use those as building blocks to find Good Explanations for larger patterns in your life.
That's the Grail Quest at least
Also -- obligatory @visakanv reference
So true in this case. Big ups @vgr. Thread that prompted this very very much appreciated. https://twitter.com/visakanv/status/1040450987754811392
So true in this case. Big ups @vgr. Thread that prompted this very very much appreciated. https://twitter.com/visakanv/status/1040450987754811392
Got permission / encouragement to share an anecdote that one of our earliest users shared with me that was a generator for a bunch of ideas in this thread.
Sub-thread about what can happen when you use Roam for journaling - and create backlinks for emotional states and people.
Sub-thread about what can happen when you use Roam for journaling - and create backlinks for emotional states and people.
One of the first 20 power users of @RoamResearch was (is) a good friend of our company - who initially started using Roam for mapping out ideas for a chapter she was writing for a medical textbook.
Almost immediately, she started using the Daily Notes for journaling as well.
Almost immediately, she started using the Daily Notes for journaling as well.
Her father had been an abusive alcoholic, and soon after he passed away, she started going through the 12 step program designed for families of alcoholics: Al-Anon.
She'd been through the steps program many times before - but this time she used Roam.
She'd been through the steps program many times before - but this time she used Roam.
For the most part, she used it the same way I did - nesting journal entries under [[Journal]] or [[Morning Pages]] on a daily note.
What she did differently, that I had never seen before, was to make pages for emotionally charged words that kept coming up, and hitting "link all"
What she did differently, that I had never seen before, was to make pages for emotionally charged words that kept coming up, and hitting "link all"
A few weeks after she started doing this - she told me that she had started seeing patterns coming up over and over that she hadn't expected.
[[Shame]] kept appearing in backlinks with [[Powerless]].
These patterns started to change her beliefs about what was going on her mind.
[[Shame]] kept appearing in backlinks with [[Powerless]].
These patterns started to change her beliefs about what was going on her mind.
This user was the person I kept thinking of when I wrote this tweet - and the whole note on @DavidDeutschOxf's "Good Explanations"
Yes - she was already a scientist and medical professional - but I don't think her approach is something only SCIENTISTS do https://twitter.com/Conaw/status/1200646835074928640?s=20
Yes - she was already a scientist and medical professional - but I don't think her approach is something only SCIENTISTS do https://twitter.com/Conaw/status/1200646835074928640?s=20
Personally - I think taking a step back - taking an aggregate view of our thoughts, our beliefs, our actions, and our relationships over time and their effects - that's really where the rubber hits the road for the scientific method
Good Explanations > RCTs
Good Explanations > RCTs
To connect an EXTREMELY different thread - this relates to an idea I once sent to @KevinSimler
How science is so often viewed as some inherited collection of truths that is the realm of professionals- rather than as a way of life and a daily practice
https://twitter.com/Conaw/status/1209682853308485632?s=20
How science is so often viewed as some inherited collection of truths that is the realm of professionals- rather than as a way of life and a daily practice
https://twitter.com/Conaw/status/1209682853308485632?s=20
