We are seeing more & more expressions that the amazing people in the “tools for thought” communities have much more in common than they have differences. Harley has taken this literally. Here he runs @RoamResearch inside @obsdmd. Who says these tools don’t play well together?
+ Who says you can’t have Markdown in Roam?
+ Who says Roam can’t export to Obsidian?
+ I see he is running Roam42 in Obsidian, I didn’t even know that was possible.
+ Obsidian beat Roam to an implementation of the Roam Desktop client.
+ My graph is bigger than your vault.
Ok, having some fun at expense of Obsidian & Roam.
We may have our differences in the way our tools work, but we can collaborate & have a common bond in learning, sharing & growing. Check out this amazing thread between two amazing communities.
Somebody needs to organize a “tools for thought” Book club, not tool specific, but one where the greater community can learn from each other. Any takers?
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By the way this is not a question for any specific tool, rather a broad PKM discussion. The concept of #tags has been around for years now in many products. They exist in @evernote, @RoamResearch, @obsdmd, @logseq, @todoist, etc.
2/ Taggin is even used outside of software. I remember doing GTD years ago, all on paper, and using @ for context and # for categorization. All written out on paper, summarized daily and weekly into lists. (Those were wonderful, simpler times)
3/ Tagging things I found to be very useful in managing present. Do this today #task. Do this at @home. #pending, #somdayMaybe, #people. By having a dozen or so tags, I can nicely focus in on actions and responsibilities in my life.
1/ There is a lot of talk about roam/js and security concerns. Frankly, these issues exist from the first day Roam introduced roam/js. It boils down to trust. Do you trust the plugin author or not? There are some very good plugin authors who deserve your trust. #roam
2/ One of them is @dvargas92495, founder of roamjs.com. What many don't know is that Dave and I have collaborated since last summer. While we have gone different paths, we frequently talk about Roam and how to solve problems. I have always valued his advice.
3/ Dave is a very experienced software dev with an amazing vision for developing & supporting open source. His roamjs.com site focuses on Roam & is a living proof his concept works. https://t.co/qiZcl2mG3K is the biggest and most complete collection of roam plugins.
Since last summer I have been intrigued by this quasi-no roadmap concept from Roam. But now almost a year later, I actually don't think it's a good strategy. @Conaw maybe now is a good time to lay out a plan with the public and timelines.
I see value in the "no roadmap" approach during prototyping & beta, but as the product matures & tackles larger problems, people want to understand what they are investing in. People using a product is an investment. Is the bank going go grow their money, or gain little interest?
Without a roadmap that outlines general goals, how can a team set priorities? how can they design for the future? Databases for example cannot be easily changed, especially when it comes to security, performance and optimized search.
1/ Roam announced local graphs are available to all Roam customers & many ask for best practices advice. Here are some recommendations. Thanks for help: @elaptics@zsviczian
2/ What is a local graph? It is a Roam database that you create on your computer in a browser. That database lives only on that computer & only in that browser. The data in your local graph is never transmitted to Roam's servers. Theoretically you can have unlimited local graphs.
3/ In fact, if you create a local graph on your computer in Chrome, and then on the same computer you open FireFox, FireFox can't see that local graph because that graph lives in the permanent cache of Chrome and is only visible there.
2/ When I saw this I thought "information overload", if he is trying to sell @obsdmd, he isn't helping." I was wrong again! As I say, always learning from community. I love the sidebar.
but always felt it would be useful to have more freedom.
3/ I wrote some code that "detached" sidebar window panes so I could move them and dock them into other places. It looked great and I could see value in it. However, this was a real hack and destabilized Roam. Not Roam's fault, I was "surgically repositioning their right arm".
1/ EMOTIONS & NOTES? One thing that fascinates me about Tools for Thought (@RoamResearch, @obsdmd, @rem_note & @logseq) are the deep emotional connections people make with these tools. But it isn't about the tool, it's about the "thoughts" captured in these tools!
2/ When I started using these tools, I thought people used them because of their features & that really one tool was likely better than another. The truth is they each have advantages. Let me list what I see:
+ Roam: Great graph DB outliner with strong linking
..cont'd
3/
+ Obsidian: Great Markdown editor designed for thought, leveraging speed of local hardware
+ Remnote: integrating spaced learning into its DNA with roots in education
+ Logseq: opensource tool based on graph DB & markdown. Totally unique hybrid that has a solid future.