In a recent post [https://chrisbowler.com/making-sense-of-roam-research/], I made an offhand mention that Obsidian [https://obsidian.md] might be a better fit for some people than Roam Research [https://roamresearch.com]. What was that all about? Well, for one, I believe both are good tools. If you're looking to use Roam as a Zettelkasten tool, Obsidian offers many of the same benefits. I've been keeping my eye on its development all the months that I've cautiously used Roam. It's super easy to…
I signed up for the beta of this app [https://getmatter.app] because there have been a few instances where I wanted to listen to a blog post I had saved. My first thought was that iOS must have some kind of functionality for this (it does). But then some people in the Roam community mentioned Matter. On a recent run, I gave it a try and listened to two blog posts that were around 2,000 and 4,000 words each. And it was a fairly pleasant experience. It's still an AI voice reading text, so it…
Just over a month ago, I gave an intro tour of Roam Research to the Wildbit team. We have a call of this type on the first Friday of each month, and I'd wanted to do this for a while as a few people on the team started to use it. But each person seems to come away from the first few log-ins to Roam with this same question: How do I use this thing? The truth is, after months of using it, I still didn't have a firm sense of how I wanted to use…
I've been focused on enhancing my reading over the past couple of years (not to as much success as I would like). It's a desire to ensure what I read truly impacts me, to put effort into my reading. Or, as Adler puts it: > And that is why there is all the difference in the world between the demanding and the undemanding reader. The latter asks no questions — and gets no answers. But of late, I've rediscovered another area this is of great benefit: deep listening. One recent evening, an evening…
I have done well to stay away from new productivity apps the past couple of years. I'm still using Things as my main repository of projects and AoR (areas of responsibility) — this has not changed since Things 3 arrived and I wrote about it [https://thesweetsetup.com/apps/best-personal-gtd-app-suite/] for The Sweet Setup. The biggest change in recent years has been the use of pen and paper for daily planning and tracking. I still do this today (currently with a Do Journal from Baron Fig, but I'…
My wife gave me an awfully nice gift for Father's Day this year. She took the kids out of town for a week to visit her family, leaving me all alone at home for 6 days. The irony of this being a Father's Day gift is not lost on me. But to all the introverted dad's out there who've been working at home along with your children for the past five months, I feel you ✊ I love 'em all, but I was definitely looking forward to a lot more peace and…
Some time around the point in my life where I started to actually use the internet — maybe late 1999 or early 2000 — I also started to get into electronic music. Previously, I was fully all into grunge (I was late to appreciate that whole genre, but purchasing Siamese Dream by the Smashing Pumpkins had changed that and I spent the second half of the 90’s listening to all that stuff). Towards the end of the decade, I picked up a copy of Spin Magazine [https://www.spin.com] that highlighted the t…
I’ve tried to keep things positive in my writing and social presence. But as we move forward in 2020, although I know I should be focusing on how to move things forward on the unjust treatment of black and indigenous people, and that I should help people see the importance of remaining diligent with social distancing and similar measures, I must confess … I’m really tired. It’s been almost five months of living full time at home with our children. And although we’ve had a lot of great days, and…