One of the reasons why advanced users enjoy Roam Research so much is metaprogramming—the ability to modify Roam’s behaviour inside Roam itself, without ever touching its source code. By using JavaScript blocks via the roam/js feature, you can add new customise your experience. The good news is: you don’t need to be a programmer yourself …
A few months ago, we hosted a workshop about the Future of Text with publisher, developer, and researcher Frode Hegland. We talked about how the medium shapes the message; how interactive digital text can transform the way we consume information; and how we can break free from the paradigm of the printed page. Frode leads …
Great news: Roam Research recently released a new inline audio player with audio upload support. If you are not familiar with it, Roam is a note-taking tool for networked thinking. While it can be extremely simple to use if you stick to the main features, it is also able to support some of the most …
Read moreHow to upload and play audio files in Roam Research
Tsundoku (積ん読) is a beautiful Japanese word describing the habit of acquiring books but letting them pile up without reading them. I used to feel guilty about this tendency, and would strive to only buy new books once I had finished the ones I owned. However, the concept of the antilibrary has completely changed my …
As a neuroscience student, I need to read lots of research papers. Despite the subscriptions my university pays for in order for students to have access to most scientific journals, I sometimes hit a paywall which I can’t get around without paying quite a bit of money, just to access one article. Lucky for me …
Read moreInterview: Collective intelligence with Alexandra Elbakyan
Everyday, new tools for thought are launched. The personal knowledge management ecosystem is becoming incredibly complex. However, some visible trends are emerging: indie thinkers are making a living from conducting online research; tools are becoming more integrated; apps encourage active creation over passive collection of knowledge. This 40-page report reviews the current state of the …
I’m obsessed with thinking in maps: discovering and creating connections between ideas, adding nodes to a knowledge graph, finding patterns across distant areas of knowledge. However, the traditional way of exploring connections between research papers is fairly tedious: read the paper, scan the references, search for any relevant title, rinse and repeat. Connected Papers aims …
Read moreConnected Papers: a visual tool for academic research
While many people are raving about the functionality and user experience of Roam, some have complained in the past about the aesthetics of the note-taking app, which they found too barebone or not polished enough for their taste. The good news is: you can personalise the look of Roam with a custom CSS theme! If …
As a big fan of thinking in maps, I’m always curious about tools to lay out and connect ideas visually. Many people are not aware as this is a bit of a hidden functionality, but you can actually create diagrams in Roam. 1. Create the canvas. Type {{diagram}} and press enter. You can also type …
A digital garden is an online space at the intersection of a notebook and a blog, where digital gardeners share seeds of thoughts to be cultivated in public. Contrary to a blog, where articles and essays have a publication date and start decaying as soon as they are published, a digital garden is evergreen: digital …