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In this episode, we talk with Cato Minor, who is the Duck of Roam, quacking his way into fun, ridiculous experiments with physical controls, crazy CSS, and much more. But behind these experiments, is the intention to explore something deeper.

Coming in from medieval Twitter, Cato Minor focuses on digital humanities studying medieval, Latin, as well as classic Latin. In the midst of trying out many note-taking apps throughout the years, he had stumbled into Roam.

We talked about:

• Knowledge workers of the past and now, what are the differences between them?
• Memory as a process of internalization and digestion, and how outsourcing this to a tool hinders our ability to learn
• Adventures of note-taking: the differences between the many note-taking apps Cato has tried
• How do we make the digital word more physical?
• The interesting physical experiments, from using a train set controller to a TV remote to use Roam!
• The power of medieval diagrams: how can we learn from people who have drawn outlines in the Middle Ages
• How do we create win-win situations for the individual in the PKM space?
• How will Roam scale?

Enjoy!

Timestamps

• 3:48 Where Cato Minor got his name from
• 5:19 Medieval Latin and Cato's fascination with it
• 7:13 In the Middle Ages, all knowledge should serve us in our seeking of God
• 9:20 Memory is what gives us material to transform
• 16:34 Make your notes unique
• 18:59 Roam is a great motivator for experimentation
• 22:47 Physical touch gives us food for thoughts
• 24:21 Everything is a touch screen
• 29:28 Cato's adventure in experiencing other apps
• 41:00 How to make peace in the continent of Note-taking
• 48:39 What you can do now with CSS
• 55:09 How do we foster a tinkerer's community?
• 1:05:00 Roam's growth via the community
• 1:09:18 How will Roam scale?
• 1:16:25 On Featuritis vs. Engelbartian Intelligence
• 1:25:23 [[What does Roam mean to you?]]

Links

• Cato Minor's Twitter

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Warning! This is an explicit episode!

In this episode, we talk with Bardia Pourvakil, AKA @thepericulum. Bardia is a member of the Roam Research team, having started off as a technical writer and dove into the world of Roam.

We talk about:

• Bardia's origin story as a technical writer to discovering Roam Research
• What are the key components for a tool autodidacts use to learn?
• How he joined the Roam team and built up his Clojure skills through contacting Conor
• Roam team's workflow, and Roam pairing sessions
• Bardia's emphasis on community, building things for developers to build upon and the search for fulfillment

Enjoy!

Timestamps

• 4:16 Bardia's origin story as a technical writer
• 10:43 Joining Roam as Support
• 13:26 "You're being really annoying but I like you" - [[Conor White-Sullivan]]
• 15:34 The 3-hour pairing session with the CTO
• 18:48 The power of the Roam Community
• 22:46 Build things for developers to build upon
• 24:57 The search for fulfilment and finding that answer
• 27:50 Never fall in love too much with what you're doing
• 31:21 Bardia never believes in institutions
• 34:08 Learning by Design
• 40:34 Roam Team workflow
• 43:36 Roam Pairing and Roam Games
• 47:37 What Roam is still missing and documentation
• 53:05 What Bardia is excited about: Mobile apps
• 58:10 The wonderful world of Roamania/Roam Manor
• 1:04:10 The cross pollination of ideas and inviting Roamans to Roamania
• 1:08:36 The Roam House Guestbook
• 1:11:28 [[What does Roam mean to you?]]
• 1:13:30 Bardia's dstryd.albums and creating art naturally

Links

• Bardia's Twitter
• dstroyd.albms Instagram

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WARNING: This is an explicit episode!

This is for Lydia.

In this episode, we talk with Beau Haan, a trained actor, model, and one of the key pillars of the Roaman community. Leading the Roam Book Club, he's built a space for many participants to share their thoughts with a Roam-specific Zettelkasten method. With up to 300 actives in RBC3, they found the chance to discover more of themselves and their thoughts at block-level.

We talked about:

• Beau's origin stories, from running away from home to entering rehab and telling stories
• The loss of loved ones and the impact that has on one's life
• Discovering Roam Research and how he became a true believer without even trying the app
• What he learned from his personal coaching sessions with [[Sönke Ahrens]]
• How questioning the way you learn is questioning your identity

Enjoy the episode!

Timestamps

• 3:55 How Roam has changed how Beau behaves in the world
• 7:13 "I'm supposed to be dead": Beau's origin story
• 11:35 "I wish they had Roam" losing loved ones to drugs or alcohol
• 13:06 The story of Lydia
• 19:29 Discovering Roam Research for storytelling
• 21:21 Signing up for the Believer's Plan
• 22:25 [[Sönke Ahrens]]' private coaching sessions
• 25:31 Roam granularity and the power of the community
• 27:40 Testing Roam Zettelkasten with Roam Book Club
• 29:16 "You're wrong about Zettelkasten"
• 32:18 The Angel named [[Matt McKinlay]]
• 36:19 Learning who you were in Roam Book Club 3
• 40:29 Preparing for the next wave of Roamans
• 45:35 Questioning the way you learn is questioning your identity
• 50:49 Becoming defensive from questioned identity
• 53:17 Outsourcing our learning methods to others and blaming them for failure
• 55:55 We have the fear of public speaking and thinking as ourselves
• 57:55 [[Sönke Ahrens]]: Forget about the tool and focus on the writing
• 1:03:50 The rush of being at the peak of a mountain
• 1:10:17 Emitting the same energy as the believer's call
• 1:13:59 The friend, and the RBC Workflow
• 1:18:30 The beauty of Roam is the people
• 1:22:07 The Roam Energy, and articulating infinity
• 1:23:58 Protect the Roamans from those only wanting to make profit
• 1:29:52 Join the town and be part of Roam
• 1:31:37 [[What does Roam mean to you?]]
• 1:33:22 A Letter to Lydia

Links

• Beau Haan's Twitter
• Roam Book Club's Twitter
• Bookclub 4 Waiting List

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