The Weekly Review: Vol VII Issue 18
Hello again 👋
This is the second part of an ongoing focus on all things #PKM. I realized after the last issue that not every human is fascinated enough with this topic to know what the acronym stands for — my apologies. It would be P(ersonal) K(nowledge) M(anagement).
Anyway, I get it that everyone doesn't share my fascination, so this issues is a little more broad in focus. However, if you do share my interest, read to the bottom to see why all the things I appreciate about Roam Research also apply to Obsidian. And why I'm making the latter my tool of choice in this area.
For the rest of you, here are the other things that have been on my mind lately.
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Generational preferences
I found myself wanting to talk with a few people several weeks back. While setting up the first conversation, the other person sent over his phone number. How strange! That was unusual compared to the normal Zoom link or mention of FaceTime. I wasn't sure how to respond at first, but I ended up adding a US-based package to my phone plan and had my call with this person.
I've spent the last 5–10 years doing all I can to avoid phone calls, so what changed for me? I realized I could go for a walk while being on the call, helping me get some exercise in the middle of my day (something I do regardless, but this let me "work" at the same time). This is something Sarah Avenir has done every time I've chatted with her, and I found it quite enjoyable.
I then had two more calls of a similar nature over the course of a week and again enjoyed the experience. While many of us are experiencing Zoom fatigue, these phone calls were a great break in the middle of my day. More than that, they allowed me to get in a conversation with people I admire (and miss) and to pick their brains on topics of interest to me.
I mention all this because of that one fact I mentioned above: I expend great energy to have as few phone calls as possible. Example: an older person in our church recently called me and left a voicemail. He had a question to ask me, but didn't mention the specifics in his message. So I followed up with an email instead of a return call, mentioning that I could call him back at a specific time if required, but could respond earlier if he sent the details over email. He did just that and we wrapped up the matter asynchronously.
It's fascinating to me to see how different generations default to a specific medium for communication. But I realized these past weeks that perhaps phone calls aren't all that bad, given the right purpose and context. Chatting with old friends would work perfectly well on Zoom, but there is something freeing about being able to chat with a friend while taking a walk around the neighbourhood.
I plan to do a little more of this in the months to come.
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Items of note
I signed up for the beta of this 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 is a little flat. But Matter does a good job of giving intonation to the voice … it's better than Siri, for sure.
Side note: it struck me as odd that I struggle to listen to podcasts when on a run, but listening to blog posts felt like a good use case. I think it's due to all the extra blathering on you get with so many podcasts. The written word encourages brevity that the spoken word does not.
Creativity Bootcamp and the Long Walk
No surprise here, but this newsletter from Craig Mod was one of the posts I listened to. I actually stepped back from reading some of Craig's work of late, perhaps tiring of the topic of walking. But it was enjoyable to read this summary of his experience once again.
A month of walking 20-40 kilometers each day while shouldering a big pack, often contending with elevation gains, and keeping a quick pace is a non-trivial thing to put a body through. My thighs and glutes feel like they’ve been stuffed with extra muscle, feel eager, hungry for climbs, walks, distance. And my toes are calloused over in pleasing ways. Most any fat I had before the walk has been burned off, replaced by lean muscle.
And:
Aside from the general “pleasure” of an ultra-walk, there’s the forging of an “archetype of fullness.” Meaning: You internalize what a “full” day feels like in your bones and in your mind. What does a day, two days, a week, a month of continued physical exertion (buoyed by a generally high-quality diet) feel like? How does it change your personality? And what does “producing” so much stuff each day feel like?
The walk in itself is impressive, but this time, so too was the work he produced during the walk.
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Roam vs. Obsidian
In the last issue, I mentioned that Obsidian might be a better fit for some people than Roam. 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 try out with these few steps:
- Export your Roam content (I did that regularly and added it to a Git repo on my computer)
- I would open the Zip file of exported content from Roam and move it all to a location where the repo is located
- I also made that directory the location Obsidian used (it simply requires a folder store markdown files)
- Then open Obsidian and review your fresh content from Roam
So why might Obsidian be a better option? This comment is largely due to the aversion some people have from using a web-based app for this type of tool. Here are a few concerns I have or have heard from others:
- You have to trust the folks at Roam a whole lot to put all your most important thoughts into a tool that only works when it's syncing with their servers
- Just considering usability, waiting for your graph to load can be frustrating in some scenarios (especially on mobile devices)
- Some folks have also been put off by Roam's approach to security
- The Roam team also appears to focus a lot on more complex features and eventually, multi-player Roam (sharing your graph with others)
- And there's idea being future proof — a folder of plain text markdown files can be easily accessed by various tools. Roam has a decent export option, but the formatting is a bit of a pain to deal with in other tools
- Last, it's a bit to cult-ish for some folks — a lot of Connor's tweets (founder & CEO) strike me as odd. I simply don't have the trust for him and his team that others do
So, if you're like me, you just want a solid tool that performs well to help you write good notes and connect your thinking. I'm not interested in sharing all my thoughts/research/notes (apart from what I put in a newsletter or publish to my blog) so multiplayer Roam is not for me, and I'm not interested in complex features like mermaid charts or tables or pomodoro timers in my Zettelkasten.
I want a tool that supports easy linking and the ability to reference notes or blocks in other places. Both Roam and Obsidian support that, but Obsidian feels a little safer to use to me.
Here are a few other things I like more with Obsidian:
- Being a desktop app, it feels more responsive and smooth to use. It's not a big deal, but how software feels is pretty important to me
- Opening multiple notes is more flexible and usable. Roam gives you the sidebar to open pages alongside the one you're working on. But Obsidian also allows you to open multiple notes, plus you can move them around and lay them out however you prefer (see the screenshot above)
- Obsidian's graph view is a lot nicer to use as well
- I grew to appreciate Roam's bulleted approach, but it's nice to work in regular markdown in Obsidian. It also makes me feel more confident in the future: if I were to ever stop using Obsidian, my notes are more usable in other places. Many of Roam's functions result in unusable or messy text
Is it all perfect? No. Obsidian has weak spots as well. The biggest one being a less useful block reference system. The syntax is a little clunky and if you embed a block into another note, the content of the embedded block is only visible when you view the preview version of your current note. Thankfully, that's super easy to do with the keyboard (see it in action in this image).
So, it works … but not quite as nicely as Roam.
Anyway, those are a few reasons why I chose Obsidian as my PKM tool. Again, both it and Roam are great. But when it came to making the decision between the two, I simply felt more confident in the future of my notes in Obsidian and less interested (or trusting) in the overall mission and approach of the Roam team.
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Tweet of the week
Your leadership is not your power or authority, but what your energy and influence help make possible for others.
I love this definition.
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Currently
Reading: I've madly been making my way through the first three books of The Stormlight Archive knowing that the fourth book (Rhythm of War) came out in November and I'd be receiving a copy for Christmas. Just approaching the half way point through Oathbringer with Christmas just over a week away.
Drinking: For Advent, I was skipping all alcohol this year. Normally, that means no beer. However, I took some time to dig into non-alcoholic options available and was happily surprised to find that this category has improved in the wave of craft beer. There are a lot more options than the best. So I've been enjoying Steet Legal IPA from Red Racer Brewing.
It was also interesting to learn more about how non-alcoholic (or de-alcoholized) beer is made.
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Here's to a wonderful holiday break for you. I hope you get a chance to spend it with loved ones, even though it will likely feel a lot different than normal years. And hopefully Christmas 2021 will be more familiar!