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Posted by MenAgerie
Nov 23, 2020 at 01:53 PM
Dr Andus wrote:
bartb wrote:
>>Sascha over at Zettelkasten has a different take on backlinks
>>https://zettelkasten.de/posts/backlinks-are-bad-links/
>
>I don’t think this is valid for all implementations or use cases,
>certainly not for task management.
>
>I’m finding automatic backlinking in Roam extremely useful, especially
>when it comes to ‘date notes’, the ones associated with a date.
>
>E.g. if I drop a task associated with a future date (and add that as a
>date note, such as [[December 20th, 2020]]), to the item, when that day
>comes and the [[December 20th, 2020]] note is the current daily note, it
>will display links to all past notes (within their context) that have
>tasks associated with this date (e.g. something expires on this day or
>needs to be followed up etc.), serving as a reminder.
>
>I often hear people on the Roam Reddit complain that Roam is not good
>for task management. In fact that’s the only thing I use it for and
>thanks to the above feature, it’s the best task manager I’ve ever used.
>
>I realise that the manual aspect of needing to maintain a calendar may
>not be everyone’s cup of tea, but for people like me who like to build
>their systems from scratch Roam is excellent for task management, and
>automatic backlinking is what makes it so.
I am using Obsidian like this too. There is a growing catalogue of plugins. One enables the in-line display of backlinks, almost as smoothly as Roam. I have a calendar doc pinned to the side where I have pre-prepared links to future and past dates. Together with an AHK I blagged from the ConnectedText forum for creating future date-links I have a system that does me fine (for now).
Posted by Dr Andus
Nov 23, 2020 at 03:35 PM
MadaboutDana wrote:
>Fascinating use case: yes, I have to agree that this sounds like a very
>valid way of using backlinks.
Funnily, backlinks used in this way become “forward-links”, as they create a link to the future (inline, without needing to navigate to that future point or future note, as you’d need to do when setting up a Google Calendar reminder etc.).
Although once you get to that future date note (which happens automatically in Roam, as tomorrow’s note becomes today’s note at midnight), from the perspective of that ‘date note’ obviously these links are backlinks (in a temporal sense as well).
Posted by Dr Andus
Nov 23, 2020 at 03:39 PM
MenAgerie wrote:
>I am using Obsidian like this too. There is a growing catalogue of
>plugins. One enables the in-line display of backlinks, almost as
>smoothly as Roam. I have a calendar doc pinned to the side where I have
>pre-prepared links to future and past dates. Together with an AHK I
>blagged from the ConnectedText forum for creating future date-links I
>have a system that does me fine (for now).
Sounds good! The only reason I haven’t tried Obsidian because I’m a Chromebook user (and I haven’t got into using Linux on it) and need a truly cross-platform solution.
But otherwise Obsidian looks and sounds fabulous and I wish I had a need for it. Sadly I’m using ConnectedText less and less these days too, for the same reason (constantly switching between my Windows PC and various Chromebooks).
Posted by Daly de Gagne
Nov 24, 2020 at 01:23 AM
I am in the same situation. I have decided not to use Roam because of cost and the fact that my data is not locally stored. Nonetheless, I have watched a number of videos on YouTube, and find that Obsidian is the software I am leaning toward, which means I soon will be digging out my Windows laptop. The argument made on YouTube by a couple of people is that if one is interested merely in simply collecting information, Roam is probably the better program. However, if one is collecting information so as to be able to eventually use it to write something - to create something new - then Obsidian is the preferred option. I also am drawn to Obsidian because it is developed by the people who created Dynalist, which I use, and their competence and responsiveness to users is well established.
Also, there is a cluster of ideas of profound interest to me (about which I am desperate to learn more, and perhaps, write) - zemiology (study of harms), transitional justice, genocide studies, Indigenous studies, reconciliation (in the aftermath of the Shoa, more recent genocides, colonialism and Indigenous people), post colonial studies, etc. Human harms and the resulting need for reconciliation are perhaps the common themes which run through all of this. Here in Canada, as an Indigenous (Anishinabe) person I am aware that there is much talk about reconciliation, and land acknowledgements are quite common, yet I am left wringing my hands at the end of the day because we seem to not to know what reconciliation is, but that somehow having newcomers and descendants of settlers acknowledging land loss to the colonial powers, is a sign of reconciliation.
Knowing the limitations of my own ability to organize materials/ideas in a manner which leads to applied thought and writing, Obsidian looks increasingly attractive. I am aware it is not a panacea, but on the other hand it may be what I need to read widely and to write, almost from the outset. Suddenly, links and backlinks, and graphing, and markdown take on relevant meaning.
Forgive me for going on at such length about my ideas. Suggestions, responses are welcome.
Daly
Dr Andus wrote:
MenAgerie wrote:
>>I am using Obsidian like this too. There is a growing catalogue of
>>plugins. One enables the in-line display of backlinks, almost as
>>smoothly as Roam. I have a calendar doc pinned to the side where I have
>>pre-prepared links to future and past dates. Together with an AHK I
>>blagged from the ConnectedText forum for creating future date-links I
>>have a system that does me fine (for now).
>
>Sounds good! The only reason I haven’t tried Obsidian because I’m a
>Chromebook user (and I haven’t got into using Linux on it) and need a
>truly cross-platform solution.
>
>But otherwise Obsidian looks and sounds fabulous and I wish I had a need
>for it. Sadly I’m using ConnectedText less and less these days too, for
>the same reason (constantly switching between my Windows PC and various
>Chromebooks).
Posted by Lucas
Nov 24, 2020 at 03:13 AM
Interesting post, @Daly! I work with and do research with indigenous people in Colombia, and I find outlining and knowledge management tools helpful in that.
I’ve also been delving into Obsidian. I love Tinderbox on Mac, and Infoqube and ConnectedText on Windows, and I also like Roam, but Obsidian hits a unique sweet spot, being cross-platform and based on markdown files. And with a rapid development speed, it’s turning into a powerful tool. Just the other day, for example, aliases (alternate names for a given note) were introduced via an insider build.