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ThinkingTools, softwares which helps in ThinkingProcess
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Posted by Simon
Dec 5, 2021 at 09:58 PM
If you’re on a mac Tinderbox has some great visual mapping features and can create quite complex large maps. You can put a map inside a map and link to other maps in the same document.
Posted by steveylang
Dec 6, 2021 at 09:54 PM
Dr Andus wrote:
>The challenge with spatial organisation digitally is that spatial
>software (such as Onenote) works better for analysing and mapping a
>single issue, rather than for organising a large database and
>visualising aspects of that database. Roam’s visual graph becomes pretty
>useless fairly soon as well.
I think you nailed it on the head there- working on a specific idea vs. than the organizing/classifying/archiving of your work or gathered information.
I love having everything I’ve done ready for recall on my computer or nowadays smartphone, but also nothing beats the appeal of a freshly sharpened pencil and blank page for thinking through an idea. I don’t have to keep trying to combine the 2 worlds into a single experience/process/application.
Posted by jsamlarose
Dec 8, 2021 at 11:37 PM
I’ve been picking away at candidates for tools that facilitate spatial knowledge management / thinking for a little while now. Currently curious to see how Heptabase (https://heptabase.com/ nee Project Meta) and Gems (https://gemsnotes.app/) will evolve. Gems has my attention straight out of the box— not quite as well developed as Heptabase, but it’s accessible through mobile browsers, which is an essential requirement for my workflow. I like the way Gems places an emphasis on building a graph of notes, rather than wiki-linking your notes into a graph— fees like it could be a useful complement for the note-taking/making app I’m already using. Also, I see one of the upcoming features is node grouping— essentially sub-folders for graphs, which will hopefully prevent graphs with lots of nodes on different subjects from becoming unwieldy…
Posted by Lucas
Dec 9, 2021 at 01:21 AM
Yes, I’ve personally been keeping an eye on Heptabase. I definitely look forward to trying it out! Last I checked, the only way to try it was to set up an onboarding call, and the next opening was months away. I went ahead and scheduled one. I then got in touch directly with the developer and asked if I could try the software sooner. He said that might be possible, and then asked if I use Zotero. I said yes. And then he said I can’t try the software yet because the Zotero feature hasn’t been added. It was like a trick question. The exchange left me feeling like the developer is rather pretentious (or at least has an odd way of communicating), but no matter, I look forward to trying out the software eventually.
Posted by Stephen Zeoli
Dec 9, 2021 at 11:10 AM
If Gems interests you, I suggest you take a look at TheBrain, which appears to me to be a lot more feature-rich. The one thing that TheBrain lacks that Gems appears to have is a graphical window that is as malleable. But it makes up for that with a very flexible hierarchical scheme. Plus you can add a lot of meta data to your notes (called Thoughts in TheBrain). The note area of TheBrain has improved immensely in the new version. A nice feature, for example, is that you can import a screen shot right into the note.
TheBrain has native apps for Mac and Windows, as well as an iOS version (which I don’t use, so can’t comment on). It is a bit expensive, but not that bad given the cost of apps like Roam and what Gems is going to cost.
I am not saying TheBrain would be a better choice than Gems, but I think if you haven’t looked at it in a while, it is worth another try.
Steve Z.