I’ve been following the development of Roam Research, a “note-taking tool for networked thought”. There are a few defining features:

  • As you’re typing a note, you can surround any word with square brackets and that will create a new note with that word as the topic.
  • As you’re typing and any previously linked word is mentioned, Roam prompts you to link references to that word. This way, all notes can stay constantly linked to each other - creating a feeling of “networked thought”.
  • Every day, a new dated note is created - a place for streams of consciousness to be linked to individual topic notes.

This idea is that Roam becomes a ‘second brain’, a term coined by Tiago Forte. There’s an interesection of ideas between this and asynchronous work that can be applied to teamwork too. I’ll be paying attention to this space closely.