(2022-08-16) BetaWorks Render Tools for Thinking
BetaWorks (John Borthwick is hosting an event today in NYC: From the documenting software on the earliest PCs to modern tools like Roam Research, software's paramount value has been in providing people leverage in not just their productivity, but also their thinking. For this edition of Render, we'll be exploring new advancements in the space with some of its brightest entrepreneurs and contributors. Across two days of programming, we'll be taking tours of new projects, learning about knowledge graphs as public resources, discussing recent advancements in AI and ML in understanding semantic meaning of ideas, and of course sharing with one another how we use these tools ourselves. Join us as we explore the past, present, and future of tools for thinking. (Tools for Thought) I'll attend virtually.
Jess Martin, Jerry Michalski, Gordon Brander, Linus Lee, others will be there in-person.
cf recent 2022-08-04) Marks The Quest For A Memex
The discussion of AI/ML/semantic-woo was one trigger for me adding some notes about the manual process of Digital Gardening.
Some pages
- Scaling Synthesis, Decentralized Discourse Graph
- Webs Of Thinkers And Thoughts, Digital Garden Standards, TwinPages
- Accelerating Progress Through Tools-For-Thought, Augmenting Human Intellect
- (2020-06-27) Ways To Nudge Future
- (2017-02-15) MindMap CultureWar SocialMedia Economy
- Thinking Tools (not software - mental models, etc.)
- Flux.Garden :)
No central backchannel! But some folks are tweeting with hashtag https://twitter.com/hashtag/ToolsForThinking?src=hashtag_click&f=live
intro: Neel Baronia
- app? Plexus?
- scribes
- ThinkCamp accelerator
John Borthwick, JerryMichalski
- We're spending lots of time/attention on tools, but not actual sense-making
- scaffolding, percolates
- Jerry
- shows his JerrysBrain
- amnesiac society, consumerist
- need memories → shared memories
- the web is still in skeumorph mode
- magazines, books, email
ReadWise guys: Daniel Doyon, Tristin Homsi
- started as kindle highlights
- then other consumption highlights
- then pour into note-taking apps
- inflection point: what's the next Notion-like jump
- what happened to EverNote
- didn't get multi-player right
- got distracted with junk
- funding models?
- Readwise is bootstrapping
- hard to grow without Enterprise/B2B SaaS
- pondering how to make reading a multi-player process
- hard to grow without Enterprise/B2B SaaS
- web3 DAO?
- Readwise is bootstrapping
- Anki for Writing?
- yes, re-viewing your own draft-chunks
- key is habit of writing! not the tool!
- audio content
- podcast → notes
- ReadWise has text-to-speech which many love
- auto-transcript
- Audible as closed format
- ebook DRM also an issue
- killed Betaworks' Findings tool
- also issue that people are usually multi-tasking when listening, so less focus
- interesting experiment: read/listen same piece simultaneously!
- audio-thought-capture
- auto-transcript
- podcast → notes
- apps landscape
- people will start to mix/match apps for different needs?
- open standards would be nice
- hypothes.is
- ReadWise reading app
- tried turning every paragraph into block
- not happy, not sure
- "too soupy"
- need more structure
- "sections" as "doc"
- Structured Writing
- twitter thread → doc
- tried turning every paragraph into block
- Give users (like Roam) jinja templates for export
- Subconscious
- protocol (2022-05-21) Brander Layered Protocols
- UCAN identity https://guide.fission.codes/ucan
Jerry Michalski interviewing Howard Rheingold
- (grr stream was muted, I missed the start)
- see Tools For Thought, Mind Amplifier
- JCR Licklider, Douglas Engelbart
- (see my highlights on AlanKay comment http://webseitz.fluxent.com/wiki/2021-10-31-KayOnSutherlandEngelbartLickliderLeadingToPARCThenApple
- Is a given tool a tool for Thinking, or for Memory, or what??
- aka Jerrys Brain
- MindMapping provides associative scaffolding
- importance of Agency
- for learners
- for peers: CoLearning
- UseNet → StackExchange
- Experts on the WeLL
- still active
- BullShit detection
- SIFT
- if you teach Critical Thinking, it will be branded a communist plot
- non-text, non-computer?
- see Extended Mind by Annie Murphy Paul
- most psycho-active experience with computer?
- word processing!
- (move a paragraph)
- "bliss"
- Jerry asks: altered state?
- Howard: no
- though got high and watched Google Earth
- realized they're making an AI
- word processing!
- Alan Kay: simulations?
demo: Plexus - Davey Morse
- https://plexus.earth/
- what should normal humans be moving forward?
- mental/health, career, relationships, etc.
- connections between people is crucial
demo: Alice Albrecht: ReCollect
- https://www.re-collect.ai/
- conversational interface with your past self?
- summarize/review → make yellow block
demo: Jerrys Brain
- can pick a note to go to the left, or above, or below
- Jerry has his own patterns/rules
- he hasn't read every article he adds
- but still richly connects
- share some Opinions
- CreditCrisis2008
- "snipped" negative-feedback controls
- glass-steagall
- credit rating agencies sold out
- "snipped" negative-feedback controls
- CreditCrisis2008
- (used Prezi until recently)
demo: Linus Lee (no actual product to demo)
- sentence gradients
- put our thoughts into a space, generate variations/interpolations
demo: Readwise Reader
- save all types
- input streams
- RSS, Twitter, etc.
- save link/article into your Universal Inbox
- RSS, Twitter, etc.
Esther Dyson and Jerry Michalski
- (missed a chunk)
- broad/actionable instructions vs hyper-specific
- Lexon https://meetlexon.com/ What if smart-contracts could be written in plain English? Lexon is a first of it’s kind programming language (smart contract) that can be written by legal professionals as easily as they write traditional contracts. More importantly they can be read and enforced by a judge.
- does technology make us stupid?
- memory-aid lets us do deeper/richer things (outboard brain)
- trust
Others' notes
- Jess Martin: A few years ago, when I first got interested in developing new thinking tools, I met with Linus Lee, Andy Matuschak, Alan Kay and others. One of my main questions was "where do I find a group of like-minded individuals working on this problem?" In other words, where's the scene at? (2022-08-16) Martin Render Recap
- Flancian at agora.
- Mathew Lowry's various notes will be here.
- Kevin Marks' tweets
Jess, in particular, inspired me to create NodeWeb-2030 page.
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