The Most Difficult Part of knowledge work is synthesis (highlights)

The most difficult part of knowledge work is synthesis.

Dissecting claims, assembling evidence, and then putting everything together into a coherent picture requires a lot of effort.

Here's how @JoelChan86's Discourse Graph ext. for @RoamResearch makes the hard part easier: (View Tweet)

1. You start with questions

As you write in Roam, the extension makes it really easy to formalize a question in a way so we can use it later.

Simply select some text, hit a shortcut, type "q", and you have a new question page ready to go. https://t.co/rTpQxTBIiT (View Tweet)

2. You gather sources

To answer your questions, you collect some sources. Papers, books, articles. I suggest you use @Zotero and the zoteroRoam extension for this. https://t.co/gNOytcAAM5 (View Tweet)

3. You collect claims

Every source you read to answer a question will make claims. "We find that X influences Y". Summarise each claim in one sentence, and turn it into a claim page by selecting your summary, typing the shortcut and then "c". https://t.co/gUK06h9aSp (View Tweet)

4. You collect evidence

Your sources will (hopefully!) also contain evidence. Again, summarise the evidence in one sentence, and turn it into an evidence page by selecting it, typing the shortcut and then "e".

Add some grounding context on that page.

(View Tweet)

5. Claims require evidence

Claims are either supported or opposed by pieces of evidence.

You formalize this without additional work by simply linking and indenting while taking notes. https://t.co/0qW6edQ8wX (View Tweet)

6. You go to the playground

Like a whiteboard, on Playground pages you can collect and map questions, claims and evidence visually.

This is a huge help when trying to do synthesis and making sense of the literature. https://t.co/BzklDWe7Qf (View Tweet)

7. You write it up

With questions, claims, and evidence coming together, you can start writing up your own synthesis. Which claims have sufficient evidence in your eyes? Which evidence is actually good?

It's now much easier to make sense of that. (View Tweet)

TL;DR The Discourse Graph Extension by @JoelChan86 is an amazing tool for making sense of what you read.

It makes explicit what is claimed and what is evidence, and helps you synthesize much easier.

If you want to give it a spin, install it from (View Tweet)

RoamJS: https://t.co/ycezD207kc (View Tweet)

What's also really cool:

The Discourse Graph extension is part of a research project on Human-Computer-Interaction that @JoelChan86 heads at the University of Maryland.

If you use the extension, do let him know what you use it for and whether you think it's useful. (View Tweet)

If you want much deeper instruction and help on using it:

Consider signing up for my course Cite to Write on October 1st, 2021! We'll have detailed instruction on the extension, a forum, and Joel himself!

Sign up to get notified when I launch the (View Tweet)

course: https://t.co/9QmUu1kKbE (View Tweet)

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Follow me @cortexfutura for more threads on @RoamResearch, knowledge work, and making sense of the world. (View Tweet)