Aravind Balla: Gatsby-theme-Andy, Learning Curve

In this episode, we talk with Aravind Balla, a software developer working remotely from Hyderabad, India. He loves JS and CSS, and is the co-host of the Learning Curve podcast, sharing his findings, discoveries, and, his learning journey with fellow host Bretik.

In the #roamcult community he is known for creating Gatsby-theme-Andy, a digital gardening theme inspired by the works of Andy Matuschak and is based on Gatsby-theme-brain.

We talked about:

• Aravind's note-taking workflow
• How Notion and Roam plays different roles in his work
• Examples of evergreen notes from Aravind's graph
• The origin story of Gatsby-theme-andy
• Defining what is publishable in a digital garden
• Planning episode for the Learning Curve Podcast

Enjoy!

Timestamps

• 03:24 From Evernote to Notion and Aravind's meta questions
• 05:54 No more Evernote except for Kindle highlights
• 08:40 There was no friction in transitioning to Roam
• 09:38 Notion vs Roam for Teams
• 10:58 Loading up Roam in low network connectivity
• 13:09 "Once it is loaded, it never dies. So I never turn my MacBook off"
• 14:53 Aravind's main workflow, information capture and more
• 17:06 Some fleeting notes are thrown away, and examples of permanent notes
• 18:18 Aravind Balla's Evergreen notes from [[How to Take Smart Notes]] and Linchpin
• 20:02 Have empathy towards your work
• 21:58 Publishing notes online can strike ideas in the person who's reading it
• 23:05 How Aravind remade Andy Matuschak's digital garden theme in Gatsby
• 25:47 Gathering around digital gardeners and Andy's followers
• 28:38 What's considered publishable? Defining a digital garden
• 34:56 How did the Learning Curve podcast start?
• 37:46 Predicting conversations with #roamcult, and Mental Agility
• 42:48 Aravind's keen for the API to rollout
• 45:48 Planning an episode for the Learning Curve Podcast
• 49:48 [[How would you describe Roam to someone who hasn't started using it?]]
• 51:48 [[What does Roam mean to you?]]

Links

• Aravind's Twitter
• Aravind's Website
• Aravind's Notes
• gatsby-theme-andy

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