Attention residue
Switching tasks leaves attention on the last one (Leroy, 2009). The fix isn't focus. It's fewer switches.
Zettelkasten, on a screen
A slip-box
that talks back.
Loam is a second brain built the way Niklas Luhmann built his: one idea per card, every card filed behind the one that made you think of it. Ask it a question and it hands you cards you forgot you wrote.
Free for your first 1,000 cards. Plain-text files, yours to keep.
Batch shallow work
Email and admin in two windows a day. Residue shrinks when switches are scheduled, not reactive.
Resurfacing
A card you can't find is a card you don't have. Pull by relevance to what you're writing, not by date.
A conversation partner
Luhmann: the box only surprises you if it can disagree. The links you didn't plan are the point.
Ninety-minute blocks
Phone in the other room, one card open. The block ends with the timer, not with the thought.
Three cards explain the whole method.
The numbers aren't decoration. They're the filing system: each card's ID tells you exactly where it sits in the conversation.
1 Write one idea on one card
In your own words, not the author's. A highlight is something you agreed with. A card is something you understood.
1a File it behind its parent
Put the new card behind the card that made you think of it. The ID says where it lives: 1a is a branch of 1, not a folder.
1a1 Link across branches
When a card belongs to two conversations, link it to both. That's where the box starts knowing things you don't.
“The slip-box needs a number of years in order to reach critical mass. Until then, it functions as a mere container from which we can retrieve what we put in.”
You were writing about deadlines. The box pulled this:
Attention residue
Switching tasks leaves attention on the last one (Leroy, 2009). The fix isn't focus. It's fewer switches. Deadlines don't make you faster; they make you switch less.
Loam reads what you're writing and surfaces the cards that argue with it, agree with it, or finish the thought. You never had to remember they existed.
Everything a box needs. Nothing a box doesn't.
Plain-text cards
Every card is a Markdown file in a folder you own. Open it in anything.
Backlinks
Every link runs both ways. A card knows who cites it.
Daily card
One card per day for the fleeting stuff. File the keepers later.
Clipper
Send a paragraph from the web or a PDF straight into the box, source attached.
Encrypted sync
Cards travel between your devices. Only your devices can read them.