Roam Research Docs · Help & user documentation

Diagram

• Diagrams are an extra dimension of the blocks in your graph. You can lay your thoughts out in a 2D infinite canvas, group and connect ideas. Every node (or group) in the diagram corresponds to a block in your graph. Any blocks used in a diagram will show up in references section for that block.
  • {{video: https://firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0/b/firescript-577a2.appspot.com/o/imgs%2Fapp%2Fhelp%2FV_WiYRS5RY.mov?alt=media&token=161c5af3-9e45-44a8-8575-907c3abfc023}}
• To create a diagram
  • Type / then search for diagram and hit enter
  • Alternatively you can type or copy and paste{{diagram}} into a new block
• Examples::
  • {{diagram: How to Do Great Work by Paul Graham (mapped by @jasonshen)}}
    • Superlinear returns
    • At least it'll be on a fascinating topic
    • Show up in successive versions
    • Develop your own taste
    • Work on a project of one's own
    • Don't wait for a "big break"
    • Have the confidence to cut
    • Work hard
    • Break rules
    • Lots of work is hard
    • Fear of failure
    • Deep interest/curiosity
    • Fear of hard work
    • Prerequisites
    • Avoid per-project procrastiation
    • Optimize for interestingness
    • Chase outlier ideas
    • Gatekeeper rejection is not great work
    • just try to do something amazing
    • Make things YOU want
    • Your best job → distinctiveness
    • Who have surprising insights
    • Don't worry about "style"
    • "If at first you don't succeed: either try again, or backtrack and try again
    • Learn fundamentals
    • Natural aptitude
    • doing something important so well that you expand people's ideas of what's possible
    • Notice gaps in the field
    • Nurture your morale
    • Laying the groundwork
    • Great work:
    • So what
    • Modesty
    • Very ambitions
    • Do work that compounds
    • What holds people back
    • Scope to do great work
    • Are novel yet obvious
    • Don't burn out
    • "Am I working on what I most want to work on?"
    • Get to the frontiers
    • Good ideas
    • No precise definition
    • Come from prolificness
    • Don't have to tell people your intentions
    • Extraordinary growth may justify extraordinary effort
    • "Stay upwind"
    • Seek out the best colleagues
    • Make things people want
  • {{diagram:@visakan's Memex}}
    • Introspect. If you don’t
      know what you want, your
      wants will be decided for
      you, by people and forces
      who don’t have your best
      interests at heart.
    • Beware assholes. Learn to
      identify assholes, and to lead
      people in coordinating
      effectively to diminish the
      costs of their actions.
    • Develop your taste. Taste is the most
      precious and important thing in the world.
      People with great taste create a
      disproportionate amount of value in the
      world, but the world we live in
      disincentivizes the development of taste.
    • Do not dehumanize
      people. People are
      people. Do not demonize
      or pedestalize them.
    • Be honest
      about what
      you don’t
      know.
    • Be kind.
    • Own your shit and fix
      it. You will never be
      perfect, but you can
      always be better than
      you were yesterday.
    • Aggressively seek
      out agreements,
      particularly with
      outgroup.
    • everything is connected
    • Be more sensitive. In
      every sense. It helps
      with everything.
    • If you don’t decide,
      you’re letting
      somebody else
      decide.
    • Real progress
      happens at the
      bottlenecks.
    • The public is insufficiently
      educated on how to be a good
      public.
    • Confront your fears headon. Most fears are outdated,
      obsolete, and can be
      dismantled with a little work
    • Find out how you are
      fucked up. “They fuck you
      up your mom and dad, they
      don’t mean to but they do…”
      You inherited all sorts of
      bullshit that you don’t even
      know.
    • Appreciate
      incentives.
    • Recognize that
      your mental
      models are
      flawed. Everybody
      inherits a flawed,
      imperfect system.
    • everything is a remix,
      so don’t worry about
      being “original”
    • Everything is vague to a
      degree you do not
      realize until you attempt
      to make it precise.
    • Have stuff to look
      forward to. You can’t
      engineer happiness,
      but you sure can
      engineer excitement.
    • Learn project
      management.
      Everything is a
      project.
    • The main thing
      holding you back
      is the way that
      you’re thinking.
    • Have fun. You were born
      crying. You should die
      laughing.
    • Take notes. Keeping a journal of your
      own thoughts, ideas and beliefs over
      time will teach you things about yourself
      you cannot learn any other way.
    • It’s not about you.
    • Prioritize.
      There’s an
      infinite set of
      things to do.
      What’s the
      most important
      thing? Do that.
    • Do not be afraid of
      being sad or wrong.
    • the point of strength
      is to nourish others.
    • Strategize. You have
      limited time and limited
      resources.
    • Continue. Life will kick
      your ass. Dont’ give up,
      don’t give in. Get up and
      try again.
    • Be so prolific you don’t
      recognize yourself. This is
      the most effective way to
      develop your ability to gratify
      your own taste.
    • Be Economically Useful.
      The world is not kind to
      those who cannot create
      value in the marketplace.
    • Seek to learn &
      understand
      everything. It can
      never be done, but
      it’s always worth
      trying.
    • Make Friends. It is
      dangerous to go alone.
      You heal yourself by
      helping others. Be kind
      and serve others. We can
      do more together than we
      can do alone.
    • One must imagine Sisyphus
      LOL-ing. Existence is absurd, and
      laughter is the only reasonable
      response to an absurd universe.
    • Articulate your
      assumptions and
      question them. If you
      identify a bad one, you
      can get rid of it and have
      a marginally better life,
      instantly
    • the tool should
      fit the user
    • Narcissists ruin
      self-love for the
      rest of us.
    • Fiddle with it.
      Mess around.
      It’s the most
      natural way of
      learning
      things.
    • all advice is context dependent to a
      degree most do not realize until
      they encounter a different context
    • We all want to be loved.
    • Indulge your curiosity.
      Following your nose will lead
      you to interesting places, and
      in the process you will become
      an interesting person.
    • safe spaces are for
      nurturing, not coddling.
    • Ask clarifying questions.
  • {{diagram:Dune Mindmap: Paul Atreides}}
    • Fate and Prophecy
    • Survival
    • Secondary Plots
    • Kaitain
    • Planets
    • Lady Jessica
    • Betrayal of House Atreides
    • Primary Plots
    • Baron Vladimir Harkonnen
    • Caladan
    • Themes
    • House Corrino
    • Duncan Idaho
    • Atreides' Move to Arrakis
    • Characters
    • House Harkonnen
    • Stilgar
    • The Spice Melange Trade
    • Paul's Fremen Integration
    • Fremen Rebellion
    • Jessica's Bene Gesserit Agenda
    • Houses
    • Duke Leto Atreides
    • Rise of Paul Atreides
    • Giedi Prime
    • House Atreides
    • Religion and Mysticism
    • Plots
    • Gurney Halleck
    • Power and Politics
    • Paul Atreides
    • House Vernius
    • Chani
    • Arrakis
    • Ecology and Environment
  • {{diagram: David Bowie: Aerial Silk Act - Moodboard}}
    • 
    • Scorpion Pose
    • 
    • No Hands Middle Split
    • Full-release single twist
    • Russian Climb
    • Triple Twist Open Drop
    • Vibe:
      {{video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ZtHxP4EMV0}}
    • Croissant Climb
    • 
    • Double-Sided Knee Climb
    • Funky Climbs
    • Flexible Poses
    • S-Wrap Bridge Pose
    • Helicopter
    • Full-release Front Salto
    • 
    • Possible Aerial Silk Colors
    • Costumes
    • Dynamic Elements
    • Sequence on the Silks
    • Makeup
    • Thinner, bold lips
    • Pigmented cheekbones
    • Bright eyeshadow: orange, red, blue
    • Music Choice:
      {{spotify: https://open.spotify.com/track/3ZE3wv8V3w2T2f7nOCjV0N?si=2ecb0b31c20d41f3}}
  • {{diagram: EA Memespace}}
    • Cause Areas
    • Nuclear Warfare
    • Existential Risk
    • Global Health
    • Vaccine Development
    • Malaria
    • AI Existential Risk
    • Misalignment
    • Losing Control of AGI
    • Animal Welfare
    • Wildlife Welfare
    • Animal Abuse
    • Zoos
    • Factory Farming
    • Animal Testing
    • Biosecurity
    • Bioweapons
    • Pandemics
    • Poverty
    • Climate Change
    • Eliminating Conflict
    • EA
    • Short Termism
    • Longtermism
    • ITN Framework
    • Neglectedness
    • Impact
    • Cost effectiveness/
      tangible
    • Policy
    • EA Literature
    • LessWrong
    • Do Good Better
    • Twitter
    • The Precipice
    • Eliezer Yudkowsky
    • Eigenrobot
    • Slate Star Codex
    • Gwern
• Roam Team Videos::
  • Archived ⬇️ (old version of the diagram feature)
    • Diagrams in Roam Research by Conor White-Sullivan
      • {{video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RD_Gi8EQGVQ}}
        #Diagram
• Articles::
  • Archived ⬇️ (old version of the diagram feature)
    • How to build diagrams in Roam Research by Anne-Laure Le Cunff #Diagram
• Community Videos::
  • Archived ⬇️ (old version of the diagram feature)
    • Drawing and Diagrams in Roam Research by Chester
      • {{video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-q5JRaZbcrA}}
• Also see Mermaid Diagrams

markdown version · view in Roam Research · exported 2026-07-03