Welcome to the site! Norm here.

I know it can be a bit overwhelming with all the different kinds of content available here, so why not have a tiny…instruction manual to get through this site 🙂  I encourage you to explore and click around - each click is the turn of a page in your own book/narrative, which makes it much more exciting!

A couple of things:

How it works

Ever had a site so complicated I need a second page dedicated to explain how it works? 😅

ThatsTheNorm is the World that lives in my brain. Think of it as a web of content spanning different formats and names, like a major brand that holds multiple names under its belt. Kind of like Nestle with Kellogg’s and everything else!

You can think of this website as:

  • My [[Body of Work]]. It’s a depository of conversations I’ve had, and a full list of projects covering everything I’ve tried, discovered, failed and more.
  • My notes in progress: Most posts you see on this website are incomplete notes. They are made to be refined and form the foundation of my worldview. This means the posts are prone to updates and versions (I’ll note them in), and I emphasize relevance, not publish date (though I’ll keep track of them regardless).
  • Frequently Asked Questions (or Frequently Asked Thoughts) in my head: Some posts are short, to answer certain questions and opinions on phrases. Some are longer, commonly-asked questions about my life that I want to be recorded somewhere for others to see. It’s also a good way to direct people to a relevant post if I’ve answered a question before. I can also track where I don’t know, by looking at how little I’ve written on a topic or question. It helps me focus on what to learn!

The end goal is to build my own [[Textbook of the World]] through conversations. An Internet Garden of sorts. I share with you my short notes, scribblings and all kinds of things that help you wander in my domain, as if visiting a bar full of interesting people. There will be imaginary characters, doodles, podcasts, episodes, what have you. But the point is is that every time you go into my website, it's a different experience. It may be relevant to you or not but otherwise the different-ness makes it stick out 😄

To jump from context to context, I’m here to confuse you, and that's part of the fun. My only hope is this: for you to follow the tags, posts, etc. and create your own adventure of my notes!

A quick guide to tags

I live my live in tags, which you can find the full list here. The emojis represent whether they are shows or notes, and the others are fields, categories, and more.

Note: I'm still in the middle of migrating and successfully tagging all of the posts, so some tags may be missing in some of these!

Here are a few format tags to explain what they mean:

  • The [[🧠Thoughtmine]] is for everything that is part of the so-called digital garden. (More in detail here.).
  • #[[✍Ores]] tag for those unfinished drafts, example atomic notes, frameworks in progress, and more.
  • #[[🧱Alloys]] tag for those notes which are relatively stable (though not always accurate, hah)
  • #[[⚔Weapons]] and #[[🏹Epic Weapons]] are complete blogposts if we're comparing it to mainstream blogs. Essentially articles, though the epic ones have 2k+ words.
  • #[[🦪Piece]] tag for those fictional, imaginative pieces of differing formats. Normally written by [[Cloever]].

There are other tags coming in like #[[🛡Armory]], #[[🏰Castle]], and more, but we'll get to that sometime in the future.

Services

Listen to Podcasts

Interviews

  • Interested in conversations about Roam Research? Listen to RoamFM! This show is about conversations with users of the tool Roam Research. It's all about networked thinking, the forefront of many fields, and much more!
  • Want to know more about the Asian podcasting scene? Check out Podlovers Asia! I interview contributors to the Asian podcasting scene around the world for their story.
  • Eager to learn wisdom from a variety of individuals? Check out AntiFool! I play the fool, I ask them questions, and they share with us the answers. Powerful conversations to transform you.

Narratives

  • If you’re in the mood for fiction, I recommend the Tempered Fables. It’s a short story fiction podcast, narrating you a new story every episode.
  • Listen to stories about locations, cultures and people? Ants Under The Sun is dedicated to that. The stories are designed to take you on a journey :).

Audioblog

  • How about a quick audioblog show about anything and everything? Check out This is Norm, where I talk to myself for a couple minutes a day!

Read some Articles

Note-Taking

Self Development

Lessons

Money Philosophy

Analyses

Polymaths

Voice Work

Writing & Public Speaking

Philanthropy