
Why Roam Is Cool - jeffmorrisjr
https://divinations.substack.com/p/why-roam-is-cool
======
rollinDyno
This blog post says nothing about why Roam is actually cool. It seems like a
waste of opportunity, given that it has reached the front page and it's not
really telling anyone why they should use it.

I have seen people praise Roam because of different features. Some say the
ability to link concepts bidirectionally allows them to create the wiki they
always wish they had, only now they can look at every single context where a
topic has been mentioned. Others love the ability to use logic constructs to
query chunks of text depending on their tags and content. For me personally,
it's the ability to reference any fragment of the text so that it lives in
multiple places at the same time. Hence, I can reuse ideas in different
contexts. Alternatively, if I'm looking at a specific idea, I can tell where
it's being drawn upon.

I have been using Roam every day for the last 2 months, and it has completely
changed my note-taking habits. I have always strived to digitize all my
thoughts, but for me, it never felt like I was fully engaged with my note-
taking, Roam changed that. Because the main view is a daily page, it invites
you to pour everything right there, relieving you of the duty of having to
think if something's well placed under a hierarchy of folders. If you link
your thoughts, then your thoughts will not get lost.

A cult is a cult when the members can't shut up about the cult and Roam is
making a lot of noise right now.

~~~
thelastbender12
> it's the ability to reference any fragment of the text so that it lives in
> multiple places at the same time.

I've seen Roam being mentioned as a graph database for notes before but your
comment helps me see it! Would this be a good working model - each `note`
entry is logged to a central table in something like a relational database and
each `page` is a materialised view over that relation. In contrast, for most
of the other note taking apps, the abstraction for a note seems closer to a
file.

Would be fun to implement something that works locally with an embeddable
graph database library.

~~~
whitehouse3
Are there decent embeddable graph databases? I tried Roam but my network
connection makes SaaS unusable. Would love a local version.

~~~
lez
Zettelkasten is the original name of the concept of networked note-taking. It
even worked on paper. Roam took the concept close to users with a polished UI.
Some history: [https://fortelabs.co/blog/how-to-take-smart-
notes/](https://fortelabs.co/blog/how-to-take-smart-notes/)

~~~
slightwinder
> Zettelkasten is the original name of the concept of networked note-taking.

No, it's not. Zettelkasten is just the german word for "Box of paper slips", a
common tool for certain people. There are many famous Paperboxes from artists
and scientist over the centuries, but the ojne responsable for this new
zettelkasten-cargo-cult would be Luhmanns Zettelkasten.

Niklas Luhmann was a sociologist who had the habbit to gather notes to an
excessiv level on paper slips and collect those in boxes. He was famous
because he used common organizing-methods of scientist for notes, instead of
just quotes, books and articles.

Some years ago serious research started about his notes, which are now all
scaned and online available, and since then some kind of irrational cargo-cult
around him has started.

------
yewenjie
As an alternative Emacs org-mode based bidirectional linking enabled note-
taking workflow, check out org-roam [1].

1: [https://github.com/jethrokuan/org-roam](https://github.com/jethrokuan/org-
roam)

~~~
themodelplumber
OK, this is good, we have moved from "proprietary only" to "free, but
Emacs"...stay cool everybody, just another jump or two and the rest of us will
be able to sink our teeth into this ;-)

~~~
_emacsomancer_
"free, but Emacs" is pretty much an endpoint...

------
gexla
This is yet another example of a case where no matter how many people are
working on a problem or have worked on it, that there's still room for
improvements which create an explosion of a positive response.

I can't believe that nobody has thought to build an application with bio-
directional block linking like this. Every app I have used with links can link
to a page. Fewer apps can link to a specific page. None of these give you much
"at a glance" insight about what the thing is linking to without clicking the
link.

I have thought about this and I have tried to build it, but I haven't had the
time. Clearly time isn't an issue for the note building world though. Not
taking apps are a dime a dozen. That's not to say that my app would have been
Roam. I just wanted the functionality Roam brings to the table. I know I'm not
alone from all the praise Roam gets. I'm just glad I didn't have to build the
thing.

~~~
slightwinder
> I can't believe that nobody has thought to build an application with bio-
> directional block linking like this.

bi-directional linking is not new. It's a known idea with some implementation
in wikis and other software. But it usually comes with certain problems, so
implementation is hard and performance sucks. Maybe those problems are today
less visable with better hardware and more battle-tested software.

> Every app I have used with links can link to a page. Fewer apps can link to
> a specific page.

What do you mean with specific page? A block/paragraph on the page?

------
huanwin
I really like the referencing and transclusion features of Roam. Being able to
reference any fragment of text anywhere else, _and_ edit them them in-place
with all changes propagated to every other reference... it's the defining
feature that I'm willing to pay for once it monetizes.

------
brunoqc
We need to pay to read this article?

"This is a free preview of a premium members-only post."

~~~
nbashaw
Author here! The Roam part is free. This is an edition of a newsletter that
has three short things - the Roam part is first and here in full.

~~~
brunoqc
thanks!

------
tarleb
Fully free and open source note-taking app with a similar focus:
[https://zettlr.com](https://zettlr.com)

~~~
gexla
Is this spam? You created an account just to post this link? Did you read the
article?

I looked through the features and this appears to be the same dime-a-dozen-me-
too app which doesn't have the one feature everyone loves about Roam.

Cheers to the person who built this. I don't want to crap on anyone's work.
But this isn't at all like Roam from what I can see.

~~~
tarleb
Indeed, this shouldn't have been a top comment. It is more a reply to the
`org-roam`. Also no, I'm not involved in the development of that app, I just
happen to like it.

BTW, if your intention is not to crap on anyone's work, maybe don't call
something a dime-a-dozen app?

------
meagher
The thing I really like about Roam is there is a new daily note created
automatically every day.

It’s simple, but lessens friction and I can jot anything down without having
to think about organization.

~~~
themodelplumber
That's cool to hear. My own system works this way, but over time I updated it
so it creates a new note / journal file [0] about 24 hours in advance.
Sometimes I have just the right amount of energy to start frameworking my next
day ahead of time.

I am also refining the "look back in time" feature to a global keyboard
shortcut, to make it easier to flip through past journal entries, for example
"open all the entries from last week," etc.

0\. [https://pastebin.com/nFpRzUbe](https://pastebin.com/nFpRzUbe) in case
it's helpful to anyone.

------
vondur
So, it's a like a wiki? It reminds me of the note taking app in Gnome, Tomboy.
Didn't have the cool lines linking things though.

~~~
slightwinder
Basically yes, but it's a new development'drive with modern technologies.
Wikis were big in the 200x years, and since then development slowed down
significantly since all relevant features were explored and the most well
working ones surved. Now the ones which were to early for the time seems to
appear here and there, and development starts again all over the areas. Quite
good I would say.

------
qot
Note: the article is a premium members-only post preview and cuts off just
after getting into a competitor's valuation.

You can't read the whole thing and I regret starting to read it, only to be
left mid-thought.

