On Roam Research — Brendan Langen

This is an 8-minute read on a helluva product.

Over the last month, I tested a new thought management tool - Roam Research. It is high time to spread the word.

My goal is for you to understand if Roam can work for you, so here is some context.

For years, I've taken notes in different forms - notebook(s), a sketchpad, Word docs, my iPhone, Evernote, screenshots, and whiteboard(s).

The notes are...everywhere. Sometimes I lose access to them. Sometimes I outright forget what I wrote. How can I remember what I found so important if I'm never prompted to read them again?

Any time I try to adopt a system for my notes, I give up. The closest I’ve come is implementing David Allen’s GTD system in Evernote, but it’s not fun to keep up with. Thus, it’s dead.

And now, I’m 50+ days into using Roam. I have barely scratched the surface of what the tool can do, but I understand how to use it for me.

Essentially, I represent your average user. Let's jump in.

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My goal was to see if Roam could replace Evernote as my daily note taker. While Roam claims to compound knowledge over time, I gave myself a month to get a feel. How do I feel about the tool today?

I am impressed.

Roam is powerful, giving me the ability to track back to old thoughts and rapidly build on ideas. It even prompts me to remember things outside of my momentary purview through it’s simple linking system.

Roam has cultivated an early hardcore following that goes by the #roamcult. The tool was used for research purposes over the past few years, but was just released in Beta to the public late in 2019.

Before you decide on Roam for yourself, allow me to show you where I have found benefit (+ struggled).

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My note-taking problems are so pervasive in my life that I've written about it on different occasions. Take this from early 2018:

I take hundreds and hundreds of notes, but am frustrated by the retrieval process. When I look back at a note, it takes me time to recapture the feeling and understanding I had when I wrote it. There are several things I've written that are somewhere lost in translation, and I could really use them right now. Sometimes, I forget that I've written something down altogether. Realistically, this is my problem, but I don't doubt it may be yours, as well. What I'm talking about is one part poor organization, and one part a lack of tools to actually help me remember what I've done.

Essentially, I want to have all my best thoughts on call, so I can re-immerse myself in them and pick up where I left off.

No note system has ever quite helped me like that. The closest anything came was Evernote. But, even in their case (after ~2300 notes in 2 years), I have to manually backtrack to my notes to review a thought.

Which I do! And when I do, it is great.

Just today, I re-read notes from this time last year and was amazed by the clarity in thought. I re-learned things that I was so confident about then.

Most of the time I review, this is the outcome. But in some cases I can't quite get back to the idea captured in the note.

And the larger problem still exists: how can something push information to me when I need to see it? I need to build on these ideas, but right now I'm not there.

Realistically, I never will be. My brain, at the very least, can only hold so much at once. I need it to be connected to those other wires for me.

This, specifically, is what Roam has done for me. I take notes differently - maybe even more frequently than the past. I feel myself getting to the core of an idea and then outlining added layers when I want. Here, new ideas have sprung up and added to my previously unformed thoughts. Roam is helping me build my brain.

Above all, it's not Evernote, which simply can't reconnect you to the past on its own. Fuck me if I have written a handful of different ideas into one page without perfectly tagging it.

It's been a world-capturing month with Roam. I have imported notes on my current project and some of my favorite realizations from the past two years. Otherwise, the rest come from daily journals, a few project plans, and the day’s thoughts. Our current brain holds merely ~250 notes, but the benefits have been noticeable.

So how does Roam do it?

Four features have jumped out at me using Roam every day, to the point that I have had more fun taking notes.

First, bidirectional linking. Or, simply put, backlinking.

Each time you write, you have a choice. Allow it to sit or immediately link it to a page. Linking is simple - a shortcut ([[ or #) allows you to create a new page or link to a current one in seconds.

The best part, though, is the ability to return later, like I usually do. Even if you don't tie your idea to a specific page, you can add to it later...or ignore it and watch what happens.

Basically, any time you scroll through a page, Roam checks to see if you ever referenced anything you were lazy with. It doesn't miss. It's a catch-all for you to work at your leisure.

I don't even have to worry where my note will end up! How could I know where I'm going with these unformed thoughts?

Second, outlining. In other words, tabbing and indenting. It changes everything.

The CEO, Conor White-Sullivan, would call this instance a block. Each functional bit (or bullet) that you create in Roam is built as a block. It's based on Niklas Luhmann’s Zettelkasten method of note-taking, which I only partially understand (not in practice).

Here’s a block on terrible communication I received from Delta and why I thought it was bad.

#writebetter

You know I had to write about this…

Each idea can be framed within its own block. Add on, drill down into, or leave it for later.

Fun fact - this exercise in Roam helped me publish for the first time in months.

Third, call-backs built in to your text. Look at this block embed about my note-taking problems..

Look familiar?

You read it about a minute ago…

So, I knew I wrote something about this in the past, but I wasn’t sure exactly what I said.

No problem!

Call the block shortcut (/b), start typing a keyword or two, and voila. Your thought drops directly into your text in that light blue form. Time saved. Flow saved!

And lastly, entering into a daily note is delightful. Each day, your notebook opens to a blank day. My goodness, I didn't know how badly I needed you.

The default use is like a daily journal mixed with a to-do list that reminds you of anything you have to get to.

When you add in backlinking from previous days, your life starts to compile in front of you. You do have to update your rent payment today. And shit, you promised to get back to MD on his program.

No forgetting now.

The downsides, or how to introduce someone to Roam

The main flaw in Roam, as I've seen it thus far, is that it's hard to get started. I've introduced it to nearly everyone I know, but many people have dove off after minimal usage.

Which tells me that prolific note takers will use this, but it's not yet for the masses. My hypothesis - the barrier to entry is a bit scary for folks. Where do I start?

So, how would I introduce people to it?

Well, first think with the end in mind. What do I want to get out of a tool like this?

Personally, I want to build my brain. Anything I write today should tie back to related thoughts in the past.

Then, start simply with 1-2 uses that you care most about.

So, let's start with a question:

What do you want to use Roam for?

Work
Life
Project
Research
Writing
To-dos

Primary use cases first. Great. You want to show someone how to best use the tool, so ask them a question about something they care about.

Then, prompt thoughts based on your selection.

Work - what is your main priority/concern at work right now?
Life - what have you been thinking about lately?
Project - what are you trying to do this week?
Writing - what did you read recently that stuck with you?
Research - what are you exploring or trying to prove?
To-dos - what do you have to do this week?

From there, the frame is in place to guide someone like me.

In my situation, I chose to work first on a project. I started by jotting out notes on my upcoming deliverable, went down a rabbit hole on audience building, and ended up creating a few different pages. First, the project name, and then another for an upcoming workshop.

A week later, I found a new software tool to build my audience and tied the notes back to my original block.

The initial thought was unformed. Something was there, but it wasn't until some time had passed that I was able to connect the dots. Now, I'm building.

We can't stop at first entry, though.

The real power of Roam comes from backlinking, so force me through a planning experience. Five blocks in, make me create a to-do on my project for the end of the week. When Friday comes around, I’ll log in to a reminder of my deliverable. More importantly, my wheels will start to spin.

And on. Give me a taste of the key features through a small example tied to my life. You can teach me how to think!

And yet, maybe I'm wrong to want this level of onboarding. Maybe the struggle of diving into the deep end made it more worth it for me as an explorer.

It's impossible for me to say now, but I would bet an upgraded onboarding is worth a test to reach the masses.

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To really believe in a tool, I have to understand its vision.

Fortunately, I got to share a short call with the co-founder and CEO, Conor White-Sullivan. As part of the signup process, I scheduled 30 minutes of his time to understand his vision and how to import notes.

Beforehand, I researched, scoured Reddit and the #roamcult, and found many helpful videos. We must be prepared.

The call was a great look inside Roam.

And I believe in the direction.

Conor and the Roam team are building the future of knowledge organization. On the call, he mentioned Wikipedia as a model to disrupt and enhance, times over. With public blocks and external links, Roam could actually build knowledge better than Google. Imagine that.

Here, it all comes together. With all the growth we have seen through the world, our knowledge systems leave much to be desired. They are weak, at best, at providing equal access for humans to understand and collaborate on society’s most complex topics. Roam, then, is a tool for accelerating the creation of shared knowledge.

And Roam comes from a guy you can learn extensively about. Conor has the experience of running different companies in the past, and he's all in on this.

So, at this point, I'm just over a month in - still a fresh pup, barely understanding the breadth of the tool. I will learn much more, but I am roped in.

Note taking is more fun than it's ever been for me, and that's saying something.

Thanks to Conor and the team for building the tool I wanted.

I want to see where my brain can roam.