Why I 💗 Roam

I was speaking with a close friend and business partner of mine. I was excitedly telling him about notion.so and he asked if i'd heard about roam. I hadn't.

At first glance, it didn't really make a lot of sense. It didn't look as nice as notion. Nor does it have the relational databases underlying notion where you can whip up pretty tables. Thirdly, it seemed to lack basic functionality such as mobile apps and easy share-ability. Last but not least, it didn't even have a free option. It costs $15/month.

So why on earth am I even talking about this? Because I truly believe that this company is trying to change the world in a fundamentally meaningful way.

They are working on tools that help you think more clearly. When's the last time you used an app that actually helped you to think more clearly?

So what's the problem statement? Let's define it before getting too excited over here.

Almost every single piece of software that I'm aware of utilizes a hierarchical way of organizing files. One that mirrors real life - papers, folders, cabinets, etc.

This makes sense in the physical world since, well, how else would you do it? But when you think about how our brains work, or how the internet works, it's very different. They work like networks, not hierarchies.

So roam, at its core, does away with the hierarchical format that notion, google docs, word and everything else use. It embraces, in my view, a much more natural and elegant way of enabling creative thought. Bold statement, I know.

The main technical innovation behind roam is that it's essentially a note-taking app that lets you create backlinks seamlessly. This is the core innovation behind roam and it’s easy to miss. What do I mean?

So when I sit down in front of a computer first thing in the morning, the first application I pull up is roam. Roam is what I use nearly 90% of my day. It's replaced google docs, my physical bullet journal, project management software such as as trello, notion, to-doist, mind mapping software such as mindjet, customer relationship management software, evernote, apple notes, post-it notes and way more.

Roam gives me the ability to do pretty much everything I used to do on these platforms but gives me way more freedom to think and be more creative.

I'm so passionate about roam that I'll start making short youtube videos on how I'm using roamresearch.com as a bitcoin entrepreneur. In bitcoin, we're oftentimes working in unchartered territory.

The answers to the challenges we face on a day to day basis are not written in text books or there isn't any one person you can go to and just ask. It's quite a bit more complex. So for the first time in my life, I feel like I've discovered a tool that helps me to connect ALL of the important ideas in my life in one place.

After spending nearly 20 years in innovative spaces such as bitcoin and robotics, i've learned a thing or two about innovation. Innovation is simply about getting to the edge of any given field, understanding the top ideas in that space, and then identifying connections and patterns between those ideas to build something that's larger than the sum of its parts.

Sounds a bit cliche, but that's really it. So what tool helps us do that? Well, I'd argue that most pieces of software aim to help us but often fall short in many ways.

Fundamentally speaking, they are self-serving and looking to hack our psyche so that they may dish up more ads to us and make us their lemmings for all of eternity.

I digress. Back to roam. Roam does the exact opposite. Roam gives me space and structure to think freely. My mind jumps around a lot. I'm guessing many of yours do too. Why not embrace that random quality of our mind? Roam not only allows you to do this using nested and expandable bullet points but then also offers powerful search and filter tools to enable easy navigation through your own notes.

The main idea behind roam is back-linking. Inside roam, if I enter anything inside two open and closed square brackets [[ ]] then it automatically generates a new page with that topic. That page becomes an entry into a database. This is important because by making it super easy to create these bi-directional links, you're able to easily tag items that are of importance to you.

This back-linking idea seems subtle and from all of the people I've shared this software with, they often overlook this. They don't seem to get it at first glance. I highly suggest that you try and get the hang of it. Achieving stress-free productivity has never been possible like this before. Try it and leave your comments about your experience below.

note: i’m not an investor or employee at roam. i’m a paying customer. the only reason I keep going on about it is because i’m in love with it. The last time I was this excited about a project was when I first discovered bitcoin back in 2011 / 2012. This is yuge…