Why I like RoamResearch

I was introduced to RoamResearch while casually browsing through the productivity videos on YouTube. And I am not saying it changed my life. I wasn't doing much with my life before Roam, for it to completely alter it. But, I will say it has a huge potential to do so. More importantly, I want it to change my life and others'.

My favourite thing about Roam is just how uncharacteristically simple it is. I am not really a code person. I would rather just write words. The best thing about Roam is, it makes my words as powerful and important. 

I don't know if have ADHD. I hadn't even heard of it before I discovered and scarily connected with this amazing Instagram account called ADHD alien. I just know that I read a lot of amazingly good content and have a lot of great ideas while watching movies and listening to songs. Sometimes, there is this one lyric in the song which open up a window to a lot of new information for me. It mostly happens because I don't know a whole lot about the world and am very easily excited by any new information. The thing is, as soon as the moment passes and my google search is over, I tend to forget the information all together. I really do not want to forget it, but I do. Always.

I first tried solving this problem by using physical notebooks, because for some reason writing something down made it feel truer and more concrete to me. Physical notebooks posed two issues:

1. I couldn't for the life of me remember to always write stuff down in that one note book and I ended up with a dozen of half-filled ones with no visible wh links whatsoever.

2. I couldn't simultaneously consume content and write down things I liked from it. Consumption and note taking were two seperate processes, occurring on two different mediums.

I tried to solve this problem by using mobile applications like the Notes app on my phone. But, I only ever used it to create lists. I tried Evernote too and just didn't like it. Maybe because, I wasn't really looking to organise my life. I wasn't even trying to organize my thoughts. I was just trying to write down my favourite things and my thoughts on them and wanted to come later to them with an intention to get some sense of out them. The Notebook creation and classification just felt like too much work.

This is why I like Roam. It doesn't feel like work at all. It feels exactly like writing in my notebook, just with a lesser chance of it getting lost. It doesn't make me categorise my thoughts, when I don't know how to and links them for me. I am not really a tech person and haven't really cared about developments in tech unless they are truly interesting and have potential social implications

 I think Roam has social implications. As a person who is very biased towards fiction, I truly appreciate Roam.  I can write down which characters I love and  hate from my favourite books and see if I have a pattern. I can write down important news items that affect me daily and observe if they share some similar characteristics, if all link to a particular feeling.

I am not aware if there were other applications that existed before Roam that could the same for me and I have just been super oblivious. Currently, I have found Roam and like it enough to not try anything new in this domain for a while. 

Also, I really really love the name. It has lot of potential for really good puns. As soon as I heard the name, I immediately thought of this Tumblr post and laughed.

I hope the Empire doesn't fall.