The Fall of Roam

So in order for Roam to truly solve my ‘Where should I put this?’ question, it would need to both be able to find the right note for me at the right time (difficult) but also be able to show me the right portion of it in the right way so that I can instantly feel a *click* and know why it’s relevant (much harder).  

There’s no fundamental reason why the Photos app on my phone should be able to automatically compile a pleasing slideshow with music about a road trip I took 6 years ago, while my note-taking app can’t do the same thing.

The easiest way for Roam to fix this would be to improve the search function. If I believe that I can find anything again with the right search query, the neurotic hamster in my brain gets less bent out of shape about where I will put the note.

If we're really using Roam to regulate the emotional experience of not knowing where to put a note, then that suggests a lot of product changes Roam could make to perform better at that job. 

My most common behavior is to Actually Write the Notes. That’s why Roam needs to help me with the thought, ‘I don’t know where to put this.’ If it does that well, it makes the vast majority of my time spent in the app a breeze. If it does that poorly, it makes my experience so painful that I want to switch systems.

It turns out that I am rarely in a position, while writing or thinking, where I want to glance through lots of old notes as a way to figure out what to say or do. Mostly that feels like sifting through stale garbage.

When I write my notes the thought, ‘Where am I going to put this?’ plagues me every time. It’s a direct and immediate pain. And it sometimes gets in the way of me even taking notes at all. I have this sensation many times a day and it’s deeply uncomfortable. 

A year ago, the idea of networking our notes with bi-directional links became the biggest thing in the tools for thought space since Vannevar Bush described the memex. Top-down hierarchies and tag systems became the pet explanation du jour for everything that was wrong with note-taking. So we all hustled on to the Double-Bracket Express determined ... See more