It’s puzzling that given the massive hype about roam on Twitter, nobody of their hardcore fans made it here.
So I’ll try to add my perspective after having used and paid for it since they started charging - even though I’m for sure not a hardcore user (yet).
The first problem is calling it a note taking app in the first place. What fits much better IMHO is the term knowledge graph.
The best analog I read is that it’s an extension to your brain. Because your brain works associative, Roam makes it incredibly easy to create bi-directional links between notes.
Wrapping any term in a note in [[]] creates a bi-directional link. I.e. it creates a separate page for the highlighted term automatically which you can then fill with content. On that new page you will also see all the places in other notes that mention the term.
This way you create a Wikipedia-style collection of notes very quickly.
This is the most basic way to explain it I can think of.
The thing is, it’s not really that easy to grasp it and it has quite a learning curve.
But once you start getting it, it is super, super powerful.
I don’t like the whole cult thing around it but the bad website, ugly UI, high price is simply because “they can” and to keep growth under control I think.
A few weeks after they started charging their founder mentioned somewhere that they already crossed 1MM ARR.
The app still has a long way to go to be ready for mass adoption (a mobile app for example would help) but I’m sure that they can somehow figure out UX with that funding.
That being said, I’m not sure they have a lot of technical leverage that would stop others from adapting their ideas and concepts.
So I’ll try to add my perspective after having used and paid for it since they started charging - even though I’m for sure not a hardcore user (yet).
The first problem is calling it a note taking app in the first place. What fits much better IMHO is the term knowledge graph.
The best analog I read is that it’s an extension to your brain. Because your brain works associative, Roam makes it incredibly easy to create bi-directional links between notes.
Wrapping any term in a note in [[]] creates a bi-directional link. I.e. it creates a separate page for the highlighted term automatically which you can then fill with content. On that new page you will also see all the places in other notes that mention the term. This way you create a Wikipedia-style collection of notes very quickly. This is the most basic way to explain it I can think of.
The thing is, it’s not really that easy to grasp it and it has quite a learning curve. But once you start getting it, it is super, super powerful.
I don’t like the whole cult thing around it but the bad website, ugly UI, high price is simply because “they can” and to keep growth under control I think. A few weeks after they started charging their founder mentioned somewhere that they already crossed 1MM ARR.
The app still has a long way to go to be ready for mass adoption (a mobile app for example would help) but I’m sure that they can somehow figure out UX with that funding.
That being said, I’m not sure they have a lot of technical leverage that would stop others from adapting their ideas and concepts.