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> The release of Roam was a Cambrian explosion in the previously moribund field of personal information management What an astounding claim. I guess if I had

> The release of Roam was a Cambrian explosion in the previously moribund field of personal information management What an astounding claim. I guess if I had even heard of Roam up to this point, it might be less astounding.

jononomo 4y ago
Have you been following the field of personal information management closely these last few years?
- Pulcinella 4y ago
  If you have so much personal information that you need specialized software to help you manage it, you have too much.
  - setr 4y ago
    I think it’s probably the opposite — the data is obviously there — you encounter vast amounts of new information every day, though most of it useless, but there clearly remains a lot of useful information; you’re just not capturing it.
  - Veen 4y ago
    Seems an unjustified over generalisation or you’re taking the ‘personal’ in personal information too literally. I use obsidian to manage notes for my job, which is research and writing.
  - rchaud 4y ago
    This will be hilarious to anyone that has had to write an academic thesis or a book.
dividedbyzero 4y ago
At least in my circles Roam has been absolutely impossible to miss even if living under a rock. Before Roam, people around me used either Evernote or OneNote or some kind of text files in directories scheme, all of which apparently sucks for other people just as much as they do for me. Most are now on Roam or Obsidian, and I hear that at least in some in scientific circles Roam has made an even bigger splash. I've tried Roam and Obsidian and a few copycats and stuck with Roam, and it's lightyears ahead of what I had before, but there seems to be no good way to interface with the graph using code and that's limiting things severely for me. Still looking for something better, but IMO it's absolutely fair to say that Roam has had a huge impact.
- enos_feedler 4y ago
  If your circles were into onenote or evernote they were pretty tight to begin with. I use Apple notes app for everything. Going beyond a default OS notes app is a big step. I keep all my subscriptions in there. Monthly cash flows. Any interesting links I find. Though the links I almost never go back to
  - dividedbyzero 4y ago
    Roam (and Obsidian, Evernote, OneNote, ...) are aimed at people who work with large-ish amounts of facts and knowledge and sources and need to organize that somehow, I guess most people in such jobs will use something like that. Roam and Obsidian make it (relatively) easy to build a sort-of queryable graph structure, which I guess is a pretty niche thing to want. Apple Notes is great too, I use it for travel to do lists and the like, it's great for that. I don't keep my private everyday notes in Roam, that would be a bit overkill. They don't really solve the same problem, more like adjacent problems.
- cachvico 4y ago
  Curious what are your circles?

jononomo 4y ago

Have you been following the field of personal information management closely these last few years?

Pulcinella 4y ago
If you have so much personal information that you need specialized software to help you manage it, you have too much.
- setr 4y ago
  I think it’s probably the opposite — the data is obviously there — you encounter vast amounts of new information every day, though most of it useless, but there clearly remains a lot of useful information; you’re just not capturing it.
- Veen 4y ago
  Seems an unjustified over generalisation or you’re taking the ‘personal’ in personal information too literally. I use obsidian to manage notes for my job, which is research and writing.
- rchaud 4y ago
  This will be hilarious to anyone that has had to write an academic thesis or a book.

dividedbyzero 4y ago

At least in my circles Roam has been absolutely impossible to miss even if living under a rock. Before Roam, people around me used either Evernote or OneNote or some kind of text files in directories scheme, all of which apparently sucks for other people just as much as they do for me. Most are now on Roam or Obsidian, and I hear that at least in some in scientific circles Roam has made an even bigger splash. I've tried Roam and Obsidian and a few copycats and stuck with Roam, and it's lightyears ahead of what I had before, but there seems to be no good way to interface with the graph using code and that's limiting things severely for me. Still looking for something better, but IMO it's absolutely fair to say that Roam has had a huge impact.

enos_feedler 4y ago
If your circles were into onenote or evernote they were pretty tight to begin with. I use Apple notes app for everything. Going beyond a default OS notes app is a big step. I keep all my subscriptions in there. Monthly cash flows. Any interesting links I find. Though the links I almost never go back to
- dividedbyzero 4y ago
  Roam (and Obsidian, Evernote, OneNote, ...) are aimed at people who work with large-ish amounts of facts and knowledge and sources and need to organize that somehow, I guess most people in such jobs will use something like that. Roam and Obsidian make it (relatively) easy to build a sort-of queryable graph structure, which I guess is a pretty niche thing to want. Apple Notes is great too, I use it for travel to do lists and the like, it's great for that. I don't keep my private everyday notes in Roam, that would be a bit overkill. They don't really solve the same problem, more like adjacent problems.
cachvico 4y ago
Curious what are your circles?