I have a huge fear of missing out on productivity apps. It doesn’t matter if it is something new or a service I have tried before, if someone posts about how they use things, I have to try the thing to see if it’s better than what I currently have.

I try really hard to not get invested too quickly because most things revert to their previous states, but only after I have spent hours playing around with a new set up. With all that said, the excitement I felt when watching Matt Birchler’s overview of Roam Research was something I have not felt in a long time.

After hearing a bit of hype around the launch, I initially dismissed Roam as being for academic research or more in-depth writing than I needed. But Matts video showed his use of Roam for work meetings and something clicked.

I won’t go into much of what it can do here, but I now finally have a note taking service that works the same way my brain does. I have often felt trapped in traditional notes apps concept of hierarchy. With notes only able to live based on their relationships to other notes or notebooks. This is true in Roam, but no note lives just because of its relationships to others, it is fluid and complex. Making it straightforward to move between notes laterally and find the information I need.

Be warned though — it’s ridiculously expensive.