Carly Quellman is a movement artist, storyteller and disability advocate whose work challenges and strips perspective around the human experience. As an advocate for young women, artistic potential and the "anomaly" identity, Carly dedicates her time to spreading the power of expression. She resides in Los Angeles.
I recently saw someone's LinkedIn post detailing the Zettelkasten "slip-box" method, a note-taking system that German sociologist Niklas Luhmann created to manage and connect ideas in academia. I'm always eager to find new ways to streamline the host of scattered thoughts that circulate through my brain.
When I took my curiosity to ChatGPT-3, I was surprised to find that today, a handful of artificial intelligence-backed platforms use the method as a business model. Among -- and frequently on -- the list was Roam Research, a note-taking and knowledge management tool built to function like a digital brain.
Less than five years old, the company was founded by Conor White-Sullivan in 2019 under Planetary Holdings. Its primary user base includes researchers and writers who have endless streams of consciousness and want to attempt to organize their thoughts into one place.
It seemed like I fit Roam Research's target audience, and I was open to new methodologies and tools that could help ease the overwhelming nature of thinking into a frenzy. So why not give it a try? Here's my take on Roam Research.
Roam Research's main function is to capture and link notes, and then notice patterns and develop ideas and outputs in response. It does this through Daily Notes, Bi-directional Linking, Search and Custom Templates. Think streamlining. Think time-saver.
The company's website also includes videos on how to get started on its platform, which detail Bidirectional Links, how to Create Links, Basic Navigation, Unlinked References, Filters, Tasks, Tags and Scheduling with videos less than 10 minutes long. (I got through the first two before zoning out.)
Artificial intelligence plays a role in Roam Research through Roam Depot, an extension library within the note-taking platform. Here, you can download extensions that allow you to access GPT-3's AI-powered conversations for summaries and insights and learn your workflow over time or access Dall-E's creative visual integration while providing feedback so the AI-powered tools can continue to modify itself to your preferences. These features excited me, as they could enhance the process and make what looks like a bare-bones outline more imaginative and stimulating.
What I failed to realize up until this point of note creation was that you need an API key, a code to access any of these features. I was confused whether APIs were part of membership. Setting up turned out to be unclear -- limits and costs weren't understandable until much later in the process.
Learning about and implementing the API key took up an hour of energetic currency. It was a technical nightmare to navigate new interfaces. Once I had copied in my API keys, I received an error message that I had used all my tokens and needed to upgrade.
This is when I gave up.
If you are a developer or savvy about AI's technical backend, this might be a great feature for you. For me, it was a giant headache.
In the end, Roam Research may be a goldmine for academic researchers and structured thinkers, but for someone like me -- who thrives on simplicity -- it was too much. If you're curious, the 14-day trial might be worth exploring. But if your current system works, like my personal favorite, the humble Notes app, there's no shame in sticking with it.
While there are many positive attributes to the tool -- like its GPT-3 model and Dall-E's visual features -- my muscle memory wasn't ready for the change. It was tedious to come back to the website (and the downloaded app) to express my nonstop stream of consciousness... at a much slower pace than I had before.
Add a high dose of impatience to the learning curve and well... I stepped away from Roam Research, considering the idea that this may be a "me" and not a "them" problem. Admittedly, I internally shrieked the first time I went on similar sites, like Notion and Obsidian, due to their rabbit-hole-like interface and structure.
While the company was created to cater to academia, the site reads like an extension for Excel lovers and web developers. (Read: not me.) I could also argue that the label "writer" is incredibly ambiguous. So maybe I, a storyteller, wasn't actually the target audience.
In turn, just like that one Boomer relative says entirely too much, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it," My Notes app is not broken -- and yet, due to equal parts curiosity and shame, I still tried to fix it.
Ultimately, the most promising tools are those that feel intuitive to you. If you thrive on structure, Roam Research could unlock new possibilities during your thought-to-paper process. For others, simplicity remains key.
