I mainly use Roam Research, because it gets out of my way, and just allows me to write and search up all the myriad notes I have taken. It’s not the fastest, not the prettiest, not the cheapest, but it does the job quite well, and is solid and stable, and oh boy do I enjoy writing in it.
While it is a web application, it is one I can tolerate. The developers have done a great job at optimizing it. Even with over 500 notes, it is still fast, and I’m sure it will continue being fast even in the thousands of notes. And I’m not even using the latest MacBook Pro, this works on my low end computer with hardware from 2014 and an integrated GPU.
I have started just like everyone else. I paid for the application and I started using it, and then I went down the rabbit hole and started learning everything about it. I added a few useful extensions, not too many, just enough to make my life easier. Here they are:
The next thing in my journey is to explore the API and come up with nifty scripts that create an overly complicated system of intertwined notes that somehow fit and create the perfect system for me. I’m over-exaggerating, but I will be integrating a lot of stuff to be automatically transcribed into Roam. I also want to learn a lot more about querying and manipulating blocks. Everything will slowly get closer to (my level of) perfection.
Using this application is simple, it doesn’t work against you, its primary purpose is to serve you, and become an extension of your own brain — and this is what it has become for me. I simply can’t live without it now. I do recommend it, and I think you should at least give it a try at least once in a lifetime, just so you know what you’re missing out on.