Why I am switching to Obsidian from Roam Research

Had to think long and hard before writing this article. This will probably get people on both sides of the Roam research argument riled up. I have been a long term user of Evernote. But I also have Shiny object syndrome and I keep getting distracted by the next new thing. I have been playing with Roam and Obsidian for the last one year and I always keep coming back to Obsidian.

What I liked about Roam research

1. There is something really simple about the user interface of Roam and i find that it inspires me to write more

2. Back links are very intuitive in Roam research and it was easy for start linking ideas

Pricing was not a factor for me personally. I pay the same amount for a lot of other subscriptions. Same with encryption since I use Roam for my personal notes. I keep all of my work projects and related notes in Evernote.

What I did not like about Roam research

1. The lack of structure. An Evernote or Obsidian style side bar where I can see my key categories and that will help me organize my notes.

2. There is a steep learning curve. Once you get past your initial set up you need to learn from you tube videos or attend courses to set up more complex use cases.

So I kept going back and forth between Roam and obsidian. But after a year months I took the decision to go back to Obsidian. The export feature from Roam worked very well for me and it was easy to get my notes into Obsidian.

But my reasoning is this. You should use a note taking tool that resonates with you and is friction free for you. At this stage in my journey Roam is not that tool. The point is to focus on capturing knowledge rather than spending time on the Tool that is used to capture. I think that for academic research and for content creators Roam is the best tool to use. But that is not my use case and Obsidian will work for me.

#obsidian #Roamresearch #pkm