Embrace the mess, chaos, and imperfections in your writing.
Have you used personal knowledge management (PKM) tools like, Notion, Obsidian, or Roam?
The PKM is a new niche that saw its upward trend last 2020. Roam Research could be the tool that started this niche’s emergence.
What started as a prototype with one user in 2017, to over 60,000+ users and millions (it’s a possibility) of annual recurring revenue in 2020.
Roam Research became the tool that everyone raves about.
What happened?
Two things happened within Roam Research:
- Because of the tool’s robust features, such as bidirectional links, early adopters used it to build their knowledge garden.
- Roam Research got a lot of hype with its exclusive community, resulting in server overload.
What happens when a product is only available to a handful of people? People will do anything to get access.
Roam Research has seen tremendous success when they launched in private.
Their early adopters turned into cult-like followers.
When the hype reached its peak, people were raving about how Roam Research revolutionized the knowledge management system.
People crave secret access to new tools because it gives them a sense of exclusive belonging. Like the elites.
Fast-forward to 2021, where newer tools surfaced, Roam Research got its competition.
Tools like Notion became a behemoth because of its nimble product development and supportive community of developers and users.
Notion evolved from a note-taking tool into a full-suite product, beating incumbent brands like Evernote.
Obsidian is another powerhouse of an app for linking your thoughts. The more you write on it, the more connections you can see. It shows you how much of your work got deeper and wider in scope.
Three major note-taking apps that changed the trajectory of the fossilized knowledge management system into becoming a modern extension of our mind.
While everyone loves robust PKM tools like Notion, Obsidian, and Roam.
I’m here writing with simple tools.
Yes, these tools are valuable in today’s information abundance.
The only issue I can see is when these tools hamper your writing because it has a complex system installed.
These tools invite people to structure their thoughts in their own environment.
You’ll spend so much time tweaking the right settings.
The result? You’ll have less time writing about the things that matter to you.
Those products are great, there’s no question about it.
But I still prefer using a distraction-free writing environment.
I don’t want to over-engineer my writing, and I don’t want my tool to dictate what I’m writing.
I love the mess, the chaos, and imperfections of mindful writing.
Deliberate writing is one of my goals for 2022, not perfecting the writing environment.
