The true killer feature of @RoamResearch that I wouldn't be able to leave behind is the Daily Notes page. Roam made me realize that the one truly universal index for all my thoughts is Time.
Having everything indexed by time means that my thoughts are, at minimum, never LESS organized in my db than they are in my brain (but maybe more so). If there is a useful or insightful additional dimension to index along, I can add that WITHOUT destroying the time index.
"Non-hierarchical" is not as accurate as "Multi-hierarchical" for describing most of the concept spaces I work in.
I like not needing to obliterate one organizational structure in order to add a second, or third, or fourth. This is one way that "compound interest on your thoughts" plays out for me. "Reorganization" in Roam is a non-destructive process.
I know some people "prune" their PKMs over time, condensing, destructively reorganizing, reducing the content of their PKM to distill valuable thoughts and remove "chaff." I haven't seen a need for that yet-- open to it as a possible need over time, though.
For me, if it was important enough to make the note to begin with, it's valuable enough to keep around, if nothing else in order to remind me that I thought that it was important at some point in the past. And it may be again in the future, I won't know until I get there.
I've realized that [[Functional Programming]] has had a big influence on my thinking in this regard. I prefer to treat the data in my Roam as though it was "immutable" data. The "actions" I take on my PKM are generally additive and referential, not destructive or "stateful."
I think this corresponds to my experience as a time-bound being. I might not remember everything that's ever happened to me, but existentially speaking every new experience I have is additive on top of every experience I've had before this one.
The past is an immutable data structure.
So, my personal record of my past better corresponds with the nature of time and my own linear, subjective experience of time if every new day adds one or more new, essentially-immutable "atoms" to the thought-stream that led me to this moment.
I can always write a new understanding of a thing from my new vantage point today, but I can't actually go back in time and fundamentally re-write the understanding I had yesterday. Only build on top of it.
Destructive reorganization of past-me's notes feels like choosing some small, voluntary amnesia about how I got to be who I am today.
The Golden Rule applies to yourself in the past. Treat past-you the way you want future-you to treat present-you-- which, for may people, probably means with understanding, empathy, and compassion.
Me-yesterday didn't understand things that me-today thinks he understands and that me-tomorrow will (hopefully) understand better. But I don't want to erase me-yesterday just for not being as far along, and ditto from me-tomorrow toward me today.
So I keep old notes even if I don't agree with or value them the same way anymore. Cordial, constructive disagreement with my past self is good training for cordial, constructive disagreement with people who are not and have never been me at all.
