I’ve started using org-roam as a zettelkasten and it’s pretty good so far. It’s like org-mode massaged into a slip-box with SQLite coordinating backlinks, and you get all of the org-mode jungle with it. I personally love having a zillion interconnected text files as a notes system.
I’d consider Foam or Dendron but I’ve usually got VSCode open with… code. How do you peeps make this ergonomic?
With Spacemacs I have either the emacs app or terminal ready for me, Spacemacs having somehow become my mostly-non-code text editor. Just tested and literally takes two to five unrushed seconds from anywhere on my machine to be in a new note or searching the existing ones, which is also extremely fast and convenient. And it’s emacs so I can customize until I run out of food or money (but have learned to ignore elisp’s siren song).
Still I don’t know if this is better than other ways. Maybe I’m just giving in to a sunk cost fallacy with emacs after so many hours of painful (and pleasurable?) fiddling, but by now it’s really pretty intuitive. Ideally I’d like something with a great mobile story. Maybe taking the plunge with a Roam Research or Obsidian is worth it, I can’t say.
I also use Notion for longer form ideas, esp if they might include illustrations and I might want to share with others.
I can almost just barely see through the swirling mists of my imagination to my holy grail of notes & composition & organization. In the spirit of UNIX philosophy it would do one thing only but do it well. In this case that one thing would be to run your life. 
