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digital gardens

Note created in part for IndieWebClub #13.

Note created in part for IndieWebClub #13.

Definition by example: penny tours of pretty gardens

Lot of IndieWebClub repeat offenders are pretty gardens.

Lot of IndieWebClub repeat offenders are pretty gardens.

Lot of IndieWebClub repeat offenders are pretty gardens.

  • Gwern
    • Gwern
  • Maggie Appleton
    • Maggie Appleton
  • Andy Matuschak
    • Andy Matuschak
  • Joel Hooks
    • Joel Hooks
  • Oleksii Schmalko
    • Oleksii Schmalko
  • Jethro's Braindump
    • Jethro's Braindump
  • Sacha Chua
    • Sacha Chua
  • Glyphack
    • Glyphack
  • Blog graph - beepb00p.xyz
    • Blog graph - beepb00p.xyz
  • Soren Bjornstad
    • Soren Bjornstad

    Some history

  • A Brief History & Ethos of the Digital Garden
    • A Brief History & Ethos of the Digital Garden

    What's a digital garden for?

  • Writing "living" text is different than writing publish-once text.
    • Writing "living" text is different than writing publish-once text.
  • Writing linked/hyperlinked text is different than writing standalone pieces.
    • Writing linked/hyperlinked text is different than writing standalone pieces.
  • You can write (and read) linked text nonlinearly.
    • You can write (and read) linked text nonlinearly.

    Challenges and limitations

    • It's hard to write stories.
    • The interface between gardens and "finished" work is hard to build.-

    d It's hard to tell what's noteworthy in a garden.

    d It's hard to tell what's noteworthy in a garden.

  • It's hard to write stories.
    • It's hard to write stories.
  • The interface between gardens and "finished" work is hard to build.-
    • The interface between gardens and "finished" work is hard to build.-

    d It's hard to tell what's noteworthy in a garden.

    Gardens vs blogs

  • The Garden and the Stream: A Technopastoral – Hapgood
    • The Garden and the Stream: A Technopastoral – Hapgood
  • Metadata takes work
    • Metadata takes work
  • Garden artifacts change, stream artifacts rot
    • Garden artifacts change, stream artifacts rot

    Gardening tools you may have come across

    As you might imagine, there's been a lot of convergent evolution in this space. Phyiscal, digital, web, web-only; private, public, restricted to a company or a private community.

    • Evernote
    • Notion
    • Obsidian
    • Roam Research
    • org-mode and org-roam
    • vimwiki
    • Tiddlywiki
    • Logseq
    • Forester

    One must note that any blogging system can be used as a garden. Digital gardening is a conceptual technology.

    What's more, most of the technology you can use has further opinions on how things should be done with it. They can be helpful guardrails for when you want to dive in headfirst, but aren't very good for starting small – or staying small. (See Maggie Appleton again on home-cooked software.)

    As you might imagine, there's been a lot of convergent evolution in this space. Phyiscal, digital, web, web-only; private, public, restricted to a company or a private community.

    One must note that any blogging system can be used as a garden. Digital gardening is a conceptual technology.

    What's more, most of the technology you can use has further opinions on how things should be done with it. They can be helpful guardrails for when you want to dive in headfirst, but aren't very good for starting small – or staying small. (See Maggie Appleton again on home-cooked software.)

    As you might imagine, there's been a lot of convergent evolution in this space. Phyiscal, digital, web, web-only; private, public, restricted to a company or a private community.

  • Evernote
    • Evernote
  • Notion
    • Notion
  • Obsidian
    • Obsidian
  • Roam Research
    • Roam Research
  • org-mode and org-roam
    • org-mode and org-roam
  • vimwiki
    • vimwiki
  • Tiddlywiki
    • Tiddlywiki
  • Logseq
    • Logseq
  • Forester
    • Forester

    One must note that any blogging system can be used as a garden. Digital gardening is a conceptual technology.

    What's more, most of the technology you can use has further opinions on how things should be done with it. They can be helpful guardrails for when you want to dive in headfirst, but aren't very good for starting small – or staying small. (See Maggie Appleton again on home-cooked software.)

    Minimal starter kit

    Seed process

    You need to answer 4 questions:

    • where do the notes live?
    • when do you create a note?
    • when do you visit a note (and what for)?
    • when do you update a note?

    Workflow for process changes

    As time goes on, you'll want to augment the process. This process ends up being much more bespoke, with few possibilities of truly general claims.

    Nonetheless some reflection questions are useful:

    • What's causing you friction with any of your current gardening processes?
    • What sounds fun to implement? What seems beautiful? Meditative?
    • What in your life is shaped like a garden, or like gardening?

    Seed process

    You need to answer 4 questions:

    • where do the notes live?
    • when do you create a note?
    • when do you visit a note (and what for)?
    • when do you update a note?

    You need to answer 4 questions:

    You need to answer 4 questions:

  • where do the notes live?
    • where do the notes live?
  • when do you create a note?
    • when do you create a note?
  • when do you visit a note (and what for)?
    • when do you visit a note (and what for)?
  • when do you update a note?
    • when do you update a note?

    Workflow for process changes

    As time goes on, you'll want to augment the process. This process ends up being much more bespoke, with few possibilities of truly general claims.

    Nonetheless some reflection questions are useful:

    • What's causing you friction with any of your current gardening processes?
    • What sounds fun to implement? What seems beautiful? Meditative?
    • What in your life is shaped like a garden, or like gardening?

    As time goes on, you'll want to augment the process. This process ends up being much more bespoke, with few possibilities of truly general claims.

    Nonetheless some reflection questions are useful:

    As time goes on, you'll want to augment the process. This process ends up being much more bespoke, with few possibilities of truly general claims.

    Nonetheless some reflection questions are useful:

  • What's causing you friction with any of your current gardening processes?
    • What's causing you friction with any of your current gardening processes?
  • What sounds fun to implement? What seems beautiful? Meditative?
    • What sounds fun to implement? What seems beautiful? Meditative?
  • What in your life is shaped like a garden, or like gardening?
    • What in your life is shaped like a garden, or like gardening?

    Further reading

  • A Brief History & Ethos of the Digital Garden
    • A Brief History & Ethos of the Digital Garden
  • Capture, Refile, Archive
    • Capture, Refile, Archive
  • Finding the shape of my thoughts
    • Finding the shape of my thoughts
  • Work with the garage door up
    • Work with the garage door up
  • How to Use a Zettelkasten to Write Stories Packed with Emotion
    • How to Use a Zettelkasten to Write Stories Packed with Emotion
  • The One Thing You Need To Know About Zettelkasten – practicedrawingthis.com
    • The One Thing You Need To Know About Zettelkasten – practicedrawingthis.com
  • The Garden and the Stream: A Technopastoral – Hapgood
    • The Garden and the Stream: A Technopastoral – Hapgood
  • There Is No Antimemetics Division (V1) @ Things Of Interest
  • Review