Digital Gardens

Growing Knowledge in Public

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The Problem

• Blogs are chronological streams
• Old content gets buried
• No connections between ideas
• Pressure to publish "finished" work

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The Solution

A digital garden is:

• A collection of interconnected notes
• Organized by topic, not date
• Always evolving
• Public learning in progress

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Streams vs Gardens

Stream (Blog)	Garden
Chronological	Topical
Published once	Continuously updated
Finished pieces	Work in progress
Linear reading	Exploratory

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Key Principles

1. Learn in public
2. Bi-directional linking
3. Non-linear organization
4. Embrace imperfection

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Bi-directional Links

When Page A links to Page B...

Page B shows a backlink to Page A.

Ideas connect automatically!

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Example: Backlinks

┌─────────────┐     links to     ┌─────────────┐
│   Note A    │ ───────────────► │   Note B    │
└─────────────┘                  └─────────────┘
                                       │
                                       │ backlink
                                       ▼
                                 "Linked from Note A"

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Tools for Gardening

Writing:

• Obsidian
• Logseq
• Notion

Publishing:

• Vibe Site
• Quartz
• Digital Garden Jekyll

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Getting Started

1. Start with what you know
2. Write atomic notes (one idea each)
3. Link liberally
4. Revisit and refine
5. Don't wait for "ready"

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Examples

• Maggie Appleton's Garden
• Andy Matuschak's Notes
• Gwern.net

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Your Turn

Start your garden today.

It doesn't need to be perfect.

It just needs to grow.

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Thank You

Slides: /slides/digital-gardens/ Talk: /talks/digital-gardens-knowledge/