V.
A Digital Garden’s Key Factors.
I want to leave you with a couple of the key factors that make up a Digital Garden—if you’re ready to become a little digital gardener with me. These come from A Brief History & Ethos of the Digital Garden by Maggie Appleton.
1. Topography over timelines. “Gardens are organized around contextual relationships and associative links. The concepts and themes within each note determine how it’s connected to others. This runs counter to the time-based structure of traditional blogs.” Again, it’s more like making a Wikipedia page that’s all for you.
2. Continuous growth. “Gardens are never finished. They’re constantly growing, evolving, and changing. Just like a real soil, carrot, and cabbage garden.” These are different from posts and blogs that feel more finite. But if you ever do want to write an article or an essay, you’ve got a foundation of writing to start from, all from your past consumption in one place.
3. Imperfection and learning in public. “Gardens are imperfect by design. They don’t hide their rough edges or claim to be a permanent source of truth.”
4. Digital Gardens are playful, personal, and experimental. “Gardens are non-homogeneous by nature. You can plant the same seeds as your neighbor, but you’ll always end up with a different arrangement of plants.” I really like this, because if we think back to the essay in defense of pretension., Artan made a point to be like, “Hey, if we’re all seeing the same TikToks and watching the same films, how are we ever going to be individual?”
5. Intercropping and content diversity. We’re not just talking about taking notes on books or movies. I’ve taken notes on a YouTube video. I’ve taken notes on TikToks that I’ve watched—like, some TikToks are ten minutes long now. If you feel like it has enough information for you to want to tease apart and put yourself into the conversation, take notes on that. Add it.
6. Independent ownership. “Gardening is about claiming a small patch of the web for yourself, one you fully own and control.”
As you’re taking these notes, keep that in mind: this is for you. This is not to post. It’s for your own learning, for your own understanding, for your own tracking of your interests.
I want to leave you with a couple of the key factors that make up a Digital Garden—if you’re ready to become a little digital gardener with me. These come from A Brief History & Ethos of the Digital Garden by Maggie Appleton.
1. Topography over timelines. “Gardens are organized around contextual relationships and associative links. The concepts and themes within each note determine how it’s connected to others. This runs counter to the time-based structure of traditional blogs.” Again, it’s more like making a Wikipedia page that’s all for you.
2. Continuous growth. “Gardens are never finished. They’re constantly growing, evolving, and changing. Just like a real soil, carrot, and cabbage garden.” These are different from posts and blogs that feel more finite. But if you ever do want to write an article or an essay, you’ve got a foundation of writing to start from, all from your past consumption in one place.
3. Imperfection and learning in public. “Gardens are imperfect by design. They don’t hide their rough edges or claim to be a permanent source of truth.”
4. Digital Gardens are playful, personal, and experimental. “Gardens are non-homogeneous by nature. You can plant the same seeds as your neighbor, but you’ll always end up with a different arrangement of plants.” I really like this, because if we think back to the essay in defense of pretension., Artan made a point to be like, “Hey, if we’re all seeing the same TikToks and watching the same films, how are we ever going to be individual?”
5. Intercropping and content diversity. We’re not just talking about taking notes on books or movies. I’ve taken notes on a YouTube video. I’ve taken notes on TikToks that I’ve watched—like, some TikToks are ten minutes long now. If you feel like it has enough information for you to want to tease apart and put yourself into the conversation, take notes on that. Add it.
6. Independent ownership. “Gardening is about claiming a small patch of the web for yourself, one you fully own and control.”
As you’re taking these notes, keep that in mind: this is for you. This is not to post. It’s for your own learning, for your own understanding, for your own tracking of your interests.
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