The phrase "digital garden" is a metaphor for thinking about writing and creating that focuses less on the resulting "showpiece" and more on the process, care, and craft it takes to get there.

Love the concept of growing your ideas. Everything I know is scattered around different note apps and physical notebooks. But a digital garden is one central place to come back to and reference, and if it's public, others can read, comment, and learn with you.

It's a comparison that you can take very far.

I have never thought in digestible folders. It's all disparate thoughts from watching and reading and listening. A garden is constantly taking shape, slowly but steadily, and can jump trains of thought with you.

Quote

For as long as I've been writing words on the internet, I've connected the words that I create in a paginated chronological format. This is the "traditional" blog style website. A linear newest-first sorted chronologically oriented list of posts.

I'm convinced that paginated posted sorted chronologically fuckin' sucks.

What makes a garden is interesting. It's personal. Things are organized and orderly, but with a touch of chaos around the edges.

I have a professional blog where I'm working on pagination. I don't see this as a pointed criticism. I still believe it's the right structure in certain places (like documentation), but I think it's wrong for digital gardens. Still, I've never explored a paginated site through its pages, why would I expect anyone else to?

Curation comes before a chronological list.

I always clink on links recommended by others or related to ideas I'm exploring.


References

Source: https://joelhooks.com/digital-garden

Tags: digital garden, website design and structure