Discovering the Digital Garden
I first came across the idea of a digital garden after I got pulled into Roam Research back in 2020. The community around Roam was buzzing about something called “digital gardens,” and people like Maggie Appleton were at the forefront of this chatter. Maggie’s piece on A Brief History & Ethos of the Digital Garden is a brilliant deep dive if you want to understand where this philosophy really comes from.
What a Digital Garden Isn’t
A digital garden isn’t just another blog. It’s not about polished, performative pieces, and you’re definitely not writing as some “expert” with a capital E. Instead, it’s more like building in public—discovering interesting ideas and then sharing them, connections and all. Here, it’s less about big conclusions and more about cultivating thoughts as they come.
- You find something interesting, note it down, link it to other notes (because if it’s interesting, it probably relates to something else you’ve thought about), and you don’t worry if it’s not some polished puff piece.
- Over time, you can start to see which ideas resonate most or where you’ve accumulated the most insight.
A Living Network of Ideas
Instead of a timeline or sequence of posts, like you’d find on a blog, a digital garden is a network of interlinked ideas. It’s a garden for people to wander through, exploring the relationships between thoughts, rather than just reading posts in order. You’re the one crafting this experience, inviting others to walk through the different ideas you’ve “planted,” maybe even sparking some of their own along the way.
A Break from the “Like” Economy
This approach is so different from the dopamine-fueled hit pieces you see on the internet these days, whether it’s long blog posts or quick takes on Twitter (or X, whatever you want to call it). Those pieces are optimised for reactions; a digital garden is optimised for exploration.
No More Blank Page Paralysis
One of the best parts about this format? It helps with that “blank page” paralysis. You’re not trying to fill a page with some definitive number of words. Instead, it’s about capturing ideas as they come—short, long, borrowed, original, it doesn’t matter. This format takes the pressure off because it’s okay if it’s a work in progress. That’s actually the point.
Showing Your Work
I’ve never been a fan of the standard opinion pieces, packed with hidden biases and broad assumptions. In a digital garden, you’re not just echoing what’s already out there or ripping off someone else’s ideas. You’re “showing your work.” You’re curating knowledge, pulling together different ideas, and letting people see how thoughts have connected over time. And when something stands out as meaningful or valuable, you and others can clearly see why it resonates with you.
The Magic of Connections
Then there’s the magic of random connections. You never know what will link up with what. A note on cooking might spark an idea for some technical work. You might find a theme or an interest in something you’d never have thought twice about.
Your Garden, Your Rules
The beauty of this concept is that it’s more a philosophy than a tool. You decide how to gather, link, and share ideas. But this can also make it a little daunting. There are all kinds of tools and systems out there, and it’s easy to get caught up in the details, fiddling with formats and setups instead of just capturing and sharing. I know the feeling all too well; I’ve obsessed over the “right” way to start my digital garden for years, and yet here I am, still in the early stages.