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What makes a good digital garden

seedling

I've been thinking about what actually makes a digital garden feel like a garden versus just a blog with a fancy name.

A few properties I think matter:

  • Non-linear — you can enter from any node, not just the front page
  • Bidirectional — ideas link to and from each other
  • Dated loosely — the "freshness" of an idea matters less than its depth
  • Visible growth — readers should be able to see when something was last tended

The hardest part is letting go of the need to publish finished things.